School counselors serve students' academic, career, and social/emotional needs through a comprehensive school counseling program, and center their work on concepts of equity, advocacy, social justice, and systemic change, to remove barriers and increase opportunities for all PK-12 students. Charter schools are also unique public school settings as…

Several factors determine a school's success. The school-within-a-school model has gained popularity as an intervention that supports schools. This study focuses on teachers' perceptions of this model, which can offer valuable insights into the school's overall health. By understanding the perspectives of staff, school leaders can gain a better…

The teaching profession has always been a difficult one. This reality has only continued since the COVID-19 school closures as many teachers were attempting to return to "normal." For novice teachers (within their first five years), they did now know what normal was and therefore could not return to it. This group of teachers continue to…

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…

Literacy coaches serve in a multitude of roles and play a critical role in bridging district and school priorities (Walpole and Blamey, 2008; Steckel, 2009). Currently, coaches and teachers are navigating a national policy shift to Science of Reading (SoR) aligned instruction, and educators want more than a new curriculum (Schwartz, 2022). This…

This study considered the complex nature of professional identity development among post-induction urban science teachers. These teachers were navigating multiple reform efforts, both in the teaching and learning of science, and in the neoliberal sense of helping to "turnaround" an urban high school under threat of closure by the state…

This qualitative case study focuses on the impact of neoliberal education reform on an urban charter school serving students of Color. This study has two main objectives: to examine how neoliberal reform influences the goal-oriented actions of data meetings (DMs) in an urban elementary school and engages in a formative intervention methodology to…

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…

Fullan (2001) states that leading in a culture of change means creating a culture, not just a structure, of change. In the study, the researcher sought to describe a phenomenon in answer to the following research questions: What are perceptions of the attributes of a Cultural Change Principal in building culture in an urban K-5 public school…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to further the understanding on how access to trauma-informed professional learning changed research-based practices in classroom and school-wide settings in K-12 schools. The guiding question for this quantitative study was: How has trauma-informed professional learning influenced changes in…

For many years schools located within concentrated areas of poverty in an urban school county in south Florida have experienced alarmingly high teacher turnover rates and alarmingly low academic performance scores. In 2015, in a lauded expose printed by the "Tampa Bay Times," five schools, all of which would go on to become part of the…

Science education in the United States is in need of an overhaul; as of 2018, the United States ranked 18th in science among industrialized nations according to the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Additionally, the efforts that the nation has made to increase student achievement in math and English language arts (ELA) has…

This study explores the experiences of teaching and learning in a progressive school. In this study, I explored three primary research questions: a) How do efforts to maintain a progressive educational approach to teaching and learning play out in the experiences of teachers and administrators? b) How does test-based reform affect or challenge…

This qualitative study examined what middle school and high school suburban and urban principals learned about equity and educating low socioeconomic status students during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, this study asked: What issues of equity were revealed, exacerbated, diminished, or resolved as a result of the pandemic? What key…

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, educational systems worldwide have faced unprecedented challenges, particularly concerning the support of students based on traditional face-to-face instruction. This study focused on the concerns surrounding 2nd grade students at LEA and DRA, two urban elementary schools, who have faced multiple layers of…