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This paper analyzes data from Native American students' attainment in a first-semester Spanish language course at an indigenous-serving institution before, during, and after the pandemic. The gap between Native American and non-Native American students increased during the first post-pandemic semester to the point that just one out of 11 Native Americans passed the course in the fall of 2021. After that, the gap between Native American and non-Native American students gradually narrowed until reaching the lowest failing grades of 23% in the spring 2023. In my teaching, Native American students benefit from a classic teaching style involving longer lecture time, monitored note-taking, consistent attendance requirements, in-person communication, and clearly communicated differentiation strategies for grading. This may align with the cycle of learning outlined by Benally (1994): Nitsáhákees (Thinking), Nahat'á (Planning), Iiná (Living) and Sihasin (Assuring). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inherent in every clinical preceptor's role is the ability to understand the learning needs of individual trainees, enabling them to meet their potential. Competency-based medical education frameworks have been developed to this end, but efforts to identify behaviours and activities that define competence are based on mapping knowledge, skills and ability, which can be difficult to integrate into a comprehensive picture of who the trainee is becoming. Professional identity formation, in contrast, prioritizes attention to who trainees are becoming, but provision of detailed guidance to preceptors on how to best support this form of development is challenging. The tension that results limits our ability to optimally support learners as strengths in competency development may mask professional identity development gaps and vice versa. To address this tension, this paper examines how the theory of threshold concepts – troublesome ideas that, once appreciated, fundamentally change how you understand and approach a particular activity – can shine light on professional identity formation and its relationship with developing competence. The recognition and identification of threshold concepts is offered as a means to improve our ability to identify, discuss and support behaviours and actions that impact the learner's capacity to act competently as they develop their identity at various stages of training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Closing the achievement gap for minority students in higher education requires addressing the lack of belonging these students experience. This paper introduces a psychological intervention that strategically targets key elements within the learning environment to foster the success of minority students. The intervention sought to enhance Palestinian minority student's sense of belonging by increasing the presence of their native language. We tested the effectiveness of the intervention in two field experiments in Israel (n > 20,000), at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when all classes were held via Zoom. Lecturers in the experimental condition added a transcript of their names in Arabic to their default display (English/Hebrew only). Our findings revealed a substantial and positive impact on Palestinian student's sense of belonging, class participation, and overall grades. In experiment 1, Palestinian student's average grade increased by 10 points. In experiment 2, there was an average increase of 4 points among Palestinian students' semester grade. Our intervention demonstrates that small institutional changes when carefully crafted can have a significant impact on minority populations. These results have significant implications for addressing educational disparities and fostering inclusive learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses critical policy analysis to investigate how the concept of equity has been co-opted to promote a neoliberal agenda in education reforms in Manitoba. Early provincial reform documents contained a narrow definition of equity focused primarily on closing achievement gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. These reform documents were rejected by the public, in part due to concerns about equity. The Manitoba Education Action Plan was introduced in 2022, which more explicitly focused on achieving equity as part of the education reform process. However, the framing of equity in the Action Plan was narrow, emphasizing individualism rather than a more systemic pursuit of equity. While some recommended actions in the Action Plan have promoted a more inclusive and culturally responsive education system, other actions have advanced a neoliberal agenda focused on work-readiness and accountability, while actions to remove barriers to education have been undertaken with limited urgency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calculus continues to be an important topic of discussion among mathematics education researchers given how it often acts as a gatekeeper for students in STEM. In their extensive 2017 review of calculus literature, Larsen and colleagues identified two main areas of applied research that had largely been neglected: research related (1) to efforts to improve calculus teaching and learning and (2) to equity and social justice. In this review we investigate how scholars have answered this call by reviewing recent literature related to these two themes. First we identified some promising intervention studies that investigated changes at the course level (e.g., calculus courses intended for engineering students) and at the level of specific calculus topics (e.g. using digital tools to help students understand the Fundamental Theorem). Second, we identified several studies on diversity, equity, and inclusion. We found that some studies in this collection still approached this research through traditional methods (e.g., so called achievement gaps) but we also identified promising new directions for research in which scholars utilize critical theories and provide counter-narratives that highlight the strengths of calculus students from historically marginalized groups. We conclude our review by discussing future directions we hope to see in the field that we argue will strengthen current work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the popular and academic literature on the problems of the so-called attention economy, the cost of attention grabbing, sustaining, and immersing digital medias has been addressed as if it touched all people equally. In this paper I ask whether everyone has the same resources to respond to the recent changes in their stimulus environments caused by the attention economy. I argue that there are not only differences but disparities between people in their responses to the recent, significant increase in the degree and persuasiveness of digital distraction. I point toward individual variance in an agent’s top-down and bottom-up attention regulation, and to further inequality-exacerbating variance in active participation on the internet