2015 Cohort

Gail Lanza – 2015 Cohort

Professional Title: Director of Special Services & Early Childhood Education
Years of Experience: 15+
Capstone Research: I am studying the impact of strategic operating plans on overall student learning. More specifically, can small rural districts successfully use strategic operating plans to improve student performance outcomes over time given the organizational constructs of schools as loosely coupled systems. I plan to use mixed methods to understand the implementation prevalence of strategic operating plans, their fidelity of implementation, and their impact on student learning: actual, potential and perceived.

Professional Title: District Curriculum Specialist
Years of Experience: 10-15
Capstone Research: I am studying professional learning structures that school leaders can create within the building to monitor and support implementation of school/district initiatives, such as curriculum implementation. I plan to use qualitative methods to understand how the teachers' perceptions of an initiative influences the degree and quality of implementation, and/or how the building leaders' framing of an initiative influences the degree and quality of implementation.

Professional Title: Instructional Coach
Years of Experience: 10-15
Capstone Research: Despite the achievement gap, there are schools serving students in low income communities producing statistically strong academic results. In my Problem of Practice I will research what factors most impact a positive school climate, strong school culture (student and adult), and teacher/student/family satisfaction within strong academic environments. I will also focus on how school and teacher leadership sustains a strong adult and student culture and how that impacts the climate of a school.

Professional Title: Teacher
Years of Experience: 15+
Capstone Research: I am studying the Choice Model and how the program supports students' post-secondary education because many of these students are not continuing a post-secondary education. I plan to use qualitative methods to understand the transition of Choice Students into post-secondary education and the variables involved in this process. Also, I want to use qualitative methods to analyze the coordination of cooperative efforts to support the needs of this student population.