Public schools and its leaders are expected to prepare America's children to be contributing and informed members of society. More specifically, public school principals in Arizona are expected to be flexible and responsive as they lead school improvement on their campuses. They are also expected to comply with mandates (particularly state) which…

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of Arizona Revised Statues 15- 843(K) with Arizona elementary administrators, since the 2021-2022 school year. Additionally, this research investigated the Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions administrators have found to be effective and ineffective to support K-1 students who have behavioral needs.…

As demand for more highly educated workers rises, a growing number of community colleges have expanded their services beyond two-year degree programs and begun conferring baccalaureate degrees. These programs, referred to as Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) programs, have become increasingly prevalent: Prior to 2000, only four states offered…

Distributed leadership practices were used by principals to engage teacher leaders in instructional leadership responsibilities to create an innovative learning culture in Title I elementary schools. It was not known how teachers described the influence of principal-distributed leadership practices on organizational learning and innovativeness in…

While top down federal policy processes continue to deliver policy as grand solutions to real and imagined problems within the nation's public schools, states continue to churn out their own layers of educational accountability policy. But it is no secret that state and federal policies and programs like No Child Left Behind and Reading First have…

Research has suggested the "No Child Left Behind Act" passed in 2001 has resulted in narrowed curriculum and a failed attempt at its primary objective to close the achievement gap. Understanding changes that have occurred in student achievement from 2011 to 2014 of the NCLB requirements is the focus of this quantitative ex-post facto…

The signing of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 created a need for Title 1 principals to conceptualize and operationalize parent engagement. This study examines how three urban principals in Arizona implemented the mandates of the Act as it pertains to parent involvement. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to examine how principals…

As schools across Arizona worked to meet NCLB's AYP requirement in 2010-2011, they were also labeled and sanctioned by AZ Learns. This phenomenological study focused on six effective high school principals in two Arizona school districts to ascertain how accountability policies impacted the principals' job responsibilities, autonomy, and ability…

Researchers have estimated that by 2030, two of every five American public school students will be acquiring English as second language learners (Shah & Cavanagh, 2012). Providing adequate means by which ELLs can obtain both English language and academic proficiency will be paramount if they are to be successful, contributing members of their…

In 2009 the U.S. Department of Education announced the requirements and selection criteria for the monies attached to the Race to the Top Fund. The monies attached to this competition were awarded during phase one, phase two, and phase three. This casual comparative study examined the impact of the Race to the Top federal education competition on…

This is a qualitative case study using ethnographic methods of how one school community has been able to negotiate Arizona's restrictive English only language policies. Drawing from classroom and school-wide observations, extensive interviews, and document collection, this case study explores three key questions in relation to this school's…

School districts in the United States have undergone large changes over the last decade to accommodate No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Arizona accommodated NCLB through Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS). Expectations were established for all students, varying by group of students based on grade, special education status, free/reduced…

From the inception of public education, the curricula of schools have been debated. As early as 1893, higher education and governmental committees sought to establish what, when, and how cognitive level curricula would be taught. In times of national need, as when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the educational system was called upon to help…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the difference between the total number of education code violations and the security personnel assigned by the school district. This study also proposed to examine factors such as socio-economic level of the district, the size of the district, and its location. Due to the increase in violence in…

In 2007, Arizona voters passed House Bill (HB) 2064, a law that fundamentally restructured the Structured English Immersion (SEI) program, putting into place a 4-hour English language development (ELD) block for educating English language learners (ELLs). Under this new language policy, ELL students are segregated from their English-speaking peers…