Although an increasing proportion of researchers have addressed the issue of social and emotional competencies (SEC) and stress, only a few have focused on urban elementary public schools. With the Transactional Theory of Stress and Coping as the theoretical framework, we gathered information from 199 elementary teachers (49.75% response rate) on…

In the U.S., state guidance to schools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was politicized. We used state-level political affiliation to explore whether access to curricular resources differed pre-pandemic or during pandemic remote teaching and teachers' reported control over curricular resources during pandemic teaching. We found that…

This quantitative study sought to define the relationship between collective teacher efficacy and organizational commitment in elementary schools in Alabama. The basis of this study examined collective teacher efficacy as defined by Tschannen-Moran and Barr (2004) and organizational commitment as defined by Porter et al. (1974) and Steers (1977)…

With the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) known as No Child Left Behind, Every Student Succeeds Act, and other school reforms, rigorous demands are placed upon administrators and educators when students do not make Adequate Yearly Progress. In trying to follow state goals to enhance students' academic…

A mixed-methods study investigated the relationship between teachers within urban Title I elementary schools (e.g., high versus low performing) and their mathematics problem-solving beliefs in six constructs ("perseverance," "procedural," "conceptual," "importance," "effort," and…

Kindergarten through Grade 12 (K-12) teachers with less than 10 years of experience are leaving the education profession at an alarming rate nationwide and have created fiscal and educational hardships in the profession. The early departures of new teachers have vast implications on U.S. education systems at national and state levels.…

Purpose: Our purpose was to gather and evaluate accurate, up-to-date information on physical education (PE) policy implementation across multiple U.S. states and regions. Methods: A U.S. Physical Education and Physical Activity Policy questionnaire was developed and completed by 4,845 public-school PE teachers from 25 U.S. states. The U.S.…

The purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative study was to discover if and to what extent a difference between virtual K-12 teachers' (VT) and K-12 traditional teachers'(TT) burnout for the components of emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (D), and personal achievement (PA), as indicated on the Maslach Burnout Inventory --…

In an era of accountability, educational leaders seek and implement reform efforts to help promote school improvement and student achievement on a regular basis (Marzano et al., 2014). When considering school improvement, a possible strategy to increase student achievement could be the relationship between the school leadership style and the…

In this mixed-methods explanatory sequential study, the researcher explored how primary teachers describe their experience with teacher autonomy and self-efficacy and examined how those two constructs relate to job satisfaction and to each other. Specifically, this study used K-2 novice and veteran teachers in public rural elementary schools in…

Rural schools are unique in the challenges they face; therefore, it follows that the policies to address the challenges should also be unique and not adhere to the "one size fits all" mentality. This research uses a qualitative approach and takes the bold step to seek the input of teachers who work in rural schools for suggestions on how…

Relative to the theme of this journal edition, "Leadership in a Time of Change," one of the most challenging changes in school leadership recently has been finding qualified teachers to teach in P-12 classrooms. Teacher turnover in P-12 schools has increased significantly (Simon & Johnson, 2015), contributing to the teacher shortage…

In this mixed-methods explanatory sequential design study, we examined the self-efficacy of elementary-grade reading literacy teachers in two urban public-school districts in Alabama. In Phase I, 312 elementary classroom teachers (20.0% response rate) completed the "Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale" (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy,…

In this mixed-methods explanatory sequential design study, we examined the self-efficacy of elementary-grade reading literacy teachers in two urban public-school districts in Alabama. In Phase I, 312 elementary classroom teachers (20.0% response rate) completed the "Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale" (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy,…

Elementary teachers around the world were recently faced with transitioning to hybrid or virtual teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a situation that teachers had never been in before and one in which they had not been trained. Due to the availability of educational technology, teachers were able to adopt new programs, often having to…