This article describes a faculty self-leadership study and its impact on outcomes--extra effort, effectiveness, and satisfaction. The research questions asked faculty's perceptions of classroom leadership--specifically whether they perceive themselves as leaders. This preliminary, small study aims to consider other avenues to improve the student…

College students use online sources to obtain information about their institution's professors when preparing their schedules for the upcoming semester. While there is some disagreement among educators as to the validity of these student evaluations, students appear to find them to be quite useful. Might these evaluations, however, prove to be…

The purpose of this study was to explore how teachers experience blended teaching and learning. This article describes the interplay of beliefs and practices of four high school teachers, based on interview data, observation data, and artifact analysis. Results showed that the four teachers in the study enacted their beliefs in the blended…

This study examined school psychology faculty beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions regarding the status of graduate training in evidence-based assessment and intervention. The perspectives of a national sample of faculty in the U.S. were obtained through an online survey. A qualitative examination of faculty responses provided an understanding of…

As Brian Huot and Ellen E. Schendel assert, when assessment has more than validation in mind, it "can become a means for proactive change" (208). In response to this idea of assessment as an optimistic and opportunistic enterprise, this article describes how the structural design of our "equal opportunity" writing program and…

In December 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced No Child Left Behind (NCLB), as the nation's major law governing public schools. ESSA retains the requirement that states test all students in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school, as well as the requirement that…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the content, student learning outcomes, and types of measures used for assessment in music appreciation courses across the State University of New York (SUNY) community colleges. Data was collected using a researcher-designed questionnaire; instructional faculty of music appreciation courses at SUNY…

Public debate surrounds the success of charter schools in serving students and providing a generative environment for teacher innovation. Through semi-structured interviews with eleven (N = 11) K-12 charter school music teachers, this study aims to contribute to the understanding of charter school music teachers' perceptions of their setting in…

In this age of teacher accountability, school districts are increasingly interested in using the best possible methods in evaluating their teachers. This interest impacts new alternative certification teachers, as well as traditional teachers. An increasingly popular assessment is the Danielson Framework, which is a set of 22 components of…

This article presents the Classroom Strategies Coaching (CSC) Model, a data-driven coaching approach that uses teacher formative assessment data to drive improvements in universal practices. The classroom strategies assessment system (CSAS), a formative assessment of evidence-based instructional and behavioral management practices was used to…

This program evaluation is focused on the social skills instructional processes of a separate day school for students with emotional disabilities (ED) in Upstate New York. The CIPP model of program evaluation was used to highlight the processes involved with the school's program, specifically teacher led social skills instruction. To determine the…

This qualitative case study explored the teachers' and administrators' perceptions of a newly implemented teacher evaluation policy in a high-stakes testing state, and how this policy impacted their motivation. Five science teachers and their immediate supervisors were interviewed, and their perceptions were analyzed through motivational theories…

An increased emphasis on writing standards has led many U.S. states to incorporate on-demand writing assessments into their test-based accountability system. We argue this creates political and pedagogical tensions for teachers to navigate. We discuss how rubric conceptualization (1) is a process wherein a teacher iteratively (co-)constructs…

This study focused on the motivation of K-12 teachers to participate in district online professional development and to sustain the knowledge or skills learned. This study identified how teachers in a suburban school district, located in the Hudson Valley region of New York state, evaluated the online professional development they received and the…

Teacher quality is the most important school-based factor affecting student learning and achievement. In 2009, the Race to the Top (RttT) federal education initiative provided an opportunity for states to compete for federal grant resources to reform their public education systems, which included revamping teacher evaluation systems to improve…