Background: The Healthy People 2020 objectives in school health education have brought attention to the elementary classroom. To meet the goal of increasing by 4% the total number of schools requiring health education, information on the current state of health education is necessary. Due to mandatory core curriculum testing and the instructional…

This study explores the ways that acts of writing occur and become recognized as "writing" in a kindergarten classroom. Symbolic representations often aligning with the dominance of conventions come to be seen and named as writing as soon as children enter school, therefore influencing how one is seen and named in the classroom space as…

In Chile, as many other countries, understanding how high-qualified teachers are distributed across schools and which are the relationships that may lead to teachers' potential sorting are key aspect of the teacher labor market and it is central to addressing student achievement gaps. The first paper uses rich new data on all elementary public…

The purpose of this study is to explore Florida public school highly effective elementary coaches' perceptions on how to best evaluate the effectiveness of the position of reading coach. The study attempts to answer the research questions: (1) What are Florida elementary public school exemplary reading coaches' perspectives on the performance…

Despite the growing number of international schools around the globe, little is done to support the highly mobile Third Culture Kid (TCK) populations in these schools. While experiencing exciting lives, TCKs have difficulty developing their individual identities and sense of belonging in communities. Problems surrounding identity and belonging can…

Staff and student surveys at Lane Elementary School (pseudonym) confirm that students lack motivation to complete class work and often struggle to interact appropriately with one another. Similar concerns are reported across the United States as indicated by national Gallup Poll results on student motivation, peer relationships, and feelings of…

This exploratory study examined the relationships between five predictor variables identified by the literature (age, years of special education teaching experience, level of emotional behavioral disorders (EBD) preparation, principal support, and principal feedback) and two higher order terms (age and years of special education teaching…

Prior research shows that school leadership matters when it comes to instructional improvement. However, the common conceptualization of school leadership is typically associated with principals. Studies show that a large number of the nation's principals are predicted to retire or leave the profession. A potential shortage of quality school…

Researchers explored the problem of teacher retention, especially among beginning teachers, and noted a lack of consensus on why teachers leave teaching and how to retain the teachers. Private school studies include Catholic school data, but few researchers isolated the data or used data-gathering instruments to examine Catholic school issues,…

One of the most pervasive issues facing educators and administrators in Adult Basic Education (ABE) is student persistence. The purposes of this qualitative study were 1) to identify the experiences that African American adult learners associated with their decisions to leave ABE programs; 2) to ascertain the impact of participants'…

Organizational commitment has been a topic of extensive interest in the organizational behavior literature since the 1950's. It has been associated with workforce stability, decreased absenteeism, organizational citizenship behaviors, and decreased turnover. This study focuses on the relationships between organizational commitment and…

According to the Texas State Board of Education in 2002, 60% of teachers in Texas classrooms quit the profession after only five years in the classroom. In 1998-99, Texas filled over 63,000 teaching positions. Most vacant positions resulted from existing teachers retiring (11,000) or leaving the profession (46,600). A recent study in Texas…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the perceived motivators contributing African American educators' decision to migrate from a suburban school district to an urban school district. The case study approach was used in an effort to capture the participants' voices and the motivators contributing to their decision to migrate to an…