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The article discusses the challenges faced by high-profile education reform efforts in big-city school districts, focusing on Houston's recent takeover by the Texas Education Agency and the implementation of a new education system by Superintendent Mike Miles. The article highlights the resistance and criticism faced by Miles and his agenda, as well as the financial and operational challenges within the district. It also explores the changing landscape of education reform, with a shift towards alternative education models and declining support for traditional big-city reform efforts. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines the relationship between philanthropy and democracy, using the example of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's efforts in education. It explores different perspectives on philanthropy in political philosophy and discusses the potential benefits and drawbacks of philanthropic actions in a democratic society. The author argues that philanthropy and democracy represent two distinct forms of political authority, with philanthropy allowing individuals or organizations to unilaterally influence public decisions. The article does not take a normative stance on the compatibility of philanthropy and democracy, but rather provides an analytical exploration of the topic. [Extracted from the article]

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In this study we employed regression analysis and between-group matched pair design to analyze whether participation in a competency-based education pilot was associated with improved high school completion and postsecondary entry. Data were obtained for high schools participating in a CBE pilot program in Illinois. Results of the matched pair design showed that CBE participation was significantly associated with higher rates of high school graduation for seniors across all groups with differences significant overall (97.2% for CBE vs. 93.1% for non-CBE), for White students (97.2% vs. 92.7%), and for students eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch (96.3% vs. 90.3%). Graduation rate for seniors was also higher for African American students and for Hispanic-Latinx students, but the differences were not statistically significant. In the matched pair design, CBE participation was not significantly associated with entry into college within 12 months of high school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between education and voting, specifically focusing on students attending charter schools in Boston. The research indicates that higher levels of education are associated with higher rates of voting, particularly for girls. The study suggests that noncognitive attributes such as grit and self-control, which are developed through education, may contribute to this trend. The findings also highlight widening gender gaps in educational attainment and political participation. The article concludes by raising the question of how schools can enhance non-cognitive skills development in boys and increase civic participation among young men. Additionally, the article discusses the impact of attending charter schools on voter turnout among students. The study finds that charter school students are more likely to vote than non-charter students, with the most significant difference observed in the first presidential election after they turn 18. Female charter students experience significant gains in voting, as do students who receive free or reduced-price school lunch, English language learners, and students with higher scores on state tests. The study suggests that noncognitive skills, rather than cognitive skills, may be the key factor in explaining the increased civic participation among charter school graduates. [Extracted from the article]

Children exposed to pollutants like lead have lower academic achievement and are more likely to engage in risky behavior. However, little is known about whether lead-exposed children affect the long-run outcomes of their peers. We estimate these spillover effects using unique data on preschool blood lead levels (BLLs) matched to education data for all students in North Carolina public schools. We compare siblings whose school-grade cohorts differ in the proportion of children with elevated BLLs, holding constant school and peers' demographics. Having more lead-exposed peers is associated with lower high school graduation and SAT-taking rates and increased suspensions and absences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the issue of juvenile recidivism in Indiana and advocates for the implementation of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for juveniles with disruptive behavior disorders. It emphasizes the negative consequences of juvenile detention, such as lower graduation rates and increased risk of reoffending. The article argues that providing quality education, particularly for incarcerated youth with disruptive behavior disorders, is crucial in reducing recidivism. It calls for the adoption of IEPs as a necessary measure to improve educational outcomes and reduce recidivism rates for detained juveniles. [Extracted from the article]

