Many countries have introduced flexibility in their admissions equivalents for tertiary education, allowing students to apply with vocational rather than academic qualifications at upper secondary level. However, entrants with vocational qualifications are generally less likely to succeed at university. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are…

The problem addressed in this study was that non-traditional high school students at the study site were not being provided with in-school intervention and support programs to assist them with academic achievement. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore what in-school programs are offered to non-traditional students at the study…

Discipline disproportionality in education has been a topic of conversation for years. African American male students are suspended at much higher rates than their White peers. Although Black students represent less than half of the school population in the United States, they account for a majority of out-of-school suspensions and expulsions.…

A study of nine headteachers in England, using a research protocol developed and carried out in Ontario, finds implications for the professional development of school leaders with respect to their decision-making to achieve greater equity. The types of professional development that leaders found to be most effective within their particular…

Inspired by the biology education research community's collective reading of Kendi's "How to Be an Antiracist," I draw together recent articles related to "achievement gaps"--a construct identified by Kendi as perpetuating racist ideas. At the same time, I recognize that, for many in science, technology, engineering, and…

Values affirmation exercises have been implemented in many contexts to combat stereotype threat in students from marginalized populations; the exercises are intended to fortify students by prompting them to self-affirm their values in short writing activities. Within the physics education research community, the style of intervention was…

Using panel data from three successive collective bargaining (CBA) negotiation cycles from 277 California school districts in a difference-in-differences framework, I investigate the relationship between changes in CBA restrictiveness and racial and economic achievement gaps over time. I find that achievement gaps in California are smaller where…

This paper aims to examine the case for a focus on place-based drivers of inequalities in educational attainment among secondary school students in Scotland. Using desk-based sources, it provides an account of the post-2015 policy episode around improving educational attainment among children from disadvantaged areas. This started with the…

Purpose: This paper attempts to explore possible contributing factors of females' outperformance and males' underperformance in the higher education in Pakistan from teachers' perspective. The central question of the study is what are the key factors that affect female and male students' educational performance at the university level? Using…

The American School Counselor Association Closing-the-Gap Action Plan template is a tool created to help school counselors identify educational gaps and track interventions. We applied a transcendental, phenomenological qualitative research method to explore school counselors' use of the template to advocate for students. Our findings demonstrate…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and its implications of being a curricular and pedagogical intervention in terms of narrowing the achievement gap in science education for Children of Color. In using the explanatory mixed methods design, standardized test data and one-on-one interviews were…

What motivates students to achieve is a question that educators, parents, and policy makers in every country seek to answer. A scientific understanding of this question can help us design interventions that foster student achievement and unleash the potential of all members of society, regardless of their economic, racial/ethnic, and cultural…

Improving baccalaureate degree attainment for transfer students continues to be a key topic across the nation. The Associate Degree for Transfer is the latest attempt to improve outcomes. This quantitative study examines the effectiveness of the Associate Degree for Transfer pathway program as compared to other transfer pathway programs over a…

The achievement gap is a notorious construct of 21st-century schools and refers to the achievement of marginalized groups as compared to their White counterparts. This qualitative action research studied this phenomenon in a small, suburban school district experiencing shifting demographics by analyzing educators' perceptions and attitudes for…

Poverty has become one of the most prevalent indicators of academic achievement in our schools today. As the number of students raised in poverty increases, it is vitally important that educators be aware of the effects of poverty on student behaviour and learning capacity in the classroom. Educators must incorporate proven strategies in order to…