The intersectional identities of African American women leaders come with challenges and obstacles that few thoroughly comprehend. This phenomenological study sought to understand the impact of intersectionality on the leadership styles and journey of African American women in K-12 district leadership. Historically, leadership literature…

Chronic school absenteeism can lead to poorer academic performance and school engagement for students. It is also a risk factor for school dropout, which is associated with many long-term health impacts. This report uses data from the 2022 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to describe the percentage of children ages 5-17 who experienced…

The purpose of this review was to investigate the extent to which students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are adequately represented in and benefiting from college and career readiness (CCR) intervention research across race and gender groups. We conducted a secondary analysis of 14 intervention studies meeting the criteria for a…

The use of exclusionary discipline (ExD) was compared for U.S. public pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) and K-12 grades within the same school. ExD rates were 10 times higher in K-12 than in Pre-K when calculated for all schools but ExD rates were comparable for schools that reported at least one case of ExD in Pre-K. Additionally, disparities in the use…

This dissertation examined Culturally Responsive School Leadership (CRSL) within California's educational system using a quantitative approach with qualitative insights (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The study, guided by two research questions, investigated the impacts of school leaders' demographics (race, gender, and experience) on their…

Despite extensive scholarly and policy attention to the phenomenon of racially disparate school discipline, its negative effect on academic achievement, and its relationship to later criminal system involvement and incarceration, little has been written about the experiences of Native youth. This article seeks to bring attention to Native youth in…

While research suggests that social emotional competencies (SECs) influence students' disciplinary outcomes, less is known of their potential to explain racial disparities or grade level differences in those outcomes. This study used survey and administrative data from 30,494 students in grades 3-12 to examine the degree to which SECs were related…

This brief is a continuation of NWEA's research series examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student achievement and progress toward academic recovery. Initiated in the early phase of the pandemic, this series has leveraged NWEA's large national sample of longitudinal MAP® Growth™ data to track student performance and compare it to…

Every school counselor must be fully prepared to build homeplace and Black Joy in K-12 education. For white school counselors, this requires an ongoing personal and professional commitment to cultural humility and racial identity development. Affinity groups can be an opportunity for white school counselors to develop cultural humility, racial…

Access to high-quality teachers in K-12 schools differs systematically by racial group. This policy brief reviews the academic research documenting these differences and the labor market forces and segregation patterns that solidify them. It also presents new analysis of differential exposure in North Carolina of white, black, and Hispanic…

For decades, research has explored racial disparities in exclusionary school discipline, illuminating the stark disproportionality concerning Black students. Black boys are most susceptible to harsher discipline, increasing their risk for future involvement in the juvenile justice system, a bridge to the school-to-prison pipeline. Recent…

In 2018, a resurgence of youth activism burst forth calling for widespread climate action. The contemporary youth climate movement is a cogent case to unpack how political participation of youth is shaped by schools. In this study we use administrative data from public schools in New York City (n=1,313) to examine two measures of youth…

The purpose of this non-experimental correlational quantitative study was to examine the relationship between race and special education under the disability category of ED for kindergarten through 12th-grade students in four school districts in the greater Houston area. The study had three research questions regarding racial representation, the…

Considering the historical context of issues related to racial disparity in K-12 education, it is important to mention that culturally responsive school leadership (CRSL) has surfaced as an area of research in addressing those issues. However, a literature-based problem exists entailing paucity in research on the existence of specific factors that…

This study sought to determine whether a significant difference exists in the efficacy of teachers who received a traditional licensure versus those who received alternative licensure in their first three years of teaching. Additionally, the research aimed to determine if there was a significant difference in student growth based upon teacher…