Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 is underpinned by the provision of quality inclusive education for all young persons, including persons with disabilities. The universal design for learning (UDL) framework provides the basis for establishing an inclusive pedagogical learning environment in classrooms. However, implementing such an…

Policies and practices in middle school continue to perpetuate inequities faced by students from historically marginalized groups. In the current article, we present a literature review that focuses on feedback as one avenue by which inequities are exacerbated, specifically for Black and Latiné middle school students. Furthermore, we describe…

Much has been written in the grading literature regarding the continued use of traditional teacher grading practices that impede effective teaching and learning, yet teachers continue to assign grades using a mixture of factors. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore secondary teacher perceptions of their grading practices, the…

One of the most important recommendations in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted at the UN Summit in 2015 was "No one will be left behind". Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer pointed out that the dominant form of music education in training musicians is Romantic or Dionysian. Schafer finds this type of music education…

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) are effective when schools address perceived obstacles for teachers, engage in the problem-solving process using disaggregated behavior data, and routinely use reliable measurement tools to evaluate its level of implementation. Although PBIS schools have made great strides in outcomes for…

A growing body of evidence points to increased interest in and positive outcomes of participating in Career and Technical Education (CTE). We examine selection into CTE high schools of choice in Massachusetts, a state that has made large investments in CTE, and CTE-dedicated high schools, where interest in attending the schools regularly exceeds…

The COVID-19 pandemic that emerged in China and spread globally in early 2020 caused schools to shut down and forced educators to adapt their curricula to an online format. For many students, especially English language learners (ELs), this disruption exposed vast disparities to access and equitable instruction. For science, technology,…

This research sought to examine the various types of social justice knowledge that 10 practicing teachers possessed and how this knowledge can be categorized and further nuanced. Drawing from the theoretical framework of social justice pedagogical and content knowledge, researchers inductively and deductively coded a corpus of interviews to…

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…

As the number of displaced people increases, providing refugee-background students with critically engaging classrooms is essential. Supporting diverse learners, while focusing on issues of social justice and equity, critical literacy facilitates a perspective where texts are analyzed for underlying messages of power and sociopolitical issues.…

Anxiety and depression have increased for adolescent youth, particularly since the pandemic. For certain students, this anxiety and depression connects to trauma because of inequity and bias in schools. This qualitative study examined successful urban middle school teachers and their perspectives on conditions they created for hope in their…

This second of six briefs analyzing data from the U.S. Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), covering the 2020-21 school year, explores enrollment of students with disabilities by race, gender, English proficiency, and primary disability to gain a fuller picture of educational equity. It is recognized that such categories can, at times, conceal as…

This three-manuscript dissertation used a rapid PDSA to improve teacher efficacy concerning designing and teaching an unleveled 9th grade science class. Leveling and tracking can lead to inequitable outcomes and experiences for minoritized students. However, designing and implementing effective heterogeneous, unleveled classes that meet the needs…

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…

What do we mean when we say that a text is relevant to a young person or to a group of young people? And how might a reimagining of relevance, shaped through the voices of young men of color, enhance literacy teaching and learning? Based on case studies of six young Black, Latino, and South Asian men and their reading experiences, this book…