Teacher leaders often have to navigate implicit leadership structures within their schools and often move between communities as part of their roles. This study explores how a Noyce Master Teaching Fellow program fostered a sense of empowerment within teacher leaders. The program provided opportunities for the teacher leaders to become legitimate…

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…

Student achievement in California has not rebounded after the precipitous declines of the COVID-19 pandemic, with English language arts (ELA) and math scores remaining well below prepandemic levels. Student attendance has declined dramatically, and trauma and time away from school have led to mental health challenges, delays in social development,…

Purpose: Drawing from Occupational Socialization Theory, the purpose of this study was to examine a middle school physical education team's perceptions and experiences piloting standards-based teaching and grading within an organizational professional learning community (PLC). Method: Using an instrumental case study design, (n = 3) teachers and…

As popular music education programs become more common, it is essential to determine what kinds of professional development experiences that are designed to help teachers include popular music into their music education classrooms are effective--keeping in mind that the inclusion of popular music in K-12 classrooms requires a change not only in…

California has a notable history of investing in educational leaders' professional learning. In 1983, the state launched the California School Leadership Academy (CSLA), which it funded until the academy was discontinued due to statewide budget cuts in 2003. Research showed that CSLA was a source of high-quality professional development. In 2019,…

In 2019, National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) was awarded a grant through the federal Teacher and School Leader (TSL) Incentive Program to expand and sustain work to support teachers and improve students' academic success in three Indiana school districts. TSL grants support districts' human capital management systems, specifically…

Change is an inevitable factor that schools will face. School leaders need tools and strategies to help their teams know how to navigate the school culture issues that can arise when changes occur. This study examined teacher leader and administrative perceptions of how the PLC framework is implemented within schools and across a district to…

Achieving the ongoing professional development of teachers is of international concern. Professional development communities (PDCs), also known as professional learning communities, developed as a means of attaining this goal. In 2015, Israel began to implement a teacher development program called Hashkafa that consists of school-based PDCs whose…

This longitudinal impact study examined the effects of a leadership development program for district-based teams of educators leading science education reform efforts. Propensity score matching was used to construct a comparison group of demographically similar districts who received either none or extant leadership development programming.…

During recent decades, professional learning communities (PLCs) have enhanced education from lower grade levels through college years, with many resulting benefits. PLCs provide an environment that encourages professional development, collaboration and innovation among teachers. Research suggests positive school reform occurs when teachers…

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of professional learning communities by comparing practices and strategies of content and grade level teams in middle schools. Utilizing data from student assessment, comparison of teams in this middle school was conducted to determine practices and conversations that have an impact on…

This article describes the first implementation of the Future Educators Learning Community, and particularly, the impact of three linked courses and instructor collaboration. With supporting literature and the context and background of this learning community as the foundation, our experiences are structured into three distinct categories:…

In Penn State's work with aspiring teacher leaders over the last decade, two core strategies have emerged that hold significant promise for fostering teacher leadership: (1) provide teachers with the skills they need to create their own jobs; and (2) provide training and extended (e.g. post-graduate) support in developing ongoing professional…

The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) was created to support teachers in implementing college and career readiness standards in order to teach literacy skills throughout the content areas. Teachers work collaboratively with coaches to further develop their expertise and design standards-driven, literacy-rich writing assignments within their…