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This study investigates the role of social media quality in mediating the effects of marketing mix strategies on international students' decisions regarding their study destinations, focusing on Jordanian universities. Integrating consumer behavior theories, the research aims to understand how marketing mix elements--product/program quality, price, location, and promotional activities--impact enrollment decisions. A survey of 2000 international students recently admitted to public and private universities in Jordan yielded a 61% response rate. Empirical analysis shows that marketing mix strategies significantly impact students' choices and elucidates the mediating role of social media strategies. Interactions on these platforms, such as reviews, ratings, and recommendations, are pivotal in forming perceptions and guiding choices, highlighting educational marketers' need to manage social media content.

Dual credit courses have become widely available to high school students. Unknown is the impact of dual credit classes taken during high school on college students' university experience. This qualitative study aimed to explore upper-level college students' perspectives about how high school dual enrollment courses shaped their college experience. Interview data from upper-level college student participants was analyzed for themes to answer the research questions. Results of this study provide dual credit education administrators with knowledge about student success beyond high school, including those components of dual credit that were helpful or otherwise, and how dual credit courses prepared college students for their educational career while pursuing a degree at a university. Implications as a call to action in practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Rurality in education research is a function of the size of the school, the distance of a school in relation to urban areas, and factors within each school that may differentiate the school community based on geography. Distance matters. This study finds variation between rural communities at different distances from an urban center and differences based on analysis of student groups and student outcomes within a locale. By taking a granulated geographic approach to rurality we can better compare differences within locales. This analysis of the distance a student lives from school highlights socioeconomic differences between student groups. One related measure is the degree to which income estimates explain variation in student outcomes. Out-of-town students in rural areas have lower family incomes. These income data explain fewer school-level student outcomes than for students who live near to school. Use of data pertinent to students who live near to school reflects a certain bias in poverty measures and may not include variation in family income of students at a distance from school.

Alternative poverty measures have been proposed in response to the emerging insufficiencies of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) eligibility data. The analysis presented here involves seven poverty measures. Using outcome measures as a yardstick, we can assess how poverty measures explain these outcomes and note variations between geographical locales (assessing predictive validity). An analysis of 2019 data from Montana revealed that no poverty measure emerges as consistently meeting or exceeding the results found with the NSLP on the state level. Results are mixed based on locale (size) and distance from an urban centre, and within school communities.

Prior research on college choice indicates parents are the preferred source of information about college, yet little research exists from the viewpoint of parents, and even less research from the viewpoint of rural and minoritized parents. Using Q methodology, this study explored rural parent viewpoints of what makes college possible. The study was framed in social capital, community cultural wealth, and Perna's conceptual model of college choice. Factor analysis showed five distinct viewpoints and three consensus viewpoints among the parents. The five distinct factor viewpoints focused on academic achievement, college costs, the influence of family and friends, hard work, and staying close to home. Most notably, three consensus statements across all five factors indicated parents did not view teacher or school counselor expectations as important for making college possible. Findings can inform college access program planning and school outreach to parents and offer direction for future research on parent and community capital in college access.

Prior research underscores the pivotal role high school freshman grade-point averages (FGPA) play in college enrollment, with a focus predominantly on urban settings. This study broadens this perspective, employing a diverse Arkansas sample (n = 33,207), spanning rural, suburban, and urban high school students and filling a notable literature gap. Utilizing a logit analysis, we found that high school students with an A FGPA were 23% more likely to enroll in college than B FGPA peers. Those failing a course in their high school freshman year were 13% less likely to enroll in college. Among similar academic ability students, economically disadvantaged students were 15% less likely to enroll in college. Locale classifications showed no significant enrollment variations. We conclude that FGPA and socioeconomic status (SES) are stronger enrollment predictors than locale classifications, finishing with intervention recommendations for lower-SES students in exploring college options.

