School leadership has progressed from a principal-led position to a dual-leader position with assistant principals. Assistant principals have stepped into instructional leadership roles and have been identified as overseeing special education (Best, 2016; Gaston, 2005; Walton, 2008). Despite studies determining that assistant principals are…

With the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, as part of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), it prioritized schools to include families as collaborative partners in schools' improvement efforts. Minimal family voice existed at two elementary schools. Thus, this mixed-methods action…

Although active parent involvement is mandated as part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), parents continue to report dissatisfaction with IEP meetings. Despite increases in parent participation policy since the adoption of IDEA, the parent-professional partnership originally envisioned by lawmakers is arguably not…

The purpose of this study is to examine and interpret the life experiences and leadership practices of four African American male superintendents leading urban school districts across the nation. The research approach adopted in this dissertation used semi-structured interviews with four African American male superintendents that consisted of…

The purpose of the case study was to explore how one rural elementary school implemented a one to one (1:1) iPad initiative with a focus on leadership. The distributed leadership model provides the framework for this research. The idea that the transformation of schools falls on one leader is impractical and unattainable (Elmore, 2004; Gronn &…

The purpose of the qualitative descriptive case study was to describe the efficacy of parent-teacher collaborative educational planning methods for elementary students with autism from the perspective of the parents. The specific problem was an unknown in the efficacy of the collaborative relationship between parents and teachers of students with…

An effective school leader explores better ways to communicate with the community stakeholder their district serves. Often, some of the strongest groups in a community are the faith-based organizations (FBOs). A qualitative, action research design was used to explore three primary questions. The study provided an example for exploring perceptions…

Recent explosive growth of interconnected document collections such as citation networks, network of web pages, content generated by crowd-sourcing in collaborative environments, etc., has posed several challenging problems for data mining and machine learning community. One central problem in the domain of document networks is that of "link…

The evidence of the increasing connection between higher education institutions around the globe is well documented, but what is less understood is how this connectivity is enacted or manifested on specific nodes of the global higher education network. The objective of this research is to examine the planning process of a multi-institutional…

This case study explored the relationship between entrepreneurial decision making and optimal institutional governance. The study focused on a single institution, characterized as a small, tuition-driven, private institution. Twelve participants were interviewed in the study, equally divided between members of the faculty and of the…

This study explored how social structure and cultural values dynamically interact in collective learning between two religious organizations cooperating in a joint project. It further explored the enablers of and impediments to collective learning in this context. The study employed the theoretical framework provided by the Organizational Learning…

Teacher education programs have been criticized as too theoretical with university courses disconnected from the practical realities of classrooms. This single case study investigates a model of teacher education that worked to bridge the coursework-fieldwork gap in teacher education. The Mediated Field Experience (MFE) is a field experience…

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine what research-based and federally recommended practices in the area of school crisis response planning and management were being implemented in K-8 school districts in Northern California, as well as the degree with which the recommended practices were being implemented. Finally, the study…

Collaboration is widely promoted in school librarianship and education, yet little is known about the talk it entails. This intrinsic case study of eight planning meetings employed a discourse analysis and socio-cultural perspective to examine the school librarian's role as a broker for learning in the discourse of collaborative planning with…

This study utilized a mixed-methods approach to explore the relationship between the implementation of recommended transition education practices and perceptions of administrative support of transition education. Utilizing a web-based survey, I surveyed 120 secondary educators across Oklahoma to determine the extent to which they reported the use…