This study considered the important role that principal leadership plays in the implementation of changes that are designed to close achievement gaps among student groups. A qualitative research approach and protocol was followed, and a multiple case study methodological approach was utilized. The data gathered consisted of interviews of three principals, three instructional coordinators, and three teacher leaders. A review of documents, artifacts, observations, field notes, and member check data were used to triangulate data. The data analysis applied the McRel Balanced Leadership conceptual framework and used three research questions to organize and guide the discussion and findings. These research questions are: (1) How did the principal implement research-based leadership responsibilities that led to the pursuit of high academic achievement for all students? (2) How did the principals implement a school-wide improvement framework that has resulted in sustained academic achievement growth for all students? (3) How did the principal implement the identified strategies that ensured high academic achievement among all student populations? Over the course of five months, data were gathered through individual interviews, observations, analysis of documents, and other artifacts. Several themes emerged as a result of data analysis. These included: (a) communicated ideals and beliefs, (b) challenged status quo, (c) culture of collaboration, (d) focus on learning, (e) data driven, (f) research based learning, (g) and curriculum alignment. The findings in the study suggest that the principals were instrumental in creating the conditions that helped the teachers build upon their collective capacity to support student success. / text

This dissertation investigated and examined disparities among selected variables between high- performing and low-performing high schools in Virginia. Overall, student academic performance is the major difference between the two categories of schools, but there may be other differences within the school dynamic that can rationalize the categorization of schools. These potential differences demonstrate the need to examine other variables and the disparities within these certain variables. Seven possible variables that may have such an influence are: the student achievement scores, teacher quality, racial composition, socioeconomic status, student attendance, financial commitment, and condition of the building. Understanding these differences can provide valuable insight into the various factors that contribute to the academic success or failure of a school. Data from the study indicated that for the most part, the variables selected for comparison did indicate a significant difference in the variables. The only exception was in Teacher Quality. Since Student Achievement, Student Attendance, and Teacher Quality pertained directly to the student, and Racial Composition and Socioeconomic Status, pertained to the student body, meaning the enrollment of these three variables were demographically controlled, this indicated to this researcher that financial commitment data and building conditions data were the most important variables to this study. The basis for this is that Racial Composition, SES, Student Attendance, and Teacher Quality influenced one variable and that is Student Achievement. This reduced the importance of Teacher Quality because not all low and high-performing schools will have the same quality of teachers in the classroom. If this was the case, every student would perform equally. This, of course, was not true. Therefore, other variables played an especially important part in the disparities between the two categories of schools. This rationale would give credence to the importance of Financial Commitment and School Building Conditions. These latter two variables then influenced the educational process of students and are things the School Board can control or at least have control over. / Doctor of Education / This dissertation investigated and examined disparities in selected variables between high- performing and low-performing high schools in Virginia. Overall, student academic performance is the major difference between the two categories of schools, but there may be other differences within the school dynamic that can rationalize the categorization of schools. These potential differences demonstrate the need to examine other variables and the disparities within these certain variables. Seven possible variables that may have such an influence are: student achievement scores, teacher quality, racial composition, socioeconomic status, student attendance, financial commitment, and condition of the building. Understanding these differences can provide valuable insight into the various factors that contribute to the academic success or failure of a school. Data from the study indicated that for the most part the variables selected for comparison did indicate a significant difference in the variables. The only exception was in Teacher Quality. Since Student Achievement, Student Attendance, and Teacher Quality pertained directly to the student, and Racial Composition and Socioeconomic Status, pertained to the student body, meaning the enrollment of these three variables were demographically controlled, this indicated to this researcher that financial commitment data and building conditions data were the most important variables to this study. The basis for this is that Racial Composition, SES, Student Attendance, and Teacher Quality influenced one variable and that is Student Achievement. This reduced the importance of Teacher Quality because not all low and high-performing schools will have the same quality of teachers in the classroom. If this was the case, every student would perform equally. This, of course, was not true. Therefore, other variables played an especially important part in the disparities between the two categories of schools. This rationale would give credence to the importance of Financial Commitment and School Building Conditions. These latter two variables then influenced the educational process of students and are things the School Board can control or at least have control over.

