Some school districts have centralized school operations as a means to ensure universal access to schools of choice. Yet, centralization can infringe on charter school autonomy. We explore how district and charter school leaders in three contexts perceive and negotiate the trade-offs between centralized versus school-based autonomy. We find that…

The aim of this study was to better understand the role of school bathrooms in shaping the menstrual experiences of adolescents in the U.S.A. The participants were Black and Latina, low-income adolescent girls (15-19) and adults interacting closely with youth in three U.S.A. cities (Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City). Data collection methods…

Gender-Sexuality Alliances (GSAs) and inclusive school policies and practices that affirm youth with minoritized sexual orientations or gender identities (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer youth; LGBTQ+ youth) are two sources of support for LGBTQ+ youth that could promote school belonging. The current study tested a three-level…

As technology has advanced over time, cell phone usage has become a tool in an individual's educational career. Previous research has shown that teacher perceptions have differed depending on the individual teacher (Baker et al., 2012; O'Bannon et al., 2014; Stachowski et al., 2020). Much of the research has suggested that teachers tend to have…

Schools are unique institutions where structural and cultural dynamics shape the actions of humans. Teachers work within structures of power to establish themselves as legitimate authority figures worthy of respect. This is complicated by the multi-faceted relationships of power existing everywhere in schools. In this study, I use a grounded…

The national policy context regarding transgender students' rights has been volatile in recent years. New York State's Department of Education has a transgender policy in place, yet local school districts around New York State do not. This qualitative case study examined how district and school staff perceived the knowledge and effectiveness of…

The first post-pandemic year may well have been harder than the radically disrupted 18 months of rolling lockdowns and remote learning that preceded it. The jarring disruptions related to COVID-19 aren't the whole story, however. What has happened to students isn't just the impact of a protracted, once-in-a-generation adverse event, but the…

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss current policies and position statements related to religious music and teaching about religion and propose a four-part framework for stakeholders to incorporate or amend policy on religious music in the public schools. The framework is based off of an analysis of sixteen public school district…

Campus child care centers have often been credited for supporting the occupational success of faculty and staff with dependent children. These centers have also been hailed as essential supports for student-parents' participation in higher education, integration into campus life, and academic success. In recognition of the value of campus child…

For decades the City University of New York has served as a model for public higher education in the United States. Since 1969, CUNY has attempted to construct policies that support the postsecondary ambitions of New York's underrepresented students. The era of Open Admissions that ushered in the 1970s remains one of the greatest social…

Since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in March 2020, districts across the nation have faced the difficult task of reopening school sites safely for in-person instruction and keeping them open as community infection rates have risen and fallen. It is useful to learn from the efforts of districts that have been able to reopen schools--and keep them…

Proponents of the charter school movement often claim that the decentralized, autonomous nature of charter schools from district and state authority allows teachers greater influence over school policy both instructionally and administratively. Using a data set of 1,427 New York City schools, we empirically examine the extent to which…

Although Black and Latinx students disproportionately face exclusionary school discipline, prior research finds that the likelihood of suspension for Black students decreases when they are taught by greater proportions of Black teachers. Little prior work, however, has examined whether these effects generalize to large, diverse, urban school…

New York City (NYC) is considered to be one of the world's most progressive cities and gender and sexuality diversity (GSD)-inclusive education departmental policies appear to reflect these values. However, even within such a context, NYC educators report challenges in their work to meet the needs of trans/gender-diverse students and the…

Given the dominance of residentially based school assignment, prior researchers have conceptualized K-12 enrollment decisions as beyond the purview of school actors. This paper questions the continued relevance of this assumption by studying the behavior of guidance counselors charged with implementing New York City's universal high school choice…