Our country has a digital equity crisis, with many socioeconomically disadvantaged students disproportionately experiencing significant negative consequences from the digital divide. This program evaluation sought to investigate whether the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools (VILS) grant program decreases the consequences of the digital divide…

As school leaders continue to look for solutions to ongoing negative student behaviors, many schools have implemented the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports framework. The Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports framework supports educators and students using positive strategies for behavior, academic, social, emotional, and…

Recent legislation through the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) has implications for school systems across the nation in creating and implementing a multi-tiered system of support. Pennsylvania has its own state legislation that also provides the language for schools to implement an MTSS framework that includes tiered support in academics through…

Nursing programs in the country are facing challenges in producing enough nurses who are safe, compassionate, and critical thinker to meet the growing demands of the health care system. Lack of clinical sites and qualified faculty are some of these challenges which resulted to a long list of applicants in the nursing programs. Nursing programs are…

In this dissertation study, we investigated the social validity of Tier 1 practices within tiered systems, with specific foci on the Comprehensive, Integrated, Three-Tiered (Ci3T) model of prevention and the high school context. Specifically, we began by outlining the challenges associated with implementing Tier 1 practices, particularly within…

Blended learning is defined by its combination of traditional face-to-face and online educational resources. It requires that students have some control over some element of time, place, path, or pace of their own learning. In their efforts to improve student outcomes, schools adopt instructional models such as blended learning in their efforts to…

Teachers' support in implementing the standards for mathematical practice has been an area of study since the implementation of the Common Core state standards initiative. The research problem was a gap in the literature regarding what teachers perceive as the supports needed to implement the Common Core standards for mathematical practice in the…

Teachers have many responsibilities in the classroom. Among those responsibilities is classroom management. The purpose of this study was to explore if school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SW-PBIS) have an effect on student achievement. Research has shown SW-PBIS allow teachers to reduce behavior incidents in the classroom.…

Supporting professional development plays an instrumental role in the use of research-based programs to work successfully for student gains. The purpose of this study was to discover if teachers who learn to use an incentive-based reading program, Accelerated Reader, would use it to promote reading motivation for students and assist them in…

Social emotional learning (SEL) is a term that encompasses a set of essential life skills including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making (Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning [CASEL], 2024, para. 1). Despite growing interest, many school districts struggle with…

This problem of practice explores disproportionality and its relationships with K-12 student social emotional learning experiences, out-of-school suspensions, and academic outcomes at Choice Public Schools (a pseudonym) a Charter Management Organization (CMO). It examines properly implemented culturally responsive multi-tiered systems of support…

This qualitative study explored teachers' perceptions and experiences regarding the implementation of the social and emotional learning framework, Strong Start, in a Title I elementary school in southeast Texas. The participants include ten elementary school teachers in Pre-Kindergarten through 5th grade. Teachers' levels of experience range from…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the perception of the principal and teachers regarding what transformational leadership practices meet the needs of EBs in a DLI PK-8th grade campus in South Texas. The research site was selected for having 40% emergent bilingual students. The campus principal has been implementing a…

This mixed method study examined the implementation of teacher literacy practices into Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs and the impact on college and career readiness at a career center in a north suburban center in Illinois. Twenty-two educators were surveyed about implementation of literacy strategies, with six participating in an…

In this dissertation, I argue that there is value in treating students as implementors during processes of educational innovation. I lay the groundwork for this argument through a review of literature comparing best practices in the implementation of innovations in higher education with best practices from active learning, blended learning, and…