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Objective: Community college baccalaureate (CCB) programs are expanding across the nation, particularly in California—home of the largest and most ethnically/racially diverse community college system in the nation. CCB programs provide many benefits, two of which include providing an accessible and affordable pathway towards baccalaureate attainment, and also meeting economic and workforce development (EWD) goals, particularly for students from historically minoritized communities. While the community colleges of the United States have historically provided accessible education that aligns with EWD, more can be learned about the strategies these institutions use to do so. Methods : Using a content analysis methodology, we examined the application proposals of the first 15 approved CCB programs in California to understand how these community colleges as aligned with EWD. Results : The findings we generated suggest that the first 15 approved California CCB colleges (1) utilized varied information and sources to understand their labor market conditions, (2) rarely acknowledged how their CCB programs would address student inequities in the labor market, and (3) were limited in articulating the specific practices, structures, and systems they would implement to be EWD-aligned. Conclusion : Policymakers, practitioners, and researchers can help ensure successful EWD alignment and equity by improving data systems to better understand labor market conditions, conducting more quantitative and qualitative research to capture students' labor market experiences and outcomes, and comprehensively aligning college- and career-related practices, programs, structures, and systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the impact of Florida House Bill 233 on teaching and learning in Florida's State University System. This bill purports to promote intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity by permitting students to record classes and by creating a cause of action for faculty violating these principles. Faculty were invited to share qualitative feedback about the specific impacts of the two provisions. The vast majority of faculty expressed negative views of these provisions, suggesting they would inhibit intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity by deterring student participation in classes, discouraging faculty from engaging students in discussions of certain topics, and creating an atmosphere of mistrust between faculty and students. Faculty with positive views of the recording provision suggested that these provisions promote intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity by discouraging faculty from imposing their views and giving students a remedy if they feel that faculty are violating their rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spring 2020, nearly every U.S. public school closed at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Existing evidence suggests that local political partisanship was a better predictor of in-person instruction than Covid case and death rates in fall 2020. We replicate and extend these analyses using data collected over the entirety of the 2020–21 academic year. We affirm that local political partisanship was an important initial predictor of county-level in-person instruction rates. We also demonstrate that, under certain conditions, Covid case and death rates were meaningfully associated with initial rates of in-person instruction. We reveal that partisanship became less predictive—and prior average student achievement became more predictive—of in-person instruction as the school year continued. We then leverage data from two nationally representative surveys of Americans' attitudes toward education and identify an as-yet-undiscussed factor that predicts in-person instruction: public support for increasing teachers' salaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era where many states' postsecondary education governance dynamics are evolving, we set out to understand whether state-level governing boards with centralized governance functions affected institutions' decisions to engage in in-person instruction during the fall of 2020, the first fall of the Covid-19 pandemic. We examined sociopolitical features related to the strength of governance functions of centralized state boards. The data alluded to linkages between Republican control and lower bachelor's degree attainment linking (β = −.45) with weaker centralized governance. We also found a negative effect from increased centralized governance functions (β = −.12) to in-person instruction at public 4-year institutions for fall 2020. This paper gives a real-time opportunity to see if the characteristics of governing boards influence return to campus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing recognition amongst scholars that addressing the current global ecological crisis requires a new ecological awareness, and a different model of education, in order to live together on a 'planet under pressure'. Against this backdrop, several studies internationally have pointed to initiatives such as school gardens, with the capacity to address sustainability issues, enhance participation, engagement and responsibility of young people from different backgrounds and locales. However, questions remain about the extent to which garden spaces may leverage current educational discourses, and the work of schools, to meet the needs of all. This article draws upon interviews with teachers, head teachers and student teachers who had been involved in growing food with children in school garden spaces. Drawing on the concept of 'learning ecology', data illustrate the co-existence of multiple views and purposes of engaging children with gardening in school, and the impact of linear discourses of education framing the teachers' gaze. Findings from the study are twofold: (i) they illustrate that gardens have the potential to interrupt economic discourses around attainment defined as cognitive gains and (ii) that such awareness is paramount to re-direct attention to that which is often marginalised and forgotten in educational policy discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial, institutional and social configurations of school supply and demand are crucial aspects in understanding the various mechanisms of production and reproduction of socio-spatial inequalities in education. The same policy instruments may have different effects depending on the characteristics of local education markets and the dynamics of supply and demand in each of them. This article investigates how a policy designed to reduce school segregation in the city