We use linked administrative data on education, health, social services, and crime from British Columbia, Canada, to document the relationship between measures of secondary educational attainment and indicators of poor outcomes later in life. Poor outcomes are seen primarily among high school dropouts. Next, we document the ability of characteristics observed in grade four to predict high school graduation using a simple model that produces a lower bound. It straightforwardly identifies more than one-fifth of future dropouts with reasonable accuracy. Non-cognitive measures (especially social and emotional characteristics) are better predictors of educational attainment than cognitive ones. We discuss the implications of these findings for a scientific approach to developing interventions to prevent poor outcomes later in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Great Migration was a movement of roughly eight million Black Southerners relocating to the North and West from 1910 to 1980. Despite being one of the most significant mass internal migrations during the twentieth century, little is known about the health outcomes resulting from migration and whether migrators' destination choices were potential mechanisms. This study measured the association between destination county disadvantage and odds of low birth weight during the last decade of the Great Migration. We used the US Census from 1970 as well as the birth records of first-time Black mothers who migrated from the South collected through the National Center of Health Statistics from 1973 to 1980 (n = 154,145). We examined three measures of area-based opportunity: Black male high school graduation rate, Black poverty rate, and racialized economic residential segregation. We used multilevel logistic regression, where mothers were nested within US counties, to quantify the relationship between county disadvantage and low birth weight. After adjusting for individual risk and protective factors for infant health, there was no relationship between county opportunity measures and low birth weight among migrators. Although high socioeconomic opportunity is typically associated with protection of low birth weight, we did not see these outcomes in this study. These results may support that persistent racial discrimination encountered in the North inhibited infant health even as migrators experienced higher economic opportunity relative to the South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Measurement-based care has been called for as best practice in psychiatric care and learning health systems and use of transdiagnostic measures was suggested as part of the DSM-5. Our objective is to examine gender differences in first visit socioeconomic, transdiagnostic, and functional characteristics of a dynamic, real-world measurement-based care cohort. Methods: Transdiagnostic, functional, and clinical measures were collected from 3,556 patients at first visit in an ambulatory psychiatric clinic. All patients were evaluated at the first visit by board-certified psychiatrists or licensed clinical psychologists. Demographic variables and clinical diagnoses were collected from the Electronic Medical Record. Self-report measures were collected that assessed transdiagnostic symptoms (DSM-5 Level 1 Cross-cutting Measure and Level 2 symptom scales), disability, alcohol use, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, depression, anxiety, mania, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and trauma exposure. Results: Men and women did not differ in age, BMI, household income, high school graduation rate, race, or ethnicity, but women were more likely to be formerly married and less likely to have commercial insurance. Compared to men, women reported significantly higher overall psychopathology on the transdiagnostic Level 1 Cross-cutting measure and had higher depression, anxiety, sleep, anger, ADHD combined presentation, and suicidality severity. Women also had higher disability scores than men. However, men reported higher alcohol, tobacco and substance use, and more risky behavior than women. Trauma exposure differed significantly by gender; men reported more exposure to accidents, war-related trauma, serious accidents, and major disasters and women reported more unwanted sexual contact. Conclusions: This cross-sectional study of a transdiagnostic, ecologically-valid real-word measurement-based care cohort demonstrates gender differences in socioeconomic factors, trauma exposure, transdiagnostic symptoms, and functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on implementing early childhood education and continuing training efforts. Topics include repurposing a tax income stream dedicated to a new juvenile detention facility; and partnering with local private industry for donation of equipment, services, supplies, and expertise.

A great deal of literature has examined features of the physical built environment as predictors of opioid overdose and other substance use-related outcomes. Other literature suggests that social characteristics of settings are important predictors of substance use outcomes. However, there is a dearth of literature simultaneously measuring both physical and social characteristics of settings in an effort to better predict opioid overdose. There is also a dearth of literature examining built environment as a predictor of overdose in non-urban settings. The present study presents a novel socio-built environment index measure of opioid overdose risk comprised of indicators measuring both social and physical characteristics of settings — and developed for use in both urban and non-urban settings — and assesses its validity among 565 urban, suburban, and rural New Jersey municipalities. We found that this novel measure had good convergent validity, based on significant positive associations with a social vulnerability index and crime rates, and significant negative associations with a municipal revitalization index and high school graduation rates. The index measure had good discriminant validity, based on lack of association with three different racial isolation indices. Finally, our index measure had good health outcome-based criterion validity, based on significant positive associations with recent overdose mortality. There were no major differences between rural, suburban, and urban municipalities in validity analysis findings. This promising new socio-built environment risk index measure could improve ability to target and allocate resources to settings with the greatest risk, in order to improve their impact on overdose outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, scholars and practitioners are interested in evaluating the effectiveness of interorganizational networks. We use a configuration approach to study network effectiveness. This research is a mixed-method study of 26 education networks in the United States. We measure network effectiveness by comparing 4th-grade literacy, 8th-grade literacy, and high-school graduation rates. We compare these scores with all school districts in the state using interrupted time series or parametric difference-in-differences approaches. Then, drawing from qualitative data from interviews and archives, we investigate the network governance, environmental characteristics, and theories of change associated with greater student achievement. We find three configurations associated with network effectiveness using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. One configuration combines decentralized governance with a project theory of change in the context of resource munificence. A second configuration associated with network effectiveness is to combine learning and systems alignment theories of change with smaller network size and resource munificence. The final configuration combines decentralized governance, a learning theory of change, less resource munificence, and larger network size and does not use a systems alignment theory of change. The results support the configurational approach, which suggests multiple configurations of factors in combination may result in network effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the impact of summer job programs on student outcomes, focusing on the Boston Summer Youth Employment Program's effects on high school graduation rates, attendance, and academic performance. Topics include the program's positive influence on graduation rates, improved attendance, and initial grade-point average (GPA) boost, particularly among certain student groups.

