Leigh Mesler Parise

Leigh Mesler Parise is a doctoral candidate in Human Development and Social Policy in the School of Education and Social Policy. Advised by James P. Spillane, Leigh's research interests include teacher quality, teacher learning and development, school leadership, and policy implementation. As a mixed methods researcher, she hopes to inform policy by conducting both careful quantitative and qualitative education research. Her dissertation, Examining Teacher Development: An Analysis of Policy, Practice, and School Leadership, explores teacher development from three different angles. Three related studies address (1) teacher practice, by examining the entire system of supports that may impact teacher practice, including the formal and job-embedded learning opportunities, organizational conditions, and leadership activities that support development, (2) educational policy, by analyzing the relationship between school accountability policies and the quantity and usefulness of teachers’ opportunities to learn, and (3) school leadership, by examining the ways in which new school principals conceive of their role in teacher development and how those conceptions change during their first year on the job.