No description available.

The purposes of this research study were to identify the instructional leadership practices and beliefs of superintendents of high-performing, high-poverty districts, and develop a profile of an effective superintendent in these school districts. School districts were identified from data compiled by the Education Trust West, which identified high-performing, and high-poverty schools in California. Data were gathered through interviews of eleven individuals in three different school districts. In addition to the interviews, the respondents shared documents and internal communication tools, which the researcher reviewed. Qualitative research software (ATLAS/ti) was utilized to analyze the data from the interviews. The results indicate that the superintendents: (a) focused the entire school district on student achievement; (b) expected alignment between district and school goals; (c) utilized a variety of ways to communicate their messages to various constituencies; (d) faced conflict as a major part of their jobs, ranging from conflict with the school board to conflict with the teachers' association; (e) were perceived as strong instructional leaders; (f) placed a high priority on professional development for administrators and teachers; (g) expected schools to depend primarily on categorical and grant funds to provide supplemental services to students, but made staff resources available to support high student achievement; (h) relied heavily on data to inform their decisions; and (i) held administrators accountable for high student achievement. The researcher concluded that an effective superintendent in high-performing, high-poverty school districts can be characterized as one who (a) is relentlessly focused on high student achievement; (b) communicates constantly with all groups within and outside of the school community; (c) is able to withstand conflict and remain focused on student achievement; (d) provides the resources necessary for student achievement in terms of staff support, and professional development; (e) uses data to inform the decision-making process; and (f) holds people accountable for high student achievement, while providing them with the flexibility to achieve their goals in a way they deem appropriate to their particular circumstances.

No description available.

This study is a survey concerning learning on equal terms. The purpose of the survey is to get a look into how teachers of today integrate students to obtain an individually adapt education. A good education is where every single student can evolve from an individual level and how education is adapted to let high-achieving students keep their motivation and thus develop from their own level of knowledge. Data has been collected through a qualitative method using semi-structured interviews. In the result the answers of the interviews are presented and it shows that teachers turn their focus towards low-achieving students. Low-achieving students are more in need of support to reach the required amount of knowledge, but that the high-achieving students must not be forgotten by the teachers.

Special education teacher attrition is a widespread problem in the United States (Billingsley 2005; Boe, 2006; Duffy & Forgan, 2005). Although researchers have explored factors that increase special education teacher retention, such as increased involvement from administrators, more time for collaboration with general education teachers, and limits on caseloads to maintain appropriate work loads, the perspective of experienced special education teachers in small primary schools (schools with fewer than 500 students serving pre-kindergarten through third grade) has received little attention. Small schools have many advantages, but special educators in small schools face some particular issues, including the fact that they typically have few special education colleagues, must often work with students and teachers in multiple grade levels, and must accommodate caseloads increasing in size throughout the year as many students become eligible for services in the early grades. To gain the perspective of special education teachers regarding the factors contributing to their decisions to stay in small schools, I have designed a multiple-case study in the context of a small school district. This inquiry is intended to fill the gap in the retention literature by surveying and interviewing special educators working in small schools. The primary research question is: From the perspective of experienced special education teachers serving pre-kindergarten (PK) and kindergarten through third grade (K-3) students in small schools, what kinds of organizational and individual characteristics influence their decision to continue teaching special education in a small school? INDEX WORDS: Special education, Small schools, Attrition, Retention

