Equitable access to high-quality schooling has been a prevailing concern among educational stakeholders for decades. Magnet schools were first developed in the 1960s to improve academic achievement and attract a more diverse student body by offering unique programs and instruction not provided at other sites within the same district. With…

We used interrupted time series to examine the causal effect of principals on school performance over time and whether the trajectory of performance is affected by school context and leadership practices. Results were based on a unique dataset that links responses from the National Schools and Staffing Survey with 10 years of California Academic…

School closures because of natural phenomena, such as COVID-19, underscore long-standing gaps in access to science education in the United States of America, particularly for young students. When educators have to pivot to deliver virtual instruction, it is important to identify feasible remote learning strategies for science content across formal…

Are parental inputs complements or substitutes to education quality? Using variation induced by identification into a gifted and talented (GT) program, I find no aggregate effects on parental behavior as a result of their child's access to a higher quality education. However, there are heterogeneous effects. Non-minority parents decrease…

Early childhood educators are concerned about a "shovedown" of elementary school expectations, standards, and curriculum on to young children due to policy-makers' moves towards utilising preschool programmes to address disparities in academic achievement. This study employs interviews and classroom observations to contrast the…

The challenges one faces inside the school are connected to and compounded by things that are happening outside. In fact, schools face a number of external demands and pressures that they have to address. Moreover, without the connections, support, and expertise that come from interacting with a host of people, organizations, and institutions on…

Single-sex educational environments can create young women who are engaged, active leaders. Girls receive differential treatment in combined-sex education environments. Girls often do not receive the encouragement or instruction to assume leadership. I want to identify the elements of single-sex education that foster female leadership and consider…

In 2006, the California legislature released $14 million to the schools of California to create school gardens through the California Instructional School Garden Bill (CA Assembly Bill 1535, 2006). This study examined the differences and similarities of school gardens as learning spaces by exploring a fifth grade school standards-based mathematics…

American educators and researchers have spent decades attempting to determine the most effective middle level school configuration. Although various models have been conceptualized in order to resolve one of our most extensive educational reform movements, a recent nationwide increase in K-8 schools suggest interested parties have accepted the K-8…

There are several types of teacher induction programs that have been in existence for over the last ten years, such as university and school district in-house programs that have primarily carried the responsibility of developing new teachers. The responsibility of these structures in training and developing these beginning teachers has been…

This report details the impact of Class Size Reduction (CSR) on six school districts in California. The schools were chosen because they were typical of the changing demographics that affect almost all the state's districts. Data were gathered from interviews with administrators and teachers in the Spring of 1997. Results show that some of the…

This report summarizes findings from a study of the psychometric properties of the resilience and youth development module, a key component of the Healthy Kids Survey. The study aims to improve resilience assessment and research so that educators can shape the school environment to promote academic resilience. The Healthy Kids Survey (HKS) is a…

Rafe Esquith has taught for 23 years at Hobart Boulevard Elementary School in Los Angeles. In a neighborhood plagued by gangs, guns, and drugs, his is a special classroom known as Room 56. Within its walls, children living in poverty play Vivaldi concertos, perform unabridged plays by Shakespeare, and go on to attend top universities. In 2003,…

This case study presents findings from a year-long ethnographic study of a principal of an elementary school in a stable, urban environment. It concludes one of seven studies conducted in elementary and intermediate schools in urban, suburban, and rural settings to investigate the instructional management role of principals. Although previous…

As one of four volumes in a K-12 series, this teaching guide contains classroom and outdoor activities pertaining to the environment and energy for kindergarten through third grades. The guide was developed based upon the understanding that environmental education can serve as an instructional umbrella covering many topics (conservation, marine…