The principal is the second most important factor contributing to student success. High levels of principal turnover affect student success. Principal turnover is more common in low performing schools and schools located in high poverty areas. Regardless of the context of the turnover, little qualitative research exists identifying the conditions…

This study investigated classroom interaction in three novice-level Chinese language classrooms at middle and high schools in the US in the spring of 2021. Due to school responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, the participating teachers had shifted from teaching in a face-to-face, in-person classroom to fully online and partially online, hybrid…

This study focuses on the sensemaking of education equity and equity policy of 9-12 grade high school vice principals in Oregon as they implement leadership practices. This case study of vice principal education equity discourse seeks to understand how beliefs, values, and attitudes become enacted in schools' everyday situations through critical…

Through ESSA (2015) and IDEIA (2004), all students must participate in statewide assessments and students with disabilities are entitled to receive reasonable adaptations and accommodations in order to ensure that the assessments accurately measure their achievement within the designated academic areas. Research indicates that the provision of an…

High school students are challenged to meet higher standards in order to ensure that they are prepared to face the literacy demands of our twenty-first century society (Beaufort, 2009; A. S. Erickson, Kleinhammer-Tramill, & Thurlow, 2007; Vernon, Baytops, McMahon, Padden, & Walther-Thomas, 2003). This study examined both above average high school…

This qualitative study examined the issue of history education and its failure to understand and implement the most effective teaching and learning strategies for the discipline. It did this by conducting interviews, observations, and a focus group with a group of history teachers in a suburban high school in New England. While aiming to explain…

This research investigated high school students, their parents, and high school counselors self-reported views about the nature and relative importance of different aspects of "College Preparation Knowledge." In brief, this research investigated many areas of College Preparation Knowledge (CPK) broadly defined as the facts and the processes needed…

A persistent achievement gap exists between the steadily growing population of adolescent English language learners (ELLs) in K-12 public schools and their native English-speaking peers. Unsurprisingly, the underachievement of this population of students is linked to an excessively high dropout rate among adolescent ELLs across the nation. Current…

State tests, which assess reading comprehension, ask students to make inferences and connections beyond the text. The problem of practice in which this study is situated is that students are having difficulty making meaningful connections and developing inferences in relation to the material that is read aloud together in class or assigned for…

Reading success has been linked to high school completion, future job success, and future generations of children who can read. Unfortunately, children who are unable to read on grade level by the end of first grade are at a great disadvantage and unlikely to catch up later. Without the ability to read and comprehend text, all aspects of schooling…

The purpose of this case study research was to explore the effects of explicit instruction of graphic organizers to support students' understandings of informational text. An additional purpose was to investigate students' perceptions of using graphic organizers as a comprehension strategy. Using case study methodology, this study occurred…

The purpose of this study was to determine if Morphological Instruction (knowledge of the Germanic, Latin, and Greek words, roots, and affixes of English) was an effective instructional approach towards accelerating the acquisition of spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension and closing at least a 6,000 word gap between English language…

This research sought to add to a body of knowledge that is severely underrepresented in the scientific literature, reading comprehension in secondary students. Chapter 1 examines the current state of literacy in the nation's public schools and the consequences that arise if students leave high school with inadequate reading skills. It discusses…

This dissertation investigated the beliefs and practices of a novice high school social studies teacher through her first and second years as a classroom teacher. Results of the study indicate that while her beliefs and goals changed little over time, her classroom practices changed and adapted to the school climate and to student needs. In…