The notion that teacher quality impacts student achievement is widely accepted. How to best define, measure, and improve teacher quality continues to be debated by teacher unions and state legislators. Teacher evaluation studies have focused on isolated elements of the system. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the current…

Federal and state mandates have placed an added pressure on teachers to demonstrate "effective" instructional practices. These mandates also affect the role of a principal, as an evaluator of "effective" instructional strategies, and as an instructional leader who continuously needs to build teacher capacity to satisfy these…

This dissertation presents the findings of an exploratory, multiple-case study in which eight public secondary school teachers engaged in a professional development (PD) program centered on improving teacher instruction for English learners (ELs). The participants worked as co-teachers with teacher credential candidates, serving as both mentors…

Enrollments in blended learning programs are growing, creating a challenge to find educators who understand blended learning pedagogy. The purpose of this study was to identify and understand the challenges and pedagogical transformations of elementary educators who recently adopted blended learning. The concerns-based adoption model provided a…

Despite the growing descriptions of effective teacher community--and lessons about the conditions needed for them to survive--more research has been done on exemplars of strong professional community than on efforts to produce professional community where it doesn't already exist. Building professional community is important to school improvement…

Lesson study, a teacher-led vehicle for inquiring into teacher practice through creating, enacting, and reflecting on collaboratively designed research lessons, has been shown to improve mathematics teacher practice in the United States, such as improving knowledge about mathematics, changing teacher practice, and developing communities of…

The objective of this study was to document teachers' and administrators' perceptions of how, if at all, LAUSD's new Teacher Growth and Development Cycle (TGDC) changed their practice in ways that can be expected to lead to improved student learning. Specific emphasis was placed on how the TGDC, the comprehensive observational system (teacher…

Teacher quality has received increasing focus over the past decade, yet, by some measures, teachers rarely improve after their first few years of teaching, and not all teachers seem driven to improve. Traditional models of professional learning have emphasized the processes that teachers take part in as a facilitator of their improvement. Research…

The improvement of schools has been a central discussion among educators, legislators, and stakeholders, with professional development being acknowledged as a fundamental topic for the success of the education system. Studying the alignment of professional development programs provided at Title I Achieving schools to NCLB research based…

While outstanding teachers are any school system's most important investment, assessing the quality of instructional practice has proven to be an ongoing challenge for the profession. Despite assertions that effective teachers are the single most important school-related factor responsible for increased learning, no teacher's employment is…

The tapestry of classrooms today is transforming into a mosaic of colors, languages, and backgrounds. As the population of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students continues to rise, a deeper understanding of how teachers construct meaning and understand their internal and relational experiences when working with these students has…

The purpose of this study was to identify and to explore programs related to school leadership in two California charter schools. Four research questions guided this study: (a) What policies, programs, and processes are used to improve teacher and administrative leadership (school leadership) in charter schools? (b) How are resources used to…