<p> In 2014 the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) adopted the <i> Framework for Great Schools</i> to act as a gauge for measuring and monitoring school improvement. The amalgamation of this framework entails six components- two of which are the foci of this study: trust and strong family-community ties as it relates to the engagement of families. Educational research (Mapp &amp; Kuttner, 2013) has revealed the direct correlation of school improvement and student achievement with purposeful-intentional parent engagement. Therefore, this qualitative- comparative study explored school leaders&rsquo; capacity to address issues of impoverished and homeless families, their ability to foster trust and strong family-community ties with families and their protocol for progress monitoring and refinement. Participants in this study include six principals, four parents, four Students in Temporary Housing Liaisons (STHL) and two Community-based Organization representatives. All of these principals are affiliated with Title 1 elementary schools in NYC and Long Island which have a temporary housing population of 10% or greater. Data was collected using interview questions designed by the researcher, 3.4 indicator of NYC&rsquo;s 2015-2016 Quality Review Rubric and NYC&rsquo;s 2015-2016 Learning Environment (LE) survey. </p><p> This study focused on identifying leadership ability and embedded school cultures to answer three research questions: 1. How are school leaders addressing issues of poverty and homelessness faced by families of their student population? 2. What structures or partnerships have schools established to address the needs of this population of families? 3. How is or to what extent is the school building trust in creating strong family-community ties? </p><p> The findings of this study revealed that issues of poverty and homelessness hamper the building of trust and strong family- community ties. The contributing factors that are barriers to building trust and strong family-community ties are poor student attendance and parent involvement, immigration status, language/culture, negative experiences with schools, lack of communication and the disregard of parents as stakeholders. The barriers school leaders encountered vary from school to school thus their approaches to addressing the needs of families differed. Schools were most effective in meeting the needs of students and their families when they worked collaboratively with CBO partnerships and other agencies. This collaborative effort provided additional resources both human and financial to support addressing the needs of homeless and impoverished families. Lastly, protocols and methods used at the school level did not specifically measure trust and community-ties but success of activities or events that were geared toward families. </p><p>

<p> Instructional coaching has become a popular and widely-used form of professional development for educators. The influence instructional coaches have on individual teachers, students in classes where teachers are coached, and the general effectiveness of coaching programs can be complicated to decipher. This dissertation analyzed the instructional coaching arm of a program entitled Teachers Coaching Teachers (TCT), collaboratively created through a partnership with district leadership and a local teachers&rsquo; union. Two analyses were conducted. Pre and post instructional survey results from 139 teachers on instructional competency and job satisfaction, and student growth data from 30 teachers&rsquo; classes over the course of two years were analyzed using a first differencing statistical approach. In both studies, coaching was found to produce a statistically significant positive impact.</p><p>

<p> The relationship between pre-service teachers and their mentor teachers has long been defined by roles that mentor teachers play in the relationship. Research indicates that mentor teachers evolve into a variety of roles, from evaluator to critical friend, but we understand very little about how the relationship develops into these different forms, or how to improve relationship development. The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to explore how a mentor teacher experiences the relationship with a pre-service teacher candidate and to compare the relationship to the elements of a story. Data was collected through written story, interviews, and visual representations of the data. The goal of the study was to understand how mentor teachers experienced their relationship with a pre-service teacher candidate through the lens of a common Narrative Story Arc. Data was analyzed using codes determined by the Narrative Story Arc and through emergent codes present in narrative surveys and semi-structured interviews. Themes and codes were then compared between methods and participants, then recoded to explore themes in the data to demonstrate connections between codes. </p><p> Findings from this research reveal the following: 1. Mentor teachers experience a variety of emotions in their relationship that shift based on the alignment between their expectations and reality; they experience the relationship through collaboration, a desire to help, and concern for their students. 2. Data demonstrates a connection between the teaching candidate&rsquo;s perceived personality traits and abilities in pedagogy or management and the mentor teacher&rsquo;s willingness to engage in a positive relationship. 3. Mentor teachers provide access or withhold access to teaching and learning in the practicum placement based in part on the relationship that develops. 4. Mentor teachers conceptualize their relationship with a teaching candidate in terms of a story, indicating that the beginning of the story determines access to teaching; the events of the story open or close access to learning and the way in which conflict resolves. Specifically, this study informs teacher preparation programs and stakeholders how to mitigate disruptive emotions, outlines steps to communicate expectations, and confirms the importance of attending to the beginning of the relationship between a mentor teacher and a teaching candidate.</p><p>

