This article examines contextual factors that impact inclusive education in the Rio Grande Valley region of South Texas, United States. Based on the analysis of teachers' narratives, the study concluded that teachers perceive inclusive special education as a student's right primarily grounded in the social justice context of education. While…

The state of Texas has been cited through the U.S. Department of Education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as failing to identify students under the Child Find component of the law using Response to Intervention/Multi-Tiered System of Support (RtI/MTSS). The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to identify…

This conceptual paper explored the fundamental barriers to successful equity training and professional development for teachers. This was done to show the need for a professional development series, based on Ting-Toomey and Chung's (2012) cultural value pattern analysis. Using the theoretical lens of post-colonial theory, the authors posit the…

Drawing on interview data collected as part of a qualitative study among thirty-two local educators and community advocates in the borderlands context of the Lower Rio Grande Valley (RGV), we inquire about the fundamental characteristics of being a community-engaged teacher for sustainable and equitable Latinx student teaching and learning. The…

Policy and funding influence equitable education for students who are gifted. The concept of equity is examined through variations in policy and in funding at the state, district, and local levels. Challenges and barriers to equity in policy and funding include policy structures, where policy provides guidance without accountability measures, or…

The purpose of this study was to explore how social unrest in the United States, specifically the COVID-19 pandemic and the tragic deaths of Black people at the hands of police, have transformed the leadership and pedagogy of school leaders in three rural school districts in southwest Texas. The strategies used to collect data for this study…

With over one million emergent bilinguals enrolled in Texas public schools, a call to action and a review of high-stakes online assessment policy for this student population is essential to achieve equity in education. The purpose of this phenomenological study aimed to explore teachers' perceptions of high-stakes online TELPAS testing and digital…

The school reopening debate has reached an inflection point as districts weigh both the safety and learning implications of returning to in-person education this fall. Challenges with transitioning to distance learning during the spring made it clear that teachers, parents and students needed more and different resources to make supportive,…

In this article the author will discuss mentoring as a collaborative, feminist endeavor that is a critical part of being a feminist teacher. The author advocates for a culture change on campuses about how we see mentoring; it has to become a required academic structure that not only helps increase teaching effectiveness and student success, but…

A wealth of literature shows positive outcomes and experiences from arts learning, yet youth access to arts education has become significantly more inequitable over the past 30 years. Alongside the growing discourse around arts learning and equity issues, there is a recognized and persistent need for more research. We conducted a critical,…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify effective teaching strategies used with students with autism to enhance social skill development. With the growing need for teachers to address students with autism, viable strategies are needed to be implemented effectively to ensure social outcome success for students. The Individuals with…

Online and distance education strategies offer a path for closing opportunity gaps for students with disabilities because of digital technologies' flexibility and capacity for differentiation, but fully online schooling does always guarantee an inclusive education. The COVID-19-induced shift to remote learning highlighted the need for more insight…

The lack of self-advocacy for students with disabilities in higher education is a concern (Becker & Palladino, 2016). A recent influx of students with disabilities has prompted higher education institutions to take a closer look at their previous practices in an effort to reach these students. This qualitative research study examines faculty…

During the spring of 2020, school districts across the United States were required to shift to distance learning modalities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic forced schools to close their doors to face-to-face instruction and quickly shift to an online format. While online education is prevalent in the United States, it only serves about…

A high school English teacher/doctoral student and two university researchers share a three-part framework for educating emergent bilinguals across disciplines with these constructs: language, literacy, and love. Through long-term professional development, teachers at two high schools began to view language as translanguaging, literacy as…