Teachers are one of the largest licensed groups in the United States, and nearly all teachers are required to pass a licensure exam before entering classroom practice (U.S. Department of Education, 2016). However, "questions abound as to those exams' quality, design, and purpose: To what extent do they actually assess important professional…

Schools are remarkably resilient institutions, with the core of instruction and the dynamics between teachers, students, and school leaders remaining largely unchanged despite a churn of reforms efforts. To move away from "tinkering" around the edges of the system, reach deeper into classrooms, and mitigate the effects of policy churn,…

There is a problem in the state of Michigan's evaluation system regarding the training received by those conducting classroom teacher observations. A performance gap between teachers and students and provides training solutions for classroom observers was identified. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how general education teachers in an urban public elementary school described the experience of personal social emotional competencies related to quality of work in the Southwestern United States. The research questions were: how do general education teachers in an urban public…

Professional development should be linked to fostering best practice and improving student learning (Darling-Hammond, 2009). By providing ongoing opportunities for professional learning that focus on best practice, teachers are more likely to develop the knowledge and skills associated with high-quality teacher instruction and raising student…

Early childhood education is a dynamic field, constantly evolving with the introduction of new curriculums, initiatives and programs. The classroom teacher is the constant, providing essential early literacy instruction amidst all of these changes. Universal Pre-Kindergarten is a vital program that provides access to quality early childhood…

This dissertation consists of two separate studies exploring current and emerging technologies for education. The current technology is presented in the first study as an open educational resource (OER) for language learning. This study explored the affordances of OERs for language by comparing a traditional textbook and an OER web-book in terms…

In the United States, there have been calls for reform to teacher evaluation practices for over 20 years (Reddy et al., 2016). Extant research primarily investigates administrators' perceptions of teacher evaluation process outcomes and there is limited research on teachers' perceptions of the cycle of supervision within the evaluation process.…

Drawing upon principles of participatory action research, this study collected input from secondary school stakeholders (teachers, students, caregivers, alumni, staff, and administrators) to create a local definition of quality teaching for students at an urban charter school in the northeastern United States. Analysis of stakeholder input…

This study examined the effectiveness of an eight-week Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) coaching cycle on improving instructional strategies for English Learners (ELs) in seventh-grade classrooms. The goal was to enhance the literacy performance of ELs by 15% on the LAS Links literacy subtest. The coaching cycle aimed to integrate…

Driven by a shifting landscape and increased competition for students, institutions of higher education (IHE) are working to differentiate themselves to consumers in order to attract new students. These differentiation efforts have increasingly focused on the adult, non-traditional student demographic. As IHEs strive to include claims of quality…

This quantitative study examines the self-reported level of self-efficacy in current practicing South Carolina elementary principals and what elements of their principal preparation programs and principal leadership professional development experiences contribute to the development of self-efficacy. The study was framed through the lens of…

The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory case study was to research how a high-quality, state-funded preschool program academically prepared at-risk students for kindergarten in a large public school district in southeastern Virginia. The school district has over 20 elementary schools with seven of the schools housing Virginia's high-quality,…

The literature of brand management in higher education lacks significant research in two key areas: 1) theoretical models of the evaluation of brand equity and its impacts on supportive behaviors, and 2) a focus on alumni as a critical stakeholder group to higher education institutions. The new model of alumni-perceived higher education brand…

This research study examined the leadership awareness and understanding of Open Educational Resources (OER) for educational access and affordability of teaching and learning resources in Malawi, Africa. According to UNESCO: United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (2023) low-income countries, like Malawi, have limited…