Despite the popularity of distributed leadership theory, the investigation of the micro-political aspects of such models have scarcely been explored, and insights on the cultural variety of distributed practices in schools are limited. The present study aimed to explore what micro-political aspects emerge in participative decision making in…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how general education teachers in an urban public elementary school described the experience of personal social emotional competencies related to quality of work in the Southwestern United States. The research questions were: how do general education teachers in an urban public…

Inner city high school teachers in the Midwest United States lack expertise in integrating technology into their curriculum. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the experiences of inner city high school teachers in using technology-enhanced instruction to teach 21st-century skills in a public comprehensive high school in the…

The decrease in teacher retention in kindergarten-12th grade public schools give rise to a crisis throughout the United States, and principals need help to provide effective leadership and adequate support to retain teachers. The problem addressed in this study was the low rate of teacher retention within low-performing urban schools and the need…

Charter schools are public schools that operate free from some government regulations in return for a commitment to achieve a set of student outcomes specified in their charter. Nearly 8,000 public charter schools enrolled 3.7 million students in the U.S. in 2020-21. In major cities, charter schools receive less funding per pupil compared to…

Drawing from a network case study, this article traces enactments of a letter writing enquiry in one Kindergarten public school classroom in New York City, and in doing so, explores both the affordances and limitations of sociomaterial approaches employed by the researcher towards school literacies. Looking down at one morning meeting revealed…

Teachers set the tone for their classrooms, but what teacher beliefs shape students' sense of belonging? We investigate how teachers' mindsets--or their beliefs about learning and school--relate to adolescents' individual and collective reports of classroom belonging. Our pre-registered analyses include a multilevel design of how 1,200 US middle…

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 three-article dissertation explores the professional learning interests of veteran K-12 teachers and what those interest reveal about how veteran K-12 teachers are presently supported in the teaching profession. In article 1, data analyses of a mixed-methods survey indicated that veteran K-12 teachers in the Urban Public School (UPS) district…

The theoretical framework for this study draws on conceptual advances from two bodies of scholarship: (1) complexity thinking in education, which has recently focused on school system change; and (2) school leadership research, which has recently attended to the effects of leadership interventions to school improvement. Using a complexity-thinking…

School leaders find it extremely hard to lead effectively without a model designed specifically to provide effective leadership in the best interest of students. This study examines the unanswered question as to how to lead successful turnaround efforts in challenging schools today. A critical analysis of studies found the absence of an effective…

The United States educational system currently lacks cultural competence. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of teachers and coaches as they participate in transformational coaching to determine the utility of Elena Aguilar's model in supporting the development of cultural competency for educators. This study employed a fixed…

"Sexting" (electronic transmission of sexual pictures/messages) among early adolescents is associated with early sexual activity, a marker of increased sexual risk. The current study is a secondary analysis that examined the longitudinal relationship between sexting and first-time sex among a sample of early adolescents deemed "at…

The purpose of this study was to determine motivators that influence Midwest public school principals' career plans. A coming shortage of school principals has been recognized nationally. This new phenomenon has been labeled by some as Principal "Churn" or "Turnover". Principals are leaving the position and education for…

This study examined associations between four indicators of social determinants of health (SDOH; parent education, poverty, material hardships, and child health problems), chronic school absence, and teachers' ratings of parents' engagement in their children's education. Surveys were collected from 304 parents and 26 teachers from eight Baltimore…