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Abstract
This study sought to examine why teachers in diverse 9th and 10th grade English classes lacked efficaciousness when differentiating lessons. Participating in a ten-week professionaldevelopment plan, seven teachers attended weekly meetings for half an hour each week, where they were exposed to these strategies and had time to plan with their colleagues to determine how these strategies could be used in their classrooms with their students. This mixed methods study utilized quantitative data through the TSES efficacy survey that was conducted at the beginning and the end of this study, and qualitative data through recorded meetings, observation field notes, and personal interviews. This study sought to answer the following research questions:1. How does comfortability and familiarity with differentiation strategies impact the self-efficacy of teachers to differentiate in their classrooms?2. What specific differentiation strategies will be most effective in allowing for teachers atDHS to build efficacy for differentiating in the classroom?3. What will the action research team learn about the effect of differentiation professionaldevelopment on the self efficacy for differentiating for the teachers in the study?Ultimately, this study determined how a professional development plan directly focusedon differentiation impacted the efficacy of teachers to differentiate in their classrooms.