Mountford, Meredith L.

This qualitative study described teachers’ perspectives of The Marzano Teacher
Evaluation Model during the first year of its implementation. Further, this study
examined the relationship between teachers and their administrators during
implementation. The researcher’s goal was to examine how teachers changed their
behavior as the result of the first year following the implementation of The Marzano
Teacher Evaluation Model.

Given the demands of the era of accountability and standardization, the purpose
of this study was to explore how educational leaders construct their identity and agency.
The study utilized overlapping post-structural and critical theoretical frameworks on
identity and agency to analyze how high school principals interpret and enact
comprehensive school reform rhetoric and their state’s educational leadership standards.
In addition to several cycles of coding, a critical discourse analysis was performed with
the input of the participants’ high schools in order to further analyze the form and
function of discourses, socially situated meanings, and ideologies that constitute being an
educational leader and doing the work of an educational leader.
The findings from the study revealed that the high school principals discursively
construct their professional identity and agency by engaging in discourses and social
practices related to managing the personnel, numerical data, and external expectations of
the organization. As a result, the participants use the comprehensive school reform rhetoric as a way to legitimize and rationalize their duty as educators. The socially
situated meaning attributed to the state’s educational leadership standards is not as clear,
with the participants dismissing their value for a lack of context. In interpreting and
enacting the school reform policy mandates set forth by the district and the state,
principals conserve a corporatized model of school leadership that borrows much of its
neoliberal language from the business sphere. The principals are positioned as mid-level
managers, confirming Foster’s (2004) description of the contemporary school leader who
is preoccupied with controlling the numeracy, information systems, and language of the
organization.
Future research should focus on performing critical discourse analysis studies
with the upper levels of management, including, but not limited to, the central office and
the office of the superintendent, as a way of exploring a more transcendent meaning of
schooling and school leadership that focuses on human development. This study has the
potential to provide leadership preparation programs and policymakers significant insight
into the problems, paradoxes, and possibilities of school reform rhetoric and its impact on
local school leaders.

School choice is a fast growing alternative to traditional public school education across the nation. According to the Florida Department of Education, school choice policies and laws are rapidly moving Florida away from more traditional forms of schooling toward an increasingly evolving school choice state landscape. The purpose of this study was to examine school choice in Florida by investigating the school choice policies enacted by the Florida legislature leading to the school choice environment in Florida today. Specifically, this investigation was limited to legislation in Florida between 1997 and 2014 and further limited to charter schools, home schooling, virtual education, and two choice options specific to Florida in which public dollars follow students to private schools, the Tax Credit and McKay Scholarship programs. These particular school choice options were chosen as the focus of this study because they change the where of education outside of tradit ional public schools. Other choice options such as magnet schools, inter-district choice, and intra-district choice simply move students among traditional public schools but keep them enrolled in traditional public schools. Ultimately the study hoped to provide a possible road map for the future of school choice policies in Florida. This study utilized a qualitative methodology utilizing document reviews and interviews. This study found that school choice policies in Florida have continued to expand and evolve over the years to increase the liberty available to families to choose the education of their children. This study also found that the Florida legislature has laid the groundwork for Florida school districts, through a focus on equality, to take advantage of a portfolio management model to increase student achievement. Although a focus on equality led to the enactment of various school choice options, some of these options have moved away from their original intent to financially benefit specific organizations and groups. Finally, as reported by Holme, Frankenberg, Diem, and Welton (2013), Florida's charter school, virtual education, and home education policies have been enacted as race-neutral policies that have no regard for diversity, which could lead to resegregation.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if there is a difference in
how leadership is distributed in Title I and Non-Title I schools and to examine the
relationship between distributive leadership and student achievement in Title I and Non-
Title I schools. Additionally, the study investigated the relationship between distributive
leadership and school culture in Title I and Non-Title I schools. Finally, this study
determined if the relationship between distributed leadership, school culture, and student achievement is moderated by Title I status. This study was significant in the realm of education as it explored distributive leadership, its working definition, and possible relationship to increased student achievement and positive school culture. A quantitative method, including three statistical analyses, was implemented to answer each of the five proposed research questions and five corresponding null hypotheses. A bivariate correlation analysis revealed there was not a relationship between distributive leadership and school culture; distributive leadership and student achievement in a middle school setting. Further, a moderation analysis determined that distributive leadership and school culture, distributive leadership and student achievement were not moderated by Title I status. Additionally, a t-test showed there was not a difference in how leadership was distributed within Title I and Non-Title I schools. A discussion of the findings, conclusions, and recommendations for K-12 were explained in detail, followed by suggestions for future research.