For children, friends play an important role in their socio-emotional development and psychological well-being. Friendships may hold additional value for students who come from minoritized backgrounds. This study aimed to examine representations and themes of friendship in diverse Greek classrooms in which Roma and non-Roma elementary-age students…

Research supports the idea that low-income Black and Brown students are prone to higher suspension rates and are more likely to be labeled "troublemakers" for exhibiting the same behaviors as their White peers (Morgan, 2021). Middle school (6-8th grade) is an essential time, particularly for Black and Brown students, because they face…

Bullying is a significant problem in the USA, with 1 in 5 middle school students reporting being a target of bullying. Although prevalence rates of bullying are higher among students in low-income communities and among minority students in ethnically blended schools, the majority of research on bullying prevention has been conducted with primarily…

There are many important questions teachers and administrators need to ask as they grapple with how to ensure high school graduates are college and career ready. What does it mean to prepare students for a world that is rapidly changing--a world in which science and technology are altering how we live, work, play, and interact? If teachers focus…

In this report, the authors present the results of a long-term tracking study that follows 1,177 students who applied to enter 1 of 13 oversubscribed Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) middle schools through a 5th or 6th grade admissions lottery in 2008 or 2009. Those students are now old enough to have attended college for at least two years. This…

New research, using data from 7 million students in grades 3-8 in 25,000 schools who took MAP Growth reading and mathematics assessments between 2020-21 and fall 2022, continues NWEA's ongoing research agenda examining how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected student achievement in reading and math. At the start of the 2022-23 school year, we…

The purpose of this technical appendix is to share more detailed results and to describe more fully the sample and methods used in the research included in the brief, "Progress toward Pandemic Recovery: Continued Signs of Rebounding Achievement at the Start of the 2022-23 School Year" (ED627355). The two main research questions…

The purpose of this technical appendix is to share more detailed results and to describe more fully the sample and methods used in the research included in the brief, "Learning during COVID-19: An Update on Student Achievement and Growth at the Start of the 2021-22 School Year." The goal of this brief is to summarize student achievement…

Gender in physical education (PE) traditionally enacts discourses of hegemonic masculinities where girls are frequently positioned as the 'problem' regarding their disengagement. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences of mostly ethnic minority and low-socioeconomic status elementary school girls enrolled in an urban…

This brief is a continuation of NWEA's ongoing research agenda focused on understanding how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected student reading and math outcomes. This report builds on previous findings to examine students' academic progress at the start of the third school year impacted by the pandemic. The goal of this brief is to summarize…

In our report, "Learning during COVID-19: Initial findings on students' reading and math achievement and growth," we examine how school shutdowns impacted student achievement at the start of the 2020-21 school year. Using data from schools all over the country, we've built these visualizations to explore three key questions: (1) How have…

Most U.S. classrooms serve students with various linguistic and academic needs. Tier-I universal approaches support English language learners (ELLs) without segregating them into a different track and thereby constraining future learning opportunities. The current study examines whether Word Generation (WG), a Tier-I discussion-based program…

Educators, researchers, and policy makers concerned about college under-enrollment among underserved groups of students have traditionally focused reform efforts at the high school level. Over the last several decades, however, there has been a growing interest in improving college readiness beginning at the elementary level. Recently, the…

We evaluated a brief, bystander bullying intervention (STAC) adapted for ethnically blended, low-income middle schools. We examined changes in bullying victimization and bias-based bullying victimization among a sample of sixth-grade students using a mixed factorial design. Students reported a significant decrease in bullying victimization and…

This research sought to uncover challenges that arose in the implementation of the Reflective Educational Approach to Character and Health (REACH) after-school programme in a low-income public school in New York City. Additionally, we wanted to find and share some of the lessons learned, to help others avoid our pitfalls when implementing quality…