College readiness has been a primary focus of U.S. secondary education for over 40 years. Despite the continued focus on college readiness at the national, state, and local levels, researchers have claimed that educational reforms have resulted in little gains in students' college readiness, warranting continued emphasis and research. To advance…

This study focused on middle school and high school teachers in an independent school to explore their experiences and perceptions of overparenting in the classroom. The problem addressed by this study was the lack of understanding concerning middle and high school teachers' experiences and perceptions of overparenting in an independent school.…

When focusing on the teacher as the key variable in the classroom, professional dispositions are the greatest factor impacting student achievement (Diez & Raths, 2007; Haberman; 2004; Marzano; 2001). The intent of this study was to answer three questions: What professional dispositions impact student success in the learning environment as…

Educator sexual misconduct continues to present a problem in U.S. K-12 schools. As mandatory reporters, K-12 educators must report any suspicion of educator sexual misconduct, but despite state and federal laws regarding reporting, educator sexual misconduct often goes unreported. The purpose of this exploratory phenomenological study was to learn…

Secondary course assignment substantially determines a teacher's day-to-day work life, incentivizing them to realize their personal desires, which prior work shows tend to be working with more advanced students. Teachers have varying abilities to enact these desires, potentially due to their political capital, which is largely influenced by…

Schools across the nation faced a teacher shortage, and North Carolina was no exception. North Carolina leaders used alternatively licensed teachers to fill vacancies. The purpose of this qualitative, interpretive study was to compare beginning alternatively licensed teachers' perceptions to principals' perceptions of the needed and implemented…

Enrollment in Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) classes in the U.S. has increased substantially in recent decades. Given the importance of CSL teacher education in relation to the sustained development of CSL education in the U.S., previous studies have explored the issue both at the college level (Gong, Hu, & Lai, 2018; Lin, Huang, &…

Using survey research methodology, the study investigates assessment and grading practices of secondary school teachers. A total of 248 teachers in the Piedmont and coastal regions of North Carolina completed a web-based survey examining academic and nonacademic factors that impacted the final grades of their students and assessment types used in…

This study was designed to address questions related to the phenomena of why beginning teachers leave or do not stay within the field of education. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine what factors influence beginning teacher retention/attrition in Title I schools. Twenty-nine beginning teachers from a Title I district in a…

Current research on special education teacher burnout focused on the external contextual experiences leading to burnout rather than the innermost dimensions of the cognitive processes by which special education teachers experience burnout. Therefore, the purpose of this transcendental phenomenological research study was to explore how K-12 special…

Research on college choice decisions of high school students has increased over the past forty years but has generally centered on demographic characteristics such as race, gender, or socio-economic status of students. There has been little research on the influences on the college choice decisions of high academically achieving students from…

The purpose of this quantitative descriptive research study was to examine the possibility of a correlation between peer mentoring programs and successful progression of K-12 teachers. The study encompassed teachers who had been in the profession five or fewer years and worked in a K-12 school district located in the southwestern region of the…

The purpose of this study was to examine how teacher instructional practices aligned with digital learning environments. The following four research questions guided this investigation: How do teachers demonstrate leadership in digital learning? How do teachers model and teach digital citizenship? How do teachers use digital content and resources…

Retaining qualified teachers in America's schools is one of the nation's challenges in education. Current research revealed teacher turnover had risen to 16.9% nationally, which equates to 2.7 million teachers, including 2.1 million who left the profession before retirement. In order to make a positive change in teacher retention, teacher…

The effectiveness of teacher professional development (PD) has been scrutinized for decades. Although scholars generally agree that collaboration is a critical component of sustainable PD, among schools in the United States, time for collaboration embedded within the school day is lacking. In the most recent era of social media, school districts…