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…

Collaborative problem-solving research approaches have the potential to support improvement in educational policy and practice beyond instruction, by facilitating the development of a shared understanding of complex problems and creating social structures where district, community, and research partners can work together to solve them. This study…

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) and the Professional Educator Preparation and Standards Commission (PEPSC) of the State Board of Education are working on a new teacher licensure pathways proposal, Pathways to Excellence for Teaching Professionals (Model). This proposal, if enacted, would restructure the state's system…

Rural school districts, educating just over 25% of all public school students across the country, play an important role in the nation's educational landscape. At the heart of the success of rural school districts are the superintendents who run these rural and often small districts. Superintendents of rural schools throughout the United States,…

We use the metaphor of building a plane while flying to describe the enactment of educational policies by teachers during COVID-19 and the impact of these policies on their ability to meet the needs of their students. Drawing from a series of three one-hour focus groups with seven teachers in Alberta, we apply critical policy analysis to describe…

Drawing from ethnographic research in two sites in California, we examine how school boards' deficit practices create barriers for mothers. We analyze how school boards acted as gatekeepers to educational opportunities and maternal involvement. Our analysis reveals that mothers activated their agency as parents to foster civic capacity and create…

The 2007 Bondar Report, "Shaping Our Schools, Shaping Our Future," generated a vision for environmental curricula in Ontario. It has been the basis for the mandated framework introduced in 2009 by the Ministry of Education for environmental education (EE) in all Ontario schools. Based on our research and personal reflections, this paper…

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, extended school shutdowns, and renewed protests about racial injustice, schools confront sharp increases in student learning, behavioral, and emotional challenges. Despite this, the matter of how best to address these pervasive concerns--many of which result from long-standing structural and systemic barriers that…

Significant efforts at the national, state and local levels have focused on closing achievement gaps between student populations in public schools. Some research suggests that parents and community members can help hold schools accountable for meeting academic and other goals. The Equity Council serves in an advisory role to the Wilson County…

Empirical evidence that horizontal alignment of policies and practices from preschool through the early elementary grades sustains the effects of quality preschool and contributes to children's learning is scarce, as discussed above, but there are nevertheless good reasons to expect benefits to such alignment. Moreover, many districts and schools…

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a process by which schools identify students with disabilities using research-based interventions. As schools across the United States struggle to redefine district structures and processes required for RTI, special education administrators have become primarily responsible for implementation. Research describing…

In comparing one public school to another, discussions frequently include talk concerning the socio economics of a school or district, which then leads to talk about the advantages that one socioeconomic setting has over another. Educators tend to agree that low academic achievement frequently associated with a low socioeconomic status is a…

This study explored the perspectives of 350 California superintendents from various-sized school districts in relation to their ability to support student learning while addressing the numerous and complex personnel, social, and economic challenges faced by schools. Specifically, this study investigated the attitudes and opinions of district…

Online learning and our current system of local education governance are at odds with one another, to say the least. In this paper, John Chubb examines how local school district control retards the widespread use of instructional technologies. He argues that the surest way to break down the system's inherent resistance to technology is to shift…

"Designing School Systems for All Students" provides a clear methodology for school leaders, teachers, and school board members to follow as they redesign their schools for the benefit of students. The authors demonstrate how school leaders set the expectations for all students to learn and grow as important contributors to the culture. In the…