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A small subset of education studies analyzes school data collected seasonally (separating the summer from the school year). At first, this work was primarily known for documenting learning loss in the summers, but scholars have since recognized that observing how inequality changes between summer and school periods provides leverage for understanding how schools influence inequality. Results based on this analytic technique confirm current views in some ways, but in other ways the patterns challenge existing wisdom. For example, Black/White gaps in math and reading skills often grow faster when school is in versus out, consistent with the view that schools exacerbate racial inequality. But socioeconomic gaps produce the opposite pattern, suggesting that schools are compensatory across this dimension. In this review, I consider the logic behind seasonal research, the empirical patterns it has produced, and the kinds of new questions it motivates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reading trajectory of African Americans males within the PreK-12 special education system has been at the forefront of scholarship. This case study was to understand how Zion's misidentification may have influenced his reading experiences. The inequalities Zion encountered in Special Education are examined through the Critical Race Theory and DisCrit lens. The article is illuminating the racialized impact of special education practices and policies, analyzed through Zion's experiences of receiving services for an emotional/behavioral disability identification rather than receiving specific reading services and accommodations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From late spring of 2020 to the present, the U.S. educational conversation about learning in K-12 public schools during the pandemic has been about the fact that students did not learn as much, widening the achievement gap due to digital learning. Some K-12 public schools and school districts have reported no learning loss. This exploratory study examined elements shared by teachers, administrators, and parents that accounted for potential reasons why these individual K-12 public school districts did not experience the learning loss during digital learning that has been at the center stage of the narrative about educational experiences during the pandemic. Analysis of the results showed four elements that were central to these school districts' experiences: having an instructional framework; determining a clear pedagogical function; connecting technology to the pedagogical function; capitalizing on formative assessments. Data also revealed that the participants tended to believe that a focus on pedagogy before technology integration was crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, policymakers in the U.S. have leveraged accountability policy as a governing tool to lift school performance and close the achievement gap. Accountability become so widespread that it arguably became a "policy paradigm" with the passage of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in 2002. Yet after just 13 years of implementation, policymakers replaced NCLB with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which gave states more control over the policy tools and mechanisms to regulate school improvement. This qualitative project captured the evolution of the accountability paradigm by studying the policy ideas and moral narratives of policy elites in California and Tennessee during the transition period between NCLB and ESSA. The study finds that interview participants legitimized the core design features of ESSA, but attached their underlying worldviews and beliefs to the flexible design features, which created unique accountability models with different institutional arrangements. [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]

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]

Background: STEM achievement gaps affect marginalized students nation-wide. Environmental education (EE) does not currently nor historically represent a wide range of demographic backgrounds, and increasing concerns demonstrate the effects this can have on pedagogy of the field and the success of its students. Purpose: This research focuses on measures being reported by EE organizations in Wisconsin, and nearby regions, in their work to address diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) with consideration to inclusive practices, instructional materials, and overall pedagogy of EE. Methodology/Approach: In 2021, a web-based survey was emailed to 140 EE organization leaders and an updated version was emailed to 112 EE organization leaders in 2023. Responses were analyzed to determine the status of EE across the state and trends across years. Findings/Conclusions: The data does demonstrate a need for equity in EE, specifically supporting students with different learning needs or from underrepresented backgrounds. DEI initiative importance versus resources allocated is disjointed. Lack of consistent collection of demographic data leads EE organizations to fall short of DEI action. Implications: In order to better support learning and positive outcomes, it is significant that environmental educators reevaluate their practices to meet the needs of the growingly diverse students across the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A tool for improving the overall effect and enabling more effective work is skill development. Accelerating globalisation and technological transformation present both difficulties and possibilities for economic growth and job creation. The possibilities of globalisation will be easier for nations with higher and better levels of competency to respond to. When it comes to addressing the skill development of its youth, India has made important advancements. Under the auspices of Skill India, a full-fledged, independent ministry for entrepreneurship and skill development has been established. Through a public–private partnership approach, the government is luring private companies into the training sector. The National Skill Development Corporation was established particularly for this reason. However, as is the case with the bulk of skill development programmes, there is still a weak connection between skill development and career guidance and counselling, not just in India but in many other countries. The influence of the government of India's numerous skill development projects on employment and their difficulties are examined in this article, along with the skill gap in that country. The research discovered that one of the main obstacles to closing the job gap is a lack of skilled and trained