Recruiting and retaining African American students in middle school gifted education continues to be challenging in American schools. African American students continue to be underrepresented in middle school gifted education and accelerated programs, even when they qualify to be gifted education participants. The case study that follows focuses…

Retention of quality high school assistant principals is a problem in a suburban Georgia school district, where 35% of administrators left their schools in a 3-year period. Researchers indicated that high turnover rates in school leadership influence student achievement and school climate. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore…

The purpose of this two-case study was to describe the perceptions of middle school administrators and teachers concerning leader behaviors throughout the implementation of Response-to-Intervention (RTI) programs. The theory which guided this study is transformational leadership theory (Bass, 1990) as it related directly to how administrators and…

Rarely is a school-based speech language pathologist (SLP) thought of as an active contributor to the achievement of students or to the learning community in general. Researchers have found benefits for students when members of the learning community collaborate, and the SLP should be a part of this community collaboration. This qualitative case…

All children deserve equitable effective educational experiences. The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe factors contributing to the success of two effective, low-income, non-magnet elementary schools in Georgia, in a county where the majority of schools were failing. In addition to contributing to the body of existing knowledge…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how district leaders of two school systems in the USA describe an effective principal. Membership categorisation analysis revealed that district leaders believed an effective principal had four major categories of characteristics: (1) documented characteristics (having a track record and being a…

Student bullying is an ongoing educational, social, and public health phenomenon facing countless students, parents, and educators. Educators and parents are challenged with distinguishing student bullying from normal student conflict. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to compare private middle school principals' and middle…

Teacher effectiveness has been shown to have a greater impact on student achievement than any other single factor. School principals must therefore take measures to ensure that schools are staffed with only the most effective teachers. Teacher effectiveness should be assessed yearly and accurately reflected through teacher evaluation measures.…

Federal special education and accountability policies requires that educators individualize instruction for students with disabilities, while simultaneously ensuring that the vast majority of these students meet age-based grade-level standards and assessment targets. In this paper, we examine this dynamic interplay between policies through…

The purpose of this dissertation was to discover the perceived effect that eliminating instructional coaches has had on teachers, professional development, and student achievement in one elementary school in the Southeastern Georgia School District. The methodology for this study was qualitative using a basic qualitative design. This study…

A school district received a Physical Education for Progress grant (PEP). PEP grants are part of the Carol M. White Program and are administered by the U.S. Department of Education. These grants are available to local educational agencies to initiate, expand, or improve physical education (PE) programs. The purpose of this study was to determine…

The purpose of this qualitative study, which utilized a case study approach, was to evaluate administrator's perceptions of the role of high school counselors. To evaluate those perceptions, the researcher analyzed data collected from two focus group interviews. The focus group interviews were conducted utilizing administrators employed at two…

School organizational culture is an important facet of the coteaching service delivery model. The research study addressed how culture-related behaviors contributed to the effectiveness of organizational culture and the use of the coteaching service delivery model in a high school setting. The purpose of the study was to have a better…

The author uses Bourdieu's concepts of field, capital, and habitus to analyze how students, parents, teachers, and administrators are responding to Georgia's test-based grade retention policy in reading at one Georgia elementary school. In this multiple case study, the author interviewed, observed, and collected documents regarding ten fifth…

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of high school administrators in Gwinnett and Cobb Counties, Georgia that have successfully narrowed the achievement gap for high school African-American males as to: (a) why the achievement gap continues to occur in other metropolitan high schools in the United States; (b) what successful…