This study examined school counselors' perceptions of how leadership styles affect work output, staff comradery, and employee morale. The research problem examined in this qualitative descriptive case study was work output, staff comradery, and employee morale differ greatly depending on the leadership style that the immediate supervisor…

We live in a culture where school systems are accused of being negligent or at fault for any undesired outcome. This can leave school districts and their employees anxious about potential consequences, regardless if the negligent claim is warranted or not. Therefore, there is a need for all educators to understand their responsibilities to provide…

Educational leaders are increasingly expected to use school climate data to improve outcomes and promote equity for all learners, including in California where school climate is included in state accountability policy. In this study, beliefs towards school climate assessment were explored in a sample (n=298) of California superintendents using a…

Each year school administrators find themselves in the position of hiring new teachers and onboarding them to the unique expectations and context of the school. Such work most often happens while these new teachers are actively doing the work of teaching, with few contracted hours of training available. Limited research has focused on the…

The California College and Career Readiness measures are new to the California school accountability dashboard, and few studies have examined how these data connect to student outcomes. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to determine the degree of relationship between school protective factors (i.e., caring relationships and…

Using LatCrit and QuantCrit, we examined the effect of school climate, ethnic identity, and self-esteem on GPA in a sample of 300 Latinx high school students. We found significant positive correlations between climate and GPA as well as self-esteem and GPA. Moreover, using structural equation modeling, we found self-esteem mediated the…

The purpose of the study was to examine the quality of high school programs for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the United States. The Autism Program Environment Rating Scale-Middle/High School (APERS-MHS) was used to rate the quality of programs for students with ASD in 60 high schools located in three geographic locations in the…

Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to determine the degree of relationship between school protective factors, student internal assets, and College and Career Readiness Indicator outcomes. The population for this study included comprehensive, public high schools across California, including only schools that…

Purpose: This qualitative case study sought to understand and examine school social workers' perspectives on their role within California's TK-12 public school system. Theoretical Framework: Bronfenbrenner and Morris's (2007) bioecological systems theory and Frey et al.'s (2013) national school social work practice model were employed as the…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how K-12 public school administrators describe their practice of culturally responsive leadership (CRL) and their practice of California Professional Standards of Educational Leaders (CPSEL). There were four research questions that guided this study: (1) How do K-12 public school…

African-American women face substantial career barriers when seeking ascension to educational leadership. Numerous factors contribute to career advancement barriers, such as systemic, institutional challenges, organizational factors, personality, and individual contributors. Various systemic and managerial aspects, directly and indirectly, were…

Purpose and Method of Study: The pursuit of equity in education is, in part, a response to the growing diverse student population. As such, school leaders are tasked with ensuring educational equity is achieved for all students. To that end, this study explored public school administrators' awareness, experience, and disposition towards equity…

Understanding how learning environments productively mobilize children's ideas as resources for participation in joint activity is an ongoing focus of research on classroom instruction. We investigated whole-class mathematics conversations in which multiple students participated in ways previous research suggests are consequential for learning. We…

Research shows that Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) are associated with school climate and student well-being, but it is unclear what school characteristics may account for some of these findings. The current study describes characteristics of schools with and without GSAs. Using a population-based sample of 1,360 California public high schools,…

Using data on incoming freshmen from 2018-2020 at the University of California, Davis, we analyze whether California students from private or charter high schools, compared to students from traditional public schools, arrive at college with a higher sense of expected belonging, more positive feelings, or higher expectations about adopting positive…