The purpose of this case study was to determine the perceived alignment of standards and practices that are prescribed by the International Baccalaureate Organization to the Coherence Framework which was developed by researchers Michael Fullan and Joanne Quinn. The field setting was a high needs and low wealth school district that is identified as…

Staffing shortages in public schools have reached a crisis level. Although pervasive, this crisis has disproportionally impacted the field of special education. Due to the dual roles of special education teachers, specifically serving as teacher and case manager, and other factors, such as addressing the needs of a highly diverse student…

Leader awareness has been acknowledged in leadership literature as a predictive factor for effective leader behavior and followers' leadership emergence. A gap in the literature existed regarding the leaders' awareness of self and others in the context of leader-member relations. The problem explored in this study was the lack of knowledge about…

Given the substantial challenges of the principalship and the high turnover of school principals, school districts have sought out assistant principals as a major source of leadership talent to take up the role of principal. In this qualitative dissertation, I explored how principals and assistant principals from a southeast urban school district…

Chronic absenteeism has been a growing concern for large urban districts over the last ten years as students with disabilities (SWD) are chronically absent at a much higher rate than their same-age non-disabled peers. This study examines the Truancy Task Force (TTF) recommendations that were developed to address absenteeism in a large school…

New York City's school system is among the most diverse and segregated in the United States. Using difference-in-differences and placebo tests, we evaluate two desegregation policies in two geographic districts in New York City, District 3 and District 15. Both districts attempted to lower economic segregation within their district while…

This article uses interest convergence and market-based theories to examine a recently-adopted controlled choice school admissions model intended to desegregate a diverse, urban school district. Drawing on longitudinal, qualitative interviews with advantaged parents who articulated support for controlled choice, we find that these parents'…

The accountability era has produced school grading systems that purport to evaluate school effectiveness yet utilize hegemonic formulas that label low-scoring schools and neighborhoods, depriving them of incentive monies tied to their school grades. This quantitative study analyzed the publicly available data of 106 elementary schools in one large…

This qualitative study examines leadership challenges and lessons learned from 27 months of crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic as described by educational leaders in an urban public school district. Interviews were conducted with sixteen public school administrators: the Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, Principals, Assistant Principals…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the relationship between teacher's perceptions of school climate and student achievement of middle school students. Two hundred twenty middle school teachers, from a large urban school district located in the Southwestern region of the US, participated in the "New Jersey School Climate…

It has been 50 years since magnet schools were first used to address segregation in public schools. The context of magnet schools has changed dramatically during this time, raising questions about the role of magnet schools in a modern context. This study utilized data from a large urban district with more than 100 magnet schools to assess…

It is recommended that every student has daily access to a school nurse and that school nurses work in alignment with the "Framework for 21st-Century School Nursing Practice" (Framework). Little is known about Framework alignment with school nursing practice. The purpose of this study is to describe the alignment between the Framework…

Teacher attrition is higher than the national average in various large urban public school districts in the United States and some districts lose teachers every year, which makes teacher attrition a legitimate concern for many public school districts. The purpose of this study was to explore school administrators' perspectives on why teachers…

Exclusionary discipline policies in K-12 public schools have faced severe scrutiny over the past two decades due to the injurious effects on students' lives. Elevated drop-out rates, anti-social behavior, alienation from peers and school staff, along with lagging behind academically is a sampling of the devastating outcomes students face who are…

This article explores the research question: How does the nature of interest group influence on school superintendents vary across school district locale/? Utilizing a survey of Wisconsin superintendents, the author tests several hypotheses related to the relationship between school district locale and superintendent perceptions of interest group…