and in regulating reward-seeking behaviors on the internet. Individual differences in these areas amount to disparities because they have been found to be connected to socioeconomic background factors. I argue that disparities in responding to digital distraction threaten fair equality of opportunity when it comes to digital distraction in the classroom and that they may lead to an unequal contribution of achievements that require complex cognition by people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an intervention study in the teaching of fraction concepts at a village school in Hong Kong. The classes consisted of 60 Grade three students with different cultural backgrounds, including African, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Nepalese, and Pakistani. The study represents one of the relatively few studies that investigate the effectiveness of storytelling in teaching mathematics to ethnic minority (EM) students in the East Asian context. The quantitative analysis in a pre/post-test intervention/control group design shows reduction in achievement gap between EM students in rural settings and their Chinese peers in urban districts, including concepts such as part–whole interpretation, fraction language, and mathematics vocabulary. Analysis of classroom discourse based on the culturally responsive mathematics teaching (CRMT) framework reveals the multimodal features of storytelling provide greater access for EM students in acquiring language-related conceptualizations of fractions. Based on our analysis, we argue that mathematics teaching is inseparable from language teaching, which is often ignored or not planned explicitly in the lesson. Storytelling integrates language with mathematics content authentically and allows students to cope with the language demands in learning mathematics and to encounter the mathematics in real-world context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study contributes to the research on ethnic educational inequality, by deepening the current understanding of education initiatives organised by the ethnic‐cultural minoritised communities most affected by these inequalities. A univariate analysis was performed on data from an original survey conducted in Flanders, in which 816 teachers and 3037 pupils from 60 primary schools were asked about, among other things, their experience with and their perceptions of these educational initiatives. The results of this analysis show that these community‐based education initiatives are widely attended by ethnic minority youth, but also that teachers in mainstream schools are rarely informed or even aware of the existence of these initiatives, or the important role they play in their pupils' lives. The broader social and scientific implications are discussed in this paper, as little to no similar larger‐scale research exists that maps the relationship between these community‐based education initiatives and mainstream educational institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sociolinguistic context in Azerbaijan today is one in which massive second language learning is taking place. More than a hundred thousand students in Azerbaijan study in Russian immersion schools. The motivation for this research originates from the desire to understand if those students benefit from Russian language education and how challenging it is for Azerbaijani speaking students to learn academic content in the second language. With this study, we attempt to compare the academic achievement of Azerbaijani speaking and Russian speaking students immersed in the Russian language. The aim of surveying students of Russian-medium instruction was to understand if there was an achievement gap between students whose home language was Russian and those whose home language was Azerbaijani. A self-administered survey was conducted among the Russian-taught 7th and 10th grade students across schools in Baku. The results are presented in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of family trajectories during childhood in explaining inequalities by maternal education in children's math and reading skills using harmonized, longitudinal, and nationally representative surveys, which follow children over the course of primary and lower secondary school in four high‐income countries (England, France, Germany, and the United States). As single parenthood and family transitions are more likely among less educated parents and are associated with fewer resources for children, we explore whether growing up outside a stable two‐parent family mediates educational inequalities in math and reading scores. Results show a strong educational gradient in family trajectories in the four countries, but this varies by child age and by country. Children who experience a family transition record lower test scores, although the magnitude differs by the type of postseparation arrangements. Overall, family trajectories are strongly associated with children's math and reading scores but, because of the importance of selectivity in family trajectories, they play only a modest role in explaining the skills gaps by maternal education, considerably less than determinants such as income. The penalties associated with not living within a stable two‐parent family are always larger in the United States and England than in France and Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cacao swollen shoot disease (CSSD) caused by complexes of cacao swollen shoot badnaviruses (family Caulimoviridae, genus Badnavirus) remains highly prevalent and devastating in West Africa. The disease continues to impact substantially on cacao yield loss, cacao tree mortality, and decline in foreign exchange income from cacao bean sales. Currently, the disease is estimated to have a prevalence rate of over 30% in Ghana, as assessed in the ongoing third country-wide surveillance program. Although achievements from past research interventions have greatly elucidated the etiology, biology, epidemiology, diagnostics, and management of the disease, there are some outstanding knowledge gaps. The role of these information gaps and their effect on CSSD epidemiology and prevalence remain unanswered. This paper summarizes existing scientific knowledge from past research achievements that have provided elucidation on CSSD epidemiology, management options, and guided future research. The discussion highlights the need for multidisciplinary research with modern tools and institutional collaborators to holistically bring clarity on knowledge gaps on pathogen biology, virus–host-–vector interactions, role of environmental and soil nutrient effects on CSSD severity, evolution pattern, role of alternative hosts on virus species diversity, vector population dynamics, and their overall impact on CSSD prevalence and integrated management in cacao plantations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Factors other than economic development account for disparities between rich and poor countries' levels of educational achievement. Gender-based violence includes brittleness and hostility that have widened the achievement gap between boys