While districts and schools continue to place more emphasis on personalized instruction and tiers of literacy interventions, more students are continuing to reach middle school without the ability to read on grade level. Much of the emphasis on the attainment of literacy skills occurs in the elementary grades. As a result, middle grades' literacy…

The field of expertise studies offers several models from which to develop training programs that accelerate the development of novice performers in a variety of domains. This research study implemented two methods of expertise-based training in a course to develop undergraduate peer academic coaches through a ten-week program. An existing…

Educators are under increasing pressure to improve the climate and safety in urban schools. Unfortunately, schools have addressed school safety concerns by increasing exclusionary measures such as suspensions and expulsions. Knowing that exclusionary measures can have detrimental effects, state legislatures have called for more proactive…

Academic performance of students in public schools is a growing concern for school districts in the United States. The No Child Left Behind Act (No Child Left Behind [NCLB] 2001) has attempted to increase academic success, improve behavior, and promote positive school culture. Although equity has been achieved in some areas, the achievement gap…

Reform in educational policy and federal legislation has placed an emphasis on data collection pertaining to student outcomes in the academic setting. In response, school systems have shifted to multi-tiered frameworks that utilize varying levels of support through the implementation of evidence-based interventions. Data-based decision making…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how long term, focused, and embedded professional development influenced teachers' self-efficacy and preparedness to implement the Common Core State Standards in a large urban school district in northern Nevada. The sample was 17 7th-12th grade social studies teachers that participated in a…

A one-to-one computing initiative was implemented at high school in rural southern West Virginia in 2011. The program was implemented with limited time for planning and professional development. Teachers had to anticipate the implications the innovation had for instructional transformation and the impact the laptops would have on the learners. The…

This action research study examined the effectiveness of the process implemented by Partnerships to Uplift Communities (PUC) Schools Charter Management Organization to develop their school leader evaluation system in collaboration with current PUC school leaders. The development of the leadership evaluation system included the collective voices of…

Afterschool programs linked to schools provide opportunities to keep children safe and engage them in enrichment activities that can support their growth and development. Often, these programs are led by afterschool directors with a background in youth development and no experience or education in leading in educational environments. These…

The purpose of this study was to research the perceptions of teachers concerning the implementation of a PLC in a middle Tennessee elementary school district. The study contributes to the existing research on Professional Learning Communities; however, it adds to the limited amount of research on teachers' perceptions of the implementation…

Teacher evaluations in most school districts, until recently, have served as an exercise in compliance rather than a means to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each teacher in order to provide appropriate support to improve professional practice and increase student learning. Current federal legislation has stimulated districts to rethink…

A professional development program (PSPD) was implemented to improve in-service secondary mathematics teachers' content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and self-efficacy in teaching secondary school statistics and probability. Participants generated a teaching resource website at the conclusion of the PSPD program. Participants' content…

The focus of this dissertation is on the impact that zero tolerance policies have had on public education, and the need for an alternative approach to addressing student discipline. This research study introduces restorative practices as an alternative approach that has shown to be successful in changing school culture, by building positive…

Prior research on treatment integrity has focused on either the lack of measurement of the independent variable (Peterson, Homer & Wonderlich, 1982; Gresham, Gansle & Noel, 1993; Wheeler, Baggett, Fox & Blevins, 2006; McIntyre, Gresham, DiGennaro & Reed, 2007; Sanetti, Gritter & Dobey, 2011) or on methods to increase overall…

As the role of information technology increases throughout the world, healthcare providers in the United States face industry and governmental pressures to implement health information technology (HIT) as a tool to improve healthcare costs, quality, and safety. The problem addressed in this study was the relatively low HIT implementation success…