This study involving 233 participants from ten states sought to identify the types of educational journals practicing superintendents read. The findings indicate that the majority of superintendents are reading publications provided by professional and trade organizations rather than peer-reviewed journals. Across all subgroups, "Educational…

In a time when fewer resources force school leaders to make critical decisions, the data-driven decision-making model continues to offer promise. This research project provides observations about factors used for decision making from 14 district leaders across five Iowa school districts. Placing these factors for decision making within the…

This research examines a state-level response to national political movements to decentre whiteness in American social studies education. Aiming to better understand how emotions systemically sustain and build connections to whiteness, this emotion discourse analysis examined how fear and hope shaped the content of and support for legislation…

This instrumental case study contained interviews with 35 school board members and educators in the state of Iowa to gain an understanding of Senate File 496, Iowa's "Don't Say Gay" legislation influenced school climate. Martinsone et al.'s sustainable promoting of positive school climate guided interviews and data analysis. The key…

In March 2020, COVID-19 resulted in school closures for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year across the nation. Because of the pandemic predictions regarding the 20202021 school year, concerns regarding curricular offerings and delivery surfaced quickly. A non-experimental quantitative comparative study was conducted in two neighboring…

Social and emotional learning (SEL) has been increasingly emphasized in educational research and practice for promoting children's wellbeing. Perhaps the most well-known SEL framework is the model provided by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). This framework has become the dominant framework informing state SEL…

It has been said that one of the greatest failures in the education system has been a longstanding problem of public and private school educators failing to recognize victims of child abuse and neglect in their classrooms (Jennings, 1989). The maltreatment of children is a prevalent problem as we know that the number of child maltreatment cases…

The purpose of this survey study was to provide a demographic profile of PK-12 public school music teachers and details about the public school music teaching positions in Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois. An invitation to complete a questionnaire was emailed to all PK-12 public school music teachers in these three states whose email addresses could…

This study is the first to empirically examine how school districts allocate resources in response to capital investment revenue from statewide penny sales taxes (called SAVE funds), and whether SAVE funds affect student outputs (i.e., educational achievement). We found evidence that school districts do not use SAVE funds to increase capital…

A quality program is the ultimate goal for many secondary agricultural education programs. To ensure quality agricultural education programs, standards were established to measure the extent agricultural education programs in Iowa were implementing standards. Utilizing Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior, researchers incorporated the Iowa Council…

This article conducts a fiscal analysis of 10 tax-credit programs in seven states. In total, the 10 programs in the present study represent 90% of all scholarships awarded in tax-credit scholarship programs today. The analysis employs a set of cautious assumptions about switcher rates and students who receive multiple scholarships to generate a…

When done reliably and efficiently, measuring school climate can help improve schools' vital signs and help state boards of education realize their goals and objectives for the system as a whole. Moreover, because it is as consequential to schools as checking heart rates and blood pressure are to humans, schools should always use climate measures…

The school-to-prison pipeline represents an educational environment that allows public schools to push many at-risk children out of school and into the juvenile justice or the adult criminal justice system. Consequently, this study explores the disproportionate rates of discipline when comparing Black and White female students in the national…

This paper reviews state strategies for incorporating performance assessment in policy and practice. Specifically, the paper reviews the use of performance assessment in 12 states in the Innovation Lab Network, a group committed to developing systems of assessment that provide meaningful measures of college and career readiness. This review…

This quantitative study explored the statistical relationship between American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) leadership competencies and data-driven decision making (DDDM) literacy among rural community college leaders in the Midwest. Specifically, the authors examined how AACC community college leadership competencies may predict the…