Grade-level proficiency for secondary literacy classrooms remains an area to probe for improved student achievement. Tools to measure effectiveness of classroom practices also do not exist in large quantities. Based on the findings of The Opportunity Myth (2018), equity in the literacy classroom can be identified as: (1) grade level appropriate…

Before COVID, 40 to 60 percent of students were showing signs of disengagement in learning, according to national surveys. The pandemic exacerbated students' disengagement, especially among the most vulnerable youth. Although researchers do not yet fully know the extent of disengagement during COVID and the long-term consequences of this…

Students with language and/or attentional difficulties are present in all classrooms, but evidence indicates they are poorly identified and supported. Reasonable adjustments are a legislative requirement, but these are often generic and fail to address instructional barriers. Students are uniquely placed to report on the pedagogical implications…

In 1993, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts dramatically overhauled its K-12 education system and created a new school finance formula, building an educational accountability structure to ensure every child has access to a high-quality education. The Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA) established academic standards in core subjects, mandated…

In April 2021, Idaho became the first state to pass a policy restricting teachers' discussion of race- or gender-related topics. Over the next two years, 17 more states followed suit and passed similar restrictions through state legislatures, state boards of education, state attorneys general, and executive orders. Using nationally representative…

Motivational beliefs, especially self-efficacy, are very important in understanding students' academic engagement and achievement. Students' self-efficacy influences their academic decisions, choices, and learning behaviours. Building on a case of an African international student identified as Frank, this case study illustrates the influence of…

School heads or principals have various roles in developing school quality, which can often be stressful. In this study we investigated principals' perceptions of quality schools, the practices performed to improve quality, and the stress and support factors involved. We adopted a qualitative inductive content analysis approach to analyse the…

The COVID-19 pandemic devastated student achievement, with declines rivaling those after Hurricane Katrina. These losses widened achievement gaps between historically marginalized students and their peers. Three years later, achievement remains behind pre-pandemic levels for many students. This paper examines 2022-23 academic recovery efforts…

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted traditional K-12 education worldwide, forcing a rapid shift to emergency remote teaching and learning. This dissertation utilizes a three-article approach and investigates the multifaceted impact of the pandemic on urban charter high school students and their principals in under-resourced communities. The first…

This report is the result of the participation of hundreds of students, families, school educators, and researchers who dedicated their time and energy to investigating the critical role that families and communities play in ensuring students and schools can flourish. It is a culmination of over two years of collaborative research and hundreds of…

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Blended Learning (BL) formats, are widely adopted across K-12 learning environments. Upon graduation, preservice teachers may be expected to implement UDL and BL practices. The present study was motivated by the need to provide preservice teachers with live modeling of UDL and BL concepts. Learning analytics…

Students experiencing homelessness spend their nights in various settings, including shelters, with friends/families (doubled-up), motels/hotels, and unsheltered contexts. Yet there is limited quantitative research on how educational outcomes vary by residential context. We analyze data from over 400,000 students in Houston Independent School…

We describe the levels, trends, and patterns of school closure and restructuring in the United States from 1991 to 2019 across all sectors using a near census of K-12 schools. Focusing on the years with the best available data, 2014-2018, we find that the annual closure rate of charter, private, and traditional public schools (TPS) were 5.1, 2.9,…

Virtual charter schools--public charter schools that operate entirely or mostly online--largely depend on self-paced, asynchronous (accessed at any time) instruction and often rely on parents to act as instructors, according to the US Government Accountability Office's (GAO's) review of a nationally representative sample of virtual charter school…

This dissertation in practice explores common themes between teachers' perspectives of effective professional development experiences and the perceived impact of professional development on classroom teaching practices. The following questions guided the study: 1. What are teachers' perceptions of completed professional development activities in…