and girls. The intersectionality of violence against women and girls made it to be a multifaceted and multidimensional phenomenon that affects almost every aspect of individual life, including personal and intellectual development which education as society's basic social institution served. Though, there is no gain in saying that gender violence has no implications on education at all levels. This paper examines gender-related violence and its implications on girl-child education in some selected displaced person camps in Maiduguri. A total of 403 respondents were conveniently selected across displaced persons camps in Maiduguri. However, interviews and questionnaires were used as instruments for data collection and both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for data analysis. It was revealed that the majority of respondents thought that the magnitude of gender-related violence in displaced person camps in Maiduguri was very immense with detrimental consequences on displaced person's well-being and the school being among the danger zone for gender violence. The result of the correlation analysis revealed that there is a moderate positive relationship between forceful reiteration, blackmail, degrading, and blame games from/by parents/guardians and gender-based violence indicating that an increase in these factors is found to be associated with gender-based violence. This paper suggested community education on the negative gender stereotypes through community workshops, educational and empowerment programs, and localized campaigns to dismantle harmful gender stereotypes that exacerbate violence against women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What managers know about leadership (e.g., conceptual and procedural knowledge) does not necessarily predict what they do (applied knowledge) in organizations. This research explores the leadership knowing–doing gap, which we define as a discrepancy between managers' leadership knowing and the extent to which they transfer it into leadership doing. Taking a phenomenological approach, we explore how and why managers experience the leadership knowing–doing gap, analyzing 65 critical incidents from interviews with 22 managers in leadership roles across various organizational levels in the United Kingdom. We present the leadership knowing–doing gap as a multifaceted, dynamic, and complex experience involving cognitive, affective, and behavioral elements. We discuss how these elements interplay in influencing the dynamics of creating or widening the gap on the one hand, and preventing or closing the gap on the other hand. We shed light on factors that influence the leadership knowing–doing gap: motivation, prioritization, and confidence to enact leadership. We also highlight the role of context in leadership knowing–doing discrepancies. Our definition and proposed framework offer a conceptualization that advances understanding of the leadership knowing–doing gap. We end with our theoretical contributions and practical implications for both management learning and leadership development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chelwa, Maboshe, and Hamilton's paper explores the racial wealth gap in the United States and South Africa, highlighting the racialized dimensions of economic inequality that emerged from chattel slavery and apartheid. The authors argue that orthodox economic explanations for the racial wealth gap are inadequate and that education does not reduce inequality but rather reflects existing inequality. They critique methodological individualism and emphasize the role of structural constraints and white supremacy in perpetuating wealth inequality. The paper calls for structural interventions that address the role of social differences and identities in generating inequality. [Extracted from the article]

Computer-based testing (CBT) is becoming an increasingly popular format of assessment in educational settings. If students face a digital divide in terms of access to computers at school and at home, CBT may exacerbate measured student achievement gaps. In this paper, we use the rollout of CBT in South Carolina starting in 2015 to investigate its effect on measured student performance. We link student-level test scores and poverty measures to the share of students taking CBT in a grade of a school and show that CBT has a significant negative impact on test scores of multiple subjects. The negative impact is not uniform across student subgroups but rather particularly large for students in poor households. There is little evidence that the effect fades as students and schools become more experienced with computerized testing. These results suggest that the testing mode change might have distributional consequences. However, we do find a smaller effect in schools where technology is more readily available, implying that school-level investments could mitigate the effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over a century, since Aboriginal children were permitted to access mainstream Australian schools, there has been a significant gap in academic achievement between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. Community engagement by schools is recognised as a key factor in Aboriginal student success, but school approaches to community engagement remain inconsistent and driven by deficit thinking. As part of the Aboriginal Voices Project, this paper explores community engagement at six New South Wales (NSW) public school sites and applies Decolonising Race Theory (DRT) as a critical Indigenous lens to interpret and understand the challenges that students, families, and schools face within their relationships. While we find evidence of school–community partnerships that prioritise Indigenous healing, for the schools in this paper, there is a complexity within relationships with community that reflects the interaction between assimilationist positioning of Aboriginal students that often contains positive and negative elements simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically analyzes gap discourses in student learning, starting from the achievement gap, education debt, and opportunity gaps, applying the lens of coloniality, racial-capitalism, and modernity (CRCM). Gap discourses are the prevalent rationale behind educational policies and school reforms globally. Specifically in the United States, achievement gap discourses contribute substantially to the educational framework that minoritized students (students of color) are inherently – intellectually and academically – behind White students. This paper will show the pervasive power of achievement gap discourses and their influence on school policy, practices, and norms. Additionally, we highlight how some of the most formidable achievement gap critiques fail to grasp the power of gap discourses. In some cases, these critiques end up reifying White supremacy ideologies. We propose a decoloniality framework or a layered and multi-disciplinary response to help re-think the entire gap discourses informed by White supremacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of 12 years of data from