Detta examensarbete är en explorativ fallstudie som utgår från intervjuer med fyra naturvetenskapligt högpresterande gymnasieelever. Eleverna uppvisar ”särskild begåvning” enligt en definition av Bruhner (2018b). Syftet med arbetet är att ge förslag på hur framtida forskning om särskilt begåvade elever kan tänkas fortlöpa, för att fördjupa kunskapen kring hur särskilt begåvade elever samspelar med andra elever, i klassrumssammanhang där stora skillnader i motivation och prestation föreligger. Uppsatsen begränsar sig till att undersöka matematisk-logisk intelligens. Intervjuerna tar upp vad eleverna själva tycker är ”bra” undervisning i naturvetenskapliga ämnen genom att lyssna till berättelser då de tyckt att skolan har undervisat dem väl, men undersöker även vissa karaktärsdrag hos eleverna som är av betydelse för inom vilka områden framtida forskning, om hur särskilt begåvade elever bäst bör undervisas, hade kunnat tänkas fokuseras. / This thesis is an explorative case-study that emanates from interviews with four Swedish secondary education students, highly proficient in the natural sciences. The students are ”gifted” according to a definition from Bruhner (2018b). The aim of the study is to give suggestions on how future research in the field of such gifted students could proceed, in order to deepen our knowledge of how such gifted students interact in classroom situations where there are big differences in motivation and performance. The study is limited to investigate mathematical-logicical intelligence. The interviews are centered around what the students themselves think is ”good” education, by listening to the students’ testimonies of in which situations they believe that the educational system has been capable of educating them, but it also explores certain traits found in these students, that are important to take into account, in order to establish in which areas future research on teaching gifted students best can be focused.

This study is about high-performing students in mathematics. The purpose of the study was to increase the knowledge about teachers view of adaptions for the high-performing students and how teaching mathematic and its content adapts to these children. The method used in the study was semi-structured in- terviews with 10 teachers in the early years of compulsory school. Data was an- alyzed using Shulmans theory of teacher knowledge base. The result shows three variations of lessons that the participating teachers use. The difference between these lessons was the mindset of how adaptions should be made to the high- performing students in mathematics. It also shows that teachers’ mindset and what guides them in general differs in the three different lessons, also how to work in mathematics. Even though, most teachers wants their students in the same subject area but in different levels of difficulty. The teachers in the study adapts mathematics to the high-performing students’ so the teaching is stimulated and challenging, but how the teachers dose it dif- fers. / Studien handlar om högpresterande elever i matematik. Studiens syfte var att öka kunskaperna om lärares syn på anpassningar för högpresterande elever samt hur matematikundervisningen och dess innehåll anpassades. Studiens undersökningsmetod var kvalitativa semi-strukturerade intervjuer och riktade sig till 10 lärare i grundskolans tidiga år. Den data som samlats in analyserades med hjälp av Shulmans ramverk om lärarkompetens. Resultaten visar tre olika lektionsvarianter som har olika tankesätt om hur anpassningar sker i undervis- ningen till högpresterande elever. Det visar även att det föreligger stora variat- ioner i hur lärare tänker och vad som styr dem i undervisningen, dessutom råder det skillnad i val av arbetssätt. De flesta lärare förespråkar att de vill ha alla ele- ver inom samma ämnesområde men på olika nivåer. Sammantaget gör lärarna anpassningar för att de högpresterande eleverna ska få en stimulerande och utmanade undervisning, men hur anpassningarna sker skiljer sig mellan lärarna.

Denna empiriska studie syftar till att undersöka hur högpresterande elever kan utmanas i litteraturundervisningen i svenskämnet ur ett lärarperspektiv samt varför det är viktigt att utmana dessa elever i årskurserna 4-6. Det sociokulturella perspektivet används som en teoretisk utgångspunkt för att analysera resultatet. Studien har baserats på semistrukturerade interjuver av lärare och resultatet visar att läraren bör anpassa undervisningen individuellt och på de enskilde elevens kunskapsnivå. Det är även viktigt att utmana de högpresterande eleverna för att motivera dem till ett lustfyllt lärande. Genom resultatet framgår det att undervisning av högpresterande elever är en utmaning för lärare men att olika arbetssätt och strategier används för att möta svårigheterna. Individualisering, berikning och acceleration är några begrepp som lyfts som möjliga metoder för att stimulera dessa elever och få dem att bibehålla viljan att lära. Det blir också tydligt att mer forskning och fler lösningar behövs för att detta ska lyckas.