An individual who has the ability to speak from birth continues the development of this skill in education and training environments after the family. In this regard, teachers have great responsibilities for the speaking skills to be acquired in educational environments. Teachers are expected to know about the development of children's speaking skills in order to transfer these skills to students. In addition, having a high level of knowledge about speaking skills is an indispensable element of effective teaching. Elementary school teachers, who spend the most time with students in the classroom, have a key role in helping students develop their speaking skills and easily transfer what they have learned to daily life skills. The study aims to determine the knowledge levels of elementary school teachers regarding speaking skills. The study was carried out with the survey model, one of the quantitative research methods. The study group of the research consists of 302 elementary school teachers. The data were collected with the "Knowledge Level Test on Speaking Skills" and analyzed with descriptive statistics, Independent Samples t-Test, One-way ANOVA. According to the results of the research, the arithmetic average of the elementary school teachers' knowledge of speaking skills was found to be 13.74 out of 18 total questions. In addition, while elementary school teachers' knowledge of speaking skills did not differ significantly according to the variables of gender, graduation, and location of the school, it showed a significant difference according to the professional experience variable.

This paper examines the current education policy for achieving digital education in European Union overall and in Greece specifically. By using a theoretical framework of policy enactment, this study explored different factors which could predict technology integration and digital education. A survey was conducted with 205 classroom teachers across 32 primary schools in Greece. The analysis tracked the progress towards achieving digital education. The results of this study confirmed that current policies are accurately targeted on significant areas which are predictors of technology integration. This paper recommends strategies for achieving, scaling, and sustaining school system improvement for digital education.

Under the context of the in-country mobility of Hong Kong students studying at Chinese Mainland universities, this paper proposes the notion of 'transborder habitus' to understand Hong Kong students' experiences and perceptions. Through qualitative research with in-depth interviews with 51 Hong Kong students studying in major cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xiamen, how these students move across the socio-cultural and academic fields at specific times is dissected. The process of how they perceive and adapt to their new life and identities on the mainland campuses is scrutinised. Students exhibited three types of adjustment styles: the Adjusters with pre-adapted habitus, the Strangers with cleft habitus and the Outsiders with mis-matched habitus. Their coping strategies are discussed and the salient factors shaping the students' transborder habitus are analysed.

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.

Addressing the participation rates in senior secondary mathematics courses in Australian schools remains a critically important issue. In this paper, the authors report on quantitative findings from a study in which all year 11 and year 12 (aged 17-18 years) Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranking (ATAR) students in Western Australia were invited to participate. The aim was to explore the perceptions of these students regarding their enrolment in higher-level mathematics courses. Data from 1633 students were collected using a survey instrument comprised of 12, 5-point, Likert-scale items. Data were analysed by applying two statistical procedures: calculating frequencies of the 12 items in the scale and examining associations with demographic characteristics and individual items through generalised linear modelling. Analyses indicated most students agreed that other courses of study were more attractive, with almost half indicating that they did not like mathematics. In addition, approximately half of the students said that they did not need to enrol in any mathematics course for ATAR or for university entrance. Significant findings were also identified for gender, school type, and school gender. The knowledge gained from this research is valuable in understanding students' reasons for choosing not to enrol in higher-level mathematics courses when they have the option to do so and, more broadly, to address persistently low or declining participation rates in these areas of study.

This research investigates access to senior school science and mathematics subjects offered in the final year of secondary schooling. Using data from the most populous Australian state of New South Wales, we examine whether stratification occurs in access to science and mathematics curricula. We find that the opportunity to study these subjects differs by key school characteristics, including location, socioeconomic composition and school sector. We find that while some science subjects and entry level mathematics are offered in most schools, substantial inequalities exist in access to the most advanced level of mathematics and chemistry. School location, socioeconomic composition, enrolment size and the availability of teachers predict the probability of whether a school offers the least and most advanced science and mathematics subjects. The findings highlight that stratification in curricula offerings occurs systemically and may intensify educational inequalities.