<p> Private schools are by definition separate corporate entities, not supported by the government, but primarily by private funds. While private schools are independently owned and operated, their similarities end there. Their extensive organizational diversity creates problems for researchers and results in few studies with practical significance for the private school leader. Likewise, studies utilizing instruments and lenses common to public school research has limited private school data. </p><p> The purpose of this research was to describe the organizational climate of Texas private schools. Based on 3,000 faculty respondents from 75 organizations, representing an estimated 120,000 K-12 students, this research will begin to fill a void in the organizational climate literature as it relates to private schools. Furthermore, this study will equip private school leaders with practical information to assess and improve their organizations&rsquo; climate. The findings reflect healthy and open environments across three dimensions of the Organizational Climate Index (OCI) for all participating schools representing all three major private school typologies.</p><p>

<p> This qualitative descriptive case study explored lived experiences of female Latina principals in a southern bay area California county. Researchers are in agreement that there are limited studies in describing female Latina principals advancing their careers by overcoming barriers and challenges. Six individual semi-structured in-depth interviews were used to gather the information related to Latina female principals&rsquo; career development, the female Latina principal, educational leadership, and educational administrator. Latina female principals are not entering the administrative ranks in proportion to the numbers receiving administrative credentials and in comparison to the Hispanic student population. Results of this study show female Latina principals encountered barriers of race, gender, power barriers, and lack of systematic mentors. Principals were supported to overcome these barriers through their commitment to their careers, personal drive and passion, cultural assets such as language and culture, and informal supports from mentors and families. Knowledge acquired from this study may prove beneficial to sustaining continued investigations of career advancement opportunities for Latina principals in California. Moreover, implications from this study may help clarify opportunities for career advancement, self-consciousness, and self- identity for Latina principals.</p><p>

<p> The math achievement of American students had been stagnant or falling since 2007, according to both national and international measures (NAEP, TIMSS, PISA). While the Common Core State Standards were partially a response to sinking levels of American math proficiency, those standards require a much greater depth of conceptual understanding of mathematics for teachers than previous standards, yet more than half of fifth- through eighth-grade math teachers are not certified to teach math. The federal government and school districts spend millions of dollars on teacher professional development, but little evidence shows what kind of professional development might be the most beneficial for math teachers. This study measured the impact of math content-based professional development on middle school math teachers. Findings suggest that the participating teachers&rsquo; content knowledge about ratios and proportional reasoning increased slightly during the study. Exit surveys indicated that the most recent PD session would have an impact on their teaching practice, although the impact would mostly be related to their pedagogy. However, there was little change in teachers&rsquo; self-efficacy toward teaching mathematics. As research indicates, content knowledge in math is connected to student achievement, the implication of which is that middle school math teachers can increase their content knowledge through professional development. Given that access to higher-level math courses is critical to college success, and the foundation for those higher-level math courses begins in middle school, it is imperative that all students and their teachers are supported to be successful in math.</p><p>

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which the following factors may differ between chronically tardy and non-tardy students: Parental attitudes, family structure, socioeconomic status, teacher attitudes, and schoolmates' influence. The population of this study was the students at an elementary school in the Dekalb County School System, Georgia. Thirty students participated in the study. The ages of the participants ranged from 8 through 13. The instrument used in this study is entitled The Home and School Environment Questionnaire. Of the five variables analyzed, only two proved to have significant differences as perceived by the two groups of students. The two variables were: (1) Family structure in terms of the presence of the father in the home, and (2) teacher attitude. Along with the findings, conclusions, and implications, it was recommended that the following initiatives be developed: (1) Parenting Workshops for the parents of those students identified as chronically tardy; (2) Schoolwide strategies that encourage students to arrive at school on time; (3) A Big Brother program in which male adult figures spend time with chronically tardy students; (4) A communication system that will inform parents of tardies on a daily basis; (5) Workshops to enhance positive teacher-student interactions that will improve students' perceptions of teachers; and (6) rewards for students and praise parents for maintaining good attendance records in school.

