This article examines family involvement and English learners' academic, behavioural and socioemotional outcomes through a synthetic analysis of 28 empirical studies (conducted between 1991 and 2019, mostly in the United States) with participants from kindergarten, elementary (primary), middle and high schools. These studies considered family…

Social justice education is critical work that should be integrated into the teaching and learning in schools. Because this learning is not an isolated event, nor does it solely exist within the classroom walls, family engagement structures are of importance. Both social justice education and effective family engagement involve inclusive…

A high school diploma should mean that all students are ready for college "and" a career, but in Rhode Island, it did not. According to a 2019 audit, just four in a hundred Rhode Island seniors were prepared for both college and a career, and more than half graduated without concrete career skills. When the author became commissioner of…

The benefits of afterschool activity participation for youth development are well-documented. An interesting question dominating this field is whether there is a threshold at which point participating in too many activities (breadth) and spending too much time in those activities (intensity) is negatively associated with desirable outcomes. Using…

Although strides have been made in promoting gender equality, there still exists a lingering gap in math achievement, where males tend to outshine females. This has piqued the interest of both scientists and society, who continue to explore the reasons behind the limited representation of women in math-intensive fields such as science, technology,…

Supporting children to successfully transition from primary to secondary school is of utmost importance for several reasons, including to prevent future emotional and behavioural problems. Level Up is a novel, UK-based intervention consisting of five online group sessions, straddling the summer holidays, and providing at-risk children and their…

An approach to action research of innovative and disruptive socioecological understandings of young people's wellbeing, resilience, and engagement in middle school was piloted with a coalition of school principals, lead teachers, police, and community development professionals by an RMIT research team. This coalition was built around the…

Background: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, American students have demonstrated substantial losses in achievement (Amplify, 2021; Domingue et al., 2021; Dorn et al., 2020; Storey & Zhang, 2023), while chronic absenteeism doubled after the pandemic, with the largest increase among low-income students (Chang et al., 2022; Dorn et al., 2021). Among…

Developed for school and district leaders, Family and Communication Engagement (FACE) departments, educators, and all departments charged with engaging families, this playbook offers evidence-based strategies to enhance family engagement in middle schools. It is a comprehensive resource for those seeking to implement broad-based improvements and…

Teachers' engagement practices with Hispanic families are contributing to the continuing disparities in academic achievement between Hispanic and other students. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore secondary teachers' perceptions about the challenges of building engagement with Hispanic families. The conceptual framework…

To influence school achievement, researchers investigate student academic help-seeking. However, a growing population of students of color combined with the risk of poorer academic performance yields attention toward African American student academic help-seeking. In this review, 13 studies analyzed sampling characteristics, theoretical…

Researchers Martha Abele Mac Iver, Joyce Epstein, and Steven Sheldon summarize the outcomes of their four-year partnership with an urban district aimed at improving the ways schools engage families during the critical transition to high school. They describe how schools put into practice the strategies learned in ongoing professional development,…

This brief is part of a five-part series that reports findings from research conducted by ACT in collaboration with Region One Education Service Center. This brief focuses on family engagement with social and emotional learning (SEL) and includes results from surveys administered to two samples of parents/family members, one sample within Region…

This study aimed to investigate the reasons for school absenteeism among students studying at different types of high schools, and school counsellors' practices and proposed solutions for reducing school absenteeism. This was a qualitative research conducted with a phenomenological design. The study group was formed using criterion sampling, one…

The US is becoming progressively diverse and so are our classrooms. Home-school partnerships are essential to supporting diverse learners. It is critical both new and veteran practitioners make intentional efforts to provide culturally proficient practices when building home-school partnerships. Cultural awareness is identified across disciplines…