Racial/ethnic and economic school segregation represent pervasive instantiations and perpetuators of educational inequity in the United States. Although the U.S. is becoming increasingly racially and ethnically diverse, schools are racially/ethnically isolated. Rising income and wealth inequity are also exacerbating economic school segregation.…

The purpose of this dissertation study was to identify the nature of 23, 4th grade children's talk in social justice awareness circles about topics representative of DEI issues. Omitted in prior research on student talk is the "situatedness" of the classroom discussion and how local context, school climate, media coverage of sensitive…

This study investigates the communication practices of four teachers in 3rd to 6th grade classrooms with 9 deaf students with limited language proficiency and in stages of emergent writing development. Analyzing language modalities, utterance types, and class interactivity, we found that teachers using American sign language used student-centered…

The Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum has been implemented in numerous school districts to cultivate positive behaviors and diminish inappropriate conduct and behavioral issues. Beyond enhancing students' interpersonal relationships, essential skills such as relationship-building, responsible decision-making, and empathy enable…

Background: The existing research on dialogue-based learning and teaching predominantly highlights its capacity to yield productive educational outcomes, yet it often overlooks the pivotal factor of participation equity, which is fundamental to ensuring the efficacy of dialogic teaching and learning. Objectives: In this study, participation equity…

Background: In recent years, data derived from international large-scale assessments have significantly influenced the discourse surrounding educational equity. However, the use of such data has often neglected the full spectrum of dimensions that equity encompasses, while being limited to exploring the relationship between achievement variations…

The U.S. Department of Education, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, underscores every child's right to integrate, receive support, and fully participate in school life. The problem is that significant disparities exist in reading growth scores between students with disabilities taught in special-education resource settings and…

This paper examines the relationship between teacher pay and students' academic achievement, using nationally representative, district-level linked data between districts' performance on standardized tests and average teacher base salary. By employing state fixed effects and multilevel mixed effects models, we find that both mathematics and…

Students in Title 1 school districts continue to fall far behind their peers academically in comparison to neighboring suburban districts. School reform has unsuccessfully attempted to improve test scores by consistently changing reading curriculums and mandating the use of various resources that fail when implemented. Struggling school districts…

This causal comparative mixed-methods study details if students in Grades 4 and 5 from Title I schools, who had access to one-to-one devices in school prior to the COVID-19 pandemic had an academic advantage over students who did not have access to one-to-one devices. Specifically, Arizona state assessment scores from three elementary schools from…

After analyzing state standards and textbook excerpts, all the fourth graders in Ms. Yoo's classroom convened and discussed why the nonwhite suffragists were missing and what they could do about it. The students agreed that textbooks and standards "can't include everybody," but they also concurred that the stories of Indigenous, Black,…

This doctoral dissertation investigates the effects of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policy on educational equity in New Jersey, focusing on three primary research questions. Firstly, the study examines whether the implementation of NCLB mandates led to the closure of achievement gaps between black and white students, as evidenced by disparities…

Social scientists have found income inequality is associated with an array of health and social problems, however the implications of income inequality for educational outcomes have not been investigated as thoroughly as other domains. In this study, I investigated how income inequality was associated with 4th grade academic achievement using…

Lucy Calkins' curriculum "Units of Study for Writing" is a process approach to writing pedagogy used in thousands of elementary and middle schools in the United States and internationally (Teachers College Reading Writing Project, 2020). Process approaches have been highly influential on writing pedagogy for the past 30 years (Brisk,…

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…