Search

Purpose: Alongside the inequities surfaced by COVID-19, a confluence of demographic and policy-related shifts over the last few decades has elevated the education of multilingual learners (MLs) in state education agency (SEA) leaders' work. This study employs an ecological perspective to examine how SEA leaders promote social justice policy implementation in their efforts to uphold MLs' civil rights under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Research Methods: Given its embeddedness in a research-practice partnership (RPP) that emphasizes integration of researchers' expertise with SEA leaders' real-world knowledge, the study employs a participatory research approach. Drawing on 23 semistructured interviews with SEA leaders and 20 hours of observations during RPP meetings, the authors engaged in an iterative analysis process involving coding, memoing, and extensive member checking. Findings: Findings show the dual roles that leaders played to uphold the spirit of civil rights law across local education agencies (LEAs) and within SEAs, and they highlight the structural, cultural, and political dynamics that operated to enable or constrain this work. The study also reveals that cross-state collaboration may be a powerful mechanism for upholding ML civil rights in ways that go beyond compliance toward transformation and social justice. Implications: Although ESSA expanded the role of the SEA in policy implementation, little attention has been given to supporting state-level organizational development. Our findings suggest the need to allocate resources to support SEA capacity development. Such support is ever more critical as state systems work to develop coherent and aligned supports in response to COVID-19-related disparities.

Although social ties are a necessary condition for social capital, there is a dearth of research on the factors associated with the existence of such ties among school staff. Using a mixed-methods approach, we examined the role of both formal organizational infrastructure and individual characteristics in shaping advice and information interactions about instruction among school staff within and between schools. Our findings from social-network models showed that, while individual characteristics were associated with within- and between-school ties, aspects of the formal school organization had larger effects. Moreover, having a subject-specific leadership position most strongly predicted between-school ties. Our analysis of interview data supported and extended these findings, showing that leadership positions worked in tandem with other aspects of the organizational infrastructure, such as organizational routines, to influence school staff members' interactions about instruction.