Schools and districts in Pennsylvania continue to experience a gap between the demographic diversity of their students and staffs. Culturally responsive practices are an important approach bridging the gap between PA's teachers and increasingly diverse students and communities. This qualitative study was guided by three research questions: What…

Creating a dynamic educational community takes collaboration and accountability from ALL constituents. Current research on leaders sets the foundation for recognizing the need for organizations to develop wellness initiatives and enhance research. In today's transient work world, wellness initiatives may aid in retention. Targeting the emotional…

Purpose: If PK12 administrators aspire to interrupt bias-based bullying, they need to understand their role in perpetuating structural and social inequality. The purpose of this study was to examine administrators': 1) awareness of gender-based bullying, 2) initial intentions to address bullying, and 3) actions that interrupted or perpetuated…

The purpose of this sequential exploratory mixed-method study was to discover the factors that lead to a school board hiring a non-traditional superintendent qualified through a Commission Qualification Letter over a superintendent qualified through a traditional Letter of Eligibility in Pennsylvania. The researcher used surveys and interviews to…

In 2018, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) enacted a new law called Act 44, which provided new form of funding for school safety in school districts across the State of Pennsylvania. The study focused on how school superintendents and high school principals prioritized each category in Pennsylvania Act 44 from highest to the lowest…

The position of a school building administrator is overwhelming with multiple responsibilities, long hours, and job pressures. Due to these factors, there is a negative impact on mental health and a high rate of burnout for administrators. This study reviews the factors that contribute to negative mental health and administrator burnout, and…

I examine in this dissertation, using a three article format, how rural districts, communities, and superintendents made sense of and responded to the current opioid epidemic in western Pennsylvania. I conducted extensive fieldwork in rural western Pennsylvania, an area heavily affected by the recent opioid crisis, over the 2017-2018 school year.…

This study attempted to understand the school principal's perception about the characteristics, attitudes and behaviors of teachers who may be operating on the fringes of proficient performance. In addition, this study attempted to understand if the demographics of the school principal and the school could play a role in the type of…

The purpose for this study was to add to the current research on the perceptions of superintendent preparation programs within Pennsylvania by examining how participants felt their preparation program prepared them for their current role as a superintendent, assistant superintendent, or assistant to the superintendent. One of the school board's…

Due to the growth of school choice across the United States as well as declining enrollment in some districts, schools are experiencing increasing competition for students. As a result, principals and school district leaders in high-choice districts are now expected to develop strategies such as branding, marketing, and community outreach to…

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between principals' self-perceived social and emotional competence and their leadership performance assessed by supervisors and faculty members. Principals completed the self-assessment of a social and emotional competence instrument that includes 39 items from the Widener Emotional…

Charter and cyber charter schools were legislatively permitted to operate as publicly funded educational institutions in Pennsylvania with the passage of Act 22 of 1997. Examining the tuition payments from traditional school districts funding charter schools and resulting economic, operational, and programmatic impacts on traditional K-12…

Women have played integral and instrumental roles in public education since its inception, yet women continue to be underrepresented in one major educational position, the superintendency. This study examined female principals in Western Pennsylvania and perceived barriers of these females in aspiring to the superintendency. Data for this study…

Today's superintendents face increasingly non-routine and complex problems that are educational, managerial, and political in nature. This study investigated occupational stressors and job satisfaction of school superintendents in Pennsylvania. This was accomplished through self-report of superintendents and through the perspective of school board…

Rural school districts, educating just over 25% of all public school students across the country, play an important role in the nation's educational landscape. At the heart of the success of rural school districts are the superintendents who run these rural and often small districts. Superintendents of rural schools throughout the United States,…