Dissertation Defense Announcements

This program evaluation examined how educators and school leaders interpret and implement Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and restorative discipline practices for students with disabilities in secondary settings, and what factors influence the equity and consistency of their application. Although secondary schools have widely adopted these frameworks to reduce exclusionary discipline, students with disabilities continue to be removed from instruction at disproportionate rates, revealing a gap between policy and practice. The overarching research question asked how educators interpret and implement these frameworks for students with disabilities, including alignment with behavioral intervention plans and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and what shapes the equity and consistency of their application. The study used a qualitative-dominant mixed-methods design grounded in an implementation-focused program evaluation approach, collecting data through a national educator survey (N = 35), five semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. Findings indicated that although the frameworks were widely adopted, they were unevenly enacted. PBIS was often reduced to rewards, and restorative practices were inconsistently understood and rarely implemented with fidelity. Discipline for students with disabilities depended more on individual judgment and bias than on shared policy, and educators identified inadequate training and limited guidance as central barriers, with equity suffering as a result. Taken together, the findings identify educator capacity and system design, rather than individual discretion, as the decisive levers for equitable discipline. Recommendations include sustained, job-embedded professional development, clear decision-making tools, distributed special education expertise, formative review of discipline data disaggregated by disability status, and a supporting policy to institutionalize these supports.

Early-career teachers often enter classrooms with foundational preparation while simultaneously learning to navigate complex literacy curricula, assessment demands, differentiation, and instructional decision-making. This qualitative case study with comparative analysis examined how K–8 teachers in Metro Heights Public Schools, a pseudonym for a large urban Midwestern district, described literacy-focused professional support during their early-career years and how they perceived those experiences in relation to instructional self-efficacy, professional identity, and career decision-making. The study included 15 participants: eight teachers who remained in the profession at the time of data collection and seven who had left teaching within their first five years. Semi-structured interviews served as the primary data source, supported by participant background information, brief oral ratings, field notes, analytic memos, and contextual district and program materials. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to develop themes, with within-group and cross-group comparisons informing the interpretation of participants’ experiences. Findings indicated that professional support was most useful when accessible, sustained, instructionally relevant, and connected to immediate classroom decisions. Participants associated developing confidence and professional identity with opportunities to apply guidance, receive feedback, interpret results, refine practice, and exercise professional judgment. Meaningful and limited support experiences appeared in both groups, suggesting that mentoring or professional development alone did not distinguish current from former teachers. Career pathways were also described in relation to autonomy, leadership, workload, role fit, and other working conditions. These findings suggest that schools and districts could prioritize coherent, practice-connected support while attending to the professional conditions in which early-career teachers develop and work.

Asynchronous digital social-emotional learning modules have expanded rapidly throughout secondary schools, yet empirical evidence regarding their impact on urban outcomes has remained sparse. The purpose of this program evaluation was to examine the efficacy of a digital resiliency curriculum on student attendance, GPA trajectories, and exclusionary discipline. The context encompassed two Title I high schools in a district serving 209,000 students. Longitudinal cohort data revealed that unfacilitated software failed to improve daily attendance or prevent the ninth-grade GPA slide (2.42 -2.16), fostering transactional “click through” compliance. Conversely, human-facilitated debriefing significantly reduced the suspension duration (from 8.29 to 6.63 days). Recommendations emphasize operationalizing Kotter’s change framework through teacher-led advisory circles, reallocating Title I funds, and establishing a mandatory Local Education Agency district policy.