The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "College Readiness and Success." Contents include: (1) Texas School Counselors…

Research-practice partnerships play an important role in critically examining racial disparities in schools, as well as supporting the immediate adoption of practice improvement. This article outlines the results of a multisite case study with students, teachers, and administrators across two racially and ethnically diverse middle schools in the…

The expansion and increasing popularity of Advanced Placement (AP) programs have led to a new and significant trend: students are taking AP courses earlier in their high school journey, with a notable increase in enrollment among freshmen and sophomores. This study examines the effects of early engagement in AP courses for students deemed…

Implementing an equity agenda in the classroom is both necessary and challenging for classes containing pre-service teachers. For this intervention, we chose to begin our History of Mathematics course for preservice middle school teachers with a cultural simulation training exercise: Bafa Bafa. After participating in the exercise, pre-service…

The purpose of this study was to investigate issues of equity in access, uptake, and outcomes of high school music education in the context of an individual state, Maryland. I explored equity through four angles: (a) representation among music students and teachers, (b) factors associated with access to music courses, (c) student and school…

This teaching guidebook will help educators navigate emerging best practices to center historically marginalized voices and perspectives in middle, high school, and postsecondary learning spaces. The author provides an accessible blueprint for utilizing histories, culturally responsive teaching, and community responsive pedagogy to build…

Pervasive disparities in educational outcomes suggest the need to train teachers to better support minoritized students by leading inclusive, equitable, and multicultural classrooms. Given the potential benefits of teacher training in antiracist and culturally responsive instructional practices, we synthesized the available research on diversity…

Teaching mathematics and science embedded in social justice is not a familiar concept for many teachers, especially pre-service teachers. This qualitative, descriptive, and interpretative study examines the experiences and reflections of 26 middle grade and secondary pre-service mathematics and science teachers on teaching and learning mathematics…

Using data on ninth graders, math teachers, and schools from the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, we investigate the following questions: (1) How do ninth graders' perceptions of their math teachers as equitable relate to their math identity at the intersection of adolescents' race and gender? and (2) Do…

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.…

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…

The United States, in less than 50 years, has gone from legal segregation and exclusion of students with disabilities in schools to an emphasis on inclusion in the least restrictive environments based on individual student needs. The United States has made great strides in the physical inclusion of students with disabilities, but work is still…

The Atlanta Schools Critical Education Network for Distinction (ASCEND) is an ongoing interdisciplinary coalition supporting the critical consciousness of social justice educators. ASCEND partners include: (1) activist faculty from two university departments: Middle and Secondary Education and African American Studies; (2) a justice-oriented…

Increasing levels of student diversity, and inequality, frame the conditions of schooling in the contemporary moment. Initial teacher education has also been criticised for falling short in adequately preparing pre-service teachers who can cater for the needs of diverse student learners. This paper enters this discursive field and takes a specific…

There is a need for greater guidance in preparing pre-service teachers to enact culturally relevant pedagogy while maintaining the content and rigor of mathematics and science in middle and secondary grades. This study investigated a group of pre-service teachers' plans to implement culturally relevant pedagogy in middle/secondary mathematics and…