As an intermediary between U.S. state and federal policy and the school, the school district, many scholars maintain, remains a key player in meeting the needs of school-level leadership. Moreover, the job of the principal is difficult and has become increasingly complex as a result of increased pressure, accountability, and oversight under the No…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether factors of social comparison theory influence public school choice in Indiana. There were two arms in the study. One arm used three district-level variables (parent education level, socioeconomic status, and homogeneity of race) associated with social comparison theory (SCT) and five…

Background: The purpose of this article is to examine the contributions, gaps, and normativity problems in mainstream sociocultural theories, curriculum theory, and educational leadership studies, considering reflective education theories that provide a less normative alternative. Framework: Our framework introduces reflective education for social…

As the population of English Learners (ELs) continues to rise in the United States, there is a need to investigate the efficacy of teachers who are assigned to instruct them. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that contribute to teacher efficacy when mainstream elementary/middle school teachers instruct ELs while addressing the…

Educators, government officials, and other stakeholders of schools have an interest in whether family involvement affects the academic achievement of students. While some research has shown that children whose parents are involved in their education from early childhood perform academically better than do children whose parents are less involved,…

This article examines a grassroots parent organizing effort in a large, high-poverty, urban school district. Drawing from ethnographic field research at a community-based popular education organization, the study describes how parent organizers worked to educate and mobilize Latina/o immigrant parents on issues of educational justice and equity.…

This exploratory article relies on qualitative data generated from observations and focus group interviews to investigate what motivates citizens to vote in school board elections and how they choose among candidates. Our review of literature suggests that capture theory, dissatisfaction theory, retrospective voting, partisanship, issue voting,…

American public school districts must deal with increased turnover and a shortage of qualified leadership due in part to the daunting responsibility associated with the increasingly complex role of the school principal. As more schools deal with difficulties associated with principal recruitment and retention, those qualities of effective leaders…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to look across six first-year principals to investigate their engagement with and sensemaking of specific messages of instructional leadership around teacher evaluation. Design/methodology/approach: This research project, a cross-case study, was carried out using in-depth qualitative observations and…

The goal of this study was to explore how exemplary teachers design learning activities that incorporate the use of technology. Teachers at three schools in a school district in Southern California were solicited for a survey regarding their use of technology in the classroom. Based on the surveys, high and low technology implementers were…

The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate superintendents' perspectives of the value of formal training in collective bargaining negotiations. Dependent on their responses, one could propose negotiation skills training as a crucial area of need for superintendents. Social interdependence theory provides the theoretical framework…

The Title I program was established to support students who were enrolled in schools that had high rates of children from low-income households. The program's goal was to provide supplemental services that would assist in raising the academic success of students in Title I schools so that they achieve comparable outcomes to children in Non-Title I…

Building on the social reproduction theory of Pierre Bourdieu, this study examines the impact of school context and institutional agency on shaping urban students' access to social and cultural capital resources, which are selectively valued and rewarded by the education system, in two schools across two high-poverty, intensely segregated urban…

Although federal and state departments of education have provided funding, programs, and policies to address barriers to technology integration, the frequency to which technology is used in classrooms for teaching and learning remains relatively unchanged. Without justification for continued funding, districts stand to lose a portion of their…

Labour conflict in school districts is a largely neglected area of educational research. This study examines the perceptions, actions, and decisions of union and district leaders using social movement theory to describe, analyze, and interpret contentious contract negotiations in three school districts in the Pacific Northwest region of the US.…