One feared consequence of how the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted public education is its potential negative impacts on teacher retention and mobility. Each spring, teachers decide whether and where to teach the following school year. Following the abrupt end to the 2019-20 school year in March 2020, there were increased concerns that teachers would…

The education sector has been quick to recognize the power of predictive analytics to enhance student success rates. However, there are challenges to widespread adoption, including the lack of accessibility and the potential perpetuation of inequalities. These challenges present in different stages of modeling, including data preparation, model…

Colleges and universities are increasingly turning to algorithms that predict college-student success to inform various decisions, including those related to admissions, budgeting, and student-success interventions. Because predictive algorithms rely on historical data, they capture societal injustices, including racism. In this study, we examine…

Hope is considered a marker of resilience among youth facing oppression, including LGBTQ+ youth. This 8-week weekly diary study among 94 LGBTQ+ youth (ages 14-19; M[subscript age] = 15.91, 46% youth of color, 44% transgender or nonbinary) in 2021 considered whether a youth's meeting-to-meeting experiences in Gender-Sexuality Alliances (GSAs;…

Books shape how children learn about society and norms, in part through representation of different characters. We use computational tools to characterize representation in children's books widely read in homes, classrooms, and libraries over the last century, and describe economic forces that may contribute to these patterns. We introduce new…

Background: Schools are responsible for promoting LGBTQ+ students' academic success, yet many LGBTQ+ students contend with unsupportive learning environments. Gender-Sexuality Alliances (GSAs)--clubs that affirm students' sexual orientation and gender diversity--could promote academic engagement and protect against disaffection. Aims: We aimed to…

Few qualitative studies have examined student perspectives on teachers' culturally responsive practices (CRP). This study includes focus group data from middle and high school students who shared perspectives on how teachers can improve their classroom practices and examined if reported concepts align with or go beyond existing models of CRP.…

The College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) is a US Department of Education funded initiative to support students from migrant/seasonal farmworker backgrounds--i.e., students whose families travel seasonally to work in agriculture--during their first year as undergraduates. This article shares authors' experience of using insights from…

This cross-sectional study analyzed data from 364,143 students in 492 high schools who completed the Georgia School Climate Survey during the 2017-18 school year. Through latent profile analysis, we identified that student perceptions of school climate could be classified into three distinct profiles, including positive, moderate, and negative…

Gender minority youth experience bullying victimization at concerningly high rates. The current study sought to unmask potentially unique bullying victimization experiences and perceived prevalence of bullying for Transgender, fluid gender, and gender questioning students. Results revealed that all three gender minority groups were significantly…

The "Assessment of Culturally and Contextually Relevant Supports" (ACCReS) was developed in response to the need for well-constructed instruments to measure teachers' cultural responsiveness and guide decision-making related to professional development needs. The current study sought to evaluate the presence of differential item…

This review of research conducted between March 2020-April 2023 summarizes the impact of COVID-19 on the learning and school experiences of children and adolescents with special educational needs and dis/abilities (SENDs) including youth with neurodevelopmental disorders, learning differences, intellectual, developmental, and other disabilities.…

Unified enrollment (UE) systems were designed to improve efficiency, equity, and transparency in school choice processes, but research has focused on efficiency gains. This study examines whether moving from decentralized enrollment processes to UE mitigates or exacerbates racial segregation that often occurs in choice systems. Specifically, we…

Demonstrating how race is socially constructed has been a core sociological objective, yet many individuals continue to hold essentialist and other concepts of what races are and how to account for group differences. These conceptualizations have crucial consequences for intergroup attitudes, support for social policies, and structures of…

Substantial research has documented that Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) programs have important benefits for the school readiness of young children, especially those from low-income backgrounds. Recent studies in this arena have taken advantage of the Regression Discontinuity (RD) design to evaluate the impacts of Pre-K, due to ethical and pragmatic…