Calls for more civic education have risen alongside political polarization, social injustices, and threats to democracy. Although civic learning opportunities are disproportionately accessible and often not inclusive, one model has shown promising results. Through School Participatory Budgeting, students deliberate and decide how to allocate funds…

Gender stereotypes and lack of access to relatable role models, mentors, and STEM opportunities have been suggested to deter middle school girls and students from underrepresented backgrounds away from STEM. Seeds of Success, an out-of-school program, is designed to inspire girls to consider STEM careers by countering gender stereotypes through…

Purpose: Educational leadership traditionally has defined school leadership as an adult-only space. An emerging group of scholars is expanding the field to challenge who should be considered an educational leader and whose voices should be centered in change processes. Examining the ways in which students serve as leaders in schools, student voice…

The students at the author's alternative, academic-recovery school come from their base schools and at the author's school are able to rewrite their own school stories. Some of that rewriting naturally happens in the library. Many of the students have experiences at multiple schools, but it is not until they come to the author's school that many…

Research has shown the value of including youth, especially minoritized students, in school- and district-level educational decision-making. However, power dynamics, as related to adultism, along with other inequities, are barriers to youth's political influence. We elucidate these barriers by exploring the possible relationship between…

Study after study has demonstrated that postsecondary success involves a range of factors from neighborhood context to family history to individual aspiration (Kim & Rifelj, 2021). Kauffman Scholars Incorporated (KSI), a post-secondary scholarship program based in Kansas City, understands these factors and has tailored its programming…

Background: Civic participation is a fundamental element of democracy; therefore, upholding and supporting civic participation, especially among the upcoming generation, is important. Political efficacy -- an individual's understanding of their capacity to participate in civic life -- has been found to exert an important influence on the expected…

"Catalyzing Change in Middle School Mathematics" is part of the Catalyzing Change Series, a collection of three books intended to initiate the critical conversations on policies, practices, and issues that impact mathematics education. In 2018, the first book in the series, "Catalyzing Change in High School Mathematics: Initiating…

This paper presents the findings of a research study that sought to understand the perspectives of exemplary Black teachers utilizing emancipatory pedagogies to help Black students navigate systems of white supremacy in a contemporary American social landscape where racism is simultaneously invisible and hypervisible. Using critical race theory,…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how educators describe strategies used in contributing to the self-esteem of adolescent middle school girls. It was not known how educators describe strategies used in contributing to the self-esteem of adolescent middle school girls. The theoretical framework for this study was the…

This paper describes how the literacy achievement of low socioeconomic status 17 Black male middle school students in one classroom was influenced by culturally responsive teaching. The study employed a concurrent transformative mixed-methods approach. Quantitative data consisted of pretest and posttest reading scores from the computer adaptive…

In 2018, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) introduced a competitive grant program designed to assist Local Education Agencies (LEA) in attaining Math Innovation Zone (MIZ) designation through a four-year process which ensures program fidelity. The primary objective of this initiative is to enhance math proficiency levels for PreK - 8th grade…

The middle level years (ages 9-15) are particularly critical for young adolescent students as they explore who they are, and how they fit into the world (AMLE, 2020). Developing an awareness and understanding of how genders are sometimes treated inequitably can have a significant impact on young adolescents' self-perceptions and developing sense…

Student engagement in the learning process drastically declines as students make their way through the education system from fifth grade onward. Student disengagement increases the likelihood a child will eventually drop out of school. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the promotion of student engagement,…

This article proposes photovoice as an innovative approach to group work with Black (K-12) youth in school settings. More specifically, this article focuses on how school counselors can use photovoice as a tool to address the race-related struggles (e.g., racial prejudice and discrimination) that Black students experience both inside and outside…