The purpose of this action research study was to investigate and improve the school choice experience for students in a large urban school district on the East Coast. Participants in Cycle 1 were comprised of middle and high school staff, and data was collected via surveys, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. Action steps included…

The purpose of this action research study is to understand how public school district administrators' leadership styles impact the success of high school Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. I used the action research model which included a literature review, Cycle 1 interviews and data analysis, and Cycle 2 action step…

Youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) has been documented to increase youth's social, emotional, and cognitive outcomes, foster critical thinking and academic success, and encourage civic participation. YPAR allows for young to develop their voices, direct their own learning and act as change agents as they take steps to influence their…

Despite the value of reading, research documents declining reading rates among American adolescents - a decline that exacerbates student dropout rates and academic performance. As a high school English teacher in a public, regional, suburban school, increasing the number of students who deeply read the assigned texts for class has been a…

Through the work of Y-PLAN (Youth--Plan, Learn, Act, Now) youth-led action research, the University of California Berkeley Center for Cities + Schools (CC+S) has focused its research on youth experiencing homelessness in California public schools. This research analyzed the McKinney-Vento Act from system-wide implementation perspectives, as well…

This study aimed to examine the initial perceptions of 16 junior and senior high school English, Mathematics, and Science teachers on AR (Action Research) as the basis for the planned professional development program. The evaluation of their initial perception was done by administering an instrument called Teacher's Perception on Action Research…

The Action Mapping Project (AMP) is a youth-oriented participatory action project that conducts research and education programs in high schools and middle schools in Tacoma, Washington. AMP uses participatory community mapping to generate new forms of data and conducts educational programs with high school students that center on the use of GIS…

In this collaboratively written piece, a team of researchers and high school students reflect on their participatory ethnography work in a literacy-focused space within a Philadelphia public high school. The authors collectively explore the critical components of their still-unfolding research: participatory space-building, which entails creating…

This paper examines how community-based civic action research can cultivate civic engagement, civic belonging, and shifts in civic stakeholders' perceptions of racially and economically minoritized youth's civic agency. Specifically, this paper examines the implementation of Youth, Research and Plan (YRP) -- a community-based research methodology…

During professional development time in secondary schools, teachers often engage in peer exchanges that can have positive influence on instruction and learning, but often this time is focused within departmental groupings on content development without an emphasis on how to improve instruction through a more diverse student lens. This research…

The authors examined the research and activism of 10th graders (ages 15-16) involved in a youth participatory action research project in a course in qualitative research at their small public school in New York City, New York. The authors, a classroom researcher and a high school teacher, looked closely at how the youth researchers used…

This article responds to the deadly consequences of the ongoing anti-Black racist and ableist educational settings in the United States, including the continuous historical trauma they create in the lives of targeted youth (dis/abled, Black, non-white, gender-variant, poor, immigrant). By way of sampling individual body maps of a New York…

The following paper describes the outcomes and insights of the first stage of an action research study aimed to explore ways in which CBP [Community Based Pedagogy] and NC strengthen sense of community and provoke actions to benefit that community is a public school located in a rural area. This work emerged from a needs analysis study in which…

Transforming ESL teachers' perspective on media literacy: An action research project was carried out at a Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDE) public high school in the Metropolitan area. The participants of the study were five ESL teachers. Professional development was the intervention used in this study. The participants were introduced to…

Motivated by the addition of a curriculum standard for active citizenship into New Jersey's social studies standards a group of educators and researchers set out to integrate an action research curriculum, based on a youth participatory action research (YPAR) model, into social studies classrooms. Adapting YPAR, with its promising blend of…