The purpose of this study was to conduct a formative evaluation of principals' perceptions of the effectiveness of a network support structure in a large urban school system. This program evaluation was formative to clarify aspects of the design and implementation of the network support structure in the areas of instruction, operations and youth development. The evaluation was guided by the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation and utilization-focused evaluation practices, and situated in the pragmatic paradigm to promote utility, meaningful stakeholder involvement, and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis. Interviews and a focus group were conducted to gather data from principals and the network leader, and a document review of the network support plan was also conducted. Data was triangulated from the different sources to corroborate the findings. The study revealed findings connected to customized support, problem solving, crises management protocols; varying degrees of alignment of network support with intended support; enduring relationships, specialized consultative services, and effective leadership and strong instructional leadership as factors that hinder support and, network growth and compliance mandates as factors that hinder support in the areas of instruction, operations and youth development. Implications for program improvement, recommendations for future program evaluation, and implications for practice are discussed to offer enhancements for increased program effectiveness.

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In order to support the new mission of education where students achieve at high levels, schools need infrastructure, in terms of processes, procedures, and capacity building, to support the collaboration between administrative instructional leadership and teachers' professional development with the goal of student learning and achievement. Walkthroughs are a tool used throughout school districts with a limited base of research. This mixed methods case study describes one middle school's journey with walkthroughs. This dissertation explores and describes three main aspects of walkthroughs: process, perspectives, and recommendations. Administrators and teachers shared their experiences through personal interviews, focus group interviews, the Concerns Based Adoption Model Stages of Concern Questionnaire, and documents. Findings suggest that classroom walkthroughs work best in school climates that have an established level of trust between administrators and teachers. Walkthroughs, with classroom observations led by all teachers in the school, allow teachers to engage in professional dialogue about expectations for teaching and learning for all students in all content settings. Walkthroughs are a process that takes time to implement, should be ongoing, and require a transparent flexible process to meet individual school needs. If the need or expectation is to change teaching practices, then teachers need to be involved in all aspects of instructional supervision in collaboration with administrators on a continual basis. / Ed. D.

Clinical supervision of counselors in training is an integral part of the professional and personal development of counselors. Accrediting bodies in academia and licensure standards in most fields require beginning professionals to receive clinical supervision. During clinical supervision, supervisees frequently experience anxiety and the supervisees' self-efficacy, or belief about their ability to counsel clients, is affected by supervision. The questions addressed in this study were to what extent does clinical supervision affect supervisees' anxiety and self-efficacy and do different types of supervision have varying effects on supervisees' anxiety and self-efficacy. A meta-analysis comprised of ten studies was conducted to determine the influence of supervision on supervisees' anxiety and self-efficacy. Clinical supervision was found to have a medium effect, ES = .454 and ES = .430, on supervisees' anxiety. Clinical supervision had a large, ES = .655, effect on supervisees' self-efficacy. In addition, a qualitative review of the studies included in the meta-analysis yielded methodological concerns in the areas of adequate control group, sample size, representativeness of sample, and follow-up assessment. Due to the small number of studies meeting the meta-analysis criteria, quantitative findings were limited. Therefore, individual interviews with clinical supervisors and supervisees were conducted to corroborate or refute the findings of the meta-analysis and to lend multiple "voices" in an attempt to answer the research questions. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with nine supervisees and five supervisors in a Counselor Education program. The results of the interviews corroborated the finding of the meta-analysis that clinical supervision affects supervisees' anxiety and self-efficacy by increasing both. All types of supervision were described as increasing anxiety and self-efficacy with no particular type predominating. Limitations of the research and implications for educators, practitioners, and future research are discussed. A limitation of the meta-analysis was the relatively small number of existing studies meeting the criteria for inclusion. This limited the interpretation of the findings in terms of answering the research questions. The interview portion of the research was limited due to the use of a purposive sample, participants all being students from the same program, and the researcher was also a student in this program. / Ph. D.