studying the teaching of econometrics. The first course on the topic of econometrics has always been a challenging course for both students and instructors. Students come from different quantitative backgrounds, and mostly with the prejudice that this is one of the most challenging courses in their academic career. We showed that using Classroom Response Systems (CRSs) such as polls closes the achievement gap between students from higher and lower quantitative levels. Besides students' performance, we also investigated instructor performance through teaching and course evaluations utilizing data from 38 classes over the course of 12 years. We showed that the instructor performance is higher under the in-class modality compared to the online modality and showed that this gap in performance between the two modalities widens as students' grades improve; a positive association between grades and instructor performance under the in-class modality exists; however, the association is negative under the online modality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment plays a vital role in English language learning as it helps students recognize their weak and strong points. Two main types of assessment are dynamic assessment (DA) and static assessment (SA) that their effects have not been examined on Iraqi EFL students' resilience, burnout, positive orientation (PO), and language academic achievement yet. Therefore, this research aims to close this gap. To do so, sixty intermediate EFL students were selected and divided into DA and SA groups to do so. The two groups were then given pretests on the four dependent variables. Subsequently, one group was taught ten reading literary texts with 100 new words using DA, whereas the other group was taught identical materials using SA. After the 8-week course, both groups took the post-tests on resilience, burnout, PO, and academic performance. The study's findings showed that the DA group did better than the SA group on the four post-tests. It can be concluded that using DA with the support of literary texts can produce positive effects in EFL classes. The current study has consequences for researchers, students, English instructors, and other stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous literature reported that Black students receive out-of-school suspensions (OSSs) and expulsions at disproportionately higher rates and have lower test scores than White students. This study provides recent evidence on the relation between racial disparities in discipline and in achievement, with particular focus on achievement gains, in schools across the nation. We link school-level discipline data in 2017–2018 from the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) to student-level assessment data from NWEA. Leveraging assessment data in the fall, winter, and spring for 1,308,004 students in grades 6–8 in 6,841 schools, this is the first study to estimate the association between exclusionary discipline and within-year academic gains. We report two main findings. First, Black-White suspension gaps and achievement gaps persist (correlation=.15 for math,.19 for reading) in the vast majority of schools in 2017–2018 despite the announcement of many reforms in school discipline practices. Second, Black-White disparities in exclusionary discipline rates are associated with lower learning rates during the school year for Black students in math but there is no association for reading. These findings point to discipline disparity as a key factor contributing to the expansion of Black-White achievement gaps during the school year reported in the extant literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to graduate as professional engineers in Australia, engineering students undertake internships as part of their degree programmes. The heart of a productive internship programme is the relationship between the workplace supervisor and the student, yet there are significant gaps in the knowledge about the nature and type of professional learning that takes place for industry supervisors. The aim of this research is thus to develop a clearer understanding of their practices and perceptions of their student supervision, and the types of learning that take place. This study was conducted with industry supervisors of students from the Faculty of Engineering and IT in an Australian university. It adopted a qualitative research approach using semi-structured interviews and an online survey. The data were analysed through the lens of practice theory perspectives. Our results show that learning was generally confined to the learning of students. Supervisors generally did not position themselves as potential learners in the internship experiences. The deeper understanding gained from this study calls for more purposeful, relational and values-based learning practices in supervisor-student interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The academic achievement gap in the USA persists, despite significant effort made to close it. This has led many researchers to investigate individual and social characteristics that reliably predict academic success in the face of adversity. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate six models with the aim of clarifying the interrelationships between dispositional, social, and school-based social protective factors and academic achievement with 535 college undergraduate students (mean age = 22.45). Determination, self-esteem, self-concept, and connection to school were found to have a positive relationship to academic achievement. Inconsistent with a large body of past research, several negative relationships were found in models involving self-esteem and self-concept between protective factors. Significant, cross-system, relationships were evident for protective factors. Results of this study provide support for the use of the social ecological model of resilience in academic achievement research so that interventions can be developed to help all students succeed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the global shift to home-based learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the significance of parental involvement (PI) in public education became increasingly evident. This study investigates PI in the Philippines, a developing country that experienced the longest period of school closure. Employing an ecological perspective on PI, this research analyzes responses from parents nationwide, as captured in a survey conducted by the Movement for Safe, Equitable, Quality, and Relevant Education at the end of 2020. The findings underscore the impact of the country's disadvantaged PI at the exosystem and macrosystem levels and the fragility of family-school connections at the mesosystem level. Despite the lack of adequate preparation and resources, parents strained to make do with whatever they had. While acknowledging the myriad difficulties, Filipino parents expressed confidence and hope that their children would make it. Notably, no widespread school dropouts were reported throughout the period of the pandemic. This study supports the relevance of