We study the 1992 higher education expansion reform in Turkey and examine how the expansion program changed higher education attainment and labor market access, particularly for women, who are disadvantaged on both accounts. We use the 2011 Population and Housing Census and employ a difference-in-differences estimation strategy. We find that the establishment of universities in localities where universities did not exist before increases the higher education attainment of women by 12-13% and their labor force participation by 4%. In contrast, we do not find a program effect for men for either of the two outcomes. That the program did not affect high school graduation suggests that the improvement for women stems from the change in the behavior of the same pool of high school graduates due to reduced monetary and psychic costs. The absence of a program effect for men further suggests that the reduction in schooling costs was not high enough to overcome the lower benefit of having to attend a less reputable local university. As a result of the expansion policy, the gender gap in higher education attainment and labor force participation shrinks. A battery of robustness checks that include an IV estimation supports our findings.

Mergers in higher education are large-scale, complex organisational change processes seeking to integrate former independent institutions into a new organisational entity. Mergers are often justified by reference to broad overarching goals such as quality, relevance, and efficiency. In practice, mergers entail attempts at organisational integration which can be inhibited by several obstacles, increasing and large internal distances can be such a hindrance to integration. In this paper, we explore how different forms of distance to leadership in the context of higher education can be conceptualised, and how experiences of different forms of distance interrelate. This paper shows that geographical distance can also mask other conceptualisations of distances and that geographical distance can also interact with other forms of distances. The empirical basis consists of data from a large-scale research project addressing the organisational transformations taking place in Norwegian higher education due to mergers between 2016 and 2017.

Deficit ideologies permeate urban spaces particularly when mostly Black and Brown students attend neighborhood schools. Wealth concentrated in suburban areas further perpetuates stereotypes of urban as deficient, but empirical data has yet to interrogate these ideas. Using the National Household Education Survey and regression analysis of variance, this research determines the relationship between parents' satisfaction with their child's school and school location (rural, suburban, urban). Then, using race as a moderator, this study aims to ascertain if there is a relationship between parental satisfaction by race and urbanicity of the school their child attends. Implications address the systemic and structural components that contribute to deficit ideologies.

This study explores the contrasting racialized geographies of St. Louis County and factors of local college accessibility by re-framing the concepts of college deserts and oases post the Ferguson uprising. Through a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis of educational divides, capital accumulation, and policing, we found dual spatial landscapes: a geography of Whiteness and higher education capital accumulation in southern St. Louis and a predominantly Black working-class geography of Ferguson in northern St. Louis. These dual landscapes capture the social, economic, and racial contexts of St. Louis as it informs the discourse of college-going.

Geographic information systems (GIS) have started to be used in developing information to be used for national and regional development in many areas; however, the use of this system for educational planning has been under-researched. Adopting the case study design, this study evaluated the current locations of primary schools in Afyonkarahisar and offered alternative locations in order to improve access to primary education for the schoolaged population using heuristic location-allocation modelling approaches. An intelligent areal interpolation approach was performed to generate the population surface. The demand surface was used as input to a location-allocation analysis, and alternative locations were suggested. With the current distribution of primary schools, the primary school-aged population would have to travel an average distance of 1466.81m to access primary education. The results show that alternative primary school locations decreased the average travel distance by 339.69m, improving overall accessibility to primary schools. The results suggest that geospatial methods can be used to provide documentary evidence to support education planners and policymakers.

This article examines secondary school learners' motivation to learn English as a foreign language (EFL) in relation to two contextual factors: school type and school location. Data were collected from 352 Polish learners who attended English instruction in general and technical secondary schools in a large city and a small town in western Poland. Learners' motivation, conceptualized as a continuum from fully autonomous to fully controlled, was measured through a survey at two time points, 2 years apart, which provided an assessment of motivational change. The second measurement was followed by interviews with selected learners. Our results show that learners from general secondary schools in the two locations exhibited different motivational patterns, while those from technical schools were similarly motivated regardless of their schools' locations. A decrease in extrinsic motivation over time was observed in both types of small-town schools. Based on these results, we discuss the implications for EFL pedagogy.

