Schools are expected to be sites of caring, but there is evidence that both students and adults often experience them as uncaring places. One reason is that a sustained and heavy policy emphasis on accountability and demonstrations of effectiveness has placed pressure on educators to perform in certain ways, and to care about things other than…

This study investigated the lived experiences of (12) elementary and middle school principals in the Northeast United States throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In light of the emergency COVID-19 guidelines that have been implemented across schools in the United States, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand how principals…

The present study explored a small-scale English medium instruction (EMI) initiative in Moroccan secondary schools, which is part of a top-down multilingual policy based on teaching science subjects through foreign languages, namely French, English, and Spanish. 18 secondary EMI teachers of math, physics and life and earth sciences were…

Policy makers are increasingly attentive to the importance of supportive school climates, even as many students report that schools seem to be uncaring places. Using recent scholarship that foregrounds the organizational and contextual dimensions of educational caring and student engagement, we use qualitative case study interview data to examine…

Existing literature on the impact of Common Core State Standards in Math has shown little benefit, but has not examined variation in outcomes based on implementation strategies, student subgroups, or outcomes other than test scores. We use a difference-in-differences approach with school fixed effects to compare outcomes in pre- and post-standards…

School discipline is a salient problem of educational policy and practice. Teachers play an important role in the production and disruption of racial inequities in school discipline, yet there remains a need to disentangle the relationship between teacher characteristics, their perceptions of school climate, and school discipline patterns. This…

This article unpacks existing laws and disciplinary policies like "zero tolerance" and "disturbing schools" that criminalize youth behaviors in public schools and explores their roots in U.S. racialized histories using a critical carceral studies framework. Carceral studies scholars critique the punitive capitalist apparatus…

The current study aimed to examine the perceptions of principals on aspects of the ecological school culture that contribute to novice teachers' retention. Narratives of 16 Israeli middle-schools and high schools principals were analyzed based on the social-ecological model. This model considers the different environments related to the…

Schools often track students to classes based on ability. Proponents of tracking argue it is a low-cost tool to improve learning since instruction is more effective when students are more homogeneous, while opponents argue it exacerbates initial differences in opportunities without strong evidence of efficacy. In fact, little is known about the…

The article aims to reform Korean textbook policy through analysing national curriculum alignment in authorized school textbooks and assessing their quality management. The research was conducted with 14 different types of approved middle school physical education textbooks that were examined for the creativity embedded in Korea's current national…

The culture of competition in music education is pervasive, reflecting the overall growth in standardization and accountability measures in education. With this study, I addressed the intersection of two underexamined topics in music education: teachers' experience with competitive ensemble events and the structural challenges of working in a…

The new "Framework for Junior Cycle" (DES. 2012. "A Framework for Junior Cycle." Dublin: Stationery Office) in Ireland aimed to introduce short courses and develop key skills but the proposed phasing out of the Junior Certificate examinations resulted in widespread controversy. Drawing on policy documents and related research,…

The current study provides foundational research on the extent to which Florida Title 1 middle schools (schools including grades 7 and/or 8) have policies and practices that align with core components of positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS). Principals from 197 (42.73%) of all FL Title 1 schools that included at least grades seven…

While researchers have shown great interest in understanding teacher evaluation, little is known about how teachers' actions and interactions surrounding evaluation affect the dual goals of evaluation--accountability and development. Using data collected during a yearlong ethnographic study at three schools (combined with follow-up interviews four…

This brief examines Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) science achievement of the 20% highest and the 20% lowest performing fourth and eighth graders in 11 countries. To do so, the authors compare achievement distributions across countries, using measures of relative equality within countries. Such an examination…