Unlike many types of educational crises, the COVID-19 pandemic was a crisis leaders could not have prepared for. But research is only starting to examine how leaders' responses and organisational context have played a role. This mixed-methods study accordingly examines how leaders have mitigated challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, and…

Leading school communities during the pandemic impacted elementary and middle school principals and brought about reflection of their leadership practices. School principals were forced to reassess leadership priorities like those set forth by the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA) in 2015. This study looks at information…

This qualitative research study investigates teachers' perceptions of school safety and their adherence to specific safety procedures in a small, pre-K-eighth-grade school district in a small, suburban school district in Illinois. Data were collected through anonymous open-ended surveys distributed to teachers with varying experience levels. The…

This paper uses sensemaking theory and frame analysis to examine how a non-system actor's framing for advancing LGBT inclusion, what they called "code-switching," was taken up. Drawing on qualitative interview data generated as part of a larger mixed-methods study, this article examines the material and ideological affordances and…

Purpose: Our purpose was to gather and evaluate accurate, up-to-date information on physical education (PE) policy implementation across multiple U.S. states and regions. Methods: A U.S. Physical Education and Physical Activity Policy questionnaire was developed and completed by 4,845 public-school PE teachers from 25 U.S. states. The U.S.…

Background: The number of English learner (EL) students has been steadily increasing within the United States and currently includes more than 5M students. The National Education Association (2020) estimated that by 2025, nearly 25% of all learners will be EL students. Curricula, interventions, and assessments for both diagnostic and academic…

Due to the growing number of students enrolling as homeless in American public schools, a quantitative design was applied to determine if students in an Illinois suburban, kindergarten through eighth grade school district (District A), who are enrolled under the McKinney-Vento Act and are receiving resources of food, shelter, clothing, and…

The elementary and middle years give educators a profound opportunity to impact students' long-term outcomes: in this research, students with strong grades and attendance in elementary school were more likely to graduate high school and enroll in college than their peers. Although some Chicago Public Schools (CPS) elementary schools use CPS's…

The purpose of this dissertation was to evaluate the impact that large-scale crisis had on educator motivation as measured by flow experiences. COVID-19 prompted many changes in education in a very short amount of time. This rapid shift left educators scrabbling to meet the educational and social-emotional needs of their students while also…

The success of all students in schools, including students with learning differences, is contingent on how schools operationalize universally designed instruction, positive behavior support, and data-based decision-making for individualized and group-level interventions. When schools have fully functional multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS)…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between school climate and academic achievement in English language arts and mathematics in third through eighth grade students in Illinois. This study employed a complex correlational design utilizing multiple regression analysis. Secondary data came from the Illinois School Report Card…

This study utilized a quantitative research approach with a survey design to determine whether a sample of K-8 principals in the state of Illinois, that rated teachers in a set of classroom instructional videos, exhibited inter-rater reliability since they all received the Illinois state-approved training and certification for teacher evaluators.…

The purpose of this study was to provide a greater understanding of the broader characteristics of the lowest performing elementary and middle schools in Illinois, as little analysis of this data had been conducted. Furthermore, little to no research has explored the vertical and horizontal alignment of math curricula and its correlation to…

The quantitative study examined the connection between principal leadership practices and the morale of elementary, middle, and high school teachers in rural Southern Illinois. These rural districts serve students in grades Pre-K through twelve. This cross-sectional survey design identifies the most prevalent practices in the study's population…

This paper shares the findings of a non-experimental quantitative case study done in a rural central Illinois K-8 school district. The study focused on the delivery of student social and emotional learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and how educators were able to still design equitable learning opportunities for students through their social and…