Introduction: The present work is based on the theoretical model "Expectancy Value" of achievement motivation, and from a socio-cognitive perspective. Its objective is to describe achievement behavior in the classroom context of students from different cultural backgrounds. Method: A post-hoc study was carried out with 310 participants from Chilean and Spanish cultural contexts. The Inventory of Motivation for Academic Achievement (IMLA), an instrument that assesses academic achievement motivation with eight factors, was completed. Results: The results show significant differences in the Chilean and Spanish cultural contexts, with a high power of the effect in the valuation of academic tasks and in the valuation of the social learning environment. In the gender variable, women show higher valuations with respect to men in the effort to achieve proposed goals. The students of the Health Sciences careers obtain significances with mean powers of the effect, in the value of the learning task and in the valuation of the social environment of such learning; also in the expectations and efficacy, with respect to the students of Physical and Natural Sciences. Discussion and conclusions: From these results, relevant information has been obtained for the study of the personal and sociocultural variables of motivation in university students from different cultural contexts. It is concluded that the cultural context and the field of knowledge have an effect on motivation.

The education system in Northern Ireland (NI) is complex with the diversity of management structures reflecting religious affiliation and academic selection. Within the system, integrated education provides a mechanism to promote reconciliation among divided communities. Integrated education has been aided by legislation--most recently, the Integrated Education Act (NI) 2022, which places responsibility on the Department of Education and the Education Authority to encourage, facilitate and support integrated education. However, there is no standardised or agreed operational methodology on assessing demand for this. This study aims to examine the current approaches to assessing demand for integrated education in NI by collating existing evidence from key stakeholders and reviewing academic literature. Publicly available information was synthesised from the websites of key stakeholders, and a rapid literature review was conducted to identify methods used in NI and internationally to ascertain demand for education provision. The literature review returned limited results, and the review of key stakeholders' websites illustrated that although existing methods used in NI monitor support in principle for integrated education, they do not capture the full range of factors considered by parents when selecting a school. As a result, the findings indicate a mismatch between articulated preferences for integrated education, the availability of places in integrated schools, and the uptake of these. This study concludes that although existing methods provide part of the evidence jigsaw necessary to assess demand, alternative approaches must be considered to acknowledge the existing complexities within the education system and wider societal structures in NI.

In many ways, Arizona is on the forefront of school choice: in addition to a state-wide open enrollment law, it was one of the first states to adopt charter school legislation in 1994 and currently has the second-highest percentage of public school students attending charter schools in the nation. Despite the extensive research on school choice, less is known about whether choice systems meaningfully impart more opportunities for students classified as English learners, a diverse group that has been the subject of multiple discriminatory policies and has one of the lowest graduation rates in the state. The current paper uses geospatial analysis to examine English learner participation in school choice in one Arizona metropolitan area. The results indicate that charter schools consistently under-enroll EL students regardless of demographic variability across geographic locations. Charter school locational patterns may be one contributing factor to EL enrollment disparities, though they are not likely to be the only reason. Employing a conceptual framework of motility or "mobility capital" (Kaufman et al., 2004) and a critical stance on the spatial dimensions of neoliberal reforms, findings suggest that unregulated school choice may not reliably provide improved schooling options for students classified as English learners.

The aim of the study reported on here was to explore the effects of principals' distributed leadership (DL) practices on learners' learning achievement as mediated by teachers' commitment. In the study we employed survey data with a sample size of 603 learners from 8 technical and vocational education training schools in Eritrea. The proposed model of this study was tested through multiple regression analyses and structural equation modelling using teachers' commitment as a mediator. The findings of this study show that distributed leadership practices have a positive and significant effect on teachers' commitment and an indirect effect on learners' learning achievement. The results also show that teachers' commitment has a partial mediation effect. Moreover, the variance test analysis reveals the effect of distributed type of leadership practices by school principal determined by school type, size, location, and ownership.

