When it comes to understanding what happened in the 2020-21 school year, the relatively new COVID-19 School Data Hub is an easy to use tool, and one of the few school closure trackers with information at the school, rather than the school district level. The COVID-19 School Data Hub can be used to understand how the pandemic influenced learning…

Perhaps the most extreme step that education leaders can take to improve school quality is to close a school entirely. School closures are controversial due to the harms and disruptions they can create for families. These harms may be particularly severe if displaced families do not receive adequate support in transitioning to new schools. Since…

Critical race theory (CRT) and the high-profile projects pushing the radical ideology's discriminatory ideas are trying to divide Americans by skin color and pit them against each other. The cultural fissures are manifesting in education, with heated arguments about curricula and classroom activism. This "Backgrounder" estimates how…

"Changing Course: Public School Enrollment Shifts During the Pandemic" is an analysis of student enrollment trends in public schools during the pandemic (2019-20 to 2021-22 school years). The numbers showed more than 240,000 students enrolled in charter schools, a 7% increase--while district public schools lost approximately 1.5 million…

The role a school and its teachers play in a child's life is undeniable. Both influence how children understand the world they live in, their place in that world, and their perceptions of future possibilities. Schools where students have opportunities to engage with multicultural curriculum materials, experience culturally responsive and…

The Cowen Institute has conducted annual polls on perceptions of public education in New Orleans since 2007. These polls are designed to provide a snapshot about how parents, guardians, and the general public view New Orleans' highly decentralized K-12 public education system. Each year, the Cowen Institute asks some new questions about the most…

This explanatory sequential mixed methods study examined the extent of high school principals' instructional leadership (IL) support regarding world languages (WL) programs in Florida in 2022. Research on WL programs in K-12th and IL asserts that administrators neglect WL programs. In the first phase, a Principal's Instructional Management Rating…

This qualitative study explored the experience of third through fifth grade teachers that use kinesthetic learning strategies (KLS) in the classroom and their perception of the student learning process. Most studies on kinesthetic learning have been student-centered, and research to examine the perspective of teachers expands our understanding of…

The purpose of this study was to find a way to increase low literacy skills for 5th- grade students in a charter school. The research explored the relationship between the attitudes, behaviors, standardized test scores, and perceptions related to student reading; parents' attitudes and perceptions related to their student's reading; and teachers'…

In recent years, some U.S. school districts have shifted away from direct management of schools, toward systems in which some or all schools operate under enhanced autonomy, accountability, and parental choice. Yet dynamics driving these changes are understudied, and there are few comparative studies of system-level governance shifts. To address…

An article of empirically informed philosophical analysis of charter schooling that features local histories, voices of stakeholders, and an optimistic view on the democratic potential of charter school policies, the original piece presents a compelling, if extreme, case of charter school formation. In this response, I offer an alternative…

Research has found that fall 2020 school district reopening decisions appear to be driven more by politics and teachers unions than by the local presence of COVID-19. But what are the implications of those decisions for enrollment trends? Using recently released enrollment data from the state of Wisconsin, this study goes further to show whether…

Despite research indicating significant challenges of market-based schooling, charter schools remain a growing trend in the United States. In this article, we examine an emerging market model: a K-12 system of charter schools under one charter board meant to serve as a city's school district. To assess the fit of the market model, we employed a…

The full reach of the U.S. Supreme court's 2020 ruling in "Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue" has yet to be seen, but it has the potential to reshape the school-choice landscape. The ruling, which prohibited Montana from excluding students at religious schools from a tax-credit scholarship program, will figure prominently in many…

This technical brief is part of an ongoing series the Center for Learner Equity (CLE) launched in 2015 that examines the enrollment and experiences of students with disabilities in different school settings. Using the 2017-2018 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) data released earlier this year, this brief focuses on the number and percentages of…