School improvement depends, fundamentally, upon collective agency--a group capability to work productively together and solve problems. Unfortunately, many schools operate in contexts of adversity that can pose considerable challenges with developing collective agency. Schools serving high-poverty communities of color often face chronic resource…

The purpose of the action research project was to provide part-time professors in the California community college system a framework for meaningful professional development that could lead to more preparedness and empowerment; and to give part-time professors an avenue to gain leadership opportunities, and greater control over their learning and…

We incorporated trauma-informed principles into the design of a synchronous, online Religion and Politics course and then evaluated impacts on student learning through qualitative methods. Using a novel approach, students self-evaluated their learning throughout the course in weekly reflections. Using content analysis and directed coding…

Throughout 2020, America's Promise Alliance worked with five communities across the country that wanted to extend and deepen their efforts to support young people's social, emotional, and cognitive development. Each community planned cross-sector convenings to inspire action that would result in the approaches to learning that prioritize young…

One popular approach to teacher leadership is to identify certain teachers as particularly successful, then have others learn from them. Collaborative leadership, in contrast, looks at leadership as a quality that anyone can have. In this model, the goal is not to figure out who is best. Instead, teachers share their unique talents and interests…

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed long-standing systemic inequities in education with resulting gaps in opportunity and academic achievement. In addition, many affected students have experienced additional trauma as the pandemic has cost lives and livelihoods in families already vulnerable and on the edge. School staff have also experienced…

Students who are newcomers to the United States -- as English Learners (ELs) -- face barriers to learning, and their academic success often lags behind their native-English-speaking peers. Notably, there is paucity in the literature about Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) high school student newcomers' academic challenges as ELs and the…

Empowering settings are important places for people to develop leadership skills in order to enact social change. Yet, due to socio-cultural constructions of childhood in the US, especially constructions around working class and working poor children of Color, they are often not seen as capable or competent change agents, or in need of being in…

Inequality of access to educational resources by different social classes has been widely documented, and schools have instituted parent programs to ameliorate this situation. However, lacking are theoretically based studies that explain how and why a program may be effective in bringing about change. The authors studied a 12-week parent…

In spite of enormous investment and remarkable advancement in information system technology (IST) corporations, human integration remains the dominant factor in their success. While 10% of the failure can be attributed to technique failures, 90% are due to human issues. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to capture the…

The purpose of this study was to identify and to explore programs related to school leadership in two California charter schools. Four research questions guided this study: (a) What policies, programs, and processes are used to improve teacher and administrative leadership (school leadership) in charter schools? (b) How are resources used to…

Assessment is a worthwhile undertaking when meaningful data are generated, evidence-based improvement initiatives are thoroughly considered and discussed, and results are ultimately used to improve educational effectiveness. National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) results are oriented toward such practical use. Each year, more campuses use…