<p> With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2002) and the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004), the inclusion of students with disabilities (SWDs) in general education classrooms has become more prevalent within our public schools (DuFour &amp; Eaker, 1998; Mcleskey et al., 2010). Current research on inclusion focuses on student outcomes and procedural changes and not the contexts and capabilities of education leaders who are implementing it. Empirical research that examines how schools have built the capacity for sustaining these models, especially through the perspectives of those who implement it, is limited to date. </p><p> The purpose of the current study was to examine in depth one school's capacity development during their own inclusive education reform. Specifically, this study (1) explored how school leaders perceived their own capacity in initiating and implementing inclusion reform; (2) explored how leaders perceived the school's capacity to implement inclusion and (3) explored how their capacity to implement inclusion aligned with the school capacity literature. </p><p> Case study methodology was used to make meaning of the participants' individual perspectives and weave them into an integral whole. This case study sought to uncover the perspectives that school leaders (teacher leaders and administrative leaders) placed on their capacities to initiate and sustain an effective inclusive education model.</p>

<p> The increased number of English language learners (ELLs) presents a difficult task for middle school building principals. The challenge of ensuring the success of ELLs in future years will force schools to rethink educational practices. This study focused on how middle school building principals strategically planned, organized, and managed their schools to meet the needs of ELLs. The phenomenological study was based on the growing student population of English as a second language (ESL) in school districts in Eastern New York. Ten principals were interviewed and a triangulation of data was achieved through observation and collection of documents. The researcher found through bridging that middle school principals engaged in relationship building with parents, students, teachers, and community to create a sense of belonging in the school. As a result, principals are encouraged to provide professional opportunities for the faculty to become certified ESL teachers, accessible to community members, bilingual, and engaged in community building.</p>

<p> This case study describes a prevented school rampage attack at a rural-suburban high school in the northeastern region of the United States. A school rampage attack occurs when a heavily armed student assaults a school with the intent to inflict harm on everyone in that school. The case was bounded by a single high school where a school rampage attack was prevented. This study will inform school leaders about rampage attacks while adding to the literature in the field of preventing school rampage attacks. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (1999) and the United States Secret Service along with the United States Department of Education (2002) researched school shootings and found that in most cases studied, someone knew of an attack before it occurred; this was referred to as leakage. The central question was how did information leakage assist in the prevention of a school rampage attack at a rural-suburban high school? Qualitative data including interviews of school leaders, documents, and media accounts was collected. The data was analyzed by the researcher and the commercial software product, NVivo. The results support that leakage did occur prior to the actual attack and was the main reason the attack was prevented. The school's system for monitoring students worked. The student who plotted the attack was marginal with mental health issues. School leaders and law enforcement worked cooperatively. More research is needed that focuses specifically on prevented school rampage attacks.</p>

<p> This qualitative study featured two research endeavors. The first was a narrative inquiry of six teachers at Weedpatch Charter School as they understood curricular and pedagogical decision- making. These teachers, along with the Weedpatch Charter School founder, participated in this study soon after the curriculum and instruction decision-making had undergone a democratization effort whereby a top-down administrative approach was replaced by a teacher- led effort. Ironically, WCS school leadership welcomed the latter effort, despite the antiteacher legacy of the charter movement, which has long featured "at will" employment and no collective bargaining. The second component of this study was a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the curricular and pedagogical manuals used at WCS before and after the democratization effort. The findings in this study point to a dialectical set of developments at WCS that made it possible for teachers to move from a period of disillusionment into a period of active teacher agency. Similarly, the document analysis findings point to the need for more nuanced understandings of the ideological underpinnings of charter schools. </p><p> Discourse analysis determined that WCS did not necessarily present a classic example of neoliberalism. Given the latter nuance, the manual that the teachers created was counterhegemonic, liberatory, and ultimately contextual and contingent upon that very unique WCS dynamic. As such, the conclusion of this study was that charter leaders could learn from teacher understandings not by being prescriptive but by abiding by what the author has coined contingent collectivism.</p>

<p> This mixed methods study was conducted in a large school system in Georgia. The purpose of this study was to compare and contrast a variety of methods used to support new elementary teachers to increase both self-efficacy and retention. Traditional support methods such as teacher preparation, induction, mentoring, and administrator support were included in this study. In addition, minimally researched areas of new teacher support including instructional coaching, professional learning communities, observation/feedback, and online support were examined. </p><p> The data sources utilized in this study included an online new teacher survey, a new teacher focus group, and an administrative interview with the Executive Director for Human Resources Staffing for the school system. Based on the results, developing key partnerships between schools systems and teacher preparation institutions along with year-long student teaching experiences or residency programs is recommended to promote new teacher success. Additionally, the school system's own alternative teacher certification program exhibited positive results. Beginning teachers also expressed a desire for training on paperwork, student support meetings, and programs specific to the school system. </p><p> A common thread across all data sources was that support from people is extremely helpful to new teachers. In particular, mentoring and coaching were helpful across all three data sources. Moreover, online support including social networking and educational websites were shown to be extremely useful to novice teachers. Results also indicated that the opportunity to observe other teachers was tremendously beneficial and desired by 100 percent of new teachers who had not received that opportunity.</p>

