The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of the Leader in Me philosophy to students' equitable achievement in school, by measuring the academic achievement of third through fifth graders in suburban Missouri public schools. A secondary purpose of the study was to inform teachers and school leaders of effective strategies for…

Ability grouping is a common practice in elementary mathematics instruction, but some research suggests that grouping by ability can exacerbate existing inequities, and there is evidence that alternatives to grouping can improve learning experiences for all students. In this paper, we describe an effort to support teachers in using equitable…

The mental health of students is a critical concern in educational settings, particularly in the context of remote learning environments, which have become increasingly prevalent due to global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This dissertation explores the perceptions of elementary and middle school teachers in Missouri regarding student…

Measures of student disadvantage--or risk--are critical components of equity-focused education policies. However, the risk measures used in contemporary policies have significant limitations, and despite continued advances in data infrastructure and analytic capacity, there has been little innovation in these measures for decades. We develop a new…

After the passing of the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 2004, many schools began to use a Response to Intervention (RtI) model instead of the discrepancy model when identifying students with specific learning disabilities (National Center on Response to Intervention, 2011). When elementary schools adopted the RtI model, it was shown to be…

This report provides a new resource for understanding the state of urban public schools in the U.S. Geared specifically toward city leaders who want to evaluate how well traditional district and charter schools are serving all their city's children and how their schools compare to those in other cities, the report measures outcomes for all public…

The purpose of this study was to gather information on experiences of general education teachers concerning inclusion practices for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). In this case study third, fourth, and fifth grade general education teachers in a rural Southwest Missouri school district provided the data source to keep a narrowed…

This study details the enactment of attendance laws for black pupils in Missouri and describes their effect by citing examples from two counties: St. Louis County and Polk County. The study is based on a review of primary sources yielding quantitative and qualitative data reported during the first 40 years of the attendance laws. A study of…