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Purpose: This study examines how resources and organizational decisions within seven geographically diverse elementary schools shape instructional coordination for Tier 2 interventions within the Response to Intervention (RtI) framework. Research Methods: This work is part of a larger, multiple-case study examining how schools support academic achievement for economically disadvantaged students. We draw on qualitative interview and observation data from seven purposively sampled public elementary schools in Wisconsin during the 2017-18 school year. In our analysis, we approach each school as an individual case to ascertain how resources and organizational decisions shaped instructional coordination for Tier 2 interventions within the RtI framework. Findings: We find that organizational contexts shape how schools approach the instructional coordination of staffing and schedules requisite for multitiered instruction. Specifically, local programming, delineation of staff roles, and availability and deployment of school resources influenced if and how schools coordinated staff and schedules to support RtI. These elements consequently informed student groupings for interventions, the extent of student access to Tier 1 and Tier 2 content, and staff engagement in data-driven discussions. Implications: By closely examining the everyday realities of diverse elementary schools, this study demonstrates that RtI is not a singular program but a context-contingent process. In tracing the relationships between school contexts, instructional coordination, and the practical implementation of RtI, we provide insight into the messy realities of schools and obstacles to RtI that past research overlooks. These findings emphasize the importance of systematic, school-wide coordination that extends beyond single grade levels and subjects.

Research on adolescent responsibilities outside of school rarely considers how schools and teachers mitigate the adverse consequences of those responsibilities on academic outcomes. We seek to understand when, and for whom, teachers and administrators accommodate students' out‐of‐school commitments. Analysing 61 interviews with teachers and staff at five high schools that serve predominantly low‐income students and survey responses from teachers across Wisconsin (N = 601), we find that staff identify responsibilities as connected to students' social class. Teacher responses to student responsibilities are largely individual and ad hoc, whilst administrators report accommodating students' paid work through structural changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on interviews with first‐generation (FG) college students in their first year attending two distinct public colleges (a rural state university and an urban flagship) to show how these students framed college in terms of place, how different place frames shaped students' college choices and experiences, and how place served as a proxy for students' feelings of belonging. Some students wanted place continuity: to attend college in a place that felt proximate and symbolically similar to the place where they were from. Other students, however, wanted place change: to attend college in a place that felt markedly different from where they grew up. The extent to which students' place desires matched their choice of college shaped students' sense of fit in college by determining students' access to relevant cultural and network resources. Students experienced steady belonging, forged belonging, reluctant belonging, or interrupted belonging on these bases. Our findings provide support for the role of place broadly understood in FG college students' adaptation to college, and we consider implications for higher education outcomes and improving institutional support for FG students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on interviews with first‐generation (FG) college students in their first year attending two distinct public colleges (a rural state university and an urban flagship) to show how these students framed college in terms of place, how different place frames shaped students' college choices and experiences, and how place served as a proxy for students' feelings of belonging. Some students wanted place continuity: to attend college in a place that felt proximate and symbolically similar to the place where they were from. Other students, however, wanted place change: to attend college in a place that felt markedly different from where they grew up. The extent to which students' place desires matched their choice of college shaped students' sense of fit in college by determining students' access to relevant cultural and network resources. Students experienced steady belonging, forged belonging, reluctant belonging, or interrupted belonging on these bases. Our findings provide support for the role of place broadly understood in FG college students' adaptation to college, and we consider implications for higher education outcomes and improving institutional support for FG students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]