The purpose of this research is to understand the relationship among school conditions, teacher job satisfaction, intention to stay, and school type (charter versus traditional public schools) and to determine if school conditions, and thereby job satisfaction, influences teachers' intention to stay in the field. Understanding this is critical to…

The number of charter schools in operation has steadily increased over the years, particularly in the state of Florida. In Florida, independently run charter schools experience closures or mandated control from Charter Management Organizations (CMOs) for several reasons; therefore, the purpose of this study is to iterate how alternative methods of…

Advocates of charter schools hold that the marketization of education compels all schools to be innovative in raising student achievement outcomes. Opponents of charter schools dispute whether the impact of charter schools on student achievement is statistically sufficient to justify taking resources from traditional public schools. Another…

This dissertation consists of two chapters on topics in Industrial Organization. In Chapter 1, I discuss a central question of the policy debate on public education: how to get more for less. Charter schools have been a tool in this arena to pressure traditional public schools to improve or lose students to them. Moreover, charter schools…

Charter schools were created to diversify public education, innovate with education programs and governance, increase student achievement, and serve as models for traditional public schools. The purpose of this study was to analyze leadership practices in independent high-performing charter schools in the Miami-Dade County of the State of Florida…

In a technology-driven society, computing devices are used more in education to make learning engaging, individualize learning, and enhance instruction. Educators are implementing computing devices and ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) to access various learning programs and software. Using ICTs, students engage in project-based…

This case study was designed to determine the extent to which standardized mathematics and reading scores in traditional public school differ before and after the introduction of a public charter school in central Florida rural cities. The purpose of the quantitative casual-comparative research study was to determine the impact to the traditional…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how K-2 teachers perceive the effectiveness of multi-sensory phonics methods used in conjunction with a standards-based reading curriculum on students' reading acquisition skills, students' decoding abilities, and student engagement in an inclusive classroom at a public charter school in…

Most school districts across the country continue to research how to help their students become better prepared to enter the workforce and higher education. As a result, the extent to which dynamic teaching techniques affect the success of classroom-taught material currently is not known. Much of the current literature reveals studies on teaching…

Within the secondary level of education covering students in grades 6-12, reading comprehension continues to be an area of concern for traditional public-school educators. Because students lack the foundations of reading upon entering middle and high school, on average across the United States, many students struggle to meet high school graduation…

Many people consider teaching a calling; the profession is predicated on helping others while yielding little personal gain. A teacher's primary goal is to deliver a valuable and engaging educational opportunity. The onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic in 2020 created challenges to reaching this goal for many teachers across the United States…

This explanatory sequential mixed methods study examined the extent of high school principals' instructional leadership (IL) support regarding world languages (WL) programs in Florida in 2022. Research on WL programs in K-12th and IL asserts that administrators neglect WL programs. In the first phase, a Principal's Instructional Management Rating…

This quantitative causal-comparative study, based on secondary data analysis, measured the differences between neighboring Title I traditional elementary schools and Title 1 charter elementary schools in Florida in terms of (a) ELA performance and (b) math performance. More specifically, the study examined the third grade ELA and math scores of 60…

Prior research in mathematical assessments has indicated varying results of predictive variables and further research has been recommended to support students, parents, teachers, and school administration. The purpose of this research was to determine how well a student's performance on a mathematics domain at the state level may be predicted…

In Florida, civic illiteracy among middle and high school students is a pressing concern despite state initiatives to increase civic competence (Florida House of Representatives, 2019; FLDOE, 2023b; Florida Department of State, 2023). Recent scores on state civics and social studies standardized assessments reveal a disheartening fact--an average…