{"id":3130,"date":"2023-05-23T18:01:39","date_gmt":"2023-05-23T18:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/education\/?p=3130"},"modified":"2024-03-11T13:47:03","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T13:47:03","slug":"success-story-dr-frank-labanca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/education\/2023\/05\/23\/success-story-dr-frank-labanca\/","title":{"rendered":"Success Story &#8211; Dr. Frank LaBanca"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"envira-caption envira-gallery-captioned-text caption-3127\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3127 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/education\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2023\/05\/Frank-LaBanca-294x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"294\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/education\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2023\/05\/Frank-LaBanca-294x300.jpg 294w, https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/education\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2023\/05\/Frank-LaBanca.jpg 392w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 294px) 100vw, 294px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"RichTextView__text___mbcOP RichTextView__editable___IjfQ8 color_classes__color-regular___oKwXa Text__xxLarge___gGM1S\" data-placeholder=\"Please fill in description\">Dissertation: <span class=\"x_dont-break-out\"><a href=\"https:\/\/westcollections.wcsu.edu\/handle\/20.500.12945\/144\">Impact of Problem Finding on the Quality of Authentic Open Inquiry Science Research Projects<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"envira-caption envira-gallery-captioned-text caption-3127\">Even early in my professional career, I had a strong interest in earning a doctorate degree. Twenty years ago, when I began this journey, it was far less common for practitioners. When I found out about Western Connecticut State University&#8217;s (at the time) new Instructional Leadership program, I knew I had found a perfect match. Many Ed.D. programs have a more general focus on leadership, but WCSU\u2019s focus on instruction is unique and was perfect for me as someone who was dedicated to the &#8220;boots-on-the-ground&#8221; approach to educational improvement. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"envira-caption envira-gallery-captioned-text caption-3127\">The program helped me realize that I could expand my impact on schools with a laser focus on what was actually happening in classrooms and how to become a better teacher as well as support others in the process.Now, as a principal, I use my developed skills and philosophies from my doctoral program to lead innovation and improvement in an urban magnet school. I also am blessed to be part of a close-knit network of educators throughout the region who have graduated from this important, impactful program.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dissertation: Impact of Problem Finding on the Quality of Authentic Open Inquiry Science Research Projects Even early in my professional career, I had a strong interest in earning a doctorate degree. Twenty years ago, when I began this journey, it &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-success-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}