In 2019 the Society for Music Analysis commissioned a report to find out if stakeholders in music education agreed that knowledge and/or skills in music literacy had declined for those applying to study music at university in England. The ensuing mixed methods study collected data from a range of stakeholders through interviews (N = 33),…

Educational outcomes from traditionally underrepresented groups are generally worse than for their more advantaged peers. This problem is typically known as the awarding gap (we use the term awarding gap over 'attainment gap' as attainment places the responsibility on students to attain at equal levels) and continues to pose a challenge for…

I provide a broad frame for understanding racial disproportionality in special education by showing how the inequity is a byproduct of the educational debt. I used a single case study design that relied upon qualitative semi-structured interviews, document analyses, and school board meeting transcripts gathered from a mid-sized urban school…

Urban community leaders describe their perceptions of critical issues in education and offer recommendations for the creation of a college-going culture (CGC). This qualitative study employed a maximum entropy analysis. Results demonstrate critical issues with increasing educational attainment including complexity of the urban school system,…

Purpose: School district superintendents say politics is the number one factor limiting their performance, yet research provides limited guidance on navigating the political dynamics of district improvement. State takeovers and district-wide turnaround efforts tend to involve particularly heated and polarized debates. Massachusetts' 2012 takeover…

This paper explores the personal reflections of educators and contributors to policy on the shifting status of race equality in education policy in England between 1993 and 2013. The interview participants included some of the most notable figures active in race equality work in England. Part of the paper's significance is its focus on the…

As an urban district reform for equity, the Model Schools for Inner Cities (MSIC) Program in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) was founded as a response to inequities in the city and opportunity gaps among groups of students. This study critically explores the equity discourses among various stakeholders in the MSIC Program between 2004-14,…

We apply a utilization-focused evaluation [UFE] approach to an evaluation of Virginia's latest comprehensive accountability policy--the Standards of Accreditation (SOA). Our study focuses on the implementation experiences of district and high school level administrators in four urban districts. This study is significant in two important ways.…

In urban districts, homeless and highly mobile students are an important contributor to achievement disparities-and their numbers are rising. To date there has been little inquiry into how broader education and housing policies shape the schooling experiences of homeless and highly mobile families. Using semi-structured interviews with 132 key…

Problem: Many inequities frequently have been found to exist in representations of students and access to school programs in public schools. Theory: The purpose of this equity audit is to utilize theoretical positioning and conduct an empirical study involving student representations and access to educational opportunities. The audit focuses on…

The performance of public schools and the achievement of their students influence many important outcomes beyond the classroom, including one that may seem surprising: health. Studies consistently show a strong correlation between educational level and health over a lifetime, even after controlling for demographic characteristics such as income.…

The Title VI Indian Education Formula Grants program represents the U.S. Department of Education's largest investment in addressing the unique academic and cultural needs of American Indian and Alaska Native children. The program is aimed at supporting services that (1) are responsive to the unique cultural, language, and educational needs of…

This is the technical appendices for the report, "Implementation of the Title VI Indian Education Formula Grants Program." Three appendices are included. The appendices are: (1) Supplemental Exhibits; (2) Data Collection Instruments; and (3) Title VI Indian Student Eligibility Certification Form (ED 506 Form). [For "Implementation…

Against the backdrop of urban school politics, in which mayors play increasingly powerful and pivotal roles, the current study examines the origins and implications of mayoral control of charter school authorization and accountability in Indianapolis (see Henig & Rich, 2004; Wong & Shen, 2007). In contrast to analyses of mayoral takeovers…

In 2009, the City of New Haven and New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) announced a sweeping K-12 educational reform, New Haven School Change. The district had three primary goals for School Change: (1) close the gap between the performance of NHPS students' and Connecticut students' averages on state tests, (2) cut the high school dropout rate in…