Federal law defines English learner (EL) eligibility differently for Indigenous, compared to non-Indigenous, students, allowing for broader entry into the EL category, along with its accompanying resources and services. We interviewed EL leaders from 25 state departments of education to learn about their level of understanding of the…

Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. students attend rural schools. Researchers report that at least half of public schools are rural in 12 states (i.e., Montana, South Dakota, Vermont, North Dakota, Maine, Alaska, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Mississippi) (Showalter et al., 2019). Providing quality education to all rural students is a…

Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. students attend rural schools. Researchers report that at least half of public schools are rural in 12 states (i.e., Montana, South Dakota, Vermont, North Dakota, Maine, Alaska, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Mississippi) (Showalter et al., 2019). Providing quality education to all rural students is a…

Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. students attend rural schools. Researchers report that at least half of public schools are rural in 12 states (i.e., Montana, South Dakota, Vermont, North Dakota, Maine, Alaska, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Mississippi) (Showalter et al., 2019). Providing quality education to all rural students is a…

Young children birth to 6-years of age and their families were each studied for 6 months to identify the everyday family and community activities that were sources of informal everyday learning opportunities. The participants included 115 children with identified disabilities or developmental delays and 91 children without disabilities or delays.…

Situated learning experiences such as research apprenticeships can help connect girls to the sciences, ultimately helping to achieve gender equity in the science workforce. The material resources available in research apprenticeships--such as research equipment, field gear, etc.--may be particularly consequential for building identification with…

The United States leads the world in the number of incarcerated persons per 100,000. In today's global economy, these numbers represent huge wastes in human capital, especially when you consider the inequitable nature of the American criminal justice system, as witnessed by the disproportionate racial and ethnic composition, types of crimes, and…

The COVID-19 pandemic forced K-12 school closures in spring 2020 to protect the well-being of society. The unplanned and unprecedented disruption to education changed the work of many teachers suddenly, and in many aspects. This case study examines the COVID-19 school closure-related changes to the professional life of a secondary school teacher…

To meet current federal regulations and provide the opportunity for individuals to receive services in the least restrictive environments, states are focusing on providing day habilitation services in inclusive community environments, rather than traditional congregate facility-based programs. The two main services of day habilitation focus on…

This article presents a descriptive analysis case study conducted in the stream of teacher action research. An instructor-generated questionnaire was administered to teacher education program participants (n=141) who are practicing U.S. teachers of English learners (ELs). All respondents were enrolled in an online graduate-level teacher education…

For Alaskan Indigenous people, an acute clash of cultures occurs daily in U.S. public school education. The dynamics used to implement and improve the well-being and graduation outcomes for Alaska Native youth in urban public school are presented. A partnership between Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Inc., an Alaska Native social service nonprofit, and…

Raising academic standards and eliminating achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students are America's prime national educational goals. Current federal and state policies, however, largely ignore the fact that the childhood poverty rate in the United States is 21%, the highest in the industrialized world, and that poverty…

One of the major focuses of science education reform is providing equal education to all students. One of the first steps in providing an equal education is informing teachers of classroom equity issues. This document is a training module developed to assist grades K-12 teachers in Alaskan schools in transforming their science classroom into a…

This paper examines the concept of equal educational opportunity (EEO) in some detail, addressing the following questions, both generally and with special reference to Alaska: Is the EEO concept valid? If so, is there sufficient basis for government intervention? If so, what types of interventions are most/least likely to be successful? What types…

A qualitative study examined a rural Alaskan school district's standards-based reform in the sociohistorical context of Alaska Native education. Observations and interviews with 32 district staff members indicate that the district had recast the historical "civilization-savagism" paradigm as an "unhealthy Native" construct to…