The purpose of this study was to investigate the conditions that influence experienced teachers to dedicate their career to teaching in high needs schools. In addition, this study investigated the extent to which self-efficacy, collegial relationships, principal leadership and personal mission to teach underserved students impact teacher…

Problem Statement. School leadership at an urban school district is suspending students at very high to high rates (California School Dashboard, n.d.). African American and special education students are recommended for suspension or expulsion instead of the lesser consequence of lunch or after-school detention (MHTS, 2021). Purpose. Morgan (2020)…

This dissertation presents a comprehensive program evaluation of the dual enrollment program in a large urban school district in California. Dual enrollment has grown in popularity and is being utilized by many school districts across the country to provide access to college coursework and increase matriculation rates. This study aims to assess…

This mixed-method phenomenological study reports findings of 144 urban California educational leaders' and teachers' views about the identified effects Academic Optimism has on supporting equitable growth in student learning within ten low SES schools. Hoy, Tartar and Woolfolk-Hoy (2006) examined how Academic Optimism was a general demonstrable…

Purpose: This study explored principals' leadership actions from three leadership frameworks, instructional, socio-cultural and cultural-psychological, to understand how each contributes to influencing teachers' work and learning opportunities for Hispanic English learners. Design/methodology/approach: The research was conducted as a case study,…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to explore the leadership practice of two urban elementary school principals through a distributed leadership framework. Methods: The study employed an ethnographic case study and data were collected through semistructured interviews and observations. A case study for each principal was created, followed by…

Purpose: The social aspect of leadership is often overlooked in the educational reform. This study aims to address the dearth of work in the social space around leadership and examines two different types of relational ties between leaders that capture the affective and work-related aspects of interpersonal relationships. Research Method: This…

This technical appendix provides additional information about the sample, data, and estimation strategy used for a series of American Educator Panels (AEP) Data Notes published by the RAND Corporation in 2019. The Data Note series is intended to provide brief but incisive analyses of teacher and school leader survey results that may be of…

The use of classroom observations within teacher evaluation systems is a national practice, but little research is available on the observation and evaluation of special educators' teaching. This study examined the perspectives of three school administrators, who did not have a background in special education, but had experience observing and…

Recent educational programs and initiatives hinge on effective collaboration between education professionals, such as school social workers, school psychologists, teachers, and principals. Our inquiry seeks to build on prior conceptual work to unpack the collaborative stance of school social workers by examining how they conceptualize their role…

Purpose: Secondary school leadership provides multiple challenges in terms of the diversity of tasks, multiple demands on time, balancing communities and attending to instructional programming. An emerging scholarship suggests the importance of a distributed instructional leadership approach to high school leadership. However, what has been less…

The task of guiding the development of scholar-practitioners as leaders for social justice is inherently challenging. The dissertation journey, unlike any other journey practitioner-based doctoral students face in urban school settings, provides a steep learning curve as they transition from practitioner to scholar-practitioner. This journey…

Strong and stable school leadership is critical for success in schools across the nation. The duties of the principal are many and varied. Principals, for example, can oversee instruction, purchase curricular materials and supplies, and provide professional learning and supports for teachers. Carrying out these duties effectively makes a…

The authors discuss an urban public school district's efforts to reinsert play after its mandated disappearance for fourteen years under a scripted curriculum imposed to meet the goals of the No Child Left Behind law. The authors analyze field notes, teacher and administrator interviews, coaching records, and surveys to chart the impact on…

School absenteeism and truancy confront educators on a daily basis. While public school districts in the U.S. experience daily rates of absenteeism, in the Los Angeles Unified school District (LAUSD), over 26,000 students miss school each day, totaling over 130,500 student absences each week. Regardless of whether these absences are excused (e.g.,…