This article considers how neoliberalism has created a reductionist view of lifelong learning in the UK focused on upskilling workers for the labour market. This critical policy analysis uses Marx's theory of labour-power, as conceptualised by Glenn Rikowski, to examine the Skills and Post-16 Education Act, 2022 and to identify its ideological…

Federal entitlement policies like Title III and the IDEA help grant multilingual learners (MLs) and students with disabilities (SWDs) access to public schools. Yet they have operated in ways that continue to "other" the very student populations they intend to integrate. Drawing on social network surveys and semi-structured interviews…

We conducted an inductive analysis of 166 interviews from a longitudinal study of 26 Chicago Public School principals. Test-based accountability pressures played a visible role in principals' views of and relations with parents. Some principals reported banning parents from classrooms based on the need to protect instructional time to raise test…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) reverses a trend toward centralization of education policy and instead provides greater authority to the states. This study explores states' interpretation and early implementation of ESSA's equity-related provisions. Using a qualitative case study approach, we find wide variation in the design and…

The purported "Golden Age" of American higher education, typically associated with the two decades following World War II, was marked by increasingly generous federal support of the nation's postsecondary institutions and their students. Unlike analyses that attribute this largesse to factors like geopolitics (i.e., a response to the…

Vocational English as a Second Language (VESL) is a form of adult language education that teaches communicative skills in the context of preparing learners for a particular vocation. Despite their pedagogical and logistical benefits for adult language learners, such programs are uncommon today. This literature review traces the emergence and…

The recent Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to identify and turn around their lowest performing schools, but it breaks somewhat from prior policies by granting states significant autonomy over how they identify and turn around these schools. This mixed-methods study, which draws on administrative, qualitative, and survey data,…

Institutional Title IX processes fail to adequately address harms and needs which result from campus sexual misconduct, leaving many students dissatisfied. The purpose of this action research study was to investigate this problem within a specific university community and consider how to aim for improvement. Through surveys, interviews, and a…

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…

Policy changes are an ever-present part of education. In 2019, legislators upended over two decades of gifted education policy in Texas with the removal of direct funding for gifted education. In its wake, the removal of funding shook educator morale and created uncertainty as to the future of gifted education in the state. In this article, we…

The convergence of growing classroom diversity, learning sciences research, sophistication of technology, and 21st-century job requirements in a global market could put America's education system on track for personalizing the learning experience. The goal is for each student to master content and skills to help guarantee their success in college…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) had mixed effects on the nation's educational ecosystem. NCLB succeeded in shifting the focus from inputs to outcomes, shining a light on performance of different student subgroups, and using reporting requirements to spur development of more-robust education data systems. But NCLB included several…

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the ways in which school districts provide educational services to all students, especially students with disabilities. Eligible U.S. students with disabilities have a right to a free, appropriate public education (FAPE) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and students with disabilities who…

In this dissertation I use modern microeconomic methods to examine the impact of K-12 education policy interventions on student outcomes. In the first chapter I explore how increased funding for school policing and sentiment surrounding school policing can have downstream effects on student discipline, and how these effects vary by student and…

The purpose of this article is to examine and critique the manner in which racialized federal education policy and reforms--or the lack thereof--affect higher education. Minority-serving Institutions designations are race-conscious policies that demonstrate a federal commitment to supporting the educational needs of students of color; however,…