The COVID-19 pandemic has posed numerous challenges for Street-Level Bureaucrats (SLBs). This paper adopts the sensemaking framework to examine the teaching experiences of high school teachers in the online environment, specifically focusing on their interpretation and implementation of COVID-19-related policies. Sixteen teachers from different…

Those who care about US public schools face urgent challenges while schools remain significant sites of racial inequity (Crenshaw, 2022; Darling-Hammond, 1998). School leaders play a crucial role in shaping educational in/equity for students (DeMatthews et al., 2020; Grissom et al., 2021; Khalifa, et al., 2016). Meanwhile, the increasing demands…

This longitudinal, quantitative study utilised 2019-2022 survey data from teachers at one Chinese internationalised high school in Jiangsu Province, China to examine teachers' immediate professional plans through the lens of teacher working conditions (TWCs). The relationship between teacher perceptions of working conditions and their immediate…

The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease-2019) pandemic disrupted the education of students across the globe in the spring of 2020. Students who were previously at most risk for falling behind their peers and through the cracks because of academic, financial, racial, and/or generational disadvantage faced a wide range of additional obstacles in the…

This brief, informed by interviews with school and system leaders in the New England region, suggests some efforts to reinvent schools before the pandemic have helped schools to navigate the current crisis. To increase the odds that innovation prevails in the face of rising fatigue and pressure, we must better understand the adaptations schools…

In this dissertation, I examine various factors shaping students' trajectories and opportunities later in life. In Chapter 1, I explore the role of grade retention policies. Grade retention as a remedial policy is controversial because the benefits of extra instruction time may not outweigh its costs. Previous research has primarily examined…

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced students across Indonesia to study from home. As of September 11, 2020, Indonesia has reported more than 210,000 cases, the second highest in Southeast Asia. The pandemic and the obstacle of online learning caused the Indonesian government to take some action. The chronology of the education policy and online…

State leaders are grappling with generation-defining challenges as they work to fully understand and address the impact of the pandemic on students and communities. As leaders turn their attention to the upcoming school year, data continues to be a critical tool for informing recovery efforts. Data Quality Campaign's (DQC) 2021 public opinion…

One of the first challenges state boards of education faced this spring was what to do for the roughly 3.5 million high school seniors whose graduations were derailed by the coronavirus. Most state policymakers across the country readily suspended end-of-year assessments and granted diplomas to those who were on track to graduate. A few states…

In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic affected the whole world, particularly in the education sector as schools were closed and social distancing applied as control measures. Nevertheless, teaching and learning continued, overcoming diverse challenges and adopting various coping mechanisms, as examined in this phenomenological research into the personal…

Nationwide, public schools began to experience a youth population decline prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. After 14 years of successively smaller U.S. birth cohorts, elementary public schools now face gradually declining student counts. The complex convergence of shifting age demographics, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and ongoing…

One potential policy challenge in the COVID-19 context is how to evaluate and provide teachers feedback and support in a virtual learning environment. State education agencies (SEAs) sought to address this policy challenge by revising teacher evaluation policy during the 2019-20 academic year to lift requirements. However, given the new dynamics…

California adopted the Next Generation Science Standards (CA NGSS) in 2013, with the aim of improving scientific literacy and strengthening the global competitiveness of the state's workforce. But the COVID-19 pandemic has been especially disruptive for science education, which has long been a lower priority than math and English language arts.…

Texas has long been an innovator in policies, systems, and practices to ensure that young adults from low-income backgrounds are prepared for postsecondary education and careers. Today, the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing economic crisis have cast a harsh light on the importance of reengaging young adults who are disconnected from school and work…

The most prominent debate in South Africa is how teachers will provide instruction online. The purposes of this article was to explore Accounting teachers' voices on factors affecting online teaching. To this end, the researchers employed a qualitative approach and a case study research design. Interviews were used as a method to collect data from…