Prior research has highlighted strong benefits from having a collaborative environment within schools. However, there has been limited research regarding factors that can promote a collaborative relationship between two key professionals within the school environment: school administrators and school psychologists. The first purpose of this study…

This dissertation applies cognitive load theory to teacher working conditions in New York City. To connect small-scale cognitive processes with perennial organization-level effects, the theoretical components of this paper develop a novel framework. Load reduction leadership (LRL) illuminates how day-to-day school operations impact staff members'…

School improvement and accountability pressures heightened at the turn of the 21st century, with the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002 and with the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015. These actions spurred research to facilitate school improvement and meet state standards. Researchers identified a strong correlation between a…

The problem addressed by this study was the high rates of burnout experienced by special education teachers. Teacher burnout is seen as a problem for districts, schools, and students with disabilities. The purpose of this qualitative explanatory case study was to explore the perceptions of special education teachers in New York State regarding the…

This quantitative research study explored the relationship between teachers' perceptions of how their school leaders navigate change and teachers' self-reported readiness for change using a survey tool developed initially for corporate change management. The Organizational Change Questionnaire -- Climate of Change, Processes, and Readiness (OCQ)…

While progressive education has been practiced in formal learning settings for over a century, there is a relatively limited amount of contemporary scholarship on such schools. Acknowledging the nebulous nature of this genre, my study was undertaken to identify the philosophies and practices of a contemporary progressive school. From the…

This collective case study explores the tensions between Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports enacted at the district level and antiracist pedagogy in a medium sized school district in upstate New York. Four self-described antiracist elementary teachers participated in individual interviews and two focus groups to discuss their experiences…

Faculty preparedness is a crucial parameter that influences students with learning disabilities' success. With limited research on faculty preparedness to teach students with learning disabilities in community colleges, this qualitative study took on a crucial and often overlooked area of inclusive education. The study focused on faculty…

Sadly, teacher job satisfaction has been recently depicted as a "portrait of broad teacher discontent" (Phi Delta Kappa, 2019, p. k3), negatively impacting teachers' well-being and retention. This study employed a mixed-methodological approach, composed of: (1) an exploratory factor analysis of participant responses to the Teacher Job…

There is growing awareness of the importance of school building environments for student health, well-being, and even educational outcomes. We ask in this study what role school building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems play in shaping student attendance, behavior, and learning. In particular, we extract information from…

Since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted in-person learning, fears about children's learning loss remain a primary concern for parents, teachers, and policymakers. These concerns, combined with longstanding issues of inequity regarding children's access to learning opportunities have sparked widespread discussion about how to reimagine education.…

The purpose of this narrative study was to explore secondary ELA teachers' perceptions of teaching and learning in a technology-rich educational environment. This study was conducted in a central high school district in New York state across four school buildings. Though the central high school district provides uniform guidance and material for…

According to the literature, people of color experience microaggression in their everyday lives. The literature speaks less of how students of color experience microaggression on college campuses. There is even less in the research about how students educated on predominately White colleges and universities in the northeast region experience…

A growing body of literature indicates that Latinx immigrant families are adversely affected by restrictive immigration policies and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Little is known about how educators working with Latinx immigrant communities in restrictive immigration climates fare. Using mixed-methods, this study sought to better understand how the…

Underrepresented students in medicine (URM) have more negative perceptions of the medical school learning environment (LE), a phenomenon that can contribute to higher rates of burnout and attrition in these populations. The hidden curriculum (HC) - defined as a set of values informally conveyed to learners through clinical role-modeling - is a LE…