The demands placed on principals to meet the wide range of needs present within the learning community continue to expand within the context of school reform. While there is some research on the ideals of successful turnaround school reform strategies, there is a lack of research on the essential key levers it takes to reform a school and district…

Literacy is a prevailing challenge of student achievement within urban schools. Capitol City Intermediate School's Extended Day Program, also known as the Real World Learning Program, is an academic after-school program that focuses on literacy. The incoming 4th grade students who have underperformed on the NJSLA 3 assessment are the target…

This quantitative study was conducted to determine (a) if there was a difference in collective teacher efficacy beliefs of teachers who taught in high-performing schools and low-performing schools and (b) which enabling condition fostering those beliefs had the most significant impact. Data was acquired from teachers regarding their perceptions of…

The purpose of this self-study is to better understand and address the factors that influence continuous improvement efforts led by the researcher/practitioner. To this end, this study applies Bolman and Deal's 4-frame model of organizational learning lenses to school improvement indicators on the Illinois 5Essentials Survey. Through taking Bolman…

African American males are amongst the lowest performing subgroup assessed in the United States. Trauma, poverty, and lack of opportunities are among the most cited reasons for these results. In contrast to the data, there are a host of educators and other stakeholders who work tirelessly to give their students the best chance at success. This…

Every person in leadership sees themselves as the conduit between the success and failure of an institution or business. This most likely comes from the idea that "everything rises and falls on leadership" (Covey & Maxwell, 2007, p. 7). Educational campus administrators, also known as principals and lead learners, are responsible for…

Concerns regarding low academic achievement among American secondary school students has increased over the years. While various studies have addressed the issue, not all factors contributing to student success have been sufficiently examined. The problem that was addressed through this study was the persistently low student academic achievement…

School district takeovers--when a state education agency (SEA) assumes control of a low-performing district--are the most aggressive accountability intervention available to SEAs. Much of the scholarship on takeovers has been skeptical on both normative and pragmatic grounds, but these analyses don't wrestle with what else to do when students'…

Qualifying a student for a learning disability can be difficult to know if they truly are learning disabled or is something else going on. Due to the IQ discrepancy model, to qualify a student with a learning disability, you must have an average IQ, but you are performing below grade level in achievement (Willis, 2019). However, there could be a…

Studies show that students are less successful in their freshman year of high school than in elementary and middle school. The causes of this decline in success range from new schedules, changing of relationships, increased rigor, and less involvement from educators. This applied study will explore the effectiveness of soft skill interventions in…

Research has been conducted on instructional leadership and the importance of instructional leadership, yet minimal research has been conducted on instructional leadership training models and principal perceptions on the impact of instructional leadership training on low performing schools. The problem addressed in this study was the current…

The English Learner population (EL) in the United States continues to grow, with more than 5 million students currently identified as English Learner students. While districts and schools were held accountable for their English Learner students under the No Child Left Behind Act[superscript 4], the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)[superscript 5]…

U.S. policy makers continue to struggle with identifying inclusive strategies that effectively support the needs of individual family child care (FCC) providers, who tend to have low quality rating improvement systems (QRIS) scores. To ensure program quality, there is a need to identify supportive strategies and evidence-based practices that build…

The research problem addressed in this study was the low reading achievement scores of fourth grade students and fourth grade reading teachers' struggles raising reading achievement. The purpose of the study was to explore fourth grade reading teachers' experiences of finding strategies and interventions to improve reading achievement. The…

The purpose of this study was to determine how various security measures affect performance in two South Carolina middle schools, one high-performing, and one low-performing. This research study determined educators' attitudes toward safety in one high-performing and low-performing school in the low country area of South Carolina. There were five…