This study aims to examine which middle leaders' distributed leadership factors (cohesive leadership team, participative decision-making, leadership support and leadership supervision) are sufficient and to what degree these four factors are necessary for fostering high teacher commitment to change (TCTC). Data were gathered from 1018 Malaysian…

A few months ago, the largest school district in Texas announced plans to close twenty-eight elementary and middle school libraries, claiming it was part of an effort to combat low test scores and discipline problems. Unfortunately, this troubling trend seems to be spreading. According to the author, multiple studies have shown that effective…

There is an overrepresentation of African American students in special education classes; placing African Americans disproportionately in special education classes lowers their self-esteem and compromises their academic performance. This study aimed to increase understanding of the meaning-making processes elementary school general education…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how public-school IEP team members describe decision-making influences and thresholds in least restrictive environment (LRE) placement for K-5 students with significant support needs in the Midwest. Decision-Making Ecology served as a framework for two research questions which…

This dissertation investigated teacher agency in a rural elementary school. Agency is a construct of understanding how individuals become connected or disconnected with their environment, which influences their interactions with other people, places, and things (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). At this time, agency is important to study because it…

This dissertation investigated teacher agency in a rural elementary school. Agency is a construct of understanding how individuals become connected or disconnected with their environment, which influences their interactions with other people, places, and things (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). At this time, agency is important to study because it…

This dissertation investigated teacher agency in a rural elementary school. Agency is a construct of understanding how individuals become connected or disconnected with their environment, which influences their interactions with other people, places, and things (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). At this time, agency is important to study because it…

This study examined the program effectiveness of Health Rocks!, a youth substance use prevention program. Merging data from 128,544 youth participants in 21 states between 2009 and 2021, this study compared self-reported levels of knowledge, skills, and internal and external assets before and after the program. Youth reported significant increases…

Black teachers represent a small percentage of teachers in classrooms across the United States. According to 2017-2018 data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), African American or Black teachers represent only 6.7% of the teaching population. Although the student and classroom demographics continue to shift with the inclusion…

Researchers and educators have explored representations of people with marginalized identities in children's picturebooks for over 30 years. Disability has not been widely acknowledged as a marginalized identity nor explored as an aspect of diversity prevalent in classrooms. In the United States, over seven million students are identified with a…

This paper describes how an interdisciplinary design team used the Four-Component Instructional Design (4C/ID) model and its accompanying Ten Steps design approach to systematically design a professional development program for teaching differentiation skills to primary school teachers. This description illustrates how insights from a cognitive…

Catholic schools across the country serve a valuable role in their communities as a source of academic strength, faith formation, and as a support system for families. The decline of Catholic school enrollment continues to be a source of challenge for families seeking a Catholic education for their children as well as for the Catholic school…

Emotions play an essential role in pre-service teachers' competence development, particularly in mathematics. However, the emotion of shame in mathematics has been largely neglected so far. This article deals with shameful experiences of pre-service primary school teachers during their mathematical education at school and the various effects of…

Assessments scored with diagnostic models are increasingly popular because they provide fine-grained information about student achievement. Because of differences in how diagnostic assessments are scored and how results are used, the information teachers must know to interpret and use results may differ from concepts traditionally included in…

The purpose of this manuscript is to share the work of a collaboration between professional development providers and university faculty as they created, implemented and refined a professional development series focused on supporting primary teachers' use of data-based decision making in reading. Using a formative and design-based approach,…