2024 Doctoral Capstone Projects

The Wyoming Valley West School District has identified regular attendance as a priority issue. Absenteeism has been an issue for many school districts over the years, but there seems to be a decrease in the regular attendance of students' post-pandemic. Dana Elementary showed that 30.2% of students being identified as being chronically absent and State Street Elementary showed 49.5% of students being chronically absent in the 2021-2022 school year, as reported through the PA Future Ready Index. Literature defines school climate as one of the contributing factors to absenteeism. This research is needed to know and understand if creating a positive school climate through PBIS will positively affect regular student attendance. Through a mixed-methods approach, the researcher aimed to understand the impact of PBIS programs on student attendance, school, climate, and disciplinary incidents. The goal is to provide insights that can inform school administrators and policymakers on how to utilize PBIS strategies to improve attendance, create a positive school climate, and reduce disciplinary referrals leading to out-of-school suspensions.

With teacher attrition and retention issues causing a nation-wide crisis of instructional vacancies in our public schools, research was conducted in a large, urban, high-need middle school in Pennsylvania to determine if a peer-led classroom management support system was effective for teachers already considering resignation. A mixed-methods, embedded design model that included a quantitative survey and a qualitative structured interview was used to determine how targeted booster professional development, peer observations, and observational feedback of professional practice impacted teachers’ retention perceptions. The intervention system focused on the evidence-based practices of Restorative Practices and Positive Behavior Intervention Supports, and it was purposefully designed to meet the professional development requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA): sustained, intensive, collaborative, job-embedded, data-driven, and classroom-focused. The designated master teachers who led the intervention system protocols were required to meet rigorous selection criteria. Results indicated that the intervention system had positive impacts due to its peer-led nature and perceived increase in skillset, support, and connectedness. The results also indicated that the classroom management support system was effective in changing most of the study participants’ retention perceptions, particularly for those who identified as female and within their first three years of teaching.