Elementary teachers continue to endure increased pressure as additional weights are pressed from state requirements and recommendations, local and national social burdens heighten, and confrontation with increased student needs persist; yet support structures devised for teachers to be able to enact transformational leaps lack. Questions guiding…

This qualitative phenomenological study delved into the factors influencing the retention of special education teachers in rural Luzerne County, Pennsylvania school districts. The focus was on understanding why these educators chose to continue in their positions despite facing significant challenges such as limited resources, administrative…

The number of English Language Learners (ELLs) in rural public schools has been steadily increasing in recent years. These rural schools are often underfunded and ill-prepared to manage this new demographic of students, which often leads to the students being neglected and falling behind in their studies. This Action Research Study consisted of…

Microcredentials are a promising means for expanding teacher access to high quality professional development. This study examined the effectiveness of online, self-paced microcredential courses designed for teachers working in underserved rural communities. The content of these competency-based microcredentials centered on recommended…

Teachers are leaving the teaching profession before reaching the age of retirement at increasingly high numbers, many citing increased stress as a factor in their decision to quit, contributing to a national teacher shortage. This qualitative study investigated the stressors experienced by eight K-12 teachers in a rural Pennsylvania school…

This study has been conducted to explore and understand whether the social nature of the mentoring experience impacts the novice teachers' and mentors' decisions to remain in the teaching profession. Large school districts often deal with teacher attrition since novice teachers are not secure in their position or confident in the role of educator.…

Historically, empirical research exploring the roles, responsibilities, and challenges of department chairs has been limited and narrow in scope. In addition, these studies have not kept pace with the rapidly changing nature of higher education. The current study consists of data collected from a survey of current and former chairs at a small,…

As adolescent mental health concerns increase in the United States, the impact of secondary teachers' roles becomes more prevalent. Although public school districts attempt to provide school-based therapy, school counseling, and community or out-patient referral programs, many secondary students are not receiving the proper mental health or crisis…

Many reports on rural education give little attention to digital learning. At most, they tend to note either infrastructure needs or the potential of remote course access, with little focus on instruction, outcomes, or exemplars. This report intends to begin correcting that imbalance by connecting the dots between rural regions, rural education,…

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are being used as a form of teacher professional development in schools across the world. The concept has been present in the educational literature for over thirty years. While many educators are familiar with the term, some schools have not yet implemented PLCs. Hord (1997) determined that all true PLCs…

The focus of this study was to analyze a benchmark formative assessment (4Sight) that predicts how students will perform on the annual Pennsylvania, USA exam that is given in grades three through eight inclusive and 11. Correlation analysis reported a significant positive linear relationship between students' performance in the Pennsylvania System…

The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between the use of character education programming and school health. Measuring and improving school health is a process that supports social, emotional, ethical and civic education. Hoy, Tarter, and Kottkamp define this concept as a healthy school is one in which the institutional,…

The National Research Council's most recent report "Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8," (2007) has suggested a redefinition of science proficiency. "This framework rests on a view of science as both a body of knowledge and an evidence-based, model building enterprise that continually extends,…

This research is a follow up to a similar study published by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania in 2003 in which researchers examined alternative education policies and practices among Pennsylvania school districts. The current study extended the previous research to include information on the perceptions of administrators and teachers on the…

Based on research studies of effective staff development and rural education, the Inservice Leadership Team (ILT) was designed to identify key teachers in school buildings, team them with principals and central office staff, and train the team to design, deliver, and evaluate staff development at the school level. Rural Pennsylvania school staff,…