Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Documenting Elementary Teachers' Sustainability Of Instructional Practices: A Mixed Method Case Study, Bridget Cotner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

School reform programs focus on making educational changes; however, research on interventions past the funded implementation phase to determine what was sustained is rarely done (Beery, Senter, Cheadle, Greenwald, Pearson, et al., 2005). This study adds to the research on sustainability by determining what instructional practices, if any, of the Teaching SMART[reg] professional development program that was implemented from 2005-2008 in elementary schools with teachers in grades third through eighth were continued, discontinued, or adapted five years post-implementation (in 2013). Specifically, this study sought to answer the following questions: What do teachers who participated in Teaching SMART[reg] and district administrators …

Mentor Preparation: A Qualitative Study Of Stem Master Teacher Professional Development, Heather Lynn Click-Cuellar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has required districts to staff all classrooms with highly qualified teachers. Yet, retaining certified teachers in the profession has been a national concern, especially among new teachers who leave at alarming rates within their first three years. This comes at a heavy cost to districts financially and in trying to maintain highly qualified status, but also to the continuity and effective education of students. Mentoring has been identified by many researchers as a plausible solution to reducing attrition rates for beginning teachers.

In this Dissertation, I conducted qualitative research to explore and …