workers. Conservative thinking, reluctance to leave, low pay, a lack of standardisation and a lack of emphasis on non-technical skills are the root causes of the skill gap in India, which results in skilled workers being out of work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This longitudinal study examines (a) whether perceptions of ethnic discrimination during the first weeks of college predicted later school belonging among first-year college students of color (N = 638) attending a predominantly White institution (PWI), (b) whether school belonging, in turn, predicted retention to the second year, and (c) whether ethnic identity centrality buffered the effects of discrimination on school belonging and academic retention. Participants completed measures of ethnic discrimination and identity near the beginning of the first semester and school belonging at the end of the semester. Academic data from the fall of the second year were obtained from school records. Tests of moderated mediation revealed that perceptions of discrimination at the beginning of college had an indirect effect on retention in the second year of college, as mediated by lowered school belonging, but only for students with low and moderate (but not high) ethnic identity centrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical evidence suggests children's socio-emotional skills—an important determinant of school achievement—vary according to socioeconomic family background. This study assesses the degree to which differences in socio-emotional skills contribute to the achievement gap between socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged children. We used data on 74 countries from the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment, which contains an extensive set of psychological measures, including growth mindset, self-efficacy, and work mastery. We developed three conceptual scenarios to analyze the role of socio-emotional skills in learning inequality: simple accumulation, multiplicative accumulation, and compensatory accumulation. Our findings are in line with the simple accumulation scenario: Socioeconomically advantaged children have somewhat higher levels of socio-emotional skills than their disadvantaged peers, but the effect of these skills on academic performance is largely similar in both groups. Using a counterfactual decomposition method, we show that the measured socio-emotional skills explain no more than 8.8 percent of the socioeconomic achievement gap. Based on these findings, we argue that initiatives to promote social and emotional learning are unlikely to substantially reduce educational inequality. [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]

The present study shows that science journalism does not move beyond its traditional borders; however, the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) countries emphasize science and technological development enough. Therefore, bibliometric analysis has been adopted to examine science journalism research gaps in the GCC countries. The result indicates a substantial keyword issue and a gap in science journalism research in North global countries and GCC countries. This research paper is a must-read in the typical scarcity of science journalism research in GCC countries. Furthermore, this paper can be a reference document for policymakers and course developers in the science communication field. [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 used the generalized propensity score method to estimate the differential effects of five Early Child Care and Education (ECCE) experiences (Prekindergarten, Head Start, Center-based Child Care, Home-based Child Care, and Parental Care) in reducing math and reading achievement gaps between boys versus girls, Latinx versus Whites, and Blacks versus Whites. Findings revealed differential effects of ECCE in reducing gender and racial achievement gaps. However, results indicated that significant gender and racial gaps still exist despite ECCE experiences and that these gaps widen throughout the elementary and middle school years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a period for reexamination of how the world schools its children. Policy makers are considering how to address myriad challenges during this tenuous post-COVID era in primary and secondary education. This paper discusses potential school calendar change in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Modifying the traditional school calendar to a balanced approach has been attempted and scrutinized for decades providing varying results on academic achievement. The question is whether a year-round or extended school calendar could counteract COVID-19 learning loss, in addition to addressing achievement gaps, reducing viral transmission, and supporting vulnerable student populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on Honneth's recognition theory, this study aimed at investigating whether students with a migration background reported receiving less recognition from teachers than students without a migration background. Also, we explored whether such a difference contributed to explaining the disparity between the groups in reading achievement. To answer these research questions, we used data from a German study on school quality (STEG-S; n = 2105 students), and from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA; n = 6504 students). The results show that, indeed, students with a migration background experienced less recognition from teachers in terms of cognitive respect. Students reporting lower levels of cognitive respect from reading teachers further achieved poorer outcomes in the reading test at the end of the first term of grade 5, controlling for test results at the beginning of the term. Accordingly, cognitive respect from the reading teacher mediated the effect of the migration background on reading achievement. These effects were small but might accumulate over time. Hence, recognition in the classroom appears to be one piece of the puzzle for understanding how educational disadvantages persist and are reproduced for students with a migration background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined lasting learning effects of communal contexts for 124 African American third and fourth-grade students using a mathematics fractions unit with students' regularly assigned teachers. Teachers in two experimental conditions received training on implementing communally or individually structured fractions curricula, and a naturalistic control was included whose participants did not receive the intervention. Findings revealed that students in the communal condition outperformed those who learned individually, and students