This qualitative multiple case study explored district, school, and classroom level leadership support for school-family-community (SFC) partnerships in Title I elementary schools located in distant small towns or rural areas. Over five decades of research support the benefits of schools actively partnering with families and communities to promote…

This project aims to gain insight into the mechanisms by which schools in highly challenging environments avoided learning loss--or even improved--during the pandemic. Using a unique dataset covering multiple levels of school, health, and environmental data, we examine which factors led schools to 'beat the odds' when it comes to learning…

In this case study, learn how the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) partnered with 12 schools in Jefferson County, Alabama, to form networked improvement communities focused on promoting meaningful, sustainable change. Their goal was simple yet bold: Harness improvement science and continuous improvement strategies to accelerate eighth- and…

"Changing Course: Public School Enrollment Shifts During the Pandemic" is an analysis of student enrollment trends in public schools during the pandemic (2019-20 to 2021-22 school years). The numbers showed more than 240,000 students enrolled in charter schools, a 7% increase--while district public schools lost approximately 1.5 million…

State policymakers in the United States have in recent years experimented with new initiatives to change the procedures used by public institutions to assess and assign academically underprepared students to non-credit developmental education (or remedial) courses. This study explores whether the most recent developmental education reform in…

This report, the first in the Economic Vitality and Education in the South (EVES) series, provides state-by-state information on more than 20 critical data points associated with the education-to-workforce pipeline. The report looks specifically at the 17 states in the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) region: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware,…

The purpose of this study was to understand the impact, implementation and costs associated with a one-semester elective lab course in 9th grade, Accelerating Literacy for Adolescents (ALFA) Lab, which seeks to improve students' reading achievement, particularly for those from economically disadvantaged communities. This study used three cohorts…

Access to career and technical education (CTE) programs may play a significant role in Hispanic students' academic success; however, little research had been conducted on the best practices employed by CTE teachers to meet the academic needs of Hispanic learners. The purpose of this quantitative survey study was to investigate best practices used…

The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' use of the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE) standards to meet the unique cultural needs of Hispanic students. In addition, the influence of these factors on teachers' use of the CREDE standards were investigated, including teachers' (a) generation, (b) years…

This chartbook is the 14th version to be produced for the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB). The Chartbook describes the diversity of the Appalachian Region on a host of demographic and economic measures and provides an important annual view of the area and its people. The data contained in the…

The establishment of new school districts in predominantly White municipalities in the South is restructuring school and housing segregation in impacted countywide school systems. This article compares the contribution of school district boundaries to school and residential segregation in the Southern counties that experienced secession since…

Whether students of color are more or less likely to be identified as having disabilities than similarly situated students who are White in U.S. states with histories of de jure and de facto racial segregation is currently unknown. Unadjusted analyses of large samples of students attending elementary and middle schools in the U.S. South yielded…

The purpose of this reflective essay is to encourage the discussion of community-engaged scholarship (CES) that does not progress as planned. Insufficient attention is given to lessons gleaned from missteps and outright failures experienced by scholars in the field, which results in a paucity of documented cases and recommendations for…

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) provide significant STEM degrees to African Americans. Initiatives toward increasing diversity in STEM fields have been implemented by government and industry leaders. HBCUs annually award over 20% of all African American baccalaureate chemical engineering degrees. This speaks volume to the…

In every state in the South, the percentage of residents with bachelor's degrees or higher who were born outside the state exceed the percentage born in-state, reflecting their dependence on imported talent over building their own talent-development systems. In Virginia, the Southern state with the highest percentage of residents with a B.A. or…