In 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic led to nationwide school closures, followed by a mandate for schools to reopen in 2020, posing challenges for ensuring both educational continuity and student safety. This paper presents findings from a mixed-method study involving ten campus principals in District A, South Texas, post-pandemic. Qualitatively, the…

The COVID-19 pandemic led to notable disruptions in student learning, particularly in mathematics, impacting students from marginalized backgrounds. This quasi-experimental quantitative study examines whether the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Mathematics results from 2019 to 2024 indicate that students have recovered…

The purpose of this descriptive qualitative case study was to discover Second through Fifth Grade rural North Texas teacher perceptions focusing on reading and mathematics student achievement gaps resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores how the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown affected students not only academically but also socially…

The problem of the study involved the pandemic exasperating the learning conditions for students of economic disadvantage and teacher turnover rates. Before the pandemic, educators of students of economic disadvantage worked in conditions that did not offer them the same experiences as educators in schools with fewer low-socioeconomic status.…

All children -- regardless of race, class, gender, or national origin -- deserve to fulfill their potential and have the opportunity to thrive. Over the last several years, Texas children and youth have faced serious challenges and disruptions to their lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Children of color, in particular, were disproportionately…

This report, the first in the Economic Vitality and Education in the South (EVES) series, provides state-by-state information on more than 20 critical data points associated with the education-to-workforce pipeline. The report looks specifically at the 17 states in the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) region: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware,…

The transition to remote education during the COVID-19 pandemic is feared to have widened the achievement gap previously experienced by students from low socioeconomic and minority backgrounds. We utilized data from the "COVID-19 Texas College Student Experiences Survey" to assess the impact of the pandemic on Latinx students' (n = 231)…

As U.S. school leaders anticipate the end of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds and contemplate possible budget shortfalls, they will have to make hard choices about how best to leverage limited resources to improve student outcomes. With the stakes high, lawmakers and experts urge school system leaders to rely on research and…

Since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down public school buildings across the United States in early 2020, research on academic indicators has documented disproportionate--and potentially long-lasting--impacts on Latino students. This report examines several strategies and practices that have tremendous promise for accelerating Latino students'…

The United Nations has set forth an ambitious vision for education systems around the globe: cultivating life-long learning from early childhood through an individual's civic and work life. Schools must support children and youth in basic learning--including crucial socio-emotional, literacy, and numeracy competencies--to contribute to sustainable…

To innovate for the future and improve equity, while also protecting foundational and proven principles that support high-quality education, ExcelinEd is committing to 5 goals over 5 years to impact 5 million students. Those goals hold the key to impactful and far-reaching changes in education, with the power to transform schools, students' lives,…

Talent Hubs are communities that have shown the ability and commitment to significantly increase college-level learning among residents of all backgrounds. Areas that have earned a designation as a Talent Hub truly work as a community, meaning businesses, education leaders, and civic organizations work as a unit to attract, cultivate, and retain…

The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "Equity Auditing." Contents include: (1) Using Equity Audits to Assess and…