Principal turnover remains a significant challenge in U.S. public schools, particularly in high-poverty contexts, where leadership instability negatively impacts student achievement, teacher retention, and overall school performance. This study investigated the relationship between distributed leadership practices and burnout among secondary…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how teacher leaders describe principal behaviors on their organizational empowerment. The sample was composed of 12 teacher leaders from a school district in Southwest Texas. Volunteers were selected using purposive and snowball sampling. Guided by the path-goal theory of leadership,…

This study presents findings from a professional development project that engaged secondary school in-service STEM teachers in transformative perspectives to make sense of theory, practice, and action in multilingual STEM classrooms. In particular, we examine how teachers engaged with translanguaging, transdisciplinarity, and transculturation in…

This article presents an initial analysis of a new special education campus needs assessment designed to gauge educator perceptions of special education in five key areas: support, expectations, empowerment, equity, and professional development. The Special Education Campus Needs Assessment (SECNA) was pilot tested with a group of seventy-two…

This dissertation explores how environmental engineering can utilize STEM education as a strategic tool, enhancing social sustainability and thereby empowering underserved Hispanic communities in West Texas. Responding to significant educational and resource disparities, this research introduces an innovative interdisciplinary framework that…

A relatively recent phenomenon of interest within the field of twice-exceptionality involves gifted children with autism. A literature search reveals a lack of published works about these individuals and empirical studies exploring the distinctive special educational needs of these children remain scarce (Nicpon et al., 2011; Rubenstein et al.,…

In 1940s America, along the Texas-Mexico border, las escuelitas -- or little schools -- were places Mexican American parents sent their young children to begin their academic learning. These escuelitas, however, were no ordinary schools. They did not teach students to read, write, and speak in English. Rather, they sought to develop, maintain and…

Academic mid-level managers, despite their work history and education, are not always prepared for the duties and responsibilities of their current positions or for senior-level management positions. The purpose of this study was to examine how academic mid-level managers perceived intentionally-designed professional development at a suburban…

Formal schooling in the U.S. has a long and violent history towards Indigenous peoples, today morphing into exclusion and erasure. Using a novel longitudinal dataset of U.S. textbooks (n = 193) from California and Texas, published from 1850 to 2019, we seek to shine light on the issue through a comprehensive analysis of depictions of Indigenous…

There was a lack of empirical narratives from principals, and in particular, secondary principals in Texas, about the critical conditions and leadership modes within the 2019 Effective School Framework (ESF) designed by the Texas Education Agency. The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to understand how secondary principals seeking to improve…

The researcher explored empowerment, sustainability, and leadership pertaining to Texas' District of Innovation designations. House Bill 1842, passed by the Texas Legislature in 2015, allowed qualifying districts to exempt certain sections of the Texas Education Code. The aim of these exemptions was to decentralize governance in order to…

This qualitative phenomenological narrative inquiry research study used narrative inquiry to investigate rural superintendents' experiences with the application of principle-centered leadership in their districts. Ten superintendents from rural districts in east Texas were interviewed. Narratives were analyzed by organizing, describing,…

Background: This paper reports results from a study examining disability-related services at the family level. Method: We used descriptive statistics to examine (a) the types of disability-related family services families used, (b) how well family services met their needs, (c) the types of family services needed but not received, and (d) families'…

Leadership in the 21st century continues to be an ongoing concern and challenge for leaders and followers alike. According to the Servant Leadership Theory (SLT), individuals with a natural desire to serve have the potential to become servant leaders, lead unselfishly, and demonstrate leadership through authenticity, humility and trustworthiness…

Covey (1990) suggested that to achieve success in leadership, one must identify core values and principles and ensure that managerial and organizational systems are aligned with these values and principles. These values explained by Covey in principle-centered leadership are built upon the foundation principles of trustworthiness at the personal…