<p> <b>Purpose:</b> The purpose of this study was to describe the best practices of English language development programs in rural South San Joaquin Valley elementary schools in the targeted areas of reading, writing, listening and speaking and best practices in teacher professional development to prevent Long Term English Learners from the perspective of principals. An additional purpose was to identify and describe obstacles to the implementation of best practices of English language development in rural South San Joaquin Valley elementary schools from the perspective of principals. </p><p> <b>Methodology:</b> Through data analysis, rural elementary schools in South San Joaquin Valley were identified as high-achieving from the California Department of Education&rsquo;s Five-by-Five English Learner Indicator based on the rate that English learner students within the school attain English proficiency. The primary focus of this study was to gain the perspective and lived experiences of rural elementary school principals in the implementation of successful English language development programs. In this study, data were collected through in-depth interviews and archived artifacts, which were analyzed to identify patterns, and draw conclusions based on the research questions of this study. A field-test was conducted.</p><p> <b>Findings:</b> Major findings include creating a culture of high expectations for all students, ensuring that designated English Language Development occurs daily, intentional teacher professional development, and a focus on students&rsquo; production of academic language.</p><p> <b>Conclusions:</b> Numerous conclusions were drawn based on the major findings, and from these findings, a list of implications for action were generated. One implication for action is that school boards create and enforce progressive policies that promote native language as a vehicle to proficiently developing academic English language, as well as literacy in the native language (dual-immersion programs).</p><p> <b>Recommendations:</b> Recommendations for further research are described in Chapter V, including the exploration of whether the change in local control with LCFF funding and the district created LCAP, has changed the implementation of ELD programs in rural elementary schools, hence improving academic achievement of English Learners.</p><p>

<p> Community colleges have become highly desirable partners of 21^st century workforce development initiatives due to their ability to address skilled labor shortages. As flexible, teaching-centered institutions, community colleges are catalysts for workforce programs due to their ability to receive funding, develop relationships with business and industry, and connect workers to industry through the provision of non-credit educational services. Government initiatives and funding originating with the Obama administration have helped community colleges meet the growing demand for a skilled workforce to ease unemployment and spur economic growth. </p><p> The expansion of initiatives and workforce development programs puts a greater imperative on developing a standard for theory-based program evaluation by which to monitor program outcomes and provide feedback to collaborative WFD partners. The purpose of the study was to investigate and improve workforce program outcomes using appreciative inquiry action research to gain the perspectives of program partners at community colleges, industry and businesses, and federal program initiatives. Appreciative inquiry is used to learn what is working well, to envision processes that can be improved, and to create dialogue about changes that should be implemented. The findings indicated that WFD programs are generally perceived to be successful in meeting stakeholders&rsquo; goals, but that current evaluation methods are insufficient to provide timely or in-depth feedback necessary for recursive program planning. Full time WFD professionals average 13% of their time on outcome assessment, most of which involves students&rsquo; end of term self-reports or informal industry measures. Participants suggested six areas of improvement to current evaluation: evaluating on-the-job outcomes, including various people in evaluations, refining and developing evaluation tools, increasing knowledge of evaluation methods, obtaining data to inform program evaluation, and using best practices. The results were used to inform community colleges in their expanding role as WFD partners in designing strategies for future improvements.</p><p>

<p> Educators and researchers have noted teacher retention as a matter of concern as the newest members of the educational field leave after only a few short years of service. Recent studies indicate the possibility of several factors that contribute to the exit of newer teachers. Many teachers commit to staying the course even as they are faced with educational challenges that motivate others to leave teaching. The goal of this study was to explore possible motivations for the perceptions and behaviors of experienced teachers as they respond to educational challenges, what conditions affect their decisions during challenges, and what characteristics are present in those who choose to stay in the field despite the educational challenges associated with teaching. </p><p>