in both intervention conditions outperformed those in the naturalistic control group. Survey of communal home-socialization obtained a relationship with identifying fractions performance. Implications for facilitative effects of culturally informed learning environments and teacher training toward enhanced academic achievement are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How school districts measure homelessness among their students has implications for accountability and funding, as well as for supporting student success. Yet, measuring homelessness among high school students is challenging because students move in and out of experiencing it. Using administrative student-level data from a mid-sized public school district in the southern United States, we show that different commonly used procedures to measure which students are considered homeless can yield markedly different estimates of high school graduation rates for these students. This is largely because of differences in how districts classify students who experience homelessness but later become housed. To address the potentially negative effects of housing insecurity on academic achievement, it is important to first identify a common way to diagnose the problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

U.S. students consistently underperform in math compared to other countries, and there is a significant achievement gap between high and low-performing students. This underachievement is not evenly distributed across demographic variables such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and disability status. To address these issues, educators and school administrators should assess their math instructional practices and programs using evidence-based approaches. The Science of Math movement aims to use objective evidence about how students learn math to inform educational decisions and improve outcomes for all students. However, there are barriers to implementing evidence-based practices, including limited access to information and the prevalence of pseudoscientific practices. Educators can take action by collaborating with school leaders, evaluating instructional practices, supplementing curricula with evidence-based strategies, being informed consumers of evidence, highlighting the connection between their school context and evidence-based practices, making data-based decisions, and providing ongoing training and coaching. Resources are available to locate evidence on mathematics programs, strategies, and tactics. More information about the Science of Math can be found on their website and social media platforms. [Extracted from the article]

For decades, the achievement gap between low-income Black males and other groups is sufficiently documented and persists. This study calls for a new practical curriculum approach that provides the necessary conditions for how low-income Black males learn, stay engaged, and assist in building the capacity for positive self-efficacy. The significance of this curriculum approach would be improving academic achievement among the group, closing the gap, and facilitate long-term socioeconomic sustainability for the group that is most likely vulnerable to systemic barriers and prejudices. Through a qualitative approach and a historical design, the findings developed a curriculum approach grounded in Social Learning Theory, Human Capital Theory, and Career development Theory. The theoretical framework embodies and incorporates the practical approach found in (Yusuf & Nabeshima, 2012) and (Lee & Fredriksen, 2008) and could improve academic achievement among the group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results of the TIMSS 2019 reveal that Kosovar students have lower achievement levels in both mathematics and science. In understanding this gap in achievement, it is of value to take a closer look at factors that may influence student learning. Results of this analysis reveal that factors such as home and school resources influence achievement with students who report more home resources and attend high-resource schools outperforming other groups of students. Student perceptions of their learning also shaped achievement with students performing higher when they had higher levels of confidence and preference for the subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although previous studies have examined the influence of education on support for redistribution, studies on how this social cleavage of support for redistribution due to education varies depending on several conditions are scarce. To fill this gap, by focusing on the discussions of motivation with self-interest and with the perception of fairness, this study examines the moderation effects of social and institutional trust on the association between education and the demand for redistribution. For the analysis, the present study utilizes pooled data from multiple rounds of the World Values Survey and the European Values Study and two-way fixed-effects models. Through the international comparative analysis, this analysis finds that social trust but not institutional trust dampens the cleavage of support for redistribution due to education. These results suggest that the horizontal aspect of trust may be more influential on preferences for redistribution than the vertical aspect of trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study a decade of achievement gaps for fifth-, eighth-, and 10th-grade students in Norway using administrative population data. Norway is a wealthy and egalitarian country with a homogeneous educational system, yet achievement gaps between students at the 90th and 10th percentiles of parental income and between students whose parents have at least a master and at most a high school degree are found to be large (0.55–0.93 and 0.70–0.99 SD), equivalent to about 2 to 2.5 years of schooling, and increasing by grade level. Achievement gaps by parental income, but not by parental education, increased over the time period, underscoring the different ways these two socioeconomic status components relate to achievement and the potential for policy to alter gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than half a century of educational efforts have focused on eliminating the Black–White achievement gap. Yet, racial disparities persist. In this article, we describe the issues with educational discourse focused on the achievement gap and the ways structural racism drives the educational experiences and outcomes of Black students. We include a discussion of Black children's developmental competencies and the ways educators may use culturally relevant pedagogy to capitalize upon these competencies and support higher achievement