Over the past two decades, teacher participation in school decision-making has emerged as a significant theme in education reforms, gaining the attention of researchers and practitioners across different education contexts both in developed and developing countries (Lee & Nie, 2014). A supportive and participatory culture typically does not…

This research was conducted as a qualitative comparative case study of two Northern New England school districts that were in the process of responding to declining enrollments. The purpose of the study was to explore decision-making through the lens of declining enrollments. An award winning rural school in an affluent town with high performing…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how faculty, administrators, and staff perceived the climate for shared governance at 36 member institutions of the Appalachian College Association (ACA), based on standards for sound shared governance in higher education as outlined by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Numerous…

Implementation of Professional Learning Communities (PLC), as described by DuFour (2006), has depended upon a balance between teacher buy-in and administrative fiat. The tension between the "bottom-up" character of the former and the "top-down" character of the latter presents a leadership challenge: meeting students' learning…

Effective teaching practices, including the ability to make data-based decisions, are necessary to close achievement gaps. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a collaborative, data-based decision making (DBDM) intervention on the quality of preservice teachers' DBDM. Participants were 45 preservice general educators…

Educators in the state of California have struggled to reduce the number of minorities being suspended and expelled annually and significantly improve overall school climate and culture. To address this area of improvement, educators have begun to turn to a proactive approach to improve overall school climate and culture at their sites by…

The purpose of this qualitative interview study was to explore the perspectives of 22 parents of children with intellectual disabilities on the literacy learning opportunities the children were provided in school. It asked: 1) What are the perspectives of such parents on the literacy instruction offered to their children?, and 2) What are the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary teacher perceptions of elementary principal instructional leadership and elementary teacher evaluation of self-efficacy at low and high performing low socio-economic elementary schools. These variables were examined to determine whether relationships with math and science academic achievement…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to better understand how female mechanical engineering faculty members' career experiences in academia affect their satisfaction. Specifically, the research considered differences in satisfaction reported by female and male mechanical engineering faculty members in terms of: (a) departmental…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of importance that DuFour's nine characteristics of highly effective schools have on closing the academic achievement gap on the California High School Exit Exam, as perceived by high school principals. The study also examined the strategies believed to be most important in developing…

This study implemented an exploratory mixed-methods design to better understand how the characteristics of a principal, specifically the strategies, behaviors, and actions, lead to the perception of empowerment as perceived by the teachers themselves. An expert panel identified three "highly successful" principals assigned to elementary…

While there is preliminary evidence supporting the use of collaborative problem solving teams in schools (e.g., Telzrow, McNamara, & Hollinger, 2000) only a few outcome measures have been explored in relation to these procedures, and the results have been inconsistently demonstrated across projects (Burns & Symington, 2002). Additionally, it has…

Cross-culture educational leadership researchers have shown in their research that national boundaries make a difference. What works in one nation may not work in another one because of different cultures in schools and across nations. This study aims to better understand the similarities and differences between American and Chinese high school…

This is a study of the practices utilized by four school districts, two with high and two with low retention rates of teachers, to examine how similarities and differences in selected human resources practices relate to the successful retention of teachers in these districts. The factors studied that may impact teacher retention included…