This narrative qualitative research study delved into the perspectives of Black teachers regarding the accessibility of school leadership and the barriers encountered by school leaders during their transition into school leadership roles. Its objective was to highlight the underrepresentation of Black educators, particularly Black administrators.…

Teacher retention continues to be a challenge across the United States. This study investigated the practices and perception of elementary school principals in Virginia on new teacher retention. In this qualitative study, a sample of elementary school principals from around the state of Virginia participated in focus groups and individual…

This study analyzed the perceptions of teachers, school administrators, and division administrators pertaining to leadership and teacher participation in the instructional decision-making process. Prior to this study, how these perceptions could affect teachers' overall desire to continue to teach and perform their duties at a level evaluated as…

The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly changed the context of higher education during the Spring 2020 semester. As the virus began to spread across the United States, colleges and universities canceled inperson classes and activities, closed campus, and moved all operations online. Within the communication discipline, introductory communication course…

This is a multiple case study exploring five high school English teachers' perceived supports and challenges to enacting critical literacy pedagogy, and their experiences navigating the challenges. Through a structure/culture/agency framework, I sought to understand how these five teachers' leveraging of supports and sense of agency in the face of…

A school in Virginia serves students with significant cognitive disabilities (SWSCDs) whose full scale IQ scores are 40 and below. The problem is the SWSCDs were administered the Virginia Alternate Assessment Program (VAAP) and did not perform well from 2017 to 2019. As a result, the school did not receive state accreditation. The purpose of this…

The leaders of child care centers shape the everyday experiences of child care teachers, who play a critical role in supporting young children. While research has linked leadership to policy-relevant outcomes such as teacher job satisfaction and turnover, little is known about specific leader characteristics linked to teacher job outcomes. In…

The purpose of this descriptive analysis study was to investigate high school music teachers' levels of satisfaction with the teacher evaluation practices used by administrators and music supervisors in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Virginia high school music teachers (n = 76) were surveyed to collect data used to determine their levels of…

This study explored how principals use evaluation frameworks to build teacher capacities in Virginia Public K-12 schools in order to decrease teacher turnover rates. The researcher's choice of methodology to complete this study was a qualitative case study. The qualitative case study is suitable for addressing the immediate phenomena of the…

Distributed leadership practices were used by principals to engage teacher leaders in instructional leadership responsibilities to create an innovative learning culture in Title I elementary schools. It was not known how teachers described the influence of principal-distributed leadership practices on organizational learning and innovativeness in…

There is a national shortage of special education teachers, so it is imperative to retain special educators in the field (Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017). The most commonly cited reason special education teachers shared for leaving is lack of support from their administration. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how…

Effective school leadership has been ranked the greatest indicator in the hiring and retaining of highly qualified teachers. Considering that the classroom teacher has the highest impact on student academic success, issues such as teacher absenteeism and teacher turnover absorb a great deal of time and resources of school principals while…

After eighteen months of school closure and disrupted learning, civic leaders, researchers, and educational leaders are getting a clearer picture of how students fared through the pandemic, and what new reality school systems face as they return to in-person schooling in 2021-22. Increases in community infection rates and parent hesitancy have…

Challenges for novice school leaders evolve as information is managed differently and as societal and regulatory expectations change. This study addresses unique challenges faced by practicing school administrators (n = 159) during their first three years in a school leadership position. It focuses on their perceptions, how perceptions of present…

The purpose of this study is to investigate teachers' perceptions of administrative support in incentive grant schools. The primary objective of this study is to determine the effect of participation in an incentive grant on the perceived level of administrative support. The research questions were as follows: 1) Do teachers who are participating…