among Black students. We conclude with suggestions for specific actions to foster systemic change for Black students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work extends examination of African American students' attitudes toward learning and achievement to contrast the oppositional culture (Ogbu and Fordham) and cultural integrity perspectives. We assessed 200 students' responses to classrooms designed to support competitive, individualistic, communal or high-verve thinking, and behavior. Students preferred activity structures and physical ecologies supporting the expression of communalism and high verve. Relationships with grade point average (GPA) were also examined. Interviews corroborated the questionnaires. Students' positive attitudes toward academic success are moderated by the value orientation of what must be done to succeed. Implications for reinterpreting students' resistant/disengaged behavior are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on Culturally Relevant Pedagogy claims that culture drives students' attitudes and behaviors to determine what learning contexts best scaffold learning but operationalizes race/ethnicity. This study extends the developmental range of this work and compares race/ethnicity and self-reported group orientation as predictors. In total, 138 high school (Study 1) and 118 college (Study 2) students completed a math task after a learning session. Race/ethnicity alone was not predictive. High group orientation students performed best after communal learning, while low scorers did best after competitive learning in both studies. This was true for Black participants only. More nuanced examination of these issues is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does schooling equalize achievement disparities among students with and without a migrant background? This question remains largely unanswered in sociology. We hypothesized that children of migrants would benefit more from schooling, thereby making schools engines of educational integration. Our study tests this hypothesis in the context of German primary schooling using data from the National Educational Panel Study. We compared the achievements of students from native families and those with Western, non-Western (including Turkey), and former Soviet Union migrant backgrounds. Using the differential exposure approach, we decomposed learning into two causally distinct components: learning due to school exposure and learning due to being older at the time of testing. Our findings do not support the notion that schooling equalizes migrant–native achievement gaps. Instead, our results suggest that school exposure may widen the gap between the two largest groups of migrants in Germany, with students from the former Soviet Union disproportionally benefiting from school compared to other non-Western students. We conclude that German primary schools are not functioning as engines of educational integration because schooling does not reduce the migrant–native achievement gap and migrant groups with the greatest educational disadvantage benefit the least from schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we introduce the term vulnerability to achievement stressors, which refers to differentially low achievement when shifts in the educational environment “stress” or threaten the capacity of an individual or a group of individuals to make academic progress. We also introduce a methodological framework for assessing vulnerability to achievement stressors. Vulnerability to achievement stressors in students with learning disabilities (LD), relative to students without disabilities, is illustrated with two achievement stressors: (a) the shift in learning standards codified in Common Core State Standards, specifically the increase in complexity of the fourth-grade fractions curriculum, and (b) the COVID-19 pandemic, which decreased instructional structure by disrupting in-person teaching. Because these illustrations were embedded within randomized controlled trials, each with an inclusive instruction condition and an intensive intervention condition, they also provide the basis for concluding that intensive intervention is more effective than inclusive instruction for addressing students with LD’s vulnerability to achievement stressors and for narrowing their persistently severe achievement gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) introduced high-impact practices (HIPs) in 2007, scholars have argued that students' involvement in these programs is associated with a range of positive outcomes. Namely, participation in HIPs is thought to promote student retention and help close achievement gaps between historically marginalized populations and advantaged peers. However, few have used a longitudinal approach to determine if HIP participation is related to college completion while accounting for pre-college variables. This study used data from the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS) to analyze the impact of HIP participation on students' likelihood of completing college within six years, controlling for socioeconomic status, high school math and reading scores, and high school involvement. Results suggested that students involved in HIPs were more likely to complete college within six years compared to uninvolved peers, but found no evidence of compensatory effects among students who were involved with HIPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As educators, whether in urban or suburban schools, we must tailor our curriculum to who is in our classrooms. Individualizing curriculum has always been taught in teacher preparation programs, but now instead of just individualizing curriculum based on learning styles, we must base it on who our students are racially and culturally as well. This research investigates student engagement within a culturally relevant English curriculum, specifically in a classroom that uses culturally relevant materials to reach to a higher level of student engagement with students of color. