This study was designed to determine if there is a connection between the preparation of first year teachers to meet the needs of culturally diverse students and the pedagogical education they receive in their preparation program. The researcher was guided by three research questions: 1) How do first year teachers feel about how their…

Problem: There is an existing cycle of questionable grading practices at the K-12 level. As a result, districts continue to search for innovative methods of evaluating and reporting student progress. One result of this effort has been the adoption of a standards-based grading approach. Research concerning standards-based grading implementation has…

The field of agricultural education has experienced a consistent labor shortage the past several decades. Consequently, many school districts struggle to fill their open positions, while others are forced to shut down their agricultural programs completely due to inadequate staffing. Research indicates teacher attrition as a predominant factor…

Mentoring has been identified as an effective way to provide support for new teachers. As a strategy to support new teachers and to address teacher attrition, a rural high school in West Central Georgia sought to identify the concepts needed for an effective mentoring program. The purpose of this case study was to explore best practices in…

The special education teaching environment is a teaching environment with unique duties that often challenge novice special education teachers. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain clarity of the work environment of special education teachers to uncover professional development practices that would work to support them. Research…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to investigate transformative learning strategies implemented by 10 Title I elementary principals that influence novice teacher retention. Data were gathered by individual interviews. Data were analyzed using Creswell's (2013) description of qualitative research as a collection of data…

Teacher retention is an issue in education, and the loss of teachers has a direct affect on student achievement. Schools are battling the attrition of beginning teachers by the use of mentoring programs. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a mentoring program, according to teachers who have served as mentors,…

This qualitative phenomenological study sought to understand how beginning special education teachers experience the relationship between their teacher training and their actual teaching practice. Effective and insufficient aspects of the teacher training programs of special education teachers were explored. Thirteen special education teachers…

Retaining teachers is a pressing issue facing many urban middle schools in the southern US. Urban middle schools continually face increased teacher turnover rates in spite of state mandated induction and mentoring programs. Drawing from Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, the purpose of the qualitative case study was to examine urban middle…

In an attempt to provide educational services to students eligible to receive special education, school systems are using beginning out-of-field teachers. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to determine which skills, knowledge, training methods, and support beginning out-of-field special education teachers identified as necessary to…

Recent research showed that the 1st year of teaching is challenging, and that teachers deserve a smoother transition into the classroom. The purpose of this study was to explore how 1st-year teachers served as a support network for each other and what benefits derived from their interactions. This led to a theory regarding the first-year teacher…