<p>The purpose of this study was to examine the essential elements of a community of practice intended to increase communication and collaboration between traditional public and charter school leaders. Members of the Los Angeles Cohort of the School Leaders Network participated in this study. </p><p> This case study triangulated observation, interview, and document review data to identify the factors that were most beneficial to this particular community of practice. Drawing on the research of communities of practice, constructivism, and leadership theory, these factors were articulated into five domains with the hope that, with further research, this framework could influence the creation of additional communities of practice between traditional public and charter school leaders. </p><p> This framework, including indicators and action steps to aid in creating a community of practice, identified five key factors: knowledge, relationships, authenticity, constructivism, and leadership. The convergence of these five domains pointed to two key take-aways: Communities of practice must create a risk-free environment in which sharing can occur so that participants can use storytelling as a vehicle for the exchange of ideas. Essential in creating this environment is the influence of a skilled facilitator who can drive these conversations. Ultimately, in sharing stories and building community, these communities of practice are meant to further the cause of a socially just education for all students regardless of the type of schools they attend. </p>

<p> This is a normative ethical analysis of school discipline policies. The overarching objective of this work is to inform school practices that directly benefit students. Chapter one examines the current state and practices of student discipline within schools. It focuses upon the pervasive use of suspensions to deal with non-violent student offenses and the adverse consequences that result from the applications of suspensions. Chapter two analyses three theoretical frameworks as they inform the developmental of a threshold for the ethical application of punishment. Developmental liberalism informs the understanding of the role that schools have in exhausting educative measures before the use of force, Self-Determination theory provides the foundation for psychologically nurturing school environments as necessary for the curtailing of adverse student behaviors, and School Community theory acknowledges the essential aspects of curriculum in engaging students. Chapter three sets forth a model for making ethical decisions within schools, and provides an analysis of principles and educational aims that directly inform this process. Chapter four explores the "crime and punishment" phenomenon within school discipline and provides the theoretical rationale that is offered to support such arguments. The chapter concludes with a discussion of when, if ever, it is appropriate to suspend students from school. Chapter five examines existing approaches to student discipline that align with the requirements of the threshold for ethical application of discipline and a well-informed ethical decision making process. </p>

<p> Research on school leadership speaks to the importance of evaluating school administrators. Evidence suggests that involving school leaders in the design of the evaluation process as well as including feedback from stakeholders in the school community as part of the evaluation process can positively impact administrators' professional practice. Effective assessment supports the continued development and growth of school leaders. </p><p> In the local archdiocese the pastor evaluates the parish school administrator, using a standard form based on the job description and issued by the superintendent's office. The same self-evaluation is completed by the principal and discussed with the pastor. Since the pastor is typically not an educator, questions arise about the accuracy and usefulness of the data generated by the evaluation. These questions lead to discussions about the efficacy of the process and generate ideas for improvement and a willingness to effect change. </p><p> This dissertation study seeks to identify perceptions of Catholic elementary school principals about the current evaluation process in their diocese, exposes administrators to research into best practice in leadership evaluation, and shows how these principals collaboratively designed an evaluation tool and process. This action research process tracked changes in attitudes and beliefs about effective evaluation that occurred as the administrators designed a new tool and method for potential implementation in their diocese. Trends were identified and coded utilizing the research questions and the theoretical framework of Organization Governance, Leadership Theory, Evaluation Theory and Change Theory. This qualitative research study adds administrator voices to the developing professional dialogue about effective leadership evaluation. </p>

<p> Although service-learning is considered to be a fairly new pedagogy in U.S. institutions of higher education, its origins can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century philosopher John Dewey and his "learn by doing" approach to education. Service-learning has gained popularity as a form of applied learning that helps increase student's academic learning, and assessment of service-learning on outcomes for students has been positive; however, some faculty resist applying this pedagogy in their planning. </p><p> This historical study explores the origins of this emerging field from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, with a focus on current faculty pioneers who have created and developed service-learning content in their respective academic disciplines.The researcher conducted oral histories with faculty members at ten diverse central Maryland universities and colleges to discover educators' perceptions of the benefits and challenges of implementing this pedagogy in coursework. </p><p> As a result of this study, the researcher recommends ways to improve student retention on campuses, to increase civic awareness, and to explore the new frontier of international service-learning for local and global impact. </p>

<p>The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to address that gap in the literature and investigate whether current collective bargaining agreements have affected school reform efforts. The study was grounded in the pragmatic view with the goal of finding common contractual roadblocks to programmatic change and common solutions being used by educators to avoid them. To support this research, the following areas of literature were reviewed: (a) the history and scope of NCLB and the controversy surrounding its resultant reforms, reforms, (b) the role of collective bargaining in California public school districts, and (c) the impact of collective bargaining agreements on school reform efforts. </p><p> This research targeted the 56 California school districts in the Inland Empire's Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Data were collected via an online survey, individual semi-structured interviews, and a document review. </p><p> Key findings regarding the impact of contract language on reform efforts were (a) the importance of a collaborative relationship between the teachers association and the district and/or the presence of a contractually required implementation process for reforms, (b) perceived restrictive contractual language and the lack of an implementation was common among subjects who viewed the contract as having a negative impact, (c) hours of employment/meeting times, class size and evaluation procedures were the contractual perceived as having the most impact on reforms, and (d) teacher benefits and leave policies were perceived as having the least impact. </p><p> The study concluded that the more collaborative the relationship was between the district and union the more likely it was that they would be able to work with each other and overcome any contractual issues together. Districts that do not have a program implementation protocol find the process to be more confrontational for all stakeholders. Curricular leaders were not always cognizant of their role in dealing with the contract's impact on reform initiatives and demonstrated a detachment from their colleagues in human resources. Participants in this research held similar opinions regarding the ideal role of the contract regarding programmatic change. </p><p> This study may lead future researchers to explore other connections between contracts and reforms. It may also lead current educational practitioners to consider the effectiveness of reform implementation practices and union relationships in their own districts and ways to improve them. </p>