Significant events such as severe weather, flooding, wildfires, and cyber incidents cause serious interruptions to the capabilities within institutions of higher education (IHEs) to perform established missions and achieve strategic goals and objectives. Previous research has investigated the effects of these significant interruptive events on…

The purpose of this case study was to determine the perceived alignment of standards and practices that are prescribed by the International Baccalaureate Organization to the Coherence Framework which was developed by researchers Michael Fullan and Joanne Quinn. The field setting was a high needs and low wealth school district that is identified as…

Change is a constant. At the same time, change can be hard for everyone involved. How do change leaders do it well? In this research study, I explored the planning and execution of state-level change initiatives within the Texas Education Agency's (TEA) strategic plan. I designed my study to identify and uncover the strategies change initiative…

Policies in education ensure that educators and educational leaders are receiving and implementing equitable and adequate educational services and opportunities to all students. Some of these policies are proactive and others are reactive. In 2018, Judge Singleton decided in the "Yazzie-Martinez v. NM" (2018) court case the State of NM…

Boston Public Schools (BPS) serves approximately 49,000 students across 119 schools and is dedicated to providing equitable, high-quality education for every student, regardless of background or circumstance. While schools create improvement plans, they can struggle to use them as an adaptive tool. Central office leaders often collect these plans…

This qualitative study provides interpretations of the nature of strategic plans at small private liberal arts institutions. The study explored the concepts of innovation, entrepreneurship, and transformation detailed in the plans. This study included a specific cohort of eight United States small private liberal arts colleges with similar…

Community colleges play a vital role in providing access to higher educational opportunities for their communities. College completion rates for community colleges, however, have been historically low and few students graduate within a two-year timeframe. Disaggregating these data also reveals significant equity gaps in these outcomes for many…

The lack of job-embedded professional learning for instructional leaders is detrimental to the efforts to transform teaching and learning to be student-centered. The purpose of this Action Research study was to investigate and improve the job-embedded professional learning for instructional leaders to support the transformation of teaching and…

School improvement plans became a critical component of school improvement in the wake of the United States' federal accountability systems, including No Child Left Behind (2002) and Every Student Succeeds Act (2015). School improvement plans, or SIPs, were part of a formalized process for compliance purposes and, often, did not impact an…

This qualitative case study seeks to uncover the groundwork that was laid which enabled one school district to implement a major change initiative, the implementation of 1:1 technology, in a significantly short period of time. Given the slow nature of change in education, this initiative was successfully executed in four months from the time…

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted educational systems around the world. In this study, I sought to understand how two preservice teacher and mentor teacher pairs navigated planning and teaching during the global pandemic. Specifically, I investigated the ways in which co-planning and co-teaching practices were or were not adopted. Additionally, this…

Superintendents in Missouri public schools are revising their approach to strategic planning based on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's new iteration of the Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP 6). MSIP 6 requires superintendents and other district leaders to rethink the utility of their district's Comprehensive School…

Superintendents in Missouri public schools are revising their approach to strategic planning based on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's new iteration of the Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP 6). MSIP 6 requires superintendents and other district leaders to rethink the utility of their district's Comprehensive School…

Superintendents in Missouri public schools are revising their approach to strategic planning based on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's new iteration of the Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP 6). MSIP 6 requires superintendents and other district leaders to rethink the utility of their district's Comprehensive School…

The Division of School Leadership (DSL) manages and builds the capacity of superintendents and principals across New York City Public Schools (NYCPS). This capstone presents a detailed glimpse into my strategic project as a doctoral resident in the DSL. The project sought to answer the question: "with no formal team or budget, how does the…