Research has accumulated on the effects of teachers on student achievement, especially in mathematics. However, empirical evidence regarding the impact of formal teacher competence indicators presents a mixed picture. This study explores the influence of educational level, subject -- and grade-specific specialization, teaching experience, and…

School principals are critical to students' academic achievement, second only to teachers. They are the primary agents of change in their schools, fostering supportive learning environments that enhance student learning and teacher effectiveness. Moreover, they often design and oversee the initiatives and hiring to sustain the positive changes…

Educator leadership requires continuous development, including extended professional learning opportunities for principals in the field. This is also true for district leaders who likely have even fewer robust opportunities to grow professionally. We conducted a comparative interrupted time series of publicly available student achievement data…

Across the U.S., schools are seeing improved outcomes tied directly to actions aligned with the Standards for Professional Learning developed by Learning Forward -- a research-based framework for designing and implementing professional learning that transforms teaching and boosts student success. Investments in these types of high-quality…

Scholars and practitioners have called for personalized and widely accessible professional development (PD) for teachers. Yet, a long-standing tension between customizing support and increasing access to such support has hindered the scale-up of high-quality PD for individual teachers. This study addresses this challenge by developing a…

Few researchers have investigated what occurs inside charter schools with respect to teaching and learning. To address this gap in the literature, the researcher conducted a descriptive, single-case study to examine how teachers at charter schools use research-based instructional methods to increase student achievement. The site for this study is…

Principals shape the academic setting of schools. Yet, there is limited evidence on whether principal professional development improves schooling outcomes. Beginning in 2008-2009, Pennsylvania's Inspired Leadership (PIL) induction program required that newly hired principals complete targeted in-service professional development tied to newly…

The Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE) system is Queensland's senior school qualification. To support the introduction of the system in 2019, existing senior syllabuses were redeveloped and a new senior assessment model was established, this included the implementation of a mandatory high-stakes assessment task, the Problem-solving and…

Many studies have documented a large decline in students' mathematics achievement during and after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The question facing school districts now is how to help students recover. Since fall 2020, RAND researchers have repeatedly surveyed and interviewed district leaders who are members of the American…

Schools of education are often criticized for not effectively preparing teacher candidates and teacher education research has been criticized for lack of rigor in examining the impact on student learning. Teacher preparation accrediting agencies have responded with requirements for programs to demonstrate the effectiveness of their graduates based…

Increasingly, teachers are considered accountable for continuous improvement in student achievement. They are expected to integrate and analyse data from multiple sources in order to make decisions aimed at positively influencing student outcomes. Given the growing recognition of the importance of data-informed decision making in teaching, it is…

This study explores the impact of attending optional professional learning events on the critical consciousness development of Ready to Learn (RtL) mentors over the course of one program year. Ready to Learn is an out of school time math tutoring and mentoring program that seeks to address opportunity gaps in math learning for middle school…

The main purpose of this study was to assess seventh-graders? algebra performance when their teachers received professional development support regarding hypothetical learning trajectories through a web-based platform. Secondly, we aimed to investigate the relationship between student performance and the teachers? professional development in…

Helping principals improve their leadership practices is a common use of federal funds and one way to improve instruction and student achievement. The study highlighted in this one page report sought to better understand the effectiveness of an intensive principal professional development program focused primarily on helping principals conduct…

Principals shape the academic setting of schools. Yet, there is limited evidence on whether principal professional development improves schooling outcomes. Beginning in 2008-09, Pennsylvania's Inspired Leadership (PIL) induction program required that newly hired principals complete targeted in-service professional development tied to newly…