The crisis during the pandemic restrained the livelihood of women and disrupted their economic opportunities. Specifically, during the height of the lockdown, when people were restricted from going out, the livelihood of women who sold and peddled seafood products was greatly affected. This paper unfolds women's socio-demographic profile and…

The relationship between academic tracking and exclusionary discipline actions has only been studied in a limited number of empirical studies. By placing students at the lower strata, schools deprive them of the educational opportunities, widening the educational opportunity gap in a process we define as "opportunity stratification."…

The underrepresentation and underperformance of low-income, first-generation, gender minoritized, Black, Latine, and Indigenous students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) occurs for a variety of reasons, including, that students in these groups experience opportunity gaps in STEM classes. A critical approach to disrupting…

Because of poverty, many children do not receive adequate prenatal care, nutrition, or early childhood education. These inequities combine to ensure that many students enter school with considerably less academic content knowledge and skills for learning than their peers. Teachers and schools did not create these gaps, but they must address them.…

This paper critically analyzes gap discourses in student learning, starting from the achievement gap, education debt, and opportunity gaps, applying the lens of coloniality, racial-capitalism, and modernity (CRCM). Gap discourses are the prevalent rationale behind educational policies and school reforms globally. Specifically in the United States,…

Disparities across race, gender, and class are important targets of descriptive research. But rather than only describe disparities, research would ideally inform interventions to close those gaps. The gap-closing estimand quantifies how much a gap (e.g., incomes by race) would close if we intervened to equalize a treatment (e.g., access to…

Reading is a key gateway to learning, enabling independent access to a range of educational materials. Thus, reading difficulties leave a child particularly vulnerable to academic problems in later schooling and beyond. However, while there is good awareness of children with word reading difficulties within the education system, much less is known…

Scholars theorize that "opportunity gaps" drive achievement disparities between children born into poverty versus affluence. In a 26-year longitudinal study (N = 814), we examine (a) economic disparity in children's accumulation of opportunities--from birth through high school--at home, childcare, school, afterschool, and in the…

The term "achievement gap" has a negative and racialized history, and using the term reinforces a deficit mindset that is ingrained in U.S. educational systems. In this essay, we review the literature that demonstrates why "achievement gap" reflects deficit thinking. We explain why biology education researchers should avoid…

Most of the literature on the development of educational inequality has operated under the achievement gaps paradigm, often assuming that the underlying normative and methodological foundations related to equality and justice in education are a settled matter. In this article, we argue that important normative dimensions are overlooked with…

Globally, the choice of language learning strategies by EFL learners is a debated issue in secondary schools in EFL countries due to the individual personality characteristics of the learners. This study investigated the relationship between three predictor variables (motivational processes, learning style, cognitive ability) and learners'…

The purpose of this article is to show how scholars and practitioners can come together to address opportunity gaps for Black students at Michigan State University. The authors detail identity-conscious student success strategies within Reason and Kimball's model of theory to practice used by a group of Black faculty and staff. Among the specific…

This study extends research on cultural reproduction theory and employs a critical quantitative lens to examine how schools contribute to differential science outcomes based on intersectional student backgrounds. Using nationally representative PISA 2015 data, structural equation modeling is utilized with intersectional student background groups…

The purpose of this article was to explore the differences in opportunity to learn between higher and lower achieving schools. Additionally, the teachers' perception of Opportunity to Learn (OTL) as it relates to students' achievement were investigated. Teachers were surveyed to investigate any difference in their perceptions of opportunity to…

While achievement gaps have been well-established, much remains to be understood about the manner and extent to which school leadership either increases or decreases student access to opportunity to learn. The current study uses nationally representative samples of U.S. and Flemish students in Grade 4 from the 2011 Trends in International…