of Barcelona resulted in uneven effects in different catchment areas of the city, which are socially and educationally diverse. By comparing the effects of the same policy strategy in different territories, the article identifies four mechanisms that mediate and occasionally prevent the effectiveness of the policy instruments or their implementation procedures. Identifying these mechanisms is an important and necessary task when reviewing the existing policy design and adapting it to the particularities of local education markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early childhood assessment in Australia is guided by Australia's Early Years Learning Framework and a 'storied' approach. This article argues that Australia's policy and practice discourses of assessment in early childhood education lack clarity. The article situates early childhood assessment practice within Australia's curriculum, policy and regulatory context. Literature regarding Learning Stories assessment as a dominant discourse is presented to illustrate the 'borrowed' and underdeveloped nature of Australia's storied approach. Data is drawn on to provide insight into two educators' assessment practices. The analysis suggests that storied assessment is being conflated with the Learning Stories approach within a wider practice of assessment eclecticism, whereby educators are taking a 'grass-roots' approach to assessment and doing 'what works'. The article argues for urgent attention to concepts of assessment in the scheduled update of the Early Years Learning Framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) reduced the role of the federal government in K-12 education, giving states more flexibility while maintaining protections for marginalized groups. Despite the potential to leverage flexibility, little is known about how states are addressing equity. Research Methods: Using a critical policy analysis (CPA) approach, this qualitative case study uses semi-structured interviews and document analysis to examine the design and implementation of equity efforts by the state education agency (SEA) in North Carolina. Findings: SEA officials describe writing the state ESSA plan as an exercise in compliance and believe the plan could have gone further in pushing equitable solutions. Competing priorities within the SEA, including the struggle to fulfill its dual roles as service provider and regulatory agency, complicated ESSA implementation, as did state-level political maneuvers. A significant, unexpected finding is that participants were much more comfortable discussing the needs of economically disadvantaged students than students of color, and often avoided mentioning race specifically. Additionally, although the pandemic caused major disruptions to schooling, SEA officials identified "keeps" that were begun as a pandemic response and may continue as the SEA pushes equitable solutions for traditionally underserved students. Implications for Research and Practice: This study suggests that competing initiatives, staff turnover, and political ideology may limit the SEA's capacity to address power and resource imbalances and hinder efforts to promote greater equity in the educational system. Moreover, the SEA's focus shifted to ESSER funding during the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher professional development (PD) is among the most prominent levers used to improve teaching quality. The findings of research studies examining PD interventions are heterogeneous, with meta-analyses indicating mean positive impacts but also the existence of many ineffective programs. Educational Researcher has served as a critical platform for conversations on strengthening the research base on teacher PD. In this article, we argue that insights from behavioral economics have the potential to improve professional development research by pointing toward solutions that can strengthen the implementation of well-designed PD. We provide illustrative examples of how concepts from behavioral economics can inform our understanding of barriers to effective PD implementation and discuss behavioral-economics-based tools to mitigate these barriers. We conclude by discussing future applications and research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current climate reflects not only a hostile politicization of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work but also an institutionalization of anti-DEI sentiments through legislation and litigation, leaving educational institutions to operate within a hyper-legalistic environment. Although there are a large number of education attorneys who interface regularly with educational institutions, the field of education knows very little about contemporary models of collaboration between attorneys for educational institutions and the values that inform these collaborations. In this article, we aim to illustrate the significant role of attorneys for P–20 educational institutions, the need for more research to help us better understand existing strengths and limitations, and ways to harness this role in meaningful ways to further DEI commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black and Latinx students are underrepresented in advanced placement (AP) and dual enrollment (DE), and implicit bias of educators has been discussed as one potential contributor. This study tests whether aggregate measures of implicit and explicit racial bias are related to AP and DE participation and racial/ethnic gaps in participation, controlling for contextual factors. The results indicate a relationship between implicit racial bias and disparate AP participation for Black students relative to White students, and suggestive evidence of a relationship between explicit racial bias and disparate DE participation between Black and White students. Furthermore, more explicitly biased communities have lower AP participation overall. Implications for school leaders regarding interventions to address systemic inequities in access are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pervasive issue in the school choice literature is whether schools of choice cream skim students by enrolling high-achieving, less-challenging, or less-costly students. Similarly, schools of choice may "push out" low-achieving, more-challenging, or more-costly students. Using longitudinal student-level data from Indiana, we created multiple measures to examine whether there is evidence consistent with the claims of voucher-participating private schools cream skimming the best students from public schools or pushing out voucher-receiving students. We do not find evidence consistent with the claim of cream skimming. However, we find evidence consistent