The current mixed methods study uses historical quantitative data collected from Qualtrics surveys with some qualitative data collected from seven elementary principals and two key informants to expand upon the quantitative data. The study was conducted in a large suburban school district in North Texas. The researcher used Qualtrics surveys from…

The use of social media in the classroom is growing throughout the world. In fact, social media is a part of the everyday life of both students and educators. The primary purpose of using social media in the educational setting is to enhance student learning; however, some teachers are reluctant to incorporate social media into their classroom. In…

This qualitative phenomenological dissertation in practice explored teacher perspectives of the Texas Reading Academies required by the state of Texas. Students at an elementary school in Texas were performing below grade level expectations in reading. Although teachers were required to complete the Texas Reading Academies, based on the data…

Student engagement is more than attentiveness during instruction; it is the bedrock of making sense of knowledge materializing within classrooms. Yet, teachers in Texas are finding it daunting to amass engagement among Black students returning to in-person learning amid COVID-19. Challenges catalyzed by COVID-19 discriminatory practices emerging…

Based on recommendations from research, leaders in a north Texas public school district implemented social emotional learning (SEL) to address academic gaps among high residential mobility (HRM) students. Incorporating SEL instruction improves academic achievement 11 percentile points on average; however, in Adoniram School District (ASD), 2021…

The purpose of this descriptive qualitative case study was to discover Second through Fifth Grade rural North Texas teacher perceptions focusing on reading and mathematics student achievement gaps resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores how the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown affected students not only academically but also socially…

The debate about mental illness and the importance of good mental health especially in the classroom has surged. Promoting child mental health is a global priority, and educators have an important role to play in mitigating this public health crisis. Early identification, accurate diagnosis, and effective treatment of mental health disorders can…

In the U.S., state guidance to schools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was politicized. We used state-level political affiliation to explore whether access to curricular resources differed pre-pandemic or during pandemic remote teaching and teachers' reported control over curricular resources during pandemic teaching. We found that…

Spelling instruction is often overlooked by many teachers during reading and language arts. The purpose of this study was to implement a manageable differentiated word study instruction curriculum, drawn from the "Words Their Way (WTW)" curriculum, to determine how it affected students' spelling accuracy and how the participants…

An estimated 20% of students experience bully behaviors at least once a week, while 72% of all students have experienced or will experience bullying at some time during their schooling (Smolleck & Fryd, 2018). Bullying in schools continue to be a problem today. Evidence has shown that bully victims have effects long into adulthood. There is no…

This qualitative descriptive case study focused on elementary school teachers' perspectives on their principals' demonstrated leadership behaviors and how these behaviors affect their teacher self-efficacy. Limited studies revealed a relationship between teacher efficacy and principal leadership behavior when examining each factor separately.…

Effective school leaders are essential to the success of the school environment. Teachers have left schools due to poor and ineffective campus leadership, but often do not report the reasons why they left or do not have a safe mechanism in place to support their claims and drive campus change. The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand…

This dissertation consists of two chapters on topics in economics of education. In the first chapter, I develop and estimate an equilibrium model of endogenous instruction and student effort in order to empirically investigate the relationship between instructional choices, classroom composition, and student achievement in elementary school. The…

This qualitative case study addressed instructional practices used by third-grade teachers teaching at Title I schools to provide strategies to teach higher-order thinking skills in reading comprehension. In Texas, third-grade students were required to take the reconstructed STAAR assessment at the end the 2022-2023 school year. The teachers…

Military-connected students experience behavioral, emotional, and academic concerns during their parents' deployments to other states or countries for training or defense of the United States of America. These military deployment cycles affect students with disabilities who struggle to learn at the same rate as their peers. The problem addressed…