Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, is accessed by over 1.5 billion users each month, yet remains stigmatized in the academic world. Many faculty demonstrate reluctance in allowing students to use Wikipedia as part of their research and writing projects due to the open access nature of the site and have all but banned its use in their…

This issue brief is part of a five-part series that reports findings from research conducted by ACT in collaboration with Region One Education Service Center. This brief focuses on the efficacy of social and emotional learning (SEL) lessons implemented and includes results from surveys completed by students who participated in an SEL lessons…

This article compares Spanish proficiency assessments across three states (Texas, Arizona, and California) in relation to four overarching themes: (a) verification methods of proficiency; (b) test-task authenticity; (c) impact of pedagogical content knowledge in test performance; and (d) conceptions of language 'correctness' on the scoring…

Colleges across the United States are now placing most or all students directly into college-level courses and providing supplementary, aligned academic support alongside the courses, also known as "corequisite remediation." Developmental education reforms like corequisite remediation could advance racial and ethnic equity in…

Absent a nationwide plan for universal public prekindergarten, states and districts have taken various approaches to increasing access to school-based educational opportunities for their youngest learners. Though some of these programs have focused on making public prekindergarten available to all families, others have targeted families most in…

Institutional assessments of quantitative literacy/reasoning (QL/QR) have been extensively tested and reported in the literature. While appropriate for measuring student learning at the programmatic or institutional level, such instruments were not designed for classroom grading. After modifying a widely accepted institutional rubric designed to…

For any dual enrollment (DE) reform to be effective, educators must acknowledge and understand the diverse experiences of all DE students, especially those from historically underrepresented populations. As part of CCRC's DEEP research, the author of this brief investigates the experiences of students historically underserved in DE to understand…

This study explores communication and retelling skills that are revealed after Mexican-American preschoolers engaged in culturally sensitive read alouds. Participants, highlighted in this article, included two four-year-old preschool children in a Spanish/English dual language classroom. The children selected culturally relevant texts and engaged…

This descriptive qualitative study seeks to understand the experiences of secondary-aged Latinx EL students during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the lens of CRT and LatCrit theories, the researcher analyzes the testimonios of eight secondary-aged Latinx EL students. This study addresses a gap in the literature as it pertains to…

Self-assessments utilizing designated, objective standards are critical in program evaluation. Although 2013-2014 Texas policy mandated districts self-assess their gifted programs using the community and student engagement performance rating system, little is known about how districts determined their self-assessment ratings. Following gifted…

This issue brief is part of a five-part series that reports findings from research conducted by ACT in collaboration with Region One Education Service Center. This brief focuses on the efficacy of SEL lessons implemented during the 2019-2020 school year and examines their relationship to school-reported student outcomes such as grades, attendance,…

With immigrant youth an important presence in Texas schools, reading new books for children and adolescents about their experiences can help to grow understanding and empathy for refugees and other immigrants. This article highlights five new books by Latina, Latino, and Latin American authors with characters who migrate to the United States from…

This study explores the linguistic violence of bilingual Latina/o/x adolescents in school settings in Southcentral Texas. In addition, the paper examines how these students see themselves as proficient Spanish/English bilinguals. In doing so, the author uses a language ideologies framework coupled with Anthropolitical linguistics. Within this…

The purpose of this replication study was to examine the leadership practices, instructional practices, and high expectation beliefs employed by school district superintendents in Texas with the aim of eliminating the performance gap between Hispanic and White students in the state. The research employed a qualitative approach, consisting of…

In this study, we present the inter-relationships among humanistic and positive psychology factors in explaining Latinx college students' life satisfaction. A modified path model revealed that hope mediated two relationships: that between resilience and life satisfaction, as well as meaning in life and life satisfaction. However, contrary to what…