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.…

Policymakers in Texas want to understand the funding levels necessary for community colleges to meet their promise of providing an affordable and accessible pathway to a postsecondary certificate or degree. Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest conducted this study to help leaders at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board better…

The "Examination of the Costs of Texas Community Colleges" study examined the funding levels necessary for community colleges to meet their promise of providing an affordable and accessible pathway to a postsecondary certificate or degree. The study involved three types of analyses: a needs analysis, an equity analysis, and a cost…

COVID-19 shuttered schools across the United States, upending traditional approaches to education. We examine teachers' experiences during emergency remote teaching in the spring of 2020 using responses to a working conditions survey from a sample of 7,841 teachers across 206 schools and 9 states. Teachers reported a range of challenges related to…

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools across the United States, upending traditional approaches to education and requiring large scale school transformation on a pace never before seen. Though prior research on organizational change has emphasized the importance of working conditions for teacher satisfaction and student achievement…

This report presents key findings from "Learning in the Fast Lane: The Past, Present, and Future of Advanced Placement," by Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Andrew E. Scanlan, and published by Princeton University Press in 2019. American education has long been plagued by excellence gaps among the young people who make it into the highest levels…

In this article, I draw from the practices of nurturing that developed in England in the 1970s as an intervention to support young children who were often experiencing socioeconomic and cultural disadvantages. Nurture groups provided opportunities for social, emotional, and cognitive development where shortcomings in family provision created…

Through Job For the Future's (JFF's) work with communities around the country on the Back on Track model, postsecondary bridging strategies have emerged as a particularly critical and especially replicable component of programming for vulnerable youth. This issue brief offers a typology of evidence-informed bridge programming, drawing on…

This critical ethnographic study investigated how gentrification processes shaped an elementary school's community and two-way bilingual education (TWBE) program in Central Texas. Findings revealed how these gentrification processes impacted the principal and vice principal at the ontological and epistemological levels, as their ways of being and…

Each edition of the IDRA Newsletter strives to provide many different perspectives on the issues in education topics discussed and to define its significance in the state and national dialogue. This issue focuses on Student Engagement and includes: (1) Supporting the Dream of Going to College Through Powerful Student Engagement (Hector Bojorquez);…

In this article, I advance the argument for a listening pedagogy that attends to the voices of children and brings attention to multicultural and power issues. I focus on the need to nurture a student-centered educational system within the constraints of the high-stakes standards and accountability model. Embedded within an ethic of care and…

Each edition of the IDRA Newsletter strives to provide many different perspectives on the issues in education topics discussed and to define its significance in the state and national dialogue. This issue focuses on Teaching Quality and includes: (1) Ensuring Teaching Quality in a Civil Rights Context (Bradley Scott); (2) An Unspoken Culture…

The text of testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs concerning the participation of the San Diego Independent School District in the National School Lunch program, by the district superintendent. (JM)

This paper describes incentives established to confront longstanding differences in test performance by race and ethnicity and to set student performance goals. The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 aspires to set goals for subgroups defined by race/ethnicity, economic disadvantage, disability, and English language learner status. A growing…

High-stakes testing is forcing debate over achieving both educational excellence and equity. A pragmatic, middle position claims high-stakes testing can work with clear but limited goals, flexibility, and the will to address at-risk students' problems. Texas, Chicago, and New York City programs and implementation steps are highlighted. (MLH)