This descriptive qualitative case study explored the changing role of the reading specialist through various perceptions of professionals in the Neon Shadow School District. The purpose of the study was to explore what, how, and why the duties and responsibilities of the reading specialist have changed since first employed as an…

Almost immediately after he was named Commissioner of Education in March 2011, Stephen Bowen traveled to school districts across Maine and spoke to students, teachers, school administrators and community members about what they saw as the challenges confronting Maine's schools and what role they saw for the Maine Department of Education in…

The purpose of this study was to empirically investigate the effect of mentor teachers' leadership practices on student interns' efficacious beliefs in Professional Development Schools (PDSs) during the internship practicum. The study employed the Leadership Practices Inventory (Kouzes & Posner, 2003) to measure the transformational leadership…

Universities and schools are struggling with the critical issues surrounding teacher quality, student learning, and the gap between research and practice. This study employed a collective case-study design to explore the impact of leadership teams and school-university partnerships on teacher leadership, professional development, and overall…

"Teachers Teaching Teachers" ("T3") focuses on coaches' role in the professional development of teachers, exploring challenges and rewards that teacher leaders encounter. This issue includes: (1) Call to Action: Landmark Study on Professional Learning Calls to Teacher Leaders (Joellen Killion); (2) Tools: Hone Your Understanding of Effective…

Teacher mentoring has its unique challenges that are often associated with the teachers' content specialties. For this reason, the involvement and support of school leaders is essential to teachers' mentoring success. Regardless of content specialty, all teachers face challenges that should be considered when organizing and implementing mentoring.…

Studies continue to reveal major concerns with discipline issues, such as referrals, detentions, and suspensions, involving Latino/Hispanic students. This problem particularly affects immigrant students in urban neighborhoods that may be characterized by high poverty and crime rates. The purpose of this study was to explore the intersection of…

Milwaukee's gay-friendly Alliance High School was conceived to be a welcoming and confirming school for kids who have been teased and bullied and had their interests marginalized in traditional schools. The result is a group of teens who feel they have found a safe place as they explore who they will be and how they will live the rest of their…

Policymakers, educators, and researchers all agree that teacher quality is critical to student learning. High quality teachers are needed to meet the unprecedented demands on schools and prepare students to be successful in the 21st century. In order to meet this challenge, ongoing efforts are needed to improve teacher learning and student…

Policymakers, educators, and researchers all agree that teacher quality is critical to student learning. High quality teachers are needed to meet the unprecedented demands on schools and prepare students to be successful in the 21st century. In order to meet this challenge, ongoing efforts are needed to improve teacher learning and student…

Once a person assumes the mantle of teacher, one becomes a leader, first, in the classroom and then in the school (Crippen, 2005). With this position comes a delicate power and responsibility to the moral imperative. As such, this issue is critical as a component of teacher preparation programs. Goodlad (2004) sounds the alarm that our teacher…

This study expands on the work of Huerta "et al." (2008) by reexamining the relationship between professional development and teacher leadership using more comprehensive measures of each. By confirming Huerta "et al"'s (2008) finding that Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) professional development is a significant predictor of teacher…

A school subject leader (SL) is formally considered to make a difference in the educational system as a leader of a professional learning community, being responsible for the efficient and effective performance of the subject department. Since the department entails frequent and significant interactions among teachers, and organizational…

Whether by design or by chance, superintendents communicate their beliefs about what is important educationally and the roles they expect their principals to fulfill. Superintendents who champion the development of their principals as instructional leaders begin by establishing common understandings with them about why principals' instructional…

The impetus for curriculum change should ultimately be to improve student learning. Implementing change can be very stressful and diminish a teachers' sense of well-being and thereby minimise the chances of successful or effective change. Drawing on a recent study that investigated how faculty leaders managed curriculum change in religious…