with the claim of private schools pushing out the lowest-achieving voucher students. This is the first study to examine these two issues within a statewide private school voucher program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education research has often overlooked how the long durée of resistance for Black education has shaped current educational policy. We complicate notions of Black public school closures in two case studies from extensive ethnographic research in post-Katrina New Orleans through our reading of the plantation. Findings suggest these institutions have served as linchpins for the transferal of the blues. Data analysis also indicates that traditional public school closures have functioned as a plantation management device. We encourage future inquiries into portfolio governance models, school "choice," and school closures to consider the plantation complex and to recognize that post-Katrina education reforms were not isolated policy enactments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many states and communities have invested in public early childhood education programs to improve children's readiness to enter school and narrow achievement gaps in later grades. This study asked whether and how Wisconsin's universal state-funded prekindergarten program, Wisconsin 4K, has improved student achievement and helped to reduce the achievement gap. Using publicly available data from 2002–2003 to 2013–2014, the study examined the effects of the program, which features high participation rates and part-day delivery modes. The results showed that Wisconsin 4K enhanced third-grade reading achievement but not math achievement in the participating districts. Its effects were larger for non-White and economically disadvantaged students than for their White and affluent counterparts. The policy implications for large-scale universal pre-K are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2003, the 'education reform for knowledge economy' policy introduced the notion of distributed leadership into Jordanian public schools. Policy development, delivery and professional learning were funded and undertaken with assistance from international partners alongside the Jordanian Ministry of Education. The policy is now substantive. Distributed leadership's implicit western values of greater democracy, trust, empowerment and shared leadership responsibilities were delivered into a schooling system where traditional leadership roles and expectations derived from sheikhocratic customs are the norms. This article interrogates the paradox of distributed leadership in the context of time-honoured sheikhocratic practices from the perceptions and experiences of public school principals. Since perceptions about policy and implicit policy values are culturally mediated, it examines how the principles underpinning distributed leadership are interpreted through the lens of the Jordanian local culture as it is experienced in schools. The findings of this grounded theory study highlight incompatibilities between principals' understandings of distributed leadership and those implicit in western cultures. This imported policy reform program filtered through host culture judgments produced different policy outcomes than those anticipated by policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The editorial in the Journal of Advanced Academics focuses on the importance of relationships in research and academia, highlighting the impact of strong connections between researchers and participants. Various original research articles explore relationships in different academic settings, such as teacher-student dynamics and the role of discourse in student learning. Additionally, praxis articles discuss the significance of relationships in identifying and supporting gifted students, as well as building professional skills through authentic lab practices. The editorial also introduces the editorial team of the journal, emphasizing collaboration and collective efforts in academia. [Extracted from the article]

This article is the introduction to a special issue of Educational Policy titled, "Educational Policy: Analysis, Action, and Advocacy Across Contexts." The special issue presents contemporary education policy analyses from the United States, Canada, and Australia, which collectively represent methodological, contextual, and theoretical diversity. Individually, they offer detailed examinations of education policy processes and outcomes with a common focus on equity. The articles represent a spectrum of approaches to analysing education policymaking and enactment and point out various ways that educators, scholars, policymakers, and activists can take action. In this article, the co-editors identify key themes that distinguish the special issue's contribution and explain the importance of education policy analysis that informs future advocacy toward more equitable policy processes and outcomes across contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent efforts prohibiting race-related diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives have informed localized public pushback narrating anti-equity campaigns. Emerging research and media accounts have largely focused on adults engaged with or against these efforts, with less attention on youth and their perceptions of these campaigns. To center youth voice, we analyzed 224 student newspaper articles published in Carmel, Indiana and Loudoun County, Virginia—two sites replete with localized contestations of equity reform. Using narrative policy analysis and approaches to counter-narratives, findings demonstrate youths' roles as engaged policy actors as student journalists highlighted forms of political engagement and action in their local contexts. We include recommendations for school leaders and policymakers to promote youth voice and engagement in education governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. education system has been a critical site in the nation's ongoing fight for racial equity. Yet, despite many attempts to promote equity within and across schools, efforts fall short in a system designed to uphold norms rooted in whiteness and white supremacy. We need anti-racist educational leaders who can identify and push back at the racial bias embedded in educational policies. Through a research-practice partnership with a Midwestern high school, we sought to understand how an anti-racist policy decision-making protocol can be used to redress inequitable policies to be racially just. The anti-racist policy decision-making protocol promotes social justice by empowering school practitioners to become policy agents. Implications from our findings point to