The purpose of this research was to investigate the individual experiences teachers, staff and administration at a secondary school in Pennsylvania have with implementing an MTSS framework with fidelity to successfully engage all students. Carroll's Theoretical Framework of Implementation Fidelity (2007) was used in this case study to help frame…

A leadership academy is a formal professional learning opportunity for current school leaders, focused on augmenting knowledge and skills, increasing specialization, and refreshing leadership practices. States interested in supporting leadership academies through federal or other funding sources can look to current models of leadership academies…

The purpose of this study was to determine Pennsylvania principals' perceptions and understanding of the physical and psychosocial impact of childhood obesity, whether they believe schools should be addressing the issue, who they feel should be leading efforts within schools, what actions they believe are taking place to address the issue within…

This mixed method study was a practitioner inquiry into the teacher evaluation system that was enacted as a result of Pennsylvania House Bill 1901 (Act 82 of 2012). The study was an effort to gain an in-depth understanding of (a) factors that led to the passage of the Act 82 teacher evaluation policy, (b) what the policy was intended to do, and…

With the passing of Act 82, the state of Pennsylvania has provided school districts with Danielson's Framework as a tool for principals to evaluate teachers. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived professional development needs of Pennsylvania principals as they implemented the new educator effectiveness system. Three hundred…

This study examined a customized formative walkthrough model based on the work of Moss and Brookhart (2012). Through the implementation of the customized model in a specific, small, rural, public school district in western Pennsylvania, the researcher examined the efficiency and effectiveness of this model as a possible supervision practice. After…

Superintendents and school boards must balance state and federal mandates, requirements of new legislation, and policy changes as they search for best practices in education that will result in increased student achievement. Pressure has increased, with an emphasis on high stakes testing and accountability since the implementation of the No Child…

The Reading Apprenticeship instructional framework was developed by WestEd's Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI) two decades ago to help teachers provide the literacy support students need to be successful readers in the content areas. It has since reached over 100,000 teachers in schools across the country, at the middle school, high school, and…

The "Race to the Top" competitive grant program initiated a wave of teacher evaluation reform, which scholars and policymakers have long identified as critical to improving teacher quality and student performance. State boards of education (SBEs) and state education agencies (SEAs) took different approaches to these reforms, and as a…

In a 2012 paper for the Center for American Progress, "The State of Evaluation Reform," Patrick McGuinn (Drew University) identified the opportunities and challenges facing education agencies in Race to the Top (RTTT) grant-winning states as they prepared for the implementation of new teacher evaluation systems. The 2012 study undertook…

In October 2010, WestEd's Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI) won an i3 "Validation" grant to scale up and validate the Reading Apprenticeship (RA) model in three core secondary content area classes: U.S. history, biology, and English language arts. SLI's proposal stated two goals. Goal 1: To transform academic literacy teaching and…

In 2004-05, the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) began a groundbreaking partnership with the Eli Broad Foundation to develop the Academy for Leadership in Philadelphia Schools (ALPS), one of several Broad-funded, alternative principal development programs initiated across the country. The ALPS effort was designed to respond to two challenges:…

In April 2009, Superintendent Arlene Ackerman announced her reform plan for the School District of Philadelphia (the District)--"Imagine 2014". Among other major initiatives, "Imagine 2014" laid the groundwork for Philadelphia's Renaissance Schools Initiative. The Renaissance Initiative, set to enter its second year in 2011-12,…

In 2006, Governor Edward Rendell announced a three-year, $200 million Classrooms for the Future program to provide technology and technology support to schools across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, beginning in the 2006-2007 school year. The purpose of this research study is to examine the change process of the diffusion of technology within…

A historical case study from a 6-8 middle school in the coal region of Northeastern Pennsylvania was conducted to examine the extent of teacher collaboration before and after the implementation of the teaming concept as well as the construction of a new middle school. The study was triangulated through the use of multiple data points including…