Date of Award

Summer 2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Committee Chair

Jessica Van Cleave

Abstract

Low performing schools have consistently faced challenges in narrowing the achievement gap and meeting the needs of diverse learners, especially those living in high poverty situations. Effective teaching can significantly influence student outcomes and positively shape students’ academic trajectories through the use of high-impact strategies and relationship-centered instruction. This convergent mixed-methods study aimed to define and understand the characteristics of effective teachers, investigate the perceptions of effective teachers about the reasons for their success, and identify the strategies effective teachers use to support students in low performing elementary schools in a North Carolina school district. Quantitative data sources included a background screener survey, the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES), and ratings on the teacher evaluation instrument. Qualitative data came from teacher interviews and classroom observation anecdotal notes. These data sets helped to identify patterns among the group of effective teachers, revealing that effective teachers shared similar instructional strategies, beliefs, and classroom management practices. The results of this study suggest that effective elementary teachers identify relationships, tailored instruction, and reflection as key contributors to their success. The participants reported high confidence in their use of differentiation, but observations showed limited use of individualized instructional strategies. Further research should explore similar questions across grade levels and investigate how principal leadership directly contributes to building teacher effectiveness in low performing schools.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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