This qualitative study investigated the teacher evaluation systems currently in place in diocesan high schools in California and the ways in which those systems could be improved. Diocesan schools are private, Catholic institutions that do not subscribe to federal regulations when creating their evaluation instruments. Measuring effective teaching…

This dissertation project used an interpretivist qualitative research design to study how the right-to-read claim made by seven teenagers attending Detroit public schools in 2016 reflects, addresses, or describes contemporary discussions about educational access. Using situational analysis (SA) as a theory/method, the entirety of the claim…

The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions of secondary tenured teachers on cell phone use in the classroom. Data were collected via a survey and semistructured individual interviews to determine the teachers' use of phones in schools, their perceptions of the benefits and barriers of cell phone use in the classroom, policies…

The objective of the qualitative study was to investigate the perceived competency of school counselors in working with at-risk students who engage in self-injury, and their use of professional standards to effectively navigate their intervention. Self-injury (SI) is a behavioral concern defined as the intentional injuring of body tissue without…

This qualitative study investigates factors that influence the persistence of Black female principals of secondary charter schools. It examines the motivators that drive their commitment, the systems challenges that lead to thoughts of exiting their role, and recommendations for strategies that Charter Management Organizations (CMOs) can utilize…

Georgia established the Dual Enrollment Accelerated Career Diploma (ACD) program in 2015 to address its skilled trades workforce shortage (Dual Enrollment Act, 2015: Williams, 2015). ACD allows high school students to earn their diplomas by replacing several of their graduation-required credits with technical college credentials earned through…

This phenomenological qualitative research study aimed at understanding the scheduling practices of middle school principals in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. More specifically, this study examined how frequent changes are made to the middle school master schedule, factors that contribute to scheduling changes, barriers to scheduling, and the…

This qualitative study examines the perceptions of current and former instrumental music educators regarding the reasons behind music teachers leaving the profession. The study aims to provide evidence to better understand these issues and their implications for educational leadership. By conducting semi-structured interviews with seven former…

Alternative high school students are a demographic often relegated to the margins throughout their educational journey, stripped of the agency necessary for them to authentically engage in their learning. This Action Research study aimed to investigate the relationship between attendance and student engagement, with a particular emphasis on how…

Chronic absenteeism continues to be an ongoing problem for schools in the southern Illinois region. This project aims to examine how schools meet the basic needs of chronically absent students, and if there are systems in place to track how student's basic needs are met. Basic needs were defined by the theory and work of Abraham Maslow. The data…

Educational reform policies such as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) place a significant demand on teachers regarding teacher preparation using evidence-based instruction (Phillips et al., 2016). The need for teacher training has grown in recent years as professional expectations have increased (Kraft et al., 2018). The consensus among…

This report analyzes the parental leave policies of secondary Catholic schools across the United States. Current research suggests Catholic schools lack the ability to provide parental leave, which aligns with the methods and length recommended by various organizations, including the Vatican, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and…

This study investigates the impact of various types of absenteeism--excused, unexcused, and suspensions--on 2024 English I and II EOC scores among 9th and 10th graders at a suburban North Texas high school. This quantitative analysis aimed to understand whether different absence types influence academic achievement when controlling for ethnicity…

My goal with this study is to understand the role school academic grading policies play in shaping teacher expectations for students. In the cooperating district, the newly adopted grading policies address the frequency of grades inputted, the weighting of the grades, the required types of assignments, and the various timeline requirements for…

This qualitative study explores teacher enactment of education policy, specifically Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), in a large suburban Midwestern high school. Participating educators constructed policy meaning while they sought to understand it, over a multi-year rollout process. Data were gathered using five teacher and…