Although vaccine behaviors differ greatly by gender and age, few studies have examined vaccination at the intersection of gender and age within the Black community. We examined COVID-19 vaccination by gender and age using a survey of over 500 Black adults in Chicago, Illinois, fielded from September 2021 to March 2022. Although 54% had received at…

Over the last 30 years, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has become a rare model for urban school district improvement. That success stems, in part, from an expansive network of nonprofit organizations, advocates and grassroots community leaders, business leaders, and philanthropic funders that work together -- often in partnership with the district…

Objectives: To determine whether actual community-level risk for COVID-19 in the Black community influenced "individual" perceptions of community-level and personal risk and how self-assessment of personal risk was reflected in the adoption of COVID-19 precautionary behaviors. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 20…

How much did students' grades in spring 2020 and spring 2021 differ from grades during pre-pandemic years? We used course grades data for students in grades 4-12 in Chicago Public Schools in spring 2020 and spring 2021, and compared them to course grades in spring terms from 2017-19. This study also considered differences in the proportion of…

The most recent science education reform, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), strongly advocates for teaching engineering concepts and practices (NGSS Lead States, 2013). The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore and analyze secondary science teachers' lived experiences while planning and teaching lessons that…

In the effort to "flatten the curve" of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers were required to adapt their curricula, pedagogy, and relationships with their students to remote learning structures. In the traditional classroom context, teachers have a number of ways to check in on and connect with their students that do not translate to the…

In this article, we share our process of reflecting together and our resulting thoughts on the idea of anti-racist schooling amid our current experiences as Black men and fathers, as educators and researchers, as faculty colleagues, and as friends. In our respective careers, we have each continually posed questions that critically examine a range…

Chicago, the third-largest school district in the country with 355,000 students and 638 schools, was forced to close its buildings on March 17 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, COVID caseloads were growing rapidly in the city, especially among its low-income populations and residents of color. District leaders spent the first few weeks…

Assessment of student learning is crucial to capture accurately student understanding of core concepts and competencies as well as to provide relevant feedback for informing teaching and learning. Yet, many instructors in two-year and four-year undergraduate institutions rarely have pedagogical training to design fair instruction and assessments.…

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting quarantines around the globe have required social justice educators to respond to the unprecedented challenges and the needs of the communities they serve more than ever before. This article explores how educators in a Catholic University conducted community-based justice work in response to the challenges of…

There is wide recognition that supporting social-emotional learning (SEL) is a critical task for schools as they emerge from the pandemic, but implementation is challenging and SEL programs can easily turn into isolated and disjointed initiatives. When schools treat SEL as an isolated initiative, implementation can be uneven and difficult to…

This poll was conducted between January 15-January 16, 2021 among a sample of 2,200 adults. The interviews were conducted online and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of adults based on gender, educational attainment, age, race, and region. Among the key findings are: (1) Although there has been an ongoing surge of COVID cases…