employing an ecological framework for understanding PI in a developing country where the primary emphasis is ensuring fundamental access to education rather than solely narrowing the achievement gap (PI framework for developed countries). This article recommends the development of appropriate policies and programs that build on the Filipino hopeful kind of PI and strengthen collective effort at the mesolevel. Additionally, it emphasizes the need to integrate PI topics into teacher education curricula, recognizing parents' potential to fill gaps in the absence of strong government support and limited resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines performance differences among demographic groups on the ETS Major Field Test in Business. The study employs the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique to analyze the test score differentials by gender and racial minority status. This technique decomposes the difference into two parts: an endowment effect (or explained portion) and a returns effect (or unexplained portion). The results demonstrate that the endowment effect fully explains the gap between white and racial minority students but virtually none of the gender gap. This large unexplained gap between male and female test performance suggests the need for further study of potential gender bias of the exam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is key to the structural integration of immigrants and their children. While research indicates that educational inequalities by migration background are a serious issue, relatively little is known about when, how and why they develop. The current paper adds to the literature by investigating to what extent achievement gaps by migration background develop during the primary school period. Drawing on data from a national longitudinal study of children in Ireland (N = 7577) and using structural equation modelling, it presents a path model of host language achievement. The results indicate that a large part of the disadvantages in English language achievement by migration background during primary school could be attributed to achievement gaps that already existed before school. Moreover, given earlier achievement, the effect of having a migration background was often insignificant or even positive, suggesting that disparities remain relatively stable or even decrease during the period of formal schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the potential effects of the lack of diversity in children's books on young readers, with an emphasis on the Latine/o/a/x community. Utilizing personal experience, market statistics, case studies, and educational research, this paper provides a holistic understanding of the sociological and psychological damage that can be caused when children do not see themselves positively represented in the media they consume. Whether through a complete lack of representation, negative stereotypes, or issues of authenticity, this paper explores why and how these issues directly impact a child's self-esteem. In an effort to combat this issue and create substantive change, potential solutions are suggested and encouraged to readers from all walks of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite extensive research on attainment grouping, the impact of attainment grouping on pupil attainment remains poorly understood and contested. This paper presents evidence from a study conducted with 2944 12–13 year olds, from 76 schools in England, who were allocated to between‐class attainment groups ('setting') in English and mathematics over the first 2 years of secondary schooling. After controlling for prior attainment, pupils in the top set performed significantly better than pupils in the middle and bottom sets in both English and mathematics. The findings indicate a widening gap in attainment, especially in the case of English. Findings, especially in the case of mathematics, provide more evidence of a relative benefit for pupils placed in top sets than a relative detriment for those in bottom sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to better understand the importance of a long-erased border between two empires that once partitioned Poland and its ongoing effect on regional educational achievement. Previous research has indicated that inherited norms towards education may explain the observed gap in the achievement of students in the former Austrian and Russian partitions of Poland. Findings suggest that although a gap in favour of the former Austrian partition does indeed exist in four school subjects, there is no convincing evidence of the causal effect of historically rooted norms on the achievements of today's students. If such an effect exists, it is probably indirect and works through the accumulated educational attainments of adult generations and quality of instruction rather than by directly influencing the attitudes of today's students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to review some of our meta-analysis findings that apply to controversial issues within the field of specific learning disabilities (SLD). Four issues are discussed: (1) What is the role of intelligence, (2) Does response to instruction (RtI) reduce the incidence of children with SLD, (3) What role do cognitive processes play in identification and treatment outcomes for children with SLD, and (4) What is the best instructional model for children with SLD? The presentation provided eight general conclusions based on a synthesis of the research literature. Although children with SLD are responsive to evidence-based instructional practices, such practices have as yet been able to eliminate the gap in achievement with average-performing peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools have the potential to provide a place of education and sanctuary for children and young people of all backgrounds. The rise in mental health problems in children and young people in the wake of the COVID‐19 pandemic, particularly in relation to growing inequities, means that identifying ways in which schools can help respond to this growing mental health crisis demands urgent attention. This paper reports on case studies carried out in two London comprehensive schools, exploring how aspects of school culture impact (both positively and negatively) on student mental health. Methods comprised in‐depth interviews with school staff and parents, focus groups with students and documentary analysis of relevant materials. Fieldwork was conducted during spring 2021 as schools were returning to face‐to‐face learning following national periods of lockdown. Our study shows how schools might attempt to drive positive mental health outcomes through aspects of school culture and uses a system framework to explore complexities around cause and effect in this area. Key findings include the considerable differences in school mental health provision, challenges in the identification of student mental health needs and the importance of recognising how the mental health of teachers must be considered alongside that of students. Overall, we highlight particular dilemmas of the