Prior research has documented how current policies and practices reinforce deficit perspectives of multilingual students at the secondary level, particularly students who have been labeled as long-term English learners. At the same time, scholars have argued for a need to collect detailed, individualized information about multilingual students'…

Although there is substantial research that has guided middle school reform, there is insufficient support of Latinx students during their normative secondary transition (middle school to high school). Current research emphasizes that students who are not prepared when entering high school will face grim academic futures. The study explores the…

This research was a descriptive study in which the researcher explored the beginning phases of Ethnic Studies implementation in a Kindergarten through Eighth grade (K-8) school district in Northern California. Using a social justice lens, and through a review of Ethnic Studies, Collective Efficacy, Critical Consciousness, and School Culture…

Growth mindset has been shown to predict academic achievement in a variety of student populations, though the strength of the relationship can vary depending on the characteristics of the students examined. Using a large-scale sample of middle school students from a diverse district in the United States, we examine how multiple facets of students'…

Purpose: This qualitative case study sought to understand and examine school social workers' perspectives on their role within California's TK-12 public school system. Theoretical Framework: Bronfenbrenner and Morris's (2007) bioecological systems theory and Frey et al.'s (2013) national school social work practice model were employed as the…

This case study identifies promising practices for newcomer education implemented in San Juan Unified School District (SJUSD), one of 12 local educational agencies (LEAs) funded under the California Newcomer Education and Well-Being (CalNEW) project between 2018 and 2021. This report was developed through a partnership between the Policy Analysis…

In this quantitative study, the perceptions of grading practices, outcomes, and openness to change were compared between two groups: novice teachers (those with less than 6 years of experience) and experienced teachers (those with 6 or more years of experience). Using the Teachers' Perceptions of Grading Practice Scale and the Openness to…

Purpose: Although schools across the United States are becoming increasingly linguistically and culturally diverse, many teachers remain underprepared to work with students classified as English learners (ELs), especially at the secondary level. Acknowledging the importance of developing systems of support for teachers of ELs, this paper examines…

Schools and districts have long grappled with race- and disability-based exclusionary discipline inequities. Research on the topic has uncovered a variety of systems that maintain such disparities, including school policies and practices that exacerbate the problem. Researchers and practitioners have increasingly considered school context and…

The practice of temporarily removing students from school as a form of punishment (i.e., suspensions) remains quite common. This study uses longitudinal data from a large, urban school district in California to assess whether the use of suspensions improves school safety in the following school year. Additional analyses by student race and…

This study examined the application of Lesson Study for professional development (PD) for a domain approach to moral education. A comparison was drawn between the effects of Lesson Study with 17 teachers and 144 students representing middle schools in the same district as a prior study employing intensive traditional PD. In Lesson Study, groups of…

There is a growing consensus in education that schools can and should attend to students' social-emotional development. Emerging research and popular texts indicate that students' mindsets, beliefs, dispositions, emotions, and behaviors can advance outcomes such as college readiness, career success, mental health, and relationships. Despite this…

Educators often wonder exactly how the textbooks that end up in students' hands were approved. In this article, the author explores one significant stage in the process in California, the nation's largest textbook market. The Instructional Quality Commission (IQC), an advisory board to the California Department of Education's (CDE) State Board of…

The California Next Generation Science Standards (CA NGSS)--adopted in 2013--have the potential to improve scientific literacy and strengthen the global competitiveness of California's workforce. However, longstanding underinvestment in science education and the unprecedented disruptions caused by COVID-19 have heightened challenges faced by…

California adopted the Next Generation Science Standards (CA NGSS) in 2013, with the aim of improving scientific literacy and strengthening the global competitiveness of the state's workforce. But the COVID-19 pandemic has been especially disruptive for science education, which has long been a lower priority than math and English language arts.…