the need for school practitioners to be critically introspective and identify and directly address the politics of whiteness that can ensue when working in partnership to do anti-racist policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article advances an emergent framework for conceptualizing the relationship between principal leadership and education policy implementation. Based on a qualitative study of school principals and policy implementation in Region X of the Philippines, findings suggested that the way in which policies were interpreted and implemented at the school level was influenced by a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic dynamics and these were shaped in situ by individual, school and community inhibitors and facilitators. These motivations and localized contexts were critical to implementation, and compelled principals to ignore, monitor, or implement education policies as a priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education policy has long been analyzed as a cycle where various actors influence different stages. However, few such studies have focused on identifying and interrogating the specific moments that shape an education policy's overall equity trajectory. This article uses Bowe, Ball, and Gold's policy cycle as an exploratory theoretical framework, focusing on the historic Review of Funding for Schooling (2011) in Australia, which evaluated the nation's school funding policy. The authors concentrate on the Context of Text Production phase of its policymaking process, and consider the implications for equity. From this work, the authors highlight two "critical moments" that they argue significantly influenced how the appointed panel approached equity. Their theorizing of a "critical moment" offers valuable insights for researchers and stakeholders seeking to understand or influence education policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our critical historiography of e-learning policy in Ontario, Canada, traces the policy's trajectory through three settlements (2006-2022) and shows how successive governments have mobilized neoliberal discourses of personalization, access, and choice to justify new arrangements with private actors, within a broader sociopolitical context that includes increased privatization and commodification of public institutions, cuts to public spending, and imagines individuals as rational subjects driven to maximize their economic potential. This context exacerbates challenges students marginalized by schooling already face. Findings from our critical discourse analyses of government documents and news media reports also demonstrate that online learning in Ontario is neither personalized nor customizable but instead is centralized, standardized and, by design, operates independent of rather than interdependent with community. Further, our findings highlight the interdependence of schools – online and in-person – with social processes that create and perpetuate inequality, including gendered and racialized poverty, locally and abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following record-high public support for improved teacher salaries, many states initiated a variety of pandemic-era reforms to teacher compensation policies to improve teacher morale and retention. In this article, we examine a minimum teacher salary reform in Missouri, a state home to a diverse geographic landscape including major metropolitan areas and large rural regions. On the one hand, we estimate eligible teachers would receive sizable salary increases averaging almost eight percent. Conversely, these teachers were located almost exclusively in the state's rural areas, effectively excluding most urban teachers and students and, due to the state's non-white ethnoracial concentration in urban metropolitan areas, virtually all of the state's non-White teachers and students. As states craft policy reforms to support their teacher workforces, attention must be devoted to the magnitude and the distribution of funding to ensure its equitable allocation across teacher and student characteristics and district urbanicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education policy research on White parent opportunity hoarding overlooks whiteness studies and focuses on individual-level behaviors. In this article, we advance a racial network analysis of White parent collectives to better understand how White parents reinforce racial hierarchies in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores transnational circulation during the early 1970s of lifelong education and recurrent education as 'policy repertoires' addressing redistribution of participation in organised (adult) learning throughout life. Focused on a re-reading of UNESCO's 1972 report on lifelong education, the paper offers a critical analysis of the Faure Commission's 'position-taking' with regard to its understanding of recurrent education as a policy repertoire. Frequently cited differences between the Commission's policy recommendations for lifelong education and its position-taking regarding recurrent education are shown to have fragile empirical foundations. This paper argues that Faure's report explicitly appropriated and openly incorporated arguments favouring recurrent education in its own policy recommendations for lifelong education. Mainstream interpretations of the Faure report are subsequently subjected to a critical analysis of putative neoliberal tendencies articulated by the Faure Commission's own report. Key areas for further social-historical research regarding policy repertoires in the 1970s are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) and big data methodologies have provided a vast possibility of applications in different public policy sectors. AI and big data provide essential innovations in school teaching and learning practices, curriculum, and management in education, transforming the entire formulation and implementation of education policy. The possibilities of AI in education present a high potential for improvement but a series of new risks and threats that question the benefits of adopting AI in education. This article discusses the possibilities and limits of artificial intelligence in education, observing the institutionalization of new governance practices in education that emerge with digital technologies. To discuss these new governance practices, we deal with the Beijing Consensus on artificial intelligence in education and the challenges of building new education governance. In addition, we discuss potential impacts of AI on education, with a special focus on social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was targeted to assess adult