post‐lockdown era that our findings indicate for the education sector, and suggest there may be value in reframing the apparent conflict between 'attainment gaps' and personal development, moving towards an educational approach with greater complementarity of these aims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many schools face barriers that hinder access to services, including limited funding and staff trained in evidence-based interventions. In particular, rural schools must provide targeted intervention to promote academic growth and narrow achievement gaps despite these barriers. One seldom-considered solution to ease the resource costs in the provision of intervention services is to provide high school students with the training and supervision necessary to carry them out. Thirty elementary students participated in an explicit timing intervention administered by either a high school student or graduate student in school psychology. A 2 × 2 mixed factorial ANOVA found significant growth from pre- to post-test with no effects of interventionist education level. These findings imply that school-based interventionists may be able to expand the reach of their practice by recruiting and training older students to carry out interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study aimed to explore the approaches used by Black principal supervisors to professionally develop Black principals in public K–12 settings. Using a phenomenological approach and thematic analysis design, I examined the philosophy and strategies employed by 11 experienced Black principal supervisors in their work to assist Black principals in navigating the U.S. public school system and best ensure the success of their students and staff. Participants were recruited through professional organization networks and participated in virtual one-on-one interviews that were transcribed and analyzed to identify commonalities and challenges in the experiences of Black principal supervisors. Eight themes were identified and appear to be consistent with the literature on principal supervision in alignment with critical race theory and adaptive leadership, each of which helped to guide the study design. Results provide a blueprint for Black school leadership in a way that promotes excellence and transforms schools. Plain language summary: This study looked into how Black supervisors help Black principals get better at their jobs in public schools for kids from kindergarten to 12th grade. I focused on understanding the beliefs and methods of 11 experienced Black supervisors who guide Black principals through the challenges of the U.S. public school system to help their schools and everyone in them succeed. These supervisors were found through professional groups and shared their experiences during online interviews. After recording and studying these interviews, I found eight main themes that match what other studies have found about supervising principals, especially when considering the importance of race and flexible leadership. The findings offer a plan for how Black leaders in schools can achieve greatness and make positive changes in their schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper investigates how the COVID-19 school closure has affected the gender gap in grade-8 students' performance and what are the drivers behind this. By analysing four different countries (i.e., the Russian Federation, Slovenia, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates), the paper represents the first study addressing the issue from a comparative perspective. Methods: The study uses data from the Responses to Educational Disruption Survey (REDS) survey, which comprises international comparable data on how students approached remote learning during the COVID-19 disruption. The extent of the gender gap is estimated by employing an ordered logit model, while the Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) decomposition method is used to analyse the different potential channels that could account for the gender gap during COVID-19. Results: The empirical results reveal that, during the COVID-19 school closure, girls tended to perceive changes in their learnings less favourably than boys, both in terms of improvement in self-perceived learning and self-reported improvement in grades—with odds of a more affirmative response between 20 and 25% lower for girls relative to boys. The main drivers explaining this gender gap are physical activity and psychological distress of students during the COVID-19 disruption, as well as the perceived family climate. Conclusions: The paper shows systematic gender differences in how students perceived their educational outcomes changed due to the COVID-19 disruption, providing evidence on the factors driving these differences. The findings could be employed to design policy actions aimed at increasing gender equality in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do early childhood investments for low-income children narrow the academic achievement gap in elementary school? I study this question in the context of Head Start by using a new variation in federal funding expansions across counties in the 1990s. Using student-level data from Texas, I find that exposure to more generous Head Start funding during childhood significantly improved test scores, particularly for low-income Hispanic students. Hispanics benefited from funding expansions through increased access to Head Start and improvements in program inputs. These advances enhanced their language proficiency and reduced the likelihood of their special education needs during elementary school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether entrepreneurship training subsequently impacts artists' labor market outcomes. Collecting data from major universities, we find that only 9.7% have arts entrepreneurship certificates; just 11.4% have any required arts entrepreneurship classes. Analyzing data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and controlling for demographic factors, fine arts graduates are 1.3% less likely to be employed and earn 8.7% lower annual earnings. However, individuals with both arts and entrepreneurial business training earn more and offset the earnings disadvantage by roughly a half. These results underscore the importance of integrating art entrepreneurship education with the sustainability of the arts sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing literature mainly examines the impact of academic self‐efficacy on academic achievement in educational psychology. Much less is known about the relationship between outcome expectations and adolescent academic achievement. This article applies the random intercept model to investigate the association between Chinese adolescent perceived value of effort as outcome expectations and academic achievement and employs the Karlson, Holm, and Breen (KHB) method to examine the underlying mechanisms. Additionally, this paper uses the random coefficient model to explore the heterogeneous association between the perceived value of effort and adolescent academic achievement across families and