Researchers have concluded that parental involvement is necessary for students' success in school because parent involvement in school activities can positively affect children's learning and school experiences. Parent presence and participation is lacking in an urban school district in western Tennessee. The purpose of this study was to…

The value of both Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and efforts to embrace the idea that teachers should be held accountable for students' test scores have been debated among practitioners, policy makers, and the public for many years, but increasingly since 2010. The Common Core State Standards was implemented in 2009 to provide a basis for new…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to use empirical data on new principals to clarify the connection between different succession situations and the challenges their successor principals face. Design/methodology/approach: The study draws on two waves of interview data from a random sample of 16 new elementary school principals in a major urban…

This article expands a more inclusive parental engagement framework by broadening notions of educational leadership using an example of organizing actions of Latina parent leaders amid a hostile anti-immigrant climate within an urban elementary school. Researchers draw on Yosso's community cultural wealth framework to analyze how a Latinx parent…

In this pilot study, 24 gifted, elementary students in second to fifth grade enrolled in a large, diverse, urban public school were introduced to 10 mindfulness-based techniques that the students practiced in school. The students practiced the techniques for 10 weeks once per week for 30 minutes in the school's media center under the guidance of…

Instructional coaching is one method of job-embedded professional development approach that provides teachers an opportunity to build teacher expertise, raise student achievement, and advance school reform. The problem that was addressed in this qualitative case study was that few principals' understand the process of instructional coaching as…

Several children in grades K-5 are attending after-school programs for various reasons, such as academic support, social interaction, and behavioral support. The problem investigated is that short-term success has been stated and researched, but the long-term academic effectiveness of after-school programs for students in urban educational…

Educational leaders struggle to improve and maintain student achievement while at the same time reduce the achievement gap between students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and their peers educated in higher socioeconomic communities. The practice of distributed leadership has shown promise in improving school achievement. The specific problem…

Elementary educators at the urban elementary school in this study struggled with technology-enhanced literacy pedagogy to increase student success. The purpose of this case study was to examine the extent to which educators built relationships between technology and teaching to improve student success. The study was guided by Venkatesh's unified…

The information from this research study addresses the needs of teachers attempting to understand their role and successful elementary teachers' motivational instructional strategies they can use for urban elementary students. Basic qualitative methodology was chosen for this study because it allowed the study to have participants who had…

This case study addressed the factors that enhanced or constrained the success of one Promise Academy at an elementary school in the northeastern United States. A large number of schools in an urban district have continuously failed to make adequate yearly progress (AYP). The study school implemented the Promise Academy model in September 2010, to…

Supplemental instructional methods are needed to help students achieve grade-level proficiency in reading and literacy in inner-city elementary schools. Teachers employ music concepts and skills during literacy instruction as a motivator for students to acquire proficiency in literacy and reading. Interviews, informal observations and focus group…

The Math for All (MFA) qualitative research team approached the randomized control trial (RCT) mixed methods investigation from a "pragmatic" perspective (Cresswell and Plano-Clark, 2011), that is, the belief that multiple realities can exist and that neither a qualitative nor quantitative approach is valued over the other. Further, the…

This study involved examining the beliefs of teachers at one urban elementary school regarding how professional development has helped them meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students. This study included a series of in-depth interviews with three teacher leaders. The goal was to obtain consent from them to participate in this…

With the intent of improving understanding of cuts to elementary arts programs, the purpose of this research was to investigate how one urban school district (Lansing School District in Lansing, Michigan) eliminated its elementary arts specialists. Research questions were (1) What policy conditions enabled the Lansing School District's decision to…