education program implementers' understanding towards adult education policy documents and usage of the documents in Addis Ababa City Administration. In order to guide the study qualitative method was applied. Accordingly, qualitative data was gathered using interview and document analysis. Qualitative data like views of respondents and result gained from document analysis were discussed by narrating the evidences/responses in words. As the findings of this study reveals, majority of adult education program implementers lack understanding about the policy documents of adult education sector; there is no established and sustainable awareness creation system and capacity building program for newly employed and other personnel; non-existence an established structure to lead adult education program according to the designed strategy documents are some of the results of the research. In order to overcome the challenges mentioned above adult education implementing organizations have to launch continuous professional development (CPD) program for implementers of adult education program. Consequently, implementers of the program can get first-hand information on the policy documents on one hand and they can also upgrade their profession on the other hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is considered a key element in the formation of human capital, associated with the sustainable development of a country's economic growth. The study has investigated the relationship between education and Pakistan's economic growth in the short as well as long run. For measurement, thirty years of data spanning from 1987 to 2016 was used in the study. The data was retrieved from World Development Indicators (WDI) and the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). Economic growth was measured from real GDP while education was measured by total years of formal education and government expenditures for education. Pesaran bounds test approach and ARDL model for long and short-run co-integration were applied. The results deduced from the study described that by increasing the labor force education, the real GDP increases with the existence of significant and positive co-integration and confirmed the long-term relationship. It is observed that by increasing the 1% of labor force education, there is a 0.62% increase in real GDP (economic growth) in long run. On the other hand, the results also described the significant and negative co-integration relation between government education expenditures and economic growth (real GDP) in long run. The appearance of this negative relation in results is probably due to the unavailability of total educational expenditures as in this study the education of the labor force increases with decreasing trends in government educational expenditures. This study may be helpful for policymakers in educational policy formulation to enhance the government educational expenditure for improving the education standard of the labor force to boost Pakistan's economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) is a comprehensive and ambitious plan to transform India's education system. However, its implementation has sparked debates among stakeholders, including students, teachers, and experts. This paper evaluates the promise and pitfalls of NEP 2020 based on the perspectives of these stakeholders. This study used an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach to compare and elucidate the views of students, teachers, and experts from diverse backgrounds. The subject experts have a more positive outlook on the promises of the policy, lauding its expansive and comprehensive vision. While the multiple entry-exit options and the new credit systems are viewed to be more beneficial by the students, teachers believe that they require further capacity building and training to deliver the range of subjects and skills envisioned in the policy. All the respondents are confident that NEP 2020 will harbinger reforms to enhance the quality of education in India. We conclude with recommendations for policymakers, educators, and other stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of NEP 2020 and the achievement of its goals. Plain language summary: Evaluation of national educational policy-2020 This study evaluates the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020), which aims to transform India's education system. We looked at the perspectives of students, teachers, and experts to understand their views on the promises and challenges of the policy. Experts generally have a positive outlook on NEP 2020, praising its broad vision. Students particularly appreciate the flexibility it offers with multiple entry-exit options and new credit systems. However, teachers feel they need more training to effectively teach the diverse subjects and skills outlined in the policy. Overall, everyone believes NEP 2020 will bring positive changes to India's education quality. We suggest recommendations for policymakers, educators, and others to ensure the policy's successful implementation and goal achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study focuses on school leaders' daily practices, decisions, and understandings to illuminate the role that distrust plays in school co-location in Denver. In order to inform decisions about the policy's implementation, we examine the relationships between structural dimensions of co-location policy and the ways that school leaders characterize and shape interactions between teachers and students in co-located schools. Research Methods: Drawing from a larger qualitative study, we conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with leaders of co-located schools in Denver to explore school leaders' perspectives and experiences related to school co-location. We analyzed 11 school leaders' experiences on 7 focal "shared campuses"–buildings housing more than one K-12 school–to identify their understandings of, experiences with, and responses to school co-location. Findings: Although leaders on all focal campuses attempted to keep school communities separate within co-located buildings, most still reported that conflict arose between staff and students from different schools. In some cases, leaders facilitated collaboration between schools, bringing some of the intended benefits of school co-location to fruition. More often they cited competition, which was incentivized by the district's policy of school choice, as a barrier to such efforts. Our data suggest that structural distrust embedded in the policies and processes surrounding school co-location shaped both these everyday interactions among school communities and the opportunities that school leaders saw (or didn't see) for positive outcomes. Implications: Remedies available to those in authority–including policymakers and school leaders–require that they explicitly acknowledge distrust and change the power imbalances present among stakeholders in co-located schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the experiences of urban school principals during the Covid-19 pandemic and how they managed accountability measures in their schools. The study found that these principals utilized internal, market, and moral accountability to address student learning when external measures were suspended. The findings challenge the notion that educators can only perform under external pressure and emphasize the potential for alternative accountability forms to promote teacher growth, student learning, and just leadership. The article also discusses the impact of external accountability policies on urban schools, including their effects on curriculum, instructional practices, working conditions, and student outcomes. The authors argue for a reconceptualization of accountability that incorporates internal, market, and moral dimensions to support teaching and learning in urban schools. [Extracted from the article]

In the context of digital technologies, computational thinking (CT) is considered a key competence of primary school teachers. However, assessment tools to measure in-service teachers' CT competence are rare. The current study explains the design, development, and validation of a scale to determine the in-service teachers' mastery level of their Computational Thinking Competence (CTC) in the Chinese context. The validity and reliability of the scale have been studied by conducting exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and calculating internal consistency coefficients. The sample of this study consisted of 631 in-service teachers from different Chinese primary schools (EFA N = 189; CFA N = 442). The 31-item scale mirrors five factors: cognitive knowledge of CT, practices and skills of CT, attitudes and perspectives of CT, CT teaching design, and CT teaching implementation. The discussion of the results looks at the future use of the CT scale in Chinese educational settings that mirror a specific national education policy, talent demand, and educational culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transformative learning in teacher education qualitatively changes future teachers' meaning systems of learning, teaching, and education. In this study, I explored transformative learning in Finnish class teacher education. Data were collected by observing student teachers over two academic years. Data also contains writings that student teachers produced during that period. A phenomenological analysis focused on the general characteristics of the transformative way of becoming a teacher and identified a process consisting of four phases: starting point, crack, ambivalence, and transformation. A hermeneutic analysis was used to interpret how the process occurred in practice. The results suggest a long and ambivalent process, which challenges educational policy discourses that emphasize efficiency and speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we use estimated public transit routes for high school students in Baltimore City to predict the number of days they are late during the school year. We find that after adjusting for individual and school characteristics, school preferences, and neighborhood fixed effects, total travel time and transit use are not predictive of tardiness, but requiring a bus transfer is. These estimates do not vary by student or school characteristics, indicating that this is a general phenomenon that has more to do with system-level reliability than individual motivation or school climate. These findings highlight the hidden costs imposed on some students who wish to leave their neighborhood and travel across town for better educational opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present data from the Schools and Staffing Survey and the National Teacher and Principal Survey to document the prevalence of instructional coaching programs (ICPs) and consider how ICPs are distributed by school level, urbanicity, new teachers in a school, student enrollment, school poverty levels, student achievement levels, and state. We show that ICPs are most common in elementary schools, schools located in cities, schools with larger proportions of new teachers, larger schools, schools enrolling larger fractions of economically disadvantaged students, and schools with lower student achievement levels. Additionally, more affluent and higher achieving schools experienced the sharpest increase in ICPs over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nationally, more than 75% of individuals who are credentialed to teach are prepared in traditional college- or university-based teacher education programs (TEPs). But the college and employment pathways that prospective teachers take to TEP enrollment and completion have not been comprehensively examined. A better understanding of how credentialed individuals find their way into TEPs helps us understand the sources of new teacher supply early in the prospective teacher pipeline. With that in mind, we analyze pathways into and through TEPs using historical postsecondary and unemployment insurance data from Washington State. We find that the pathways are quite varied, with around 40% of bachelor's-level TEP completers spending at least some time in community colleges and fewer than 40% enrolling and finishing at the same university directly after high school. Pathways to master's TEP completion are even more varied, with almost half of the completers having prior employment experience. For researchers, this varied landscape raises important questions about the relationship between pathways, candidate persistence, and eventual job performance. For policymakers, the results suggest that efforts to recruit the next generation of teachers need to look beyond the pool of students already enrolled at a 4-year university to include students at 2-year colleges or in the labor force who might be interested in entering a TEP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the relationship between education policy change and policy transfer, focusing on Georgia's School Board of Trustees. It analyzes how Western practices have been implemented in the education policies of post-Soviet countries. To achieve this, the article utilizes instrumental case studies and in-depth interviews. It views policy transfer as a tool of education policy change while integrating it with an advocacy coalition framework. The study indicates that advocacy coalitions