Most studies of No-Excuses charter schools are distributive in nature. They answer a question of distributive justice: do these schools adequately close the academic achievement gap that exists in America between white and Black or Hispanic students? When discussion of No-Excuses schools is limited to their distributive worth, critics of…

College graduation rates for racially minoritized students are adversely affected by structural barriers and hostile campus racial climates, which lead to notable equity gaps within and across institutions. Theory and prior literature suggest that the representation of racially minoritized students and instructors may play a role in shaping these…

Rurality is known to be associated with a number of weaker educational outcomes, from lower attainment through to lower social mobility. This is why so much policy and practitioner focus has been directed at addressing the rurality gap in educational outcomes. In this paper, we use pupil-level data for Scotland to contribute to two dimensions of…

To explore potential effects of disadvantage on engagement and attainment under different teaching and assessment regimes, the influence of pedagogic changes implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic on attainment and engagement of students from different backgrounds were compared using a cohort-study design. Learner analytics and attainment data…

Students who have dropped out of high school--and those at risk of doing so--are at greater risk of lifelong poverty, involvement with the criminal justice system, dependence on government welfare programs, and even premature death. In the last few years, however, the problems at high schools have compounded, as pandemic-era school closures led to…

This study aimed to explore the effects of Mastery Learning Strategy (MLS) on senior school students' performance in Mathematics in Osogbo, Nigeria. The quasi-experimental study's goals were to investigate how MLS affected mathematics students' performance according to their gender and score levels. A purposive sampling technique was used to…

The purpose of the transcendental phenomenological study was to discover the role of adaptive learning programs in closing the learning gaps in mathematics for secondary students in Georgia following the COVID-19 pandemic. The theory guiding this study was that of Bandura's theory on self-efficacy, as it highlights how an individual's experience…

In 2022, the Center published "Student/Learning Supports: A Brief Guide for Moving in New Directions. The guide discussed the need for system changes to end the fragmentation, overspecialization, and marginalization of student/learning supports and outlined first steps to take in pursuing the changes. As the 2022 guide emphasizes,…

Military-connected students (MCSs) face academic challenges because of frequent transitions. During military parents' permanent change in duty station (PCS), MCSs are absent for 15 days or more. PCS-related absenteeism has increased over the last decade, and academic achievement has decreased. This basic qualitative capstone project study examined…

Locally and nationally, English Learners (ELs) struggle to achieve parity with their monolingual peers in reading. In addition to second language-related considerations, ELs' efforts to succeed in reading may be thwarted by poverty, trauma, interrupted education, barriers to effective instruction and parental engagement, limited parental…

Since the enactment of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2004, there has been a notable increase in the enrollment of students receiving special education services (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2022). However, despite advancements in special education programming and service delivery, academic…

This brief is a continuation of NWEA's research series examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student achievement and progress toward academic recovery. Initiated in the early phase of the pandemic, this series has leveraged NWEA's large national sample of longitudinal MAP® Growth™ data to track student performance and compare it to…

Research indicates that students from marginalized communities do not have the same access to advanced courses as the rest of the population, creating a persistent disparity (Edmunds et al., 2022; Ezzani et al., 2021; Sebastian, 2021). One reason for the equity gap is the existing enrollment process tends to miss qualified students, specifically…

Many schools face barriers that hinder access to services, including limited funding and staff trained in evidence-based interventions. In particular, rural schools must provide targeted intervention to promote academic growth and narrow achievement gaps despite these barriers. One seldom-considered solution to ease the resource costs in the…

With an increase in the number of enrichment options available in out-of-school time (OST), young people can explore topics generally passed over in a typical school day. Parent perception of afterschool programming is beginning to shift from a simple necessity of the work week to a conscious choice about the daily experiences of their children.…