Research indicates that mentoring programs help increase the retention of beginning teachers. School administrators may be presented with competing mentoring models, with various sources and types of support, aimed at improving beginning teacher retention. This study collected both qualitative and quantitative data under the rubric of a…

Austin Independent School District's Texas Literacy Initiative (TLI) was a grant-funded effort to improve students' school readiness and success in the areas of language and literacy in the Johnson, Lanier, and Travis vertical teams of schools. A survey was sent to TLI campus administrators in Fall 2013 to obtain their feedback on the initiative,…

School districts across America have responded to the accountability movement by increasing professional development activities, including the utilization of onsite coaching strategies for educators. But who is mentoring the mentors? This descriptive study in one Western state found that 56% of instructional coaches reported they did not have a…

The United States has experienced tremendous growth in the development of coaching initiatives including professional training programs, state endorsements and resources for coaches. These developments bring attention to the potential for coaching to improve education. They also raise the question of how best to facilitate implementation in local…

This study focuses on district leadership designed to improve student achievement. We employed a formative experiment design methodology, a type of design study, to investigate the leadership efforts to improve student and teacher learning. The findings suggest that leadership through professional development and an instructional framework led to…

This study provides a systematic analysis of published court decisions concerning identification of students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The 41 pertinent child find and eligibility court decisions yielded 51 relevant rulings,…

Reading coaches have become a strategic tool to impact student achievement in elementary schools. Understanding the effectiveness and the necessity of coaches is critical as schools are facing greater accountability. Are reading coaches impacting student achievement scores effectively and are they necessary within today's elementary school? This…

The evolution of multi-tier systems of support (MTSS) for both academics and behavior has reflected the diverse interests of those leading implementation efforts, the influence of various state and local regulatory requirements, and differing funding methods and priorities. These variations have naturally led to many different pathways for…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the perceptions of urban superintendents and the influence of executive coaching on their leadership practices, to identify which phases of the executive coaching process urban superintendents perceive as influential in their leadership practice, to determine which coaching strategies…

The Transformational Coaching Team in Oakland Unified School District provides differentiated, sustained, job-embedded support to the district's school leaders. In this article, members of the team describe how they work with principals to transform the culture of schools. Student achievement data show above-average improvement in schools in which…

This study examines principals' experiences implementing Skillful Observation and Coaching Laboratory (SOCL), a program designed to help principals become effective instructional leaders. Guided by Karl Weick's notion of sensemaking, this study sought to identify the components of SOCL that were implemented with fidelity and discover the factors…

Diverse mentoring models have been implemented by educational organizations to address teacher retention, but debate continues over which mentoring model is most beneficial. Two school districts in Utah, USA, hereafter referred to as the Asher and Dane (pseudonyms) School Districts, provide distinct approaches to mentoring. Both the Asher and Dane…

Interview, document, and observational data were used to examine grade K-2 teachers' and literacy coaches' perceptions of the benefits and challenges of collaborative action research as a professional development initiative in rural schools. Eleven teachers and five literacy coaches in five northern Ontario school districts participated in…

This three-volume report describes the "SAM (School Administration Manager) process," an approach that about 700 schools around the nation are using to direct more of principals' time and effort to improve teaching and learning in classrooms. Research has shown that a principal's instructional leadership is second only to teaching among…

This three-volume report describes the "SAM (School Administration Manager) process," an approach that about 700 schools around the nation are using to direct more of principals' time and effort to improve teaching and learning in classrooms. Research has shown that a principal's instructional leadership is second only to teaching among…