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Federal accountability policy mandates that states administer standardized tests beginning in third grade. In turn, third-grade test scores are often viewed as a key indicator in policy and practice. Yet literacy struggles begin well before third grade, as do racial and socioeconomic disparities in children's literacy skills. Kindergarten readiness assessments provide a unique opportunity to better understand the emergence of literacy disparities. We use unique kindergarten literacy data from nearly every school division in Virginia to document the relationship between children's early literacy skills and their later reading proficiency. When comparing children with similar literacy skills at kindergarten entry, we find significant racial and socioeconomic differences in the likelihood that a child will be proficient on their third-grade reading assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a seismic and ongoing disruption to K–12 schooling. Using test scores from 5.4 million U.S. students in Grades 3–8, we tracked changes in math and reading achievement across the first 2 years of the pandemic. Average math test scores in the fall of 2021 in Grades 3–8 were.20–.27 standard deviation (SD) lower relative to same-grade peers in the fall of 2019, while reading test scores decreased by.09–.18 SD. Achievement gaps between students in low-poverty and high-poverty elementary schools grew by.10–.20 SD, primarily during the 2020–2021 school year. Achievement disparities by student race/ethnicity also widened substantively. Observed declines are more substantial than during other recent school disruptions, such as those due to natural disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars argue that the "racial achievement gap" frame perpetuates deficit mindsets. Previously, we found that teachers gave lower priority to racial equity when disparities were framed as "achievement gaps" (AGs) versus "inequality in educational outcomes." In this brief, we analyze data from two survey experiments using a teacher sample and an Amazon MTurk sample. We find that (a) the effect of AG language on equity prioritization is moderated by implicit bias, with larger negative effects among teachers holding stronger anti-Black/pro-White stereotypes; (b) the negative effect of AG language replicates with non-teachers; and (c) AG language causes respondents to express more negative racial stereotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By aligning factors that most commonly influence the achievement of Black and Hispanic students with the type of resources inside the black box of schooling, this study differentiated the achievement effect of school resources from what was brought by students to schools. The hierarchical regression results showed that minority students' grade-repetition experience mattered substantially. But the differences between schools in poverty concentration, use of between-class and within-class tracking, class size, plus school discipline all contributed to the racial achievement gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state takeover of schools in predominantly Black communities has not disrupted the racial subjugation of Black girls. Using proportional analyses and Detroit, Memphis, and New Orleans as research sites, we find that the takeover of school districts does not produce statistically weaker associations with the use of harsh disciplinary practices against Black girls. This finding is important in the context of education reform, as researchers begin to question the motives and outcomes of education reforms. Moreover, this study is important to literature that considers the civil rights that Black communities must forego for the promise of better schools. Finally, this finding is relevant to extant conversations in urban education, especially as those conversations consider the school-to-prison pipeline and disparate disciplinary outcomes for Black girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expanded Learning Time (ELT) measures have been implemented internationally to reduce the likelihood of academic underachievement among students at risk. The goal of this article is to examine the components of an ELT initiative aimed at supporting students at risk of academic failure in order to optimize the components that can improve its use and organization. Through a mixed method research approach, we have analyzed the experiences of 1,786 5th through 10th graders, 238 teachers and 126 instructors of a city-wide after-school initiative in Spain. This within-group study examines the design of the support, the environment, and the interactions between stakeholders as key components to optimize this support and promote equity. The results show which support components are related to greater support use. The results also suggest understanding these measures as additional support placed within an enriched support network. Implications for practice, research and policy towards this type of initiative are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic achievement gaps are often explained in terms of student and school factors. The decomposition of these gaps into their within- and between-school components has therefore been applied as a strategy to quantify the overall influence of each set of factors. Three competing approaches have previously been proposed, but each is limited to the study of student-school decompositions of the gap between two ethnic groups (e.g., White and Black). The authors show that these approaches can be reformulated as mediation models facilitating new extensions to allow additional levels in the school system (e.g., classrooms, school districts, geographic areas) and multiple ethnic groups (e.g., White, Black, Hispanic, Asian). The authors illustrate these extensions using administrative data for high school students in Colombia and highlight the increased substantive insights and nuanced policy implications they afford. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wide research base has documented the disproportional enrollment in K-12 special education and gifted and talented services across racial and socioeconomic lines. This study extends that knowledge base by integrating multiple population-level datasets to better understand predictors of access to and enrollment in gifted and talented services and tested whether these variables remained predictive after controlling for state mandate to provide services, average district achievement, and average school achievement. Results showed that states varied, with some serving 20% of their students as gifted and others serving 0%. Similarly, within-district income segregation, income-related achievement gaps, and parental education were dominant predictors of a school offering gifted and talented services and the size of the population served, even after controlling for achievement and the presence of a state mandate. These findings suggest that gifted and talented programs are often made available based on school or community demographics rather than the needs of the students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "no excuses" charter school model is widely regarded in public debate as an effective policy intervention to politically and economically empower historically marginalized student populations. The organizing principle of the "no excuses" model