How school districts measure homelessness among their students has implications for accountability and funding, as well as for supporting student success. Yet, measuring homelessness among high school students is challenging because students move in and out of experiencing it. Using administrative student-level data from a mid-sized public school district in the southern United States, we show that different commonly used procedures to measure which students are considered homeless can yield markedly different estimates of high school graduation rates for these students. This is largely because of differences in how districts classify students who experience homelessness but later become housed. To address the potentially negative effects of housing insecurity on academic achievement, it is important to first identify a common way to diagnose the problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The culture of a science classroom favors a particular speech community. Thus membership requires students to become bilingual and bicultural at the same time. The complexity of learning science rests in that it not only possesses a unique lexicon and discourse, but it ultimately entails a particular way of knowing. This study examines the academic engagement and perceptions of a group of high school students (N = 30) regarding their science-literate practices. These students were participating in an Engaging Latino Communities for Education (ENLACE) program whose purpose is to increase Latino high school graduation rates and assist them with college entrance requirements. At the time of the study, 19 students were enrolled in different science classes to fulfill the science requirements for graduation. The primary research question: What kind of science classroom learning environment supports science-literate identities for Latino/a students? was addressed through a convergent parallel mixed research design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the importance of school connectedness and how high schools are creating student success teams to prioritize relationships and leverage actionable data to reconnect students to school. Topics include the significance of strong relationships in fostering school connectedness, the role of student success teams, and the need for state boards of education to support and elevate these efforts.

The 2014 paper "Measuring the Impacts of Teachers II: Teacher Value-Added and Student Outcomes in Adulthood" examines the effectiveness of grade 3-8 teachers and their students' future income. It shows that 30 percent of the achievement gap between high and low- poverty schools is due to school closures and 50 percent is explained by the differential effect of remote/hybrid learning on poor and rich schools. School closures and switches to hybrid/virtual learning due to the pandemic adversely affected student achievement through several channels, including a decline in skill accumulation and a disruption of peer effects and peer-group formation. The 2021 study "Large Socio-Economic, Geographic and Demographic Disparities Exist in Exposure to School Closures" shows that school closures occurring from September 2020 to December 2020 were more common in schools with lower third-grade math scores and with higher shares of students who are racial and ethnic minorities, who experience homelessness, who have limited English proficiency and who are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches. [Extracted from the article]

In this Health Equity theme issue, we have a collection of articles that tackle various aspects of health equity, including structural inequities, interpersonal racism, the importance of intersectionality, and data equity. These findings highlight the reciprocity of education and health and the importance of not only addressing educational gaps as a path to more equitable health but also addressing health gaps as a path to greater equity in education. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is working alongside other organizations to build a national Culture of Health that provides everyone in America a fair and just opportunity for health and well-being.[1] The foundation supports several national leadership development programs to help train a generation of leaders who will use innovative approaches to advance a Culture of Health. [Extracted from the article]

Disparity exists between racially minoritized students and their White student counterparts in academic achievement. This discrepancy engenders the difference with which students will have opportunities in advanced courses; rates of high school graduation, college acceptance, and completion rates; and salary and quality of life. The academic disparity between the two groups has been found to have roots in stereotype threat, which causes anxiety where the individual's behavior may confirm the negative stereotypes of one's in-group. Reducing stereotype threat has been theorized to allow minoritized students and those in negatively stereotyped groups to enhance their academic performance by removing levels of anxiety hampering their performance. Following previous work, whereby the academic achievement gap between Black and White middle school students were reduced, this study examines the effectiveness of such an intervention on 4th grade, elementary students' reading achievement levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On-time high school graduation is an important topic in educational research, policy, and practice. However, no comprehensive meta-analyses had been conducted on this topic. The current meta-analysis reviewed 47 articles published from 1985 to April 2022 and aggregated the effect in four dimensions: student background, family support, school program and support, and school climate, with a focus on school-related practices, policies, and programs. Twelve factors along various dimensions had statistically significant positive or negative effects on on-time graduation. Implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The effectiveness of early prevention programmes and their viability as a public policy option have increasingly caught the attention of scholars and policymakers. Given the implementation costs of such programmes, it is important to assess whether they achieved anticipated objectives and whether they made efficient use of taxpayer money. Aim: To discuss the social and economic impact of a 2‐year randomised intervention aimed to improve social skills and self‐control (i.e., non‐cognitive skills) among disruptive boys from low‐income neighbourhoods in Montreal. Method: We review findings from published studies documenting the impact of the intervention at different stages of the life course, as well as its cost‐effectiveness and cost‐benefit. Results: The intervention improved behavioural indicators throughout adolescence and eventually led to greater high school graduation rates, reduced crime, and better labour market outcomes in adulthood. Importantly, the prevention programme generated considerable returns to taxpayer investments. Conclusion: Findings from the Montreal Longitudinal Experimental Study have been well‐received and have contributed to an early prevention 'awakening' in Quebec and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims on dual enrollment programs, which allow motivated high school students to take college coursework. These programs have been growing steadily since 2010, offering students opportunities to earn both high school and college credits. The advantages and disadvantages of dual enrollment are discussed, including its positive impact on college readiness, high school graduation rates but also the need for students to carefully consider their motivations for participating.

