Working as a teacher educator today means working under an ever-present regulatory gaze. Accountability mechanisms, including state program approval processes, have been layered resulting in complexity. External assessments have failed to provide the data needed to support continuous improvement. There have been calls for combining external and…

A practice that dates back centuries, apprenticeship is a workforce development model that has gained recent attention in the American higher education system. The researcher conducted a review of existing literature that included apprenticeships in higher education and other models of community college workforce development. Existing literature…

Participation in higher education affords low-income students with a pathway out of poverty. The federally funded Upward Bound program aims to improve the college-going rate of low-income and first-generation students. Relevant studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of the program. There is a gap in the research regarding whether some types…

This study leveraged the knowledge and experiences of youth with disabilities, their families, and transition stakeholders to model how the frequency of family engagement activities and services and employment preparation activities and services predict the frequency of youth development activities and services. This information was obtained…

This paper explores how the charter school sector evaluates the success of specialized education programs in order that the Nature School can learn from these best practices and develop its own framework. The researcher conducted in-depth interviews with five evaluation experts and eight diverse charter school authorizers overseeing a significant…

Education is a constantly evolving field that requires continuous professional development. While policymakers continue to implement school reforms, many of them depend on teachers' ability to learn and improve instruction to increase student learning. Teachers have a double role in educational reforms by being simultaneously subjects and objects…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a program evaluation case study on the impact of standards-based grading in a North Carolina school district. The implementation procedures and end products of grading reform were assessed using the CIPP model. Data from teacher questionnaires, principal implementation checklists, interviews, and…

People have long found comfort and support by interacting and sharing their lives with animals, and from this interest has led to a specific modality in human healthcare called Animal-Assisted Interactions (AAI). One application of AAI in higher education has gained much attention in the past 10 years. University campuses are a setting where…

"When a group of people come together to share a vision for an organization, each person brings a unique visualization of an amazing running institution and each shares a responsibility for the establishment to run effectively" Senge (2006). This dissertation in practice (DiP) was aimed at addressing a performance gap of low engagement…

Empathy plays a vital role in improving student engagement and supporting organizational change in schools. In fact, empathy is widely recognized as an essential skill for integration during such efforts. In collaboration with Battelle for Kids, the Cumberland Valley School District in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, launched a vision for school…

Modern-day educators often share a sense they lack voice and agency with school administration. A classic example is curriculum development, where third-party designers develop uncontextualized curricula, and teachers then must implement the design even if inefficient and ineffective. What happens if this identical situation occurs at the program…

Students in our nation's largest school systems--a majority of whom are students of color from nondominant communities--are unlikely to attend schools with strong, consistent leadership. Those big-city school systems are increasingly adopting principal pipeline initiatives to address the quality and stability of their principal corps. Principal…

While professional development is a requirement for all educators, many teachers have a negative opinion of PD. Districts have attempted to use professional learning communities and the presence of instructional coaches as an answer to the concerns of irrelevant professional development. This study examined educators' opinions of an opt-in…

This qualitative case study explored the integration of Culturally Responsive Social Emotional Learning (CRSEL) competencies in an urban teacher residency program (TRP) with a focus on equity. The study utilized inductive, thematic analysis to identify emergent themes from surveys, interviews, observations, and program artifacts to understand…

The study explores the implementation of teacher evaluation models and federal education policies, particularly AchieveNJ, in an urban public school district in New Jersey. It focuses on principals' experiences and perceptions, uncovering their challenges and thoughts on the policy's effectiveness in enhancing teacher performance and student…