Exclusionary school discipline practices and policies have contributed to the racial disparities in discipline for certain demographic of students, particularly Black students. As a result, many schools have adopted the school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SWPBIS) framework to identify and address disproportionality, despite…

Legislation outlined in ESSA (2018) pushes schools to address the needs of the diverse populations within the school community as well creating a place for equitable family engagement. This study focuses on the family rather than the parent. Due to changes in family dynamics it is necessary to incorporate not just the parent but all members of a…

Social-emotional learning refers to the beliefs, attitudes, personality traits, and behaviors that students need to succeed in school and life. Our study looks closely at ten "outlier schools" in California's CORE districts whose students report strong social-emotional learning outcomes compared to other, similar middle schools. This…

In response to budget problems, many urban school systems reduced resources for getting students to come to school, such as truancy officers. Chicago, for instance, in 1991, went from 150 truancy officers down to a total of zero. Is that a good idea? In this study, we explore the effects of increased support by a pro-social adult, or "social…

Within a policy climate that is permissive to Dual Language (DL) programs in California and within the social context of the ongoing gentrification of those programs, this case study explored the leadership and organizational structures required to expand DL programs beyond the elementary years. We asked: (1) What organizational arrangements may…

There is growing concern that it is too difficult or costly to substantially improve the academic skills of children who are behind in school once they reach adolescence. But perhaps what we have tried in the past relies on the wrong interventions, failing to account for challenges like the increased variability in academic needs during…

Policy debate on refugee resettlement focuses on perceived adverse effects on local communities, with sparse credible evidence to ascertain its impact. This paper examines whether attending school with refugees affects the academic outcomes of non-refugee students. Leveraging variation in the share of refugees within schools and across grades, I…

Education is often depicted as one of the best ways out of poverty. At the same time, research over many decades finds that most educational outcomes are strongly correlated to poverty. It is not likely that these two themes are true at the same time. Either schools are windows of opportunity and help overcome or mitigate poverty and other…

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly impacted the methods of instruction for K12 and higher education institutions around the world. Schools and families were challenged to adapt to online-based modes of instruction with minimal preparation. This study examined the importance of the learning environment and commitment to assignments as predictors of…

Leaders set the tone and the culture for their schools. The purpose of this phenomenology study is to examine how the increase in racial diversity among urban middle school teachers impacts the school's culture. The author utilized the Invitational Education model as a conceptual framework. The researcher conducted a total of 28 interviews with…

Learner-centred education has become a global reform policy among Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines. This policy however raised critical issues in pedagogy as it placed learner-centred teaching in binary opposition with teacher-centred instruction, thus creating a simplistic dichotomy between good and bad teaching in the…

The purpose of this multiple case study was to examine the experiences of beginning music teachers as they navigate starting instrumental music programs in a large urban school district in the southern United States. A team of researchers collected data from three first-year music educators launching new instrumental programs at seven schools.…

A critical part of implementing a new instructional program is professional learning. Multifaceted training was planned and delivered to teachers in a Midwestern urban school district prior to and during implementation of an online accelerated English language arts curriculum in four middle schools. Working in partnership with two universities,…

This study examined the dilemma ESL teachers experienced as the educational system shifted from the usual modus operandi of in-person lessons to the uncharted virtual learning environment (VLE). ESL teachers, in one of the largest urban districts in Louisiana, accumulated additional roles and responsibilities that were unique to the teachers of…

This study uses linear probability models with student and teacher fixed effects to assess whether the racial match between teachers and students affects "at-risk" ratings on a teacher-completed universal screener of student internalizing and externalizing behavior. The data are from a large, urban California school district. I find that…