A First-Year Seminar course was designed using high-impact practices supporting food justice at a university serving mainly urban, minority, Hispanic, and first-generation students. The course was initially taught using participatory experiential learning but without service-learning. After an urban farm was added to campus to support the…

Educational accountability is dominated by a focus on test scores to assess academic achievement. An emerging trend toward "next-generation" accountability includes a broader conception of student learning and multiple metrics. A policy design approach is used to analyze this trend. Four design elements--goals, actors, metrics, and…

This qualitative case study explored how educators in a high-poverty, urban public high school used student achievement data to inform instruction. The sample consisted of one principal, five counselors, and ten teachers across multiple departments in a Los Angeles County high school recognized for its data-driven practices and collaborative…

Efforts to transform urban schools often overlook the role of students in shaping educational spaces. And so, I ask: How do students, as the primary users of school space, make and shape their school? I draw from spatial inquiry that emphasizes the social production of space to provide a glimpse into the spatial perspectives and practices of Azul,…

This study explored the perspectives and lived experiences of urban youth in relation to Restorative Practices at a free public charter school in Los Angeles, California. This qualitative study used a series of semi-structured interviews with four high school students. This adaptable design allowed for the nature of questions to evolve and shift…

Critics claim that America's public schools remain feckless and hamstrung institutions, unable to improve even when nudged by accountability-minded politicians, market competition, or global pandemic. But if schools are so hopeless, then why did student learning climb in Los Angeles across the initial decades of the twenty-first century? In…

Segregation on the basis of race or ethnicity is one of the most enduring and pervasive inequities in US public education. School segregation is determined not only by residential sorting and families' preferences but by local policy choices such as the drawing of school attendance boundaries. This report examines the role of individual school…

Little is known about how school leaders of color implement social justice leadership praxis within the urban public charter school context, especially amid a global pandemic and heightened racial injustice. This study aimed to better understand the phenomenon of being a social justice leader of color, specifically examining how these leaders…

Historically, low-income Catholic secondary schools have provided opportunities for underrepresented students to receive quality education and matriculate to community college and four-year universities. This trend continues today, yet for schools like one in this study who identify as college preparatory schools, what happens to students once…

Leadership is a critical component of creating and sustaining a school culture that promotes the inclusion and success of students. The purpose of this study was to examine how school leaders helped to enact and sustain a reformed Advanced Placement (AP) culture designed to increase participation and success of students of color. Building on…

This study examines how three teachers working at a South Central high school teach critically about race and place. While building on the "spatial turn" in social science, the article draws on Critical Race Spatial Analysis to advance literature at the intersection of race, place, and pedagogy. Additionally, the article utilizes…

In recent years, some U.S. school districts have shifted away from direct management of schools, toward systems in which some or all schools operate under enhanced autonomy, accountability, and parental choice. Yet dynamics driving these changes are understudied, and there are few comparative studies of system-level governance shifts. To address…

The progression of teacher learning from aspiring educator to accomplished practitioner is multifaceted and complex. Selecting a teacher preparation program is a critical point in this journey, but it is by no means the end. Strengthening teacher pipelines requires aligned systems that not only open diverse entry points and provide initial…

Background/Context: Historians of education have chronicled the essential link between schools and communities from a variety of perspectives, exploring how ideology, material conditions, and political struggles have shaped public education. Viewing school reform historically allows us to see how schools are tied to their particular contexts,…

This guide aims to present district instructional leaders and staff with a core set of criteria for what high-quality professional development entails. What makes this particular document different and useful is the focus on practical issues of district-level implementation in multiple teaching and learning environments. This is a guide designed…