Many school districts, particularly in inner-city communities, face numerous barriers to students' academic success. Unfortunately, the school paradigm is not constructed to address the glaring social/emotional conditions affecting millions of children (Anderson-Butcher et al., 2017). As a result, educators and social reformers have urged school…

The transformation of teacher education programs is needed. To be authentic and sustainable, efforts at transformation need to be grounded in shifting power and policy making away from just the university to shared decision making among stakeholders. This paper examines what are seen as first steps towards this objective. The effort described here…

In this study, I explored professional learning community sustainability at the school, district, and state levels. Researchers have found that professional learning communities are a means of effective professional learning for teachers and a vital factor in increased student achievement. However, there is very little multi-case research…

Teacher attrition is increasing (Torpey, 2018), and approximately 100,000 teachers will leave this field annually from 2016 to 2026. Addressing wellbeing constructs retain more employees and decrease presenteeism (Hemp, 2014). Teachers cite a lack of job satisfaction and burnout as their main reasons for attrition (Brasfield et al., 2019; Fisher,…

This research utilized historical analysis, narrative inquiry, and oral history to document and analyze Black educational experiences in the Chapin, Dutch Fork, and Irmo communities during segregation and desegregation. Archival materials from the local school district offered insight into district leaders' attitudes towards Richlex, the only…

Pedagogic mediation from Pedagogy-in-Participation in Portugal, as a context-specific approach to professional development, provides a participatory framework through which practice enhancements are supported. This research introduced ten ECEC leaders and mentors, within a specific local authority in England, to the democratic nature of pedagogic…

The purpose of this case study was to examine the qualities novice teachers find valuable when determining whether or not they want to stay in their schools and districts after their first years of teaching. This case study also included undergraduate teacher preparation programs and whether or not graduating from a program with a partnership…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore teachers' and counselors' perceptions of the challenges of implementing service learning with fidelity to best practices consistently in a school district in the U.S. Virgin Islands and to identify resources necessary to support the implementation of best practices in service learning. With only…

District-led Professional Development (DLPD) holds great promise for cost-effective and sustained PD for K-12 faculty but is often enacted as whole-group, one-shot meetings on topics (e.g., 21st-century learning) non-specific to teachers' grade levels and content areas. Alternatively, Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) provide on-site and…

This study was designed to explore the impact of professional development in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) of secondary mathematics teachers using The DuFour PLC model in one Southeast Texas School District. Descriptive statistics were compiled based on survey data from 19 participants. Internal consistency reliability was analyzed…

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have become common in many educational settings. A collaborative team (CT) is one component of a PLC. The purpose of this action research study was to examine the impact of a professional development innovation, Project Collaboration, which included a set of on-demand support modules for CTs to support…

Organizational properties of schools can explain why some schools are successful and others are not. We explored the role of enabling school structures and academic optimism, comprised of teacher trust in clients, collective efficacy, and academic emphasis, in the development of professional learning communities (PLCs). Both of our hypotheses were…

This qualitative phenomenological study delved into the factors influencing the retention of special education teachers in rural Luzerne County, Pennsylvania school districts. The focus was on understanding why these educators chose to continue in their positions despite facing significant challenges such as limited resources, administrative…

This evaluative case study focused on how organizational changes--specifically a new directional system--affected staff culture in a rural Midwestern school district. This work was theoretically grounded in Owens and Valesky's school climate model. Through observations, interviews, and a review of documents, I determined that the new directional…

Purpose: This paper reports on a study exploring a sustained coaching model of teacher professional development (PD). The study was undertaken with middle school teachers in a small rural school division in Alberta, Canada. The goal of the study was to theorize about the components of the sustained coaching model of PD that supported or was a…