The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the lived leadership experiences of Black women principals in Title I schools in North Carolina. The theories guiding this study are Black feminist thought and Intersectionality which amplify and center the voices of Black women. The central research question for this study was "What…

Instructional coaching is a popular form of professional development for improving teacher instruction and student achievement. While there are numerous studies that have examined the impact of instructional coaching on student academic outcomes, very few studies have explored the influence of specific coaching models on student achievement.…

For colleges of agriculture throughout the US, recruitment and retention of undergraduate students is a matter of existential importance. We analyzed personal statements written by applicants accepted to undergraduate degrees at North Carolina State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) to determine what pre-university…

Anecdotal evidence points to the importance of school principals, but the limited existing research has neither provided consistent results nor indicated any set of essential characteristics of effective principals. This paper exploits extensive student-level panel data across six states to investigate both variations in principal performance and…

The Power, Structural, and Technical Systems (PST) Career Pathway is one of eight within the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Career Cluster; this pathway provides the curriculum that includes outdoor power equipment content. The perceived workforce readiness and skills needed in this pathway and related future trends were analyzed for…

School personnel play an important role in supporting the social-emotional needs of LGBTQ youth. Thus, the current study surveyed 157 school mental health providers (i.e., school psychologists, counselors, social workers) from the Southeastern United States in order to examine providers' knowledge, attitudes, and experiences in working with LGBTQ…

Suicide is a leading cause of death of school-aged youth, with adolescent and young adult populations considered to be most at risk for suicide clusters and contagion effects. Suicide clusters have been documented in school districts across the United States, though the degree to which schools are prepared to provide postvention services in the…

Career Technical Education (CTE) teacher recruitment is a challenge that has dogged state CTE leaders for decades. According to a recent survey of State CTE Directors, 98 percent said that increasing access to industry experts is a high priority in their state. And 20.4 percent of rural districts with CTE teacher vacancies report that CTE…

Background: Nascent empirical research demonstrates the sizable impacts of principals on student achievement. More research is needed on the pathways to the principalship and how principals' characteristics and training experiences influence their performance. Purpose: (1) To describe the characteristics of first-time principals and the schools…

While women have made significant inroads and gains in the twentieth century, there remain challenges and barriers in regard to their satisfaction with career advancement opportunities. This mixed-method research study investigated perceptions of challenges and barriers to career advancement by women administrators at Group 2 institutions in the…

The first five years of teaching are important because 30% of all beginning teachers leave the profession during that time (Darling-Hammond, 2001). The purpose of this study was to examine professional development for beginning career and technical education (CTE) teachers during their first five years with respect to three licensure routes:…

Leadership is an ever changing process and principals play a key role in the instructional focus of a school which often times created success in instruction (Riordan, 2003). Principals face different challenges today while improving schools and student academic achievement. The perceptions of an effective school leader has changed over the years…

This study was designed to investigate whether significant differences exist among the perceptions of leadership behaviors of female principals in North Carolina using Bolman and Deal's (1984) four frames (structural, human resource, political, and symbolic) for analysis. Participants consisted of 1,245 female principals from elementary,middle,…

Extensive education research on the contribution of teachers to student achievement produces two generally accepted results. First, teacher quality varies substantially as measured by the value added to student achievement or future academic attainment or earnings. Second, variables often used to determine entry into the profession and…

This study analyzes the goals and realities of four educated, working, adult Latina, English as a Second language (ESL) students living in North Carolina, a region seeing particularly intense migration of Latino immigrants. The study conceptually frames adjustment issues confronted by these Latina immigrants in terms of gender, language,…