Leadership that is intentionally and thoughtfully distributed across many in a school building has the potential to bring about positive change for all students and to empower and engage teachers in such a way that makes them more likely to stay in the classroom. Given the potential of distributed leadership, understanding it more deeply is…

This study was designed to explore the relationship between teacher practices and levels of student engagement in secondary agricultural education programs. Most researchers have agreed that student engagement at the secondary level may be measured through three constructs: cognitive engagement, behavioral engagement, and emotional engagement. The…

Teacher turnover is a challenge for U.S. public schools. Research suggests that teachers' perceptions of their school working conditions influence their leaving decisions. Related research suggests that principals may be in the best position to influence school working conditions. Using 4 years of panel data constructed from the North Carolina…

The purpose of this study was to examine if there is a difference between novice and experienced teachers' perceptions of the working conditions at the K-12 virtual school. This study examined the teachers' total years employed at the school to determine if a difference exists in the groups' perceptions of the teacher working conditions. Teacher…

This study gathered information from practitioners on their perspectives of experiences implementing the North Carolina Kindergarten Entry Assessment (NC KEA). Initially, practitioners were invited to complete an online survey asking them to rate or provide information about several aspects related to implementing the assessment process. In total,…

The purpose of this study was to examine the variables that contributes to high teacher turnover rate in one Southeastern rural school district. The study used the Gap Analysis for Problem-solving, Planning, and School Improvement (GAPPSI) method approach to improve the current state of the problem by determining if there were common variables…

This quantitative study investigated the correlation between school culture constructs and student achievement in 160 Title I K-8 schools from four Local Education Agencies. Title I schools receive funds from the federal government to fund programs and provide resources to help students meet rigorous standards on state assessments. School culture…

A graduate-level course focused on original research proposals is introduced to address the uneven preparation in technical writing of new chemistry graduate students. This course focuses on writing original research proposals. The general course structure features extensive group discussions, small-group activities, and regular in-class…

Historically, there have been different types of instructional practice in education. Before the mid-1980s, administrators pushed content. In the mid-1980s, it was Effective Teaching with the Six-Point Lesson Plan. There were many observations with the Career Ladder of which the researcher was a participant in the pilot program. There came…

In 2015, surveys of students, faculty, and librarians and other library staff elicited their perceptions of the contributions of community college libraries to student success, both directly and via librarian collaboration with faculty. The three surveyed groups agreed substantially that libraries and librarians contribute to student success, both…

Surveys of teacher preparation program (TPP) completers have become one widely used measure for program accountability and improvement, yet there is little evidence as to whether perceptions of preparation experiences predict the workforce outcomes of teachers. In the present study, we use statewide completer survey data from North Carolina to…

This dissertation was designed to examine the impact of Conversation, Help, Activity, Movement, Participation, Success (CHAMPS), a classroom management program in elementary schools in a district in North Carolina. The participants included principals and teachers who attended a 2-day training course and implemented the CHAMPS program at their…

The Common Planning Time Project of the Middle Level Education Research Special Interest Group (MLER SIG) of the American Educational Research Association provided an avenue through which researchers from throughout the United States could investigate numerous aspects of common planning time in schools. Although several studies have investigated…

A decade of research on school discipline has made society keenly aware of the "elephant in the room." Overwhelmingly, Black students are "wounded" permanently when they are suspended over and over for offenses that are overlooked when their white counterparts commit the same infraction. Since Black students are suspended…

This mixed methods study examined initially licensed teachers' culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy (CRTSE) using the CRTSE survey and conducting interviews with initially licensed teachers scoring above the mean on one or more CRTSE constructs. It extended upon previous work conducted by Siwatu (2011) that explored the CRTSE experiences…