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Emerging research has shown that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the working conditions of educators and led to increased levels of stress, burnout, and turnover. Few studies, however, have examined changes in collegiality during the pandemic despite scholarship noting that educators experienced isolation as support systems weakened and collaboration with colleagues in school settings was reduced. In this essay, we discuss the impacts of the pandemic on educator collegiality by drawing upon survey data gathered from 758 educators in 38 public schools in New York State. Survey results show that COVID-19 related disruptions negatively impacted educators' collegiality although these impacts differed in intensity by educator gender, role, mode of instruction, and years of experience. As educator collegiality is related to a range of positive influences on educators and students and has been shown to potentially mitigate burnout and turnover, it is crucial to better understand the impacts of the pandemic on collegiality and discuss strategies to support educator collegiality in the future.

The growing influence of high-stakes exams has had drastic impacts on English learners and their teachers. The linguistic demands of these exams have harmed English learners' aspirations and attainment, while teachers are pressured to teach to the test and replace critical approaches to language learning with practices designed to encourage rapid language acquisition. Despite their constraining effects, educators, and students often find ways to assert agency and disrupt the hegemony of high-stakes exams. This article draws on ethnographic data gathered over a year in a secondary school in New York State to illustrate the ways in which English learners and their teachers negotiate spaces of agency amid the power of high-stakes exams. These findings illustrate the power and presence of high-stakes exams on English learners while also highlighting the avenues of agency taken by educators and students as they rework aspects of the educational policy through classroom practice.

The last several decades have seen a growth in scholarship and application of culturally responsive and sustaining educational (CRSE) approaches in schools serving youth of color. A growing body of research has shown how CRSE serves as an effective strategy to engage students of color, combat pernicious stereotypes, and improve academic outcomes. Notwithstanding these important contributions, CRSE scholarship and practice have not fully explored the significance of social class, despite its long-standing correlation with academic performance, deep connections to identity, and relationship to race and racialization. Drawing on lessons gleaned from ethnographic research, which has demonstrated the importance of social-class analyses, this essay calls for a greater emphasis on and recognition of class in CRSE methods and application. As one of the most prominent and useful sets of pedagogical strategies used in education today, CRSE stands to benefit from a wider inclusion of social class, an addition that would have important ramifications for practitioners and scholars seeking to effectively educate historically marginalized populations. A deeper understanding of the significance of class could also help educators and scholars avoid perpetuating pernicious cultural stereotypes, such as the model minority myth and the culture of poverty. However, a class-conscious addition to CRSE must also maintain its anti-deficit perspective to avoid essentialist views about working-class youth.

Despite recent gains, Latinx students still lag behind other subgroups on measures of academic attainment. Explanations for this gap have ranged from pernicious deficit ideologies to deterministic frameworks which emphasize differences in human capital. While culturally responsive pedagogies are promising alternatives, there are few studies that provide empirical evidence of their potential. This article addresses this gap by drawing on two qualitative case studies of majority Latinx odds-beating high schools (where Latinx student performance is better than statistically expected). The strategies used by these schools provide useful examples for educators and policymakers seeking to improve academic outcomes among Latinx students.

This ethnographic study explores the complex influence of family members on the educational aspirations of a group of diverse immigrants and refugees in New York State. Although families fostered high educational aspirations in participants, experiences of economic precarity, high-stakes exams, and downward mobility constrained youths' capacity to realize their goals. Despite these challenges, participants demonstrated a high level of determination and commitment to families as they sought to balance familial duties with educational success.

This qualitative interview study investigated principals' discursive frames and communications during the COVID-19 pandemic. The six leader interviews that comprise this study's dataset were drawn from a purposeful sample of schools with variable educator job satisfaction survey results. A combination of deductive and inductive coding of the interview data informed by framing theory was conducted. This analysis revealed that leaders of schools with the least amount of change in educator job satisfaction during the pandemic drew upon diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational frames and used a variety of communication strategies that encouraged collaboration and cooperation. Findings suggest that while all principals in this study shared similar challenges and all increased the frequency of their communications during the pandemic, how principals framed uncertainty, listened to and responded to staff concerns, and communicated using different modes and with different stakeholders contrasted in schools with variable educator job satisfaction changes. This study holds implications for school principal crisis-management communications and future study of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pandemic created a uniquely challenging situation in which educators pursued ways to engage family members. Drawing on interviews and focus groups with educators from six demographically diverse schools in New York State, this qualitative study contributes to emerging scholarship that has begun to document the efforts of educators to engage families during the pandemic. Findings have implications for educators and policymakers seeking to better understand family engagement challenges during the pandemic and offers practical guidance on promising practices educators might use to engage the diverse array of families and children they serve during times of disruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]