is to do whatever it takes to close the achievement gap and to prepare students for university education and the professional job market. This article seeks to critically evaluate the "no excuses" model through a qualitative research synthesis of an emerging body of qualitative research literature. The findings from this synthesis raise serious questions about the desirability of the "no excuses" charter school model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Texas legislation mandated that colleges offer developmental education using a corequisite model, where students concurrently enroll in introductory college-level courses with supplemental developmental support. Using data from the population of Texas students in developmental education, we estimated regression models to investigate differential relationships between corequisite characteristics and outcomes, both overall and by student characteristics. Our findings suggest there is no single “magic bullet” course structure that is universally more effective, as relationships between the reform and student success vary by subject and student subgroup. Additionally, even a single credit of corequisite developmental support can be beneficial for some students, potentially more so than traditional three-credit courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education scholars argue that the term “achievement gap” promotes deficit orientations toward certain students of color, focuses the field on individualistic rather than structural sources of inequality, and narrows viable policy solutions for equity concerns. Using a randomized survey, I examine whether the term “racial opportunity gap” mitigates critiques of the achievement gap term. I find that teachers responding to this language less strongly attributed the gap to individual characteristics—student motivation, student effort, and parenting—and more strongly prioritized incorporating students’ racial/ethnic and cultural identities into instruction to address the gap than teachers responding to “racial achievement gap” language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine access to effective teachers for low-income students in 26 geographically dispersed school districts over a 5-year period. We measure teacher effectiveness using a value-added model that accounts for measurement error in prior test scores and peer effects. Differences between the average value added of teachers of high- and low-income students are 0.005 standard deviations in English/language arts and 0.004 standard deviations in math. Differences between teachers of Black, Hispanic, and White students are also small. Rearranging teachers to obtain perfect equity would do little to narrow the sizable student achievement gap between low- and high-income students. We also show that a higher proportion of novice teachers in high-poverty schools contributes negligibly to differences in access to effective teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experts within gifted education have advocated for the use of local norms when selecting students for gifted programs, instead of national-level norms. Local norms compare students to their immediate peers to identify gifted students and are believed to produce a more diverse gifted program. However, district integration limits the ability of local norms to diversify gifted programs, a fact that has been almost completely overlooked in gifted education scholarship. Through a simplified example, we show that local building-level norms are best at diversifying gifted programs when schools are highly segregated. Conversely, when achievement gaps are present and a uniform admissions cutoff is applied, building-level norms in highly integrated schools produce highly segregated gifted programs. In short, the use of building-level local norms trades one form of segregation for another. Implications and recommendations for gifted education and beyond are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of large acreages, sparse populations, and distinct sociopolitical dynamics, many rural communities are beginning to assemble their own sets of economic indicators to fit unique policy agendas. This review summarizes over 30 years of practical efforts from six regions that created economic development reports. Reports cover 60% of the nonmetro counties in the United States. Over half the reports were issued in the last 5 years. To understand distinctions between scholarly efforts and how communities leverage publicly available data sets toward policy objectives, the authors compare the rural, regional economic development reports assembled through community partnerships with indicators recommended in rural wealth creation literature. The authors identify a gap in scholarship and practice with implications for how practitioners and researchers conceptualize the creation of wealth in rural areas and conclude with best-practice approaches to co-creating rural economic indicator reports, especially where data can be tailored precisely to rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing evidence suggests that contrary to popular belief, schools mostly do not generate achievement gaps in cognitive skills but, rather, reflect the inequalities that already exist. In the case of socioeconomic status, exposure to school often reduces gaps. Surprisingly little is known, however, about whether this pattern extends to gender gaps in cognitive skills. We compare how gender gaps in math and reading change when children are in school versus out (in the summer) among over 900,000 U.S. children. We find that girls learn faster than boys when school is out (in both reading and math), but this advantage is completely eliminated when school is in session. Compared to the family environment, schools act as a relatively standardizing institution, producing more similar gendered patterns in learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study carefully examined compensating, mediating, and moderating effects of positive school climate on the relationship of socioeconomic status (SES) and achievement in a nationally representative sample of ethnocultural minority Arabic speaking students in Israel (N = 21,873). Positive school climate was predominantly influential in schools with vulnerable ethnic groups and students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Narrower achievement gaps among students with different personal SES backgrounds were achieved in schools with positive climates. Results suggest improving school climate can increase students' academic opportunities and offer special benefits for students from less advantaged backgrounds. Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]