schools. Based on the Programme for International Students Assessment 2018 (N = 11751; 48.07% females), we found that the adolescent perceived value of effort was significantly and positively correlated with academic achievement. Adolescent educational expectations and academic engagement partially mediated the relationship between the perceived value of effort and academic achievement. Adolescents from disadvantaged families and schools benefited more from the perceived value of effort. These findings enhance existing literature by revealing how the adolescent outcome expectations contribute to academic achievement and provide a scientific basis for bridging the gap in academic achievement between families and schools to promote equity in education. Practitioner points: Adolescent perceived value of effort is positively associated with academic achievement.Adolescent educational expectations and academic engagement partially mediate the relationship between the perceived value of effort and academic achievement.Adolescents from disadvantaged families and schools benefit more from the perceived value of effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors study the distributional consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on employment, both during the onset of the pandemic and over subsequent months. Using cross-sectional and matched longitudinal data from the Current Population Survey, they show that the pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing inequalities. Although employment losses have been widespread, they have been substantially larger—and more persistent—in lower-paying occupations and industries. Hispanics and non-White workers suffered larger increases in job losses, not only because of their over-representation in lower-paying jobs but also because of a disproportionate increase in their job displacement probability relative to non-Hispanic White workers with the same job background. Gaps in year-on-year job displacement probabilities between Black and White workers have widened over the course of the pandemic recession, both overall and conditional on pre-displacement occupation and industry. These gaps are not explained by state-level differences in the severity of the pandemic nor by the associated response in terms of mitigation policies. In addition, evidence suggests that older workers have been retiring at faster rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript reports on the impact of using collaborative digital summary tables on student engagement and learning. First, traditional summary tables were used during two units in seventh-grade life science, then more scaffolded digital collaborative summary tables were used during three additional units. Three-part summative assessment scores were averaged at the end of each unit to analyze the impact on student learning. Compared with traditional summary tables, collaborative digital summary tables increase scaffolding, reflection, and collaboration. This article explains how they function in the classroom to increase learning. The efficacy of collaborative summary tables is shown in improved student scores, especially for students in minority groups. Using summary tables in the classroom has benefits for student engagement and learning, and the achievement gap in the classroom narrows over each unit. The benefits of reflection, scaffolding, and disaggregated instruction in science are also discussed as ways to support student learning and engagement. Overall, collaborative digital summary tables have a powerful impact on student learning and are a useful tool for teachers to increase engagement and academic success in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What drives the entrepreneurial imagination of unknown client markets? Based on a multi-case study of tech entrepreneurs operating out of Boston, this study examines this under-researched question. Findings suggest that tech entrepreneurs imagine unknown client markets in increasingly sophisticated ways, starting from envisioning primary users of the product, to considering multiple parallel client populations, to imagining interdependent client groups using the product in complementary ways. This evolution in thinking seems to be driven by product utility gaps - perceived gaps between the range of product uses and client constellations in which the product can create value. Importantly, at an early stage of the entrepreneurial process, these product utility gaps do not result from market feedback, but from ongoing reciprocal imagination of client markets and underutilized product value. Findings inform research on entrepreneurial imagination and opportunity idea formation, and the strategizing of business ecosystem relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, it was aimed to implement and evaluate an adaptive learning environment (ALE) designed according to the learner characteristics of 4th grade primary school students and integrate educational hypermedia environments with face-to-face teaching. Via a preliminary study carried out in accordance with this purpose, the variables that affect the academic achievement of the students in the primary school social studies course were analyzed, and as a result of this analysis, the design, application, and evaluation criteria of ALE were determined. In our study, which was modeled as an embedded-experimental mixed method, quantitative and qualitative data were obtained using different tools. The analysis of the data revealed that the designed learning environment had a positive effect on students' academic achievements, collaborative learning skills, and, partially, independent learning skills, and it was also effective in closing the achievement gap due to learning and cognitive styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to examine the impact of reduced in-person learning during COVID-19 on students' academic achievement gaps focusing on rural–urban and in-school disparities. To this end, first, we investigated the regional disparity of student performance between Seoul and Gangwon, representative areas of urban and rural regions in South Korea, using t test analysis. Second, we conducted a regression analysis to analyze how the number of in-school days is associated with the student performance gap by controlling the regions. Our findings from the two analyses can be summarized as follows: First, we observed a difference in patterns between the two regions. In Seoul, student performance was polarized at the two ends of the grade spectrum, whereas in Gangwon Province, achievement declined overall between pre- and post-COVID-19. Second, in the case of Seoul, the proportion of mid-range achievement students decreased after COVID-19, whereas in Gangwon Province, COVID-19 did not have a significant effect on students' B, C, and D grades. Third, regardless of region, more in-person learning was associated with a higher portion of mid-range grades. Based on the findings, we suggested several policy implementations to cope with student performance gaps, which can facilitate the governmental response to nationwide crises