Career Technical Education (CTE) and participating in other career learning opportunities are ways to help students gain the skills needed to succeed in college and careers. Students who participate in CTE are more engaged in school and more likely to graduate from high school. The problem is that students who are Black, Indigenous, and people of…

Access to high-quality teachers in K-12 schools differs systematically by racial group. This policy brief reviews the academic research documenting these differences and the labor market forces and segregation patterns that solidify them. It also presents new analysis of differential exposure in North Carolina of white, black, and Hispanic…

Background: Implementation quality is a significant factor in determining whether a program has its intended impact (Durlak and DuPre, 2008; List et al., 2021). Therefore, when studying a program's efficacy, researchers must ensure that the program is implemented as intended to estimate its impact. To evaluate whether a program is being…

Developmental science has increasingly scrutinized how environmental hazards influence child outcomes, but few studies examine how contaminants affect disparities in early skill formation. Linking research on environmental inequality and early childhood development, this study assessed whether differences in exposure to neurotoxic lead explain…

In this data brief, we examine the scores and pass rates for the Praxis School Psychologist tests (both Praxis 5402 and the newer version, Praxis 5403) by racial-ethnic group and gender for the period September 1, 2022 to August 31, 2023. The Praxis School Psychologist tests are the most often used external assessment of competency by school…

Using the data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), this Data Point summarizes the number of U.S. adults with low levels of numeracy and describes how they differ by nativity status and race/ethnicity. [Standard error tables are available at https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2020025 in…

Objective: To assess perceptions of university institutional climate related to sexual violence and whether these differed by race/ethnicity. Participants: Matriculated undergraduates > age 18 (n = 1028). Methods: Students were invited via campus email to participate in an online survey. Results: Overall, only 20% agreed that the university is…

The achievement gaps between Black and white students in math and science have remained unchanged over the last decade. Additionally, disparities in academic achievement and academic outcomes, like dropout, have persisted across genders. Existing research has explored the intricacies of various forms of identity -- namely racial and gender…

Research examining reading abilities among Black children diverges significantly from prior literature, which either lacked focus or lacked substantial representation of Black children. Black students, particularly boys, tend to exhibit lower academic achievement compared to their peers. The problem addressed in this study is that Black boys, in…

Using rich Texas administrative data, we estimate the impact of middle school principals on post-secondary schooling, employment, and criminal justice outcomes. The results highlight the importance of school leadership, though striking differences emerge in the relative importance of different skill dimensions to different outcomes. The estimates…

Objective: To examine the associations between coping methods and college adjustment among a sample of U.S. undergraduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants: We used a sample of 117 undergraduate students between the age of 18-25 years old. Approximately 76% of the sample identified as women and 58% identified as White. Methods:…

Skin tone-based social stratification is an enduring part of the U.S. racial landscape. Despite literature finding that skin tone informs educational outcomes among adults, few studies have examined these processes in early childhood. The current study tested whether skin tone predicted Mexican-origin 5-year-old children's academic readiness…

Over the past several decades, the education, mental health, and social service fields have witnessed a significant shift in the focus of assessment of children moving from a solely deficit-based approach to a model incorporating strengths and competencies, which has been referred to as strength-based assessment. The "Behavioral and Emotional…

Concerns about rising college costs and uncertain economic returns have combined with a wave of populist backlash to reduce public trust in higher education, which plummeted to new lows in 2023. President Biden, who ran his 2020 campaign on a platform that included student loan forgiveness and free community college, has focused some of his recent…

Talking about race does not have to be incredibly awkward. In this book, Gooding offers twelve clear, cogent, and concise racial rubrics to help users of mainstream media more readily discern patterns hidden in plain sight. The text primarily leverages popular movies as the medium of analysis--since they are unparalleled in their cultural…