In an era of educational transformation, teacher leaders play a pivotal role in facilitating systemic change within schools. This dissertation presents a single-case action research study investigating the support structures provided by a Team Lead Communities of Practice (TL CoP) to nurture teacher leaders. The primary aim of this research is to…

Some professional learning communities (PLC) are successful, and others are unsuccessful leading to questions about which characteristics of a group of people are important to the success of the community. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand the factors contributing to the presence of a community of practice between…

Purpose. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to discover the approaches teachers use to create collective teacher efficacy (CTE) while teaching online at one elementary school located in Southern California. Methodology. A case study design, using semistructured interviews, was used to answer the following central research question: How…

This dissertation in practice created a new form of educator development called the Virtual Educator Network (VEN) and examined its impact on educators' attitudes towards inclusion, feelings of support, and incorporation of new strategies to solve problems of practice they find important. The VEN is a form of professional development that pulls…

This Dissertation in Practice (DIP) was a group dissertation as required by the Doctorate in Educational Leadership program and created a new form of educator development called the Virtual Educator Network (VEN). This DIP examined the VENs' impact on educators' attitudes towards inclusion, feelings of support, and incorporation of new strategies…

The purpose of this mixed-methods action research study was to examine the impact of a collaborative problem-solving process on the inclusive practices, confidence, and beliefs of general education teachers at a private bilingual school in Bogota, Colombia. The problem of practice this research aims to address is the challenge teachers face in…

Before the mobile revolution, the father of educational technology Seymour Papert declared, "[T]he computer's true power as an educational medium lies...in the ability to facilitate and extend children's awesome natural ability and drive to construct, hypothesize, explore, experiment, evaluate, draw conclusions--in short to learn--all by…

This descriptive case study approach with multiple cases and an interrupted time-series design used quantitative and qualitative data to answer two research questions: 1) What changes occur over time in the problem-solving strategies, text-reading accuracy, and phonological knowledge of struggling readers in response to targeted instruction in an…

Most states require that schools engage in school improvement programs to meet accountability mandates which necessitates that teachers develop the skills necessary to accomplish school improvement efforts. The problem is that classroom practitioners lack the skills necessary to achieve effective school improvement. Limited research exists with…

This study explored how the process of Response to Intervention (RTI) has changed the roles of three veteran special educators. The background knowledge of these teachers that helped make the initiative successful, as well as the "building blocks" that were present in the initial implementation of RTI models in their settings, were…

This study aims to explore how collaborative teacher interaction is contingent upon teachers' immediate classroom and school-organizational contexts as well as broader societal and policy environments. Notwithstanding the widely acknowledged connection between teacher collegiality in schools and its beneficial effects, little systematic effort has…

The purpose of this study was to discover, document, and describe the salient actions, events, beliefs, attitudes, social structures and processes related to professional learning conversations from the perspective of nine assistant principals (APs). The participants were elementary, middle and high school APs, three at each level. Using a…

While the number of linguistically diverse students (LDS) grows steadily in the U.S., schools, research and practice to support their education lag behind (Lucas & Grinberg, 2008). Research that describes the attitudes and practices of teachers who serve LDS and how those attitudes and practice intersect with language and special education is…

This study addressed the problem of chronic low student achievement in language arts at a Program Improvement 5+ school by implementing two cycles of facilitated lesson study. Using action research to facilitate and monitor change in instructional practices at a school that is currently undergoing a teacher-initiated turnaround reform effort, this…

Little is known about new teachers who graduate from social justice-oriented teacher education programs (SJOTEPs) and go into urban schools as full-time teachers. How does their training translate into conceptual understandings and classroom practices? Moreover, what types of supports are needed for the attainment of such a lofty goal as social…