This study piloted a survey to determine possible use in a future study that would assess teacher efficacy, the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and the implementation of professional learning communities, and how perceived leadership support impacts that relationship in an urban school district. The data collection process included…

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…

The problem addressed in this study was that most opportunities for professional learning in the field of education have been created and assigned without the teacher giving input through a needs assessment. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to understand the experiences of veteran K-5 teachers who participated in an online…

Physical education teachers with a strong sense of purpose are more resilient and maintain high-level performance over time. Therefore, this longitudinal, mixed-methods exploratory case study describes how two teachers' (Gary and Wayne) sense of purpose in life and well-being has influenced their intent to remain teaching in high-poverty schools.…

Although the effects of Lesson study (LS), a teacher collaborative professional development approach, on teacher professional learning and students learning have been widely documented, the theories for understanding of LS has just emerged as a research field. Interconnected Model of Teacher Professional Growth (IMPG) and Documentational Approach…

Friendships and close relationships within organisations and schools are integral for developing trust, engagement, and a sense of community. That said, few studies exclusively look at tie formation in friendship networks in K-12 contexts. In this study, we explore the relationship between Day and Gu's teacher life phases and the formation of…

As a growing base of evidence links student success with attendance, many states have chosen to include measures of student absenteeism in their accountability systems under ESSA. Consequently, school districts face strong incentives to improve attendance. We report on a randomized field experiment in which parents of early elementary students…

Background: Education decision makers are increasingly expected to use evidence to inform their actions. However, the majority of educational interventions have not yet been studied and it is challenging to produce high quality research evidence quickly enough to influence policy questions. Aims and objectives: We set out to gather evidence on the…

The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to restory the lived experiences of educators teaching students identified as dyslexic in their public-school classrooms. This study was qualitative, using a narrative inquiry research design to understand the third and fourth grade teacher's thoughts and understanding of students identified dyslexic as…

This phenomenological study explores the personal and professional attributes of six elementary special education teachers who have taught in an urban school district for five or more years. The ongoing shortage of special education teachers and the increasing attrition rate have caused further analysis of the innate traits of long-serving special…

Though culturally responsive practices (CRP) are widely lauded as important for educational practice, the field to date does not have a systematic video-based strategy to observe CRP across classrooms. Through a qualitative review of 68 classroom videos from the Measures of Effective Teaching dataset, we examined the presence, absence, and…

Since "Brown v. Board of Education" and the subsequent desegregation of schools, an achievement gap has persisted between students of color and White students, specifically in urban schools. Education has sought to close this gap through a variety of school improvement efforts, yet this gap remains today. The classroom teacher has the…

Teachers' work is inherently political at both the interpersonal and structural levels. Yet, now, many teachers are under state-sanctioned and local pressure to be apolitical. Moreover, many teachers are citing feelings of political attack as a significant driver in their decisions to stay or leave the teaching profession, even as the US faces…

Family engagement is a crucial component of student success, impacting academic performance, attendance rates, and behavior. However, many families, particularly those from historically marginalized communities, remain disengaged from their child's school due to barriers such as a lack of trust, negative experiences, and language or cultural…

This article reports on how the policy context shaped the development of two elementary preservice teachers' (PSTs) literacy instructional practice. While student teaching emergent bilingual students in urban, high-poverty classrooms that utilized mandated scripted literacy curriculum, PSTs completed edTPA, a Teacher Performance Assessment, for…