The New York State Board of Regents' 2004-05 State Aid Proposal put forward the idea of instituting Foundation Aid as a response to concerns about the sufficiency of state education funding then being provided to local school districts. In 2007, prompted by legal action, a call for reform by the Regents, and the election of a new governor with a…

The advances in technology in the past decades have revolutionized the field of K-12 education, and its widespread implementation has given rise to the concurrent need to educate students about its responsible usage. The concept of digital citizenship as applicable to schools includes elements like digital access, digital communication, digital…

In field-based research, masking practices, as well as the general practice of relegating historical context to abstracted 'site descriptions' in a paper's methodology section, can produce a tacit inattention to historical specificity. By juxtaposing two case studies of schools, this article examines the ways school sites are haunted by…

In this dissertation, I analyze the development and dissemination of state-level policies to prohibit colleges from considering criminal history for purposes of admissions otherwise known as ban the box in higher education. This research engages with practical and instructive questions of how individuals or coalitions can learn from other policy…

The disproportionate representation of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in school disciplinary actions is well documented in the literature (e.g. Balderas, 2015; Rocque & Paternoster, 2011). Further, the discipline students who are BIPOC often involves suspension and/or expulsion from school (Skiba, 2001; Wallace et al., 2008).…

This dissertation examines a social policy exemplar case in New York State's education policy history, the legislation that established the NY State Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) program. This presently upheld state legislation passed in July 1966 to increase college access, retention, and degree attainment of students of…

Visual representations, such as pathway models, are increasingly being used to both communicate higher education science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education program evaluation plans as well as accurately represent complex programs and the systems within which the educational programs reside. However, these representations…

State and school report cards provide a powerful avenue for states to reach families and the broader public as essential partners in improving student outcomes. The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and many state legislatures require states to publish an array of education data including measures at the state, district, and school levels.…

When done reliably and efficiently, measuring school climate can help improve schools' vital signs and help state boards of education realize their goals and objectives for the system as a whole. Moreover, because it is as consequential to schools as checking heart rates and blood pressure are to humans, schools should always use climate measures…

Collaboration among stakeholders in the early childhood education (ECE) field is often upheld as a goal--and with good reason: It promotes effective, sustainable policymaking, creates consistency, reduces redundancy, and fills gaps across local, state, and national systems, policies, and infrastructure. Yet the obstacles to collaboration are…

One of the greatest promises of the charter school movement has been the potential to create diverse school models to meet the varied needs of children, families, and communities. As policy makers and charter leaders have recognized the need to hold charters accountable for strong performance, however, there has been a move towards more…

"Sustainable WAC: A Whole Systems Approach to Launching and Developing Writing Across the Curriculum Programs" (Cox, Galin, & Melzer, 2018a) lays out a systematic whole systems approach to program development that draws on complexity theories and integrates the use of sustainability indicators (SIs) for monitoring and assessing…

This paper presents findings from a yearlong exploratory mixed-methods research study that investigates a national sample of six (6) intentionally diverse charter organizations. Intentionally diverse charter schools work against national public schooling trends to deliberately promote socioeconomically and racially integrated schooling spaces.…

Background: Although many interventions have empirical support in improving the outcomes of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), schools struggle with implementation of these interventions. Method and materials: We conducted 13 focus groups with 69 participants who included parents, educators, and administrators across three states to…

High-quality summer learning programs in a given city are often only able to address a fraction of the need. Lack of access to program data and absence of stakeholder coordination compounds the problem. Working together to systematically increase program quality and provide more high-quality summer learning opportunities where families need them…