The long-term impact of prekindergarten programs is an important consideration given the trend of dedicating more resources to these programs. However, long-term impact of prekindergarten programs is not well-understood and recent studies have shown preschool effectiveness can vary across states and programs. A state run prekindergarten program in New Mexico was examined using propensity score matching to minimize selection bias. The research revealed a number of long-term impacts corresponding with prekindergarten participation for the cohort including a 9.7 percentage point increase in high school graduation rates and improved reading and math proficiency at third, sixth, and eighth grades. Considerations for future research and challenges in implementing prekindergarten programs are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition into high school is a critical time to act for students with a history of academic difficulty. In this study, researchers examined the impact of a learning strategies intervention program called High School Success on performance of students demonstrating deficits in literacy and academic skills. Data were collected on performance in a 9th grade English course, an associated high-stakes literacy test, and subsequently their long-term rates of graduation following this unique 9th grade experience. Chi-square analysis comparing the treatment group (n = 428) who participated in High School Success to a control group of at-risk students not exposed to the intervention course (n = 629) revealed a significant impact (χ2 (df = 1) 28.02, p <.001) on whether students dropped out of high school. The data revealed that students in High School Success had statistically significantly better achievement and rates of high school graduation. These results provide evidence for ninth grade literacy and learning interventions as primary strategies for easing transition into high school and increasing retention of students with a history of academic difficulty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An emerging body of research links online credit recovery programs to rising high school graduation rates but does not find comparable increases in student learning. This study follows high school students who engaged in online credit recovery into the labor market to understand the longer‐term implications of this growing educational trend. If online credit recovery contributes to high school completion and facilitates job entry, then participants in online credit recovery may have labor market outcomes that differ little relative to those recovering credits in traditional classroom settings. However, if online credit recovery courses are inferior in terms of the knowledge or skills they impart and that learning is critical to workforce success, then online credit recovery participants may earn less over time. The study findings suggest that high school students who participated in online credit recovery initially had earnings on par with those who did not recover course credits online, but a negative differential emerged between their earnings and the earnings of nonparticipants that grew over time. We found no evidence to suggest that students ever benefitted in the labor market from online credit recovery in high school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports Chapter Schools that represents 7 percent of national school enrollment in a growing number of cities, above 40 percent. Topic discussed includes representing one of the most dramatic shifts in the structure of U.S. schooling including an entire sector of publicly funded, privately run schools has emerged from scratch that now rivals private schools in its size and scope.

The article discusses about the evaluating the effect of private sector employment experience on student academic outcomes. It mentions that greater engagement of private sector firms could be one way to scale up summer jobs programs while also providing early employment experiences that have more consistent impacts on academic outcomes.

The results showed relatively large impacts of pupil-teacher ratios and teacher wages on educational attainment and earnings and suggested that improvements in school resources could explain a sizeable share of the gains in relative earnings of Black relative to white men between 1960 and 1980. Interestingly, traditional "Kaitz-style" indexes of the bite of the minimum wage, which take the ratio of the minimum wage to the average wage for all workers, may be negatively correlated with the wage of affected workers. Employment Effect of Minimum Wages Although much of the US minimum wage literature has focused on teenagers, the impact of wage floors typically extends to a wider group of workers. Such shocks will lead to wage increases at the primary job if that employer bargains over wages, but not if it can commit to a posted wage policy. [Extracted from the article]