Educational Leaders’ Insights on PBPD, Implementation, and Sustainability Practices of SRSD, a Writing EBP

The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain insights from educational leaders who had participated in a larger study and received extensive practice-based professional development on an evidence-based practice, self-regulated strategy development for informative writing. The participants also previously implemented the self-regulated strategy development strategies with elementary students with high incidence disabilities during a summer tutoring program. The current study included one-on-one video conferencing interviews with six educational leaders: a principal, a complex area specialist, three complex area coaches, and a student services coordinator about their reported impact of the practice-based professional development on implementation of self-regulated strategy development during a regular school year given their current job descriptions. Open coding of the transcripts resulted in five descriptive codes detailing the participants’ intention for enrolling, application of self-regulated strategy development, additional supports, barriers, and the impact of the evidence-based practice. Implications discussed include post-intervention supports needed to help educational leaders guide the sustained implementation of an evidence-based practice for writing instruction.