The zonation system is one of the efforts of the Indonesian Government to improve the quality of education services continuously, but the implementation is still considered less useful. Some areas were still grouped into the different zone from the original. Based on this problem, the solution needed for the zonation mapping of each school so that the apparent zonation limit can be resolved. An application that can map schools in an area based on housing for prospective students is a solution that can be considered at this time. This research showed the implementation of Voronoi diagrams to cluster the area based on the school position within Bengkulu City. The system was also capable of mapping the residential of the student address to match the choice for registration in available secondary school and senior high school. The implementation of the system showed a better result for school zonation over Bengkulu City based on web geographic information system (Web GIS). Furthermore, the comparison analysis over the existing system also showed that the performance of the Voronoi diagram for school zonation the method could solve the problem of the overlapping zonation with Radius method. Three hundred fifty students validated this system to show the performance of this method. The result showed that 72.05% of students matched the first choice, while 27.95% of students matched the second choice. This research showed the analysis of the value of this gap appeared due to the student preferences and school capacity factors.

Professional identity has a significant impact on teachers' interpretation of their different roles and their understanding of how to perform these roles. This study aimed to explore mathematics and science teachers' perceptions of the factors influencing their teacher professional identity within three dimensions: teaching efficacy, teaching profession, and teaching context. Mathematics and science teachers (N = 395) who were teaching in grades 5 to 12 participated in the study. To address the research aims, we administered a questionnaire to gather information on the factors influencing teacher professional identity. The quantitative data on the teachers' perceptions of the factors influencing their teacher professional identity showed that the teaching efficacy dimension ranked the highest, the teaching context dimension ranked second and the teaching profession dimension third. The teachers' perceptions were largely influenced by three main factors: years of teaching experience, gender, and school location. The teachers' responses to the questionnaire's open-ended questions highlighted some issues related to the quality of the professional development programs available to teachers.

Teachers and administrators feeling good about themselves will allow them to work more effectively. On the other hand, good informal relations within the school will both help teachers and school administrators feel better and will contribute significantly to the effectiveness of the school. In this study, the relationship between informal relationships of teachers and school administrators and subjective well-being levels was examined. The research was carried out with the relational screening model. The research group consists of 230 teachers and school administrators working in the provinces of Samsun, Antalya, and Kars under the Ministry of National Education. Teachers' Subjective Well-Being Level and Informal Relationships in Schools Scale were used as data collection tools in the research. Parametric tests were used as the data obtained in the study showed normal distribution. In the analysis of the research data, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, ANOVA, independent groups t-test, and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation techniques were used. According to the research findings, school administrators' views on informal relations and subjective well-being levels are very good; It is understood that teachers' views on informal relationships are moderate, and their subjective well-being levels are good. While the opinions of teachers and school administrators differ significantly according to gender and task variables, they do not differ according to the school's settlement, branch, and seniority variables. A high level of positive correlation was found between the subjective well-being levels of teachers and school administrators and their informal relationships. It has been suggested that school administrators establish more sincere relations with teachers and give more space to activities that increase informal relations. [The publication year (2022) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct publication year is 2023.]

Researchers have studied different aspects of students' attitudes and motivation in depth. Nonetheless, research into the link between students' attitudes, motivation, characteristics and school setting will provide further insights. This study investigated the effects of students' demographics on their attitudes and motivation to English language learning through the survey of 344 students. In addition, interviews were conducted to learn more about the students' perspectives and successful strategies in light of these factors. Multiple correlations and linear regression were used to analyze the quantitative data, and thematic analysis was employed to interpret the qualitative information. The results showed that gender, age, learning experience, school locality, and management influence the way students feel about learning English (sig 0.05, R value = 0.335). Although, attitudes and motivation were not significantly related to students' school environment or learning experiences, the results indicated that the students' acquired attributes were affected by their innate attributes and socio-environmental backgrounds. Therefore, providing meaningful learning experiences, authentic materials and exposure are key to improving student attitudes and motivation.

