This paper discusses Texas Examinations of Educator Standards Program Languages Other Than English -- Spanish exam (TExES LOTE - Spanish) and its potential bias, particularly against teacher candidates with Spanish as a heritage language (HL) background. In Texas, most teacher candidates, or college students of Spanish preparing for secondary…

The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to examine the co-teaching experiences of secondary choir teachers in associate director positions in the state of Texas. We interviewed 12 participants, who had held an associate director position for at least 3 years, two times across a 4-month period. Three themes emerged from the data:…

Many teachers are leaving the classroom for various reasons, and their departure is occurring so rapidly that replacing them with individuals of equivalent knowledge and experience proves challenging. The once-stable education system now faces jeopardy due to high attrition rates. Successful schools flourish through collaboration and the transfer…

Effective school leaders are essential to the success of the school environment. Teachers have left schools due to poor and ineffective campus leadership, but often do not report the reasons why they left or do not have a safe mechanism in place to support their claims and drive campus change. The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand…

This qualitative research study explored South Texas educators' perceptions of emotional intelligence after COVID-19. The study aimed to develop an understanding about teachers' emotional intelligence and perceived impacts on secondary teacher job proficiency. A qualitative approach employing a phenomenology methodology was used. Purposive…

The Panorama Teacher Survey (PTS) results from 2018 to 2021 indicated that school leadership has improved in one North Texas district. The problem investigated in this study was that despite favorable overall results on the Panorama Teacher Survey (PTS) in the local school district, the school leadership dimension of "teacher input into…

Current paradigms for curriculum and instruction have yet to address methods for encouraging intrinsic motivation using educational and psychological principles in a constructivist framework. This research examined the perceptions regarding the potential efficacy and effects of implementing a new paradigm, the Self Sculptor Model, that uses…

The well-being of special education teachers is paramount to ensuring a high-quality and sustainable education system for students with disabilities (Sawatske et al., 2024). The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore, in a large, southeast Texas school district, the perceptions of secondary special education teachers…

This study examined how secondary educators across Region 4 Texas school districts describe how they address student behaviors in the classroom using a self-defined trauma informed approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 educators across Region 4 in Texas who have received some training in trauma, student behavior, and trauma…

This interpretive phenomenological study examined the skills 0 to 3 year teachers in a North Texas PK-12 school district believed were skills they needed for online teaching. The 10 participants for this study all preferred she/her pronouns identifying as female; 6 received certification through a traditional undergraduate program with 4…

The purpose of this exploratory case study was to explore K-12 educators' perceptions of the use of social media as professional development tools in an independent school district in Texas. The population for the study was approximately 934 teachers, administrators, and instructional design coaches. The sample size was twenty participants. A word…

Professional development in policy for K-12 teachers is relatively rare despite the indelible role that teachers play in policy implementation. This study describes the experiences of five teachers who completed the 10-month Texas Education Policy Fellowship Program. Results showed that the experienced classroom teachers garnered the most policy…

This quantitative study examined general and special education teachers' self-efficacy, attitudes, and teaching efficacy in implementing inclusive practices in Texas secondary schools. Grounded in Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory, the research explored how teacher efficacy impacted the successful integration of students with disabilities into…

Background: To understand and apply the results of multisite impact studies, it is necessary to know the extent to which the components of an intervention were implemented as they were designed in each context (e.g., Carroll et al., 2007; Hill, Corey, & Jacob, 2018). Rigorous and cost-effective measures of implementation fidelity can help…

The purpose of this research was to explore secondary music teachers' perceptions and experiences with English language learner (ELL) students. Specifically, we sought to understand teachers' educational backgrounds, dispositions, and pedagogical decisions related to working with ELL students. The questions guiding the study were: (1) what are…