As a descriptive case study, this research reports on the factors that are needed when opening a new high school. The purpose of this study was to discover the processes, variables, and systems needed to open a new secondary school. The researcher used emerging themes from the data to find the commonalities that lead to the effective opening of a…

Wise Ways School District (pseudonym) is a public school district in northern New Jersey which consists of grades K-12. The high school is a four-year comprehensive institution that serves 583 students in 9th-12th grade. Wise Ways High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school whose goal is to address the needs of all of its students.…

School counselors are vital to school reform and improvement efforts, as such, school districts are always searching for ways to actively involve school counselors in their own professional development. Due to the increased mental health and behavioral needs of students, there is an increased demand for more intentional and appropriate…

The CORE Districts, a nonprofit formed by large urban districts in California, received a Networks for School Improvement grant from the Gates Foundation to launch a network focused on improving ninth-grade on-track rates. CORE based its approach on the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Breakthrough Collaborative model, where a hub identifies…

Students who have dropped out of high school--and those at risk of doing so--are at greater risk of lifelong poverty, involvement with the criminal justice system, dependence on government welfare programs, and even premature death. In the last few years, however, the problems at high schools have compounded, as pandemic-era school closures led to…

Utilizing a phenomenological approach, this dissertation explores how principals perceive and use their roles in developing and maintaining inclusive special education programs. Specifically, this study has examined principals' beliefs and ideals in decision-making to support inclusion in classrooms. Its goal is to provide insight into principals'…

A qualitative approach was utilized in this study to examine four transition programs' best educational practices in building transition programs for eighth to ninth grade. An analysis of a retrospective study of the four transition programs provided data to support recommendations for best educational practices to build a transition program for…

Contribution: This work examines the impact of a unique precollege STEM education initiative during its two pilot years. The study contributes to the growing body of research by unpacking the needs of and the impact on an important stakeholder group (i.e., the teachers) in the engineering education ecosystem to help inform the future design and…

This qualitative, improvement science, autoethnographic case study aims to examine a unique perspective on rural research through the lens of place-conscious leadership. With an identified problem of inequity in advanced-level course offerings, which resulted in lost student opportunities and student attrition to neighboring schools, the…

Effective interventions are needed to help alternative high school teachers manage challenging student behaviors. One such intervention, class-wide function-related intervention teams (CW-FIT), is a classroom management program based on positive behavior interventions and supports principles. CW-FIT involves teaching appropriate classroom…

The purpose of this study was to determine the impacts of a specific accelerated learning program on STAAR Algebra I End of Course exam scores for students who had previously failed the exam. The accelerated learning program, titled STAAR Acceleration, was intended to help students who had experienced school closures because of COVID-19 improve…

This mixed-method study examined the impact of the implementation of a new multi-tiered intervention program at a private, Catholic, college preparatory high school in the Midwestern United States with a 95% Latinx population. The researchers examined the impacts of a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) on various student academic achievement…

This mixed-method study examined the impact of the implementation of a new multi-tiered intervention program at a private, Catholic, college preparatory high school in the Midwestern United States with a 95% Latinx population. The researchers examined the impacts of a multitiered system of support (MTSS) on various student academic achievement…

This mixed-method study examined the impact of the implementation of a new multi-tiered intervention program at a private, Catholic, college preparatory high school in the Midwestern United States with a 95% Latinx population. The researchers examined the impacts of a multitiered system of support (MTSS) on various student academic achievement…

Purpose: School improvement planning has been a central part of school improvement initiatives for decades. Evidence suggests, however, that traditional planning processes are regularly superficial. In the USA, some principals have begun developing short-cycle planning designed to encourage school leadership teams and staff to develop, monitor and…