Early ability tracking increases inequalities in education. It has been proposed that the awareness of negative school-track-related stereotypes contributes to educational inequalities, as stereotype awareness interferes with students' abilities to thrive, particularly those in lower, stigmatized tracks. The present study tested this assumption in…

What is the availability and distribution of single-day environmental education field trip programs for adolescent students across the U.S.? We assessed the spatial accessibility to EE field trip programs for U.S. schools that serve grades 5-8 (ages 10-14) by (1) compiling a comprehensive national database of 2,930 EE providers that offer field…

The current study evaluates effects of teaching factors and extended day programs regarding both average achievement and socioeconomic achievement gaps. Analyses are based on data from the National Educational Panel Study in Germany. The sample comprises 1523 students in 120 classes in 71 secondary schools. The investigation period covers fifth…

Public school board members are charged with the responsibility and accountability to provide governance-level advocacy for equity and excellence in public education. This qualitative study examined the perceptions of school board members in three K--8 school districts in the midwestern part of the United States regarding the 50+ year Race-Based…

Following a massive wave of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, educators found the need to be hyper-critical of how they spend their instructional time with students. Almost all students are expected to return nearly a full grade-level behind and would likely have to learn to navigate a completely new school environment. As a result,…

The researchers used Gorski's continuum of five approaches to multicultural education--which extends from conservative to liberal and then critical--to analyze 40 syllabi from required or elective courses for candidates seeking licensure to teach in the middle grades (grades 4-9). While the researchers found evidence of all five approaches within…

This study focused on a problem of practice at Mystic River School (MRS), a kindergarten through eighth grade school in an urban district in New England. Schoolwide diagnostic data showed a significant gap between multilingual learners (MLs) and their native English speaking peers in literacy. An analysis of this data, interviews with staff and…

Schools often track students to classes based on ability. Proponents of tracking argue it is a low-cost tool to improve learning since instruction is more effective when students are more homogeneous, while opponents argue it exacerbates initial differences in opportunities without strong evidence of efficacy. In fact, little is known about the…

How do teachers account for homework-related inequalities? Our longitudinal ethnographic study reveals that, despite awareness of structural inequalities in their students' lives, elementary- and middle-school teachers' practices centered the myth of meritocracy. They treat struggles with math homework as products of students' and (particularly in…

This paper provides a critical review of indicators that can be used to measure equity in educational outcomes. These indicators are evaluated using different criteria. Further, analysis on how the sample structure affects equity measurements is undertaken. Analyses are based on theoretical reasoning and empirical data from the German National…

Nancy Fraser describes parity-of-participation in social interaction as an important component of social justice. In this paper, we explore the participatory experiences of primary-school-children who have been labelled 'lower-attainers' in mathematics and/or writing. The paper explores justice drawing on the perspective of these pupils, in…

There is ongoing debate in the United States about just how diverse, inclusive, and equitable the opt-out movement--and grassroots education activism more broadly--has been over the past decade. Today, a prevailing stereotype holds that the opt-out movement predominantly mobilizes white, middle-class, and suburban parents and is therefore a force…

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…

Adolescents in the United States live amid high levels of concentrated poverty and increasing income inequality. Poverty is robustly linked to adolescents' mental health problems; however, less is known about how perceptions of their social status and exposure to local area income inequality relate to mental health. Participants consisted of a…