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…

Outdoor environmental education (OEE) programs can provide a valuable entry point for youth of color and girls who may have felt excluded and/or marginalized from traditional science learning experiences. This study investigated: (1) Can OEE programs contribute to the development of positive dispositions toward science and the environment?, and…

Using classroom-level data from nearly all California schools, we investigate whether Hispanic, Asian, Black, and Native students in grades K-5 are more likely to have a teacher of the same race at charter schools or traditional public schools in 2017-18, what school and student characteristics explain these differences, and how ethnoracial…

Though schools do not track in Brazil, I find that racial classroom segregation in Brazil is on par with recent estimates from North Carolina high schools (Clotfelter et al., 2020). How does racial classroom segregation occur without tracking, and in a supposed "racial paradise," no less? Using national, student-level data spanning from…

This study examines the impact of teacher-led interventions with and without computer-assisted instruction (CAI) on student reading fluency in a Tier II Response to Intervention (RTI) framework. Utilizing archival data from the 2023-2024 school year, the research focuses on elementary students from first through fifth grade in a southeastern U.S.…

Black youth overwhelmingly experience excessive discipline and exclusionary practices in schools, which contribute to the growing achievement and opportunity gaps between Black and White students. This study examined 915 teacher education students' (TES') interpersonal attributions of classroom behaviors of elementary age Black and White girls,…

Homeless and low-income students share multiple overlapping risk experiences; however, some studies report little to no observed differences in outcomes between these students. From the cumulative risk perspective, homelessness is perched at the extreme edge of economic insecurity, suggesting that homeless students encounter additional hardships…

Disproportionate discipline, also known as the discipline gap, is the result of the frequent occurrence of punitive or exclusionary discipline measures. It represents a flaw in the educational system that negatively disrupts the African American student population more than any other demographic. This form of punishment removes students from the…

Background: Despite overall declines in risky teen sexual activity, racial and ethnic disparities persist. This study compared abstinence-only and comprehensive teen pregnancy prevention (TPP) programs to explore the effects of the programs on teen sexual activity-related outcomes that may differ by race/ethnicity. Methods: Program evaluation data…

Black girls are the only group of girls across the United States disproportionally suspended from school. Studies have documented that disproportionality cannot be explained solely by greater misbehavior among students of color. Instead, discipline disparities are also informed by punitive/inequitable discipline policies and practices, less…

In this investigation, the extent to which differences were present in the mathematics achievement by the ethnicity/race of Grade 3 students in Texas were analyzed. Data obtained from the Texas Education Agency Public Education Information Management System for all Texas Grade 3 students who took the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness…

National policies have targeted widespread exclusionary discipline in schools which is associated with negative academic outcomes. Principals play an important role in making disciplinary decisions, yet little is understood about how their mindsets might impact these decisions. We hypothesized that principals' mindsets regarding the purpose of…

The purpose of this evaluation was to examine the impact of i-Ready Personalized Instruction on ELA achievement, as measured by SBA scores. We compared "striving learner" students who were assigned to use i-Ready Personalized Instruction (Treatment students) and "striving learner" students assigned to only receive i-Ready…

The events that came to pass within the past few years have created quite a stir within the educational community. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, there was a shift from brick & mortar to virtual learning, which many academic experts and stakeholders needed to prepare for. Due to the major shutdowns, there have been many concerns about…

Despite decades of concern about disparities in educational outcomes for low SES students and students of color, there has been limited rigorous study of programmatic approaches for reducing these disparities in elementary or middle schools. We conducted integrative data analysis (IDA) of the combined data from eight Institute of Education…