This article discusses the creation of a research-focused virtual community of practice (vCoP) for geographically-dispersed third space professionals, motivated by desires for enhanced professional collaboration, visibility and identity. The authors used collaborative autoethnography (CAE) to evaluate their personal reflections as vCoP…

Teacher competency is the most important thing every teacher in all areas must have including urban, urban, and rural ones. This study aims to describe the level of understanding of teacher competency among elementary school teachers in an urban area of Yogyakarta. This research belongs to descriptive research. It involved 56 teachers in urban…

Purpose: It is premised in this study that quality of education is largely determined by the quality of teachers, which further depends upon their continuous professional development. This study aimed to determine the effect of professional development, innovative work and work commitment on quality of teacher learning among elementary school…

While providing counseling services, school counselors may experience compassion fatigue and need opportunities for support and supervision. To address the ethical imperative of self-care and provide space for school counselors to connect and renew, one district offered a retreat experience designed to renew school counselors who support K-12…

This memo, which is the eighth and final one in the series of Field Facing Memos, describes a virtual learning excursion: the HA unSummit. When COVID-19 prevented travel to Hawaii last April, the HA unSummit was created. Members of the Assessment for Learning (ALP) network were invited to attend a virtual learning excursion to explore and deepen…

Among all in-school factors that impact student learning, teachers carry the most weight -- but school leaders are not far behind. Decades of research have proven the positive influence principals can have on student achievement, school climate and teaching quality. New evidence suggests that their impact may be even greater than previously…

The increased statistics standards in K-12 mathematics curriculum, the rise of enrollment in Advanced Placement Statistics in high schools, and increased enrollment in introductory statistics courses in college, have led to a rising need of quality professional development (PD) for teachers of statistics. Online professional development (OPD) is a…

This brief offers a case study focused on Guilford County Schools (GCS), a public school district in North Carolina, to illuminate the role of continuous improvement through a "research-practice partnership" (RPP). RPPs offer a unique collaborative experience with a dual benefit: practitioners get the chance to collaborate in research…

Supporting online faculty at the "community college" level to prepare them to "teach online" can be a complex matter. Faculty who are first entering the online teaching environment often start with training to help them prepare to teach online. Supporting faculty who are teaching online means understanding faculty and their…

The purpose of this qualitative "Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices" was to explore and tell a personalized account of myself as an instructional coach striving for culturally responsive pedagogical practices through multicultural literature in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade classrooms. Two research questions were designed…

Fraternal organizations have existed on campus since the founding of Phi Beta Kappa in 1776 (Baird, 1991; DeSantis, 2007; "Phi Beta Kappa," n.d.; Thelin, 2011; Torbenson, 2005, 2009). Empirical evidence shows that membership brings added value to an undergraduate student experience (Biddix et al., 2014; G. D. Kuh & Lyons, 1990).…

Financial stability in higher education continues to decrease as enrollment declines. Higher education administrators who do not address declining enrollment may experience lost revenues, potentially leading to inoperability. Grounded in Kotter's eight-stage process for leading change, the purpose of this qualitative single case, descriptive study…

The findings of this study serve as an exploratory case-study examining the conditions of professional learning for in-service principals in one north Texas suburban district with changing student demographics. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of a variety of data collected sought to reveal how professional development of principals increased…

School counselors are the first personnel called on in a school to provide daily student mental health support. However, complications such as additional non-counseling duties and high student to counselor ratios exist which limit the time school counselors have available to support student mental health needs. While the number of youths needing…

This instrumental case study examines the varying perceptions of teachers and administrators towards peer observation as a form of professional development, their current professional development offerings, the factors that impact the implementation of peer observation as an effective form of professional development, the key components of the…