In this study, it was aimed to perform an in-depth examination of the opinions of social studies teachers on how citizenship education should be given. Phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the research. The study group of the research was formed with 17 social studies teachers working in different regions of Turkey, having different professional seniority and also different genders, by using maximum diversity sampling. The data of the study were collected through a semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the data. As a result of the research, it was concluded that the perception of social studies teachers regarding the phenomenon of citizenship varied. It was determined that social studies teachers considered the main purpose of social studies as citizenship education and also as a course aimed at raising individuals that the society needs. In the study, it was also concluded that the teachers were of the opinion that appropriate content should be used, different teaching methods-techniques should be employed, and value education should be emphasized while giving citizenship education in the social studies course. Various suggestions were made based on the results of the research.

This study aimed to identify the factors that lead to ineffective practice and the decreasing motivation of junior high school athletes for physical training in preparation for City Meet and EVRAA. To point out the several factors contributing to the problem, the researcher used the Ishikawa diagram. An Ishikawa diagram is a visual representation that graphically depicts the relationships between a certain result and its causes. The studied effect or negative problem is called "the fish head," and the potential causes and sub-causes are called "the fishbone structure." It was found out that people as a factor, in consideration of the student athlete's privileges and incentives, the distance of the practice venue from the school, school service for transportation, availability, and maintenance of sports equipment are some of the causes that might result in a certain problem in introducing and uplifting sports to our students. In conclusion, the concerns that complicate a problem require professional agreement and smart decisions. This, in turn, will lead to a harmonious flow of events and a successful potential athlete that needs to be recognized in a certain field of skills. Motivational aspects largely influence athletes' performance as well.

This study aims to explore the relationship between teachers' goal orientation towards teaching and teacher motivation, employing a correlational survey model as part of quantitative research methods. The participant pool consists of public school teachers across various educational levels in the Eregli district of Zonguldak province during the spring semester of the 2020-2021 academic year. The "Goal Orientation Scale for Teaching" and the "Teacher Motivation Scale" were utilized to collect data, with appropriate validity and reliability analyses conducted. Given the non-normal distribution of the data, nonparametric statistical tests such as Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, and Spearman correlation analysis were applied. The findings indicate a high level of both goal orientation and teacher motivation, with significant differences observed according to teaching level and education level. Conversely, no significant differences were identified concerning gender, length of service, or school location. The study concludes with the revelation of significant correlations between teachers' goal orientations and motivations towards teaching, underscoring the complex interplay of these key educational constructs.

This study leverages six years of public prekindergarten (pre-K) and kindergarten data (N = 22,469) from the Boston Public Schools (BPS) to examine enrollment in BPS pre-K from 2012-2017 for students from different racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and linguistic groups. The largest differences in enrollment emerged with respect to race and ethnicity--and for enrollment in programs in higher-quality schools (defined as schools scoring in the top quartile on third-grade standardized tests)--with disparities increasing over time. Although there were no differences across groups in proximity to BPS pre-K programs in general, Black students lived about a quarter of a mile farther than their White peers from the nearest program in a higher-quality school, with gaps widening over time. Closer proximity was associated with a higher likelihood of enrollment in a program in a higher-quality school. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.

Elitism has been an issue in Canadian French immersion since its inception. This study examines how two racially diverse Ontarian school boards and Ontario French immersion policy, curricula, and other related documents construct and support an elite student within the immersion program. The elite student who emerged from immersion documents is a White, middle-class, English, established resident, mirroring the current demographics of the program. A middle-class bias emerged within the documents due to an assumed wealth, and lack of financial assistance, transportation and promotional materials. The program locations themselves favoured the middle-class. The curricula demonstrated a Eurocentric focus and colonial lens. In the documents of this study, it was assumed that parents had functional knowledge of English and French. Program entry-points favoured established residents over newcomers. Given its evident elitism, there has been a shift toward inclusion, particularly for students with special education needs and English language learners. However, this inclusion has yet to be critically enacted.