transform into transfer networks, and their approach is to replicate or emulate foreign experiences. The article also poses new research questions, enabling researchers to build on and scrutinize the proposed assumptions and concentrate on post-Soviet education policy transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increasing recognition of the importance of high-quality school leadership, we know remarkably little about principal skill development. Using administrative data from Tennessee, Oregon, and New York City, we estimate the returns to principal experience as measured by student outcomes, teacher hiring and retention patterns, and teacher and supervisor ratings of principals. The typical principal leads a school for only 3 to 5 years and leaves the principalship after 6 to 7 years. We find little evidence that school performance improves as principals gain experience, despite substantial improvement in supervisor ratings. Our results suggest that strategies intended to increase principal retention are unlikely to improve school outcomes absent more comprehensive efforts to strengthen the link between principal skill development and student and school outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our co-knowledged article conceptualized one version of an educator-activist collective's Black relational methodology (BRM). Co-conceptualization began through Nate's invitation to the Collective, a relational space dedicated to knowledge co-creation capable of imagining equitable and just educational policy futures. Over the course of four collective sessions, an answerability defense, a conference presentation, and co-authoring this piece, we agreed there was something ancestrally ordained about our Black onto-epistemology. Nate rendered his coding activities answerable to the Collective and we forwarded two epistemic themes—nuanced joy and relationality—as seminal to our BRM. By conceptualizing our BRM, we aim to amplify narratives offering paths towards equitable Black futures, center nuanced joy in educational research, and illuminate the influence relationality has on knowledge co-creation processes. Finally, we implicate how BRM could be an important onto-epistemological component in decisions to mobilize knowledge co-creation in pursuit of equitable educational policy futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the introduction and implementation of core literacy, scientific thinking (ST) has become an essential goal and key dimension of science teaching. At present, there is no agreement on how to cultivate students' ST. This study took 238 sixth grade students from a public primary school in urban China as research sample, built a theoretical model of scientific thinking development based on the theory of the Bronfenbrenner' ecological systems theory, and used multiple data to explore and analyze the impact path of ST development of primary school students using the fuzzy sets of qualitative comparative analysis method (fsQCA). The development of urban primary school students' ST is the result of multiple factors at the level of individual drive, family environment, school teaching, and social resources. The result of data analysis showed that the influence path of ST development of urban primary school students driven by multiple factors includes three paths: parent participation leading, scientific practice leading, and home-school-community integration. We have interpreted the influence mechanism of each path in detail and put forward the enlightenment for science education policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School discipline is a significant educational policy and equity issue in K-12 education due to well-documented racial inequality in exclusionary discipline and the deleterious effects of exclusionary discipline on academic and adult outcomes. Drawing on interviews with district and school administrators and teachers in an "urban-emergent" district, this exploratory qualitative case study identifies and explicates the key factors that shape disciplinary practices within schools. Two major factors emerge as critical to school discipline practices in K-12 schools: (a) teacher preparation and (b) modeling of effective school discipline practices (how school leaders support teachers and how mentors support school leaders in the disciplinary process). Four key themes regarding teacher preparation emerge (a) relationship building, (b) classroom management, (c) cultural responsiveness and proficiency, and (d) experiential learning. The race and gender of educators permeate these factors. Implications for education policy and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws from primary and secondary historical sources such as public policy documents, speeches, and media reports to trace attempts made by the Kentucky legislature to ban controversial topics in public school curriculum—evolution in 1922 and critical race theory in 2022. Kingdon's multiple streams framework (MSF) serves as the model for this historical and contemporary comparative education policy analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2021, Illinois became the first state in the United States to require that K-12 students learn about Asian American history. Illinois achieved this when lawmakers passed House Bill 376 (H.B. 376), colloquially known as the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act. H.B. 376 received praise for being the first legislation of its kind, and its passage inspired similar bills in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Given the bill's influence, it is imperative to consider its language and utility. This critical policy analysis specifically investigates lawmakers' employment of the term "Asian American." The analysis ultimately argues that H.B. 376 is a necessary first step in breaking centuries of silence and dislocation for Asian Americans; however, the bill advances a social definition—or sociopolitical understanding—of "Asian American" that is potentially harmful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this interview study, we utilize a theoretical framework that combines Bell's theory of choice sets with DisCrit to explore how parents of students with IEPs (SIEPs) experienced a forced school choice embedded with the 2013 mass school closures in Chicago. We find that a child's disability was a primary factor in parent's choices. Further, all parents in our sample had conceptions of ideal schools, but a child's IEP and other barriers—including safety and transportation—could prevent parents from enrolling their child in an otherwise desired school. In this way a child's IEP could provide access to needed services while