We present analyses from focus group interviews with a geographically diverse set of experienced, urban teachers who point to "systemic inequity" as a major contributing factor to the problems they face in their schools and communities. To begin, we overview the literature relating to our development of this project, after which we…

As large urban school districts increasingly turn to market-based reforms, arguing that they will improve school quality, better meet diverse student and family needs, and level the playing field for disadvantaged families, the distributional effects of those policies are still poorly understood. A growing literature on the bounded and embedded…

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the use of and the attitude towards smartphone technology for in school and remote learning by urban high school students to reduce digital inequalities. High school students use smartphone technology in today's society as an integral part of their lives. Yet the majority of the large school districts in…

While the conception of "failing schools" has proliferated the American public's (mis)understanding of performance of low-income urban public schools unabated since "A Nation at Risk," education literature suggests "failing schools" are not what has been commonly described in conventional wisdom. Here, I begin by…

School district decentralization typically shifts authority and resources from central office administrators at the district level to leaders at the school level. Although decentralization reforms have been prevalent in urban educational contexts for decades, they often yield poor results for low-income, minoritized communities. In this article,…

Washington Hunt is an urban community school attempting to balance the implementation of equity initiatives that meet the needs of minoritized students and families while preventing the adoption of deficit perspectives among school staff. The purpose of this case is to describe how "deficit-creep"--the subtle infusion of deficit-based…

Despite multiple creative approaches to integrating Minnesota's segregated urban public schools, students of color in these schools remain the majority. The state's progressive, anti-racist sentiment toward education has not evolved into action on the part of White families, which leaves under-resourced urban districts struggling beneath a mere…

A recently introduced national policy in China, "Opinions on Promoting the Rotation of Principals and Teachers in Compulsory Education Schools within the County/District," mandates teacher mobility between urban and rural areas, thereby ensuring a more equitable distribution of human resources. This study investigated a key but…

No Child Left Behind and the Every Student Succeeds Act have made accountability central to conversations about education policy. But neither statute articulates a clear vision of what constitutes "quality" or "equity" in education, nor do they include a mechanism to ensure that schools have sufficient resources to pursue that…

Segregation on the basis of race or ethnicity is one of the most enduring and pervasive inequities in US public education. School segregation is determined not only by residential sorting and families' preferences but by local policy choices such as the drawing of school attendance boundaries. This report examines the role of individual school…

Scholars have documented the effects of accountability policies on student outcomes and, to a lesser extent, instruction. Beyond test preparation and curriculum narrowing, little empirical evidence has examined the relationship between policy and pedagogy. Guided by social cognitive and achievement goal theories, this study explored the…

In this paper, we examine the fundamental and complex role that time plays in the learning process. We begin by developing a conceptual framework to elucidate the multiple obstacles schools face in converting allocated time into learning time. We then synthesize the causal research and document a clear positive effect of time on student…

The term "equity" is widely used by educational policy makers to describe myriad programs and practices aimed at closing the supposed racial achievement gap. Research about the way equity has been used in these policies typically explores how policy actors with low will and capacity frame and implement their reforms. Few studies,…

There is a nationwide concern among students, parents, and educators regarding high school administrators' inequitable disciplinary practices and students with disabilities (SWD) policies in the U.S. The problem addressed in this study was that high school SWDs in a local Midwestern urban school district have higher rates of suspension from school…

School choice policy is ubiquitous in urban school districts. Evidence suggests that it has not fully delivered on its proponents' promises of equitable educational opportunity. While scholars and policymakers scrutinize data to determine school choice's equity outcomes, little attention has been paid to how school choice policy directly…