Teacher & Policy Alignment: A Phenomenological Study Highlighting Title I High School Teachers’ Professional Development Experiences

Abstract

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explicate how teachers at one Title I high school in a large urban school district in the Southwest perceive and describe their professional development (PD) experiences. Findings indicate that teachers’ experiences of PD do not align with high quality PD requirements stipulated by federal law and state policies. Teachers’ articulated hopes for what PD “should†be, however, do align with federal law and state policies. Findings have implications for further evaluation of educational policy implementation gaps in Title I schools, along with changes to Title I requirements in states granted Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) flexibility waivers from the 2014 targets set by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001.