also denying families from desired learning environments. These findings point to the ableist nature of school choice and contribute to the growing body of research that questions the theoretical underpinnings of school choice as an education reform strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to understand how state-level policies inform and promote the implementation of restorative justice in education (RJE). A content analysis of 60 laws revealed that definitions, structures, and supports varied greatly, causing us to question whether policies support a systematic implementation of RJE and how policies can prevent the misuse of RJE as an alternative system of punishment. We recommend that laws clearly define the paradigm shift underlying RJE, and provide sustained support to promote a realignment of policies and practices with attention to incorporating measures of accountability to larger values surrounding equity and justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research converges on the finding that females are attributed less agency than males, with one of the consequences being that they are allotted less challenging tasks than their male counterparts. We hypothesized that benevolent sexism accounts for this tendency. Hence, we predicted that parents advocate for the allotment of less challenging tasks to girls than to boys at school as a function of their endorsement of benevolent sexism. We tested for the effect using a sample of 153 Zimbabwean parents (103 female and 50 male; mean age of 34 years, SD = 3.23), whose female child was beginning form one. However, we also tested for other "control" variables—parents' gender and their female child's performance. Results indicated that benevolent sexism and the female child's grade at grade 7 predicted the difference in scale of allotment of challenging tasks to boys versus girls. Taken together, these results suggest that benevolent sexism is the underlying sexist ideology that may limit girls' exposure to challenging tasks and subjects at school, which may limit their chances of success and leadership later in their educational trajectories, and also in the occupations they would take in adulthood. Recommendations for changes in educational policy and related interventions are made in line with the present findings and existing literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As school board meetings are integral sites of local education policymaking, scholars must consider how structural racism manifests in these spaces across various district contexts. We examine how racialized institutional logics undergird the interactions between majority-Black district leadership and a local Black community during school board meetings. Through an ethnographic case study of school board meetings over the 2019–2020 school year, we find that racialized pressures led predominantly Black school board members and district administrators to uphold policies and practices that limited two-way authentic interactions with their Black constituents. In conclusion, we argue that racial representation in educational politics may be important, but is not sufficient unless accompanied by changes to policies and practices that privilege Whiteness and reproduce racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research using school discipline and infraction data has contributed to public policy conversations by helping elucidate the effects of and disproportionate experience of school disciplinary outcomes. This research brief presents results from an analysis of the public availability of such data from state departments of education. Findings suggest that while public availability of discipline data has not changed significantly over the past decade, states are more likely to disaggregate such data by subgroups. Unfortunately, such data remain generally focused on a small number of exclusionary practices rather than nonpunitive or nonexclusionary alternatives. Infraction data are slightly less available than discipline data and significantly less likely to be disaggregated by subgroup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summer learning loss is a perennial concern for educators and parents alike. However, researchers have recently questioned whether summer learning loss is just a statistical artifact driven by how achievement is measured across the school year. In this study, we empirically investigated a plausible critique of summer learning loss research, namely that students do not put forth their best effort on the fall test compared with the spring test. While we cannot conclude based on our findings that students do in fact lose ground during the summer, we did not find evidence that seasonal differences in test effort are a main driver of summer learning patterns estimated with MAP Growth assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Subnational actors and organizations are crucial mediators of policy implementation due to their proximity to schools. However, in low- and middle-income country contexts, little is known about their management practices and factors that shape the adoption of these practices to improve education delivery. Purpose: We explore the management context of five District Education Directorates in Ghana, and the factors that enable or constrain them to plan and implement policy. Participants: Forty-three interviews and focus groups with regional and district education officials, district political actors, and basic education school headteachers and teachers. Research Design: A qualitative study of semistructured interviews, focus groups, and education policy and planning documents. Analysis: To understand how policy implementation happens within complex, multitiered bureaucracies, our theoretical framework uses four management functions described in Williams et al. (2021) to explore two different paradigms of how to change public bureaucracies: target setting and prioritization; measurement and monitoring; accountability and incentives; and problem-solving. We coded and analyzed our data based on this framework and developed district-wide narrative memos to synthesize the findings. Findings: We identify three areas of (mis)alignment in management practices: across bureaucratic levels and among actors; around clear and consistent priorities for learning; in expected actions and availability of resources. These (mis)alignments can constrain or be leveraged by districts to improve education delivery in Ghana. Implications: We argue for better prioritization of goals toward learning and the efficient allocation of funds for management practices typical of effective organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]