Examining Teacher Development: An Analysis of Policy, Practice, and School Leadership

Improving the quality of public school teachers has long been viewed as an essential mechanism for raising student achievement and improving the overall effectiveness of American schools. While some policy initiatives focus on improving the quality of pre-service teachers, school improvement efforts rely heavily on in-service teachers' learning and professional development, as they are pressed to implement new instructional approaches in order to raise student achievement. This dissertation contributes to the literature by examining in-service teacher development from three different angles---educational policy, school leadership, and teacher practice.;Using the Schools and Staffing Survey, this dissertation's first study uses state fixed-effect regression models to examine the relationship between consequential accountability policies and teacher participation in formal professional development. The main finding of this study is that these policies were not associated with an increase in teacher participation in content-focused professional development activities.;Using interview data from 18 new school principals, this dissertation's second study focuses on how new principals conceive of their role in supporting teacher development and how those conceptions change during their first year on the job. It finds that principals began the year with differing conceptions of their role, but increasingly relied on establishing an infrastructure to support instructional improvement. However, the consequential interaction between principal practice and schools' organizational contexts was evident by the end of the year, with principals reporting more or less success in supporting teacher development based on whether their approach complemented or conflicted with their school's organizational context.;Finally, this dissertation's third study uses teacher survey data from a mid-sized urban school district to examine teacher practice by conducting a comprehensive examination of the system of supports that may impact teacher practice, including formal and job-embedded learning opportunities, organizational conditions, and school leadership. This study finds that schools' organizational conditions and school leadership most clearly and consistently differentiated schools in this district. Additionally, these measures of school context were associated with teachers' ratings of the quality and impact of their learning opportunities.