Over the past 20 years, large scale crisis events categorized as adversarial incidental, human caused threats, biological hazards, natural disasters, and technological hazards have increased and posed significant challenges for executive leaders in curriculum and instruction (ELCIs) in K-12 educational settings. These crisis events disrupt K-12…

The purpose of this research study was to explore the lived experiences of Black teachers who were employed in an urban school district in Southern California. This study focused on teachers who made the decision to remain at their current school in their current teaching position. The findings from this research inquiry can provide district-level…

Despite the importance of understanding teacher empowerment and silence to help address issues of teacher shortage and well-being and improve school-based consultation, research on the topic has been understudied and undertheorized, particularly for new teachers. To fill this research gap, we carried out a constructivist grounded theory-based…

Using over 350 hours of observational data from district-level meetings, we investigate how leaders support their interpretations of problems and proposed solutions during closed-door negotiations around three policy decisions, and how they invoke race, class, and language in the process. District leaders primarily cite constraints from…

When the standards reform movement was introduced, researchers postulated the dual methods of rigorous standards and assessment to measure performance on those standards. Through the early part of the 21st century, the standards corpus has grown, and so too have the accompanying testing regimes (Delandshere and Arens, 2001). However, in…

As institutions strive to improve teaching and learning for all, educators must consider equitable instruction. This includes equitable distributions of authority and agency among students. The authors define distribution of authority as shared opportunities for decision-making in enacting mathematical tasks and agency as the power to carry out…

Urban K-12 public schools often face challenges that are not found in schools located in suburban areas. Students in urban schools are often not prepared to attend college and are more likely to drop out of high school. This is often the result of limited resources in urban schools, yet educators are expected to close the achievement gap and…

The purpose of this study is to examine the school selection process of parents whose children attended an urban school district in Northern California. Like numerous urban school districts across the United States, the district highlighted in this study also encountered students exiting its schools for the past decade. The findings shared in this…

This mixed-methods study applied a decision-making theoretical framework to an investigation of teacher grading in a large urban school district in California. A sample of 251 high school teachers of core subjects were surveyed, and 15 teachers participated in four focus group interviews in order provide data on the influences, rationale, and…

The year students take Algebra I historically determines how far they progress in secondary mathematics, creating complex equity issues around access to this course. By examining a case study of one large, urban school district adjusting to the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSS-M), we demonstrate how district leaders' interactions,…

Decentralization and deregulation policies assume that local educational leaders make better resource decisions than state policy makers do. Conceptual models drawn from organizational theory, however, offer competing predictions about how district central office administrators are likely to leverage their professional expertise in devolved…

Strong and stable school leadership is critical for success in schools across the nation. The duties of the principal are many and varied. Principals, for example, can oversee instruction, purchase curricular materials and supplies, and provide professional learning and supports for teachers. Carrying out these duties effectively makes a…

The purpose of this paper is to enhance our understanding of districts that are implementing sustainable professional learning in data-driven decision-making (DDDM) to improve student achievement. The data-informed leadership framework, comprised of leadership practices that acknowledge the complexities that play into data use, guided the inquiry.…

Although there is an emerging body of research that examines data-driven decision making (DDDM) in schools, little attention has been paid to how local leaders strategically frame sensemaking around data use. This exploratory case examines how district and school leaders consciously framed the implementation of DDDM in one urban high school.…

The purpose of this case study was to discover the critical attributes of a student achievement program, known as "Think Gold," implemented at one urban comprehensive high school as part of the improvement process. Student achievement on state assessments improved during the period under study. The study draws upon perspectives on…