that may emerge in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used the Stanford education data archive (SEDA) data to examine the heterogeneity among urban school districts in the United States. The SEDA 2.1 includes data sets on students' mathematics (Math) and English language arts (ELA) achievement from 2008 to 2014 at the district level. Growth mixture modeling was used to uncover the underlying growth trajectories for urban student achievement from the third to the eighth grade. Two and three growth patterns were observed for ELA and Math achievement, respectively, over time. We used the critical theoretical framework QuantCrit to centralize race in the analysis of the data and shared implications for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the effect of changing schools on academic achievement. Using representative data on the educational trajectories of 17,000 Swiss lower secondary students and national assessment data at the end of compulsory schooling, we estimate the potential individual achievement gaps caused by a school change. While the overall effect is surprisingly small and statistically insignificant, we find a significant, but also small, negative effect for boys. These effects quickly diminish one year after the change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Graduation rates show that only 16.4% of students with disabilities (SWD) are likely to complete a bachelor's degree compared to 34% of students without disabilities (SWOD; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015). The purpose of the current study was to explore disability-related equity gaps in a post-secondary educational institution to determine which general education courses may be difficult for students with disabilities. Methods: A disproportionate impact method was used to identify equity gaps among SWDs and SWODs enrolled in a post-secondary academic institution (dataset were grades collected by the University's Institutional Research Department as a part of Equity Gap Report). This process included identifying the outcome (i.e., final grade) and comparing the percentage earning an A, B, or C (70% or higher in the course) for SWDs with and SWODs. Findings: Students enrolled with the Disability Support Services (DSS) experienced equity gaps in several general education courses in comparison to students not enrolled. In some, chemistry, algebra, and introduction to psychology courses demonstrated the greatest equity gaps for students enrolled in DSS. Smaller equity gaps appeared in foundational biology and communication courses. Conclusions: Despite efforts to include SWDs in general education classrooms, the present study reveals that large gaps remain and contribute to inequitable outcomes for this population. The large achievement gap between students with and their peers without disabilities is an indication that these students still have limited access to the instruction that they need to succeed in school. It is likely that the persistence of the gap reflects a need for students with disabilities be accorded access to individualized instruction especially in the science related subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper illustrates the teaching approaches to assessment that foster independent learning in an undergraduate course in the discipline of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. A web‐based circuit simulator of CircuitLab was used to implement some of the laboratory tasks. Practical solutions have been applied to bridge the learning achievement gap between the formative laboratory assessment and the summative examination. To promote creative and independent learning, unique individual self‐discovery projects were given to each student. The projects are generated according to each student's student number in an innovative approach to prevent plagiarism. The scaffolding and self‐discovery lab activities can be modified to be pure online versions, which had been attested in the online course delivery during the COVID‐19 lockdown period in 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian children from regional, rural and remote (RRR) areas exhibit lower educational outcomes than their peers in metropolitan areas. The mechanisms driving the comparatively poorer educational outcomes of children in RRR areas, however, are not well understood. This paper proposes and tests two sets of factors that may be responsible for these disparities: population socio-demographic composition and school climate. Using rich survey and linked administrative data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (n = 9,248 observations), we estimate the relative contribution of these sets of factors to RRR children's disadvantage in NAPLAN numeracy test scores. Our results indicate that both socio-demographic and school climate factors account for part of the educational disparities between children in RRR and metropolitan areas. These findings suggest that hybrid policy approaches that tackle both the social determinants of educational success and use schools as an intervention site are required to close the achievement gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systemic disruptions from COVID-19 have transformed the assessment landscape in Canada and across the world. Alongside repeated shifts to emergency remote teaching, large-scale assessments and summative evaluations were cancelled in many jurisdictions, and repeated concerns were raised about ensuring equity and access to quality education. This paper investigates the rapid – and in many cases innovative – responses teachers offered to these challenges at the height of the pandemic. Drawing on prolonged semi-structured interviews with 17 secondary school teachers in Ontario, Canada, the paper provides a detailed account of Ontario's approach to assessment during COVID-19, exemplified by participants' lived experiences. Results highlight the notion of emergency remote assessment, the vital role of assessment in stemming widening equity and well-being gaps, and emerging consequences from this period. These data offer critical insights into the future of our forever-changed education landscape, and position classroom assessment as a priority player in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competition for educational resources between local citizens and new arrivals in receiving cities can lead to severe school segregation, thereby generating great educational inequality. In this paper, we focus on a special form of segregation in urban China that is based on the holding of a local hukou, which is a crucial criterion for school enrollment. Using data from a nationally representative school-based student panel survey, we find that migrants are disproportionally sorted into low-quality schools, which contributes to a sizeable achievement gap between migrants and locals. We further adopt school and individual fixed effect models to disentangle the influence of peer exposure from that of school quality and find no adverse impact of migrant concentration per se on student outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]