The findings reported in this paper are based on surveys of U.S. high school students who registered and managed their science and engineering fair (SEF) projects through the online Scienteer website over the three years 2019/20, 2020/21, and 2021/22. Almost 2500 students completed surveys after finishing all their SEF competitions. We added a new question in 2019/20 to our on-going surveys asking the students whether their high school location was urban, suburban, or rural. We learned that overall, 74% of students participating in SEFs indicated that they were from suburban schools. Unexpectedly, very few SEF participants, less than 4%, indicated that they were from rural schools, even though national data show that more than 20% of high school students attend rural schools. Consistent with previous findings, Asian and Hispanic students indicated more successful SEF outcomes than Black and White students. However, whereas Asian students had the highest percentage of SEF participants from suburban vs. urban schools--81% vs. 18%, Hispanic students had the most balanced representation of participants from suburban vs. urban schools--55% vs. 39%. Differences in students' SEF experiences based on gender and ethnicity showed the same patterns regardless of school location. In the few items where we observed statistically significant (probability < 0.05) differences based on school location, students from suburban schools were marginally favored by only a few percentage points compared to students from urban schools. In conclusion, based on our surveys results most students participating in SEFs come from suburban schools, but students participating in SEFs and coming from urban schools have equivalent SEF experiences, and very few students participating in SEFs come from rural schools.

This paper examines challenges faced by novice school principals in Somalia using quantitative research. The International Study of Principal Preparation (ISPP) survey was employed with a sample of 181 principals serving for a maximum of three years. Data were collected from primary and secondary schools in Mogadishu and the Puntland region. Statistical analyses, including frequency, t-test, ANOVA, and Kruskal Wallis, were performed using SPSS. Findings reveal no significant differences in problematic aspects based on gender, age, experience, or student enrollment. However, education background, school location, and school level showed significant differences in problematic aspects.

For education policies to be implemented most effectively in local contexts, policymakers must consider diverse school and community geographic characteristics. For example, rural geographies often present particularly important dynamics for public schooling, including challenges with school enrollment, school funding, and teacher labor markets. We focus on Missouri, where over two-thirds of its school districts are located in rural areas. Enrollment in these districts varies over 100-fold, yet little research describes the similarities and differences between these districts and how to appropriately distinguish between them to best advise contemporary policymaking. In this study, we analyze data from the American Community Survey, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), and the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to compare school, financial, teacher, and community characteristics to identify relationships between a district's size, location, and community qualities. We focus our analyses on a comparison of NCES' demarcation of rurality to one we construct based on student enrollment to highlight where conclusions may differ simply based on a lack of common definitional groundings. The findings help to distinguish rural communities and school districts and may prompt future rural education-focused research to appropriately tailor education policies to diverse rural contexts.

A growing portion of international schools are franchised branches of schools originally founded in other countries. The first of such schools opened in 1996 and there are now almost 100 globally. Expansionist schools are primarily elite, English private schools, with concentrations of their franchises developing in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and East Asia over the past quarter of a century--particularly in mainland China over the past decade. This study explores how such schools adapt the language and focus of their marketing and, in doing so, sustain their privilege across various contexts. A qualitative textual analysis is conducted of the websites of 11 schools run by Dulwich College and Harrow School, the first brands to expand overseas and with the most extensive networks of schools today. A lens of international schools as enclosures of privilege is used to demonstrate how schools adapt themselves and their framing. The study finds the promotional focus of the schools depends not just on whether they are the founding school or a franchise, but also on their relative ages, and on their varying locations within specific sociocultural contexts. An emergent hybrid model, catering to both local and international curricula, blends the local with the global and complicates the conventional notion of the international school. Finally, the study suggests that further research is focused on the franchising of elite education, particularly as the focal point of expansion begins to shift away from the mainland Chinese boom of the past decade.

Teacher well-being is an important issue that needs to be considered within a teaching environment. However, little research exