A problem in the field of education is a high rate of teacher turnover. Because the problem is reaching a crisis level, the purpose of this qualitative descriptive dissertation study was to describe influences of an Educational Support Program for novice teachers relative to their feelings of support, job satisfaction, and teacher self-efficacy.…

We describe a long-standing weeklong K-12 STEM teacher workshop that shifted to a virtual platform in 2020. We re-engaged former participants during this STEM Institute with goals of (1) modeling ways to connect best practices for STEM education gained in previous workshops to a virtual environment, (2) providing space for teacher reflection on…

Special educator attrition is a major problem in the United States (US) and in many countries worldwide. In the present study, we investigated the experiences of 5 highly successful special education teachers serving students with autism spectrum disorder in the central Florida area of the US with particular attention to factors associated with…

The profession of teaching is inherently stressful. Resilience, or the ability to adapt and develop competence despite exposure to disruptive change, has been shown to be beneficial for teachers. The purpose of this study was to determine if personal resilience is a predictor of professional development engagement and career satisfaction of…

The teaching profession is not without its share of challenges. Many teachers enter the professional ranks only to immediately search for the nearest exit. Teacher socialization has been shown to improve teachers' professional outlooks, slowing the exodus. In this phenomenological study, nine interviews were conducted with three experienced,…

The purpose of our study was to determine the extent to which differences in a mentor model for science and mathematics teachers accounted for variances in mentoring effectiveness and persistence rates of teachers. School district designee, mentor, and teacher perceptions of mentoring support were collected through the use of interviews and…

Bullying has become a nationwide concern at the K-12 level. Guided by the theoretical framework of social learning theory, this study explored the perceptions of secondary education teachers about the bully-proofing program in place at one target middle school. Despite the target middle school's anti-bullying program, the incidence of bullying had…

High school students in accelerated curricula face stressors beyond typical adolescent developmental challenges. The Student Rating of Environmental Stressors Scale (StRESS) is a self-report measure of environmental stressors appropriate for students in Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses. We developed the StRESS…

High school students in accelerated curricula face stressors beyond typical adolescent developmental challenges. The Student Rating of Environmental Stressors Scale (StRESS) is a self-report measure of environmental stressors appropriate for students in Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses. We developed the StRESS…

School-based tobacco prevention programs have been proven effective in reducing tobacco use. This evaluation aimed to assess the impact of an online tobacco prevention teacher training program on teachers and their students in Florida schools. A total of 344 teachers, including 72 K-3 grade teachers, 44 4th-5th grade teachers, and 228 6th-12th…

The Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative is a statewide policy that mandates college placement testing of 11th-graders who meet high school graduation criteria but are unlikely to meet college readiness criteria. Students who score below college-ready on the Postsecondary Education Readiness Test (PERT) are required to take math and…

Over the past decade, national initiatives have shifted States' attention to the challenge of turning around low-performing schools. The lack of consistent, dramatic improvements in the lowest-performing schools reflects the severity of the school turnaround challenge, but also suggests the need to continuously evaluate and refine turnaround…

The research design is a quantitative causal comparative method. The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) which measures student scores included assessments in mathematics and reading. The design study called for an examination of how type of small learning community (SLC) or the type non-SLC high school environment affected student…

The purposes of this study were to determine whether variables reported in previous research on teacher turnover could be reduced to a number of factors, and to determine how those resulting factors affected career longevity in band directors. Career longevity was defined as the total number of years teaching. Literature on teacher turnover was…

Purpose. The purpose of the study was to identify and describe learning preferences of current high school students enrolled in online courses. The study further identified the students' perceived benefits and academic attractions to online education. The study also addressed the degree of satisfaction with their online courses. The study's final…