The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to explore the extent to which mentorship of new special education teachers working in high need, urban schools incorporated instruction of a teachers' own social and emotional learning competencies and how these teachings impacted new special education teachers' job satisfaction and…

Currently, one third of teachers in the United States were trained by alternate route programs (Constantine et al., 2009). Although alternate routes programs fill a need within the education landscape, it is not enough to get more teachers into classrooms faster. Teachers must be prepared to address the needs of their students. Therefore, it is…

This dissertation presents findings of three studies investigating the development and transfer of TPACK of pre-service and in-service elementary school special education teachers. The dissertation is presented in a non-traditional format including an introduction, three manuscripts submitted for journal publication, and a summary chapter. The…

This dissertation explores how federal education policies affect outcomes for special populations and their teachers. The first study uses a differences-in-differences design and data from the Stanford Education Data Archive to determine if "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) waivers reduced district-level white-black and white-Hispanic…