The aim of this applied dissertation was to develop a better understanding of how elementary principals in a large school district in the southeastern United States perceive their self-efficacy as instructional leaders and administrators. The pressures of high accountability play an impactful role in how principals view their roles and their…

Across the United States, school districts are reshaping the role of principal supervisors to include supervision practices intended to enhance the instructional and leadership skills of the principals they supervise. The purpose of this research study is to add to the existing body of research involving the predominant practices that principal…

This phenomenological study explored how five participants used their Texas state-approved definition of dyslexia to identify children with dyslexia as different from those with other global reading difficulties. Drawing on theories from disability studies in education and dis/ability critical race theory, I interviewed participants who identified…

The exact cause of teacher shortages is unknown. Some experts argue that shortages are localized, while others say that the lack of teachers is due to low unemployment and other factors. Regardless, school systems face big challenges with their teacher workforce, including finding enough teacher candidates and retaining the teachers they have, as…

Instructional leaders require timely and predictive data to guide post-pandemic systemic changes. We investigated the predictability of an observational instrument, the Rigor Appraisal, and its association with achievement and other school effectiveness measures in a sample of 53 schools in Illinois. We found that increases in the Rigor Appraisal…

As stakeholders in education reflect on best practices to support the constantly evolving field of education, a strong national interest in school climate has emerged. The problem addressed in this study is that unsupportive administrator-teacher relationships negatively impact school climate. Poor administrator-teacher relationships can lead to…

The use of teacher leadership in PK-12 education has experienced a resurgence since the late 1990s as school leadership models have evolved to include the engagement of diverse stakeholders in school and district leadership processes aimed at improvement efforts. Despite this resurgence, there remain several barriers to understanding the nature of…

The simple average of student growth scores is often used in accountability systems, but it can be problematic for decision making. When computed using a small/moderate number of students, it can be sensitive to the sample, resulting in inaccurate representations of growth of the students, low year-to-year stability, and inequities for…

Stronger administrative support for teachers has consistently been shown to increase teacher retention (Holmes et al., 2019). Nationally, researchers have explored the connection between administrative support and teacher retention, however, administrative support is not clearly defined (Billingsley & Bettini, 2019; Podolsky et al., 2019;…

This was a case study of the principal succession planning practices of a large school district in Oregon. For the study, the researcher interviewed nine principals and nine central office administrators and surveyed 17, K-12 assistant principals within the studied school district. The findings from this study reveal many strengths and weaknesses…

Standards-based grading (SBG) is a grading system in which each student is given a set of grades, each reflecting their proficiency in relation to a specific skill. The present study examined K-12 teachers' implementation of SBG practices in a small, suburban Midwestern school district, as well as their perceptions of and confidence in…

There is a need for school leaders to be able to address barriers that prevent historically marginalized students from being successful in school while also preparing them to be democratic citizens. There is evidence that many school leaders enter the profession underprepared to be able to provide the needed support for equity. This qualitative…

Purpose: This study contributes to a growing literature focused on institutional complexity, or the phenomenon of competing institutional logics, in PK-12 public education. Responding to calls for more nuanced characterizations of district-level administration, our purpose was to identify the logics of curriculum leadership in one large school…

Job burnout in school psychologists has been recognized as a problem in the field for many years. The contributors to burnout are varied and may include personal as well as professional variables. This research examined the impact the demographic variables of age, years in the field/current job, grade level worked with, type of community worked…

School principals are moved from one school to another because of retirements, resignations, or school divisions' rotation policies. Leadership transitions can be challenging for the principal and the school community given that the leaders have little to no knowledge of the new school, its culture, and its staff and no established relationships.…