2024 Doctoral Capstone Projects

Renaissance Academy Charter School in Phoenixville, PA, has implemented a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to provide comprehensive academic, behavioral, and social-emotional support to its students. The school emphasizes early identification and intervention through regular progress monitoring and data-driven decision-making to foster academic success and overall student well-being. A key focus of improvement for Renaissance Academy's MTSS framework is enhancing its behavioral support system. While the academic MTSS structure is well-defined and supported by ongoing professional development and curriculum alignment with state standards, the behavioral MTSS procedures need clearer guidelines and implementation strategies. The focus of the research project was how to improve the current MTSS system at Renaissance Academy Charter School. By identifying the areas of growth in the school’s current system and using other schools as models, Renaissance Academy can strengthen its MTSS framework and improve outcomes for all students.

Currently, the Knoch School District lacks effective professional development opportunities for our staff and suffers from a high call-off rate on in-service days. This Capstone Research Project sets out to understand effective professional development strategies that can be implemented within the school district. This includes reviewing how the district currently provides professional development for teachers and determining which of these opportunities are effective. It sets out to answer four questions: 1) What topics does the staff believe are most important when it comes to receiving professional development? 2) What would make staff more likely to participate in professional development that is offered by the district? 3) What style of professional development opportunities do teachers believe impacted their classroom instruction? 4) How does the professional development meet the objectives of the district’s vision? Data collection tools that will be applied include surveys, feedback forms, and call-off rates on the professional development days. These tools will provide both qualitative and quantitative data for review. At least three different models of professional development will be implemented throughout the school year. After each of these, a feedback from will be completed by participants. Both the surveys and professional development feedback forms include Likert scale-type and multiple-choice questions and will allow for some open-ended responses. Moving forward, all of the data collected will be used to create a district-wide professional development plan.