Date of Conferral

7-30-2026

Date of Award

July 2026

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Danette Brown

Abstract

Urban Title I schools commonly experience teacher shortages, prompting principals to hire teachers to teach content areas for which they are not certified. The problem addressed in this study was that 8% of the teachers within a large urban school district in Georgia were teaching out-of-field. Guided by Elmore’s conceptual framework of knowledge, skills, and dispositions, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the factors contributing to principals’ decisions to recommend hiring out-of-field teachers in urban Title I schools in Georgia and to examine the support available for those teachers to meet certification requirements. Semistructured interviews were conducted with nine teachers who had experience with out-of-field teaching and questionnaires were completed by two principals who had experience hiring and supervising out-of-field teachers in urban Title I schools. Data were analyzed using a priori and open coding to identify themes. For teacher participants, absence of professional support, need for instructional coaches, mentorship, and relevant professional development emerged as themes. Vacancies and staffing shortages were contributing factors to principals’ decisions to hire out-of-field teachers. Results indicate consistent support and targeted professional learning opportunities are imperative to helping out-of-field teachers build skills to meet certification requirements for teaching in urban Title I schools. A 3-day professional development program entitled AP3LE was created to address the areas of need identified by the participants of this study. The study’s implications for positive social change include enhancing school-based support that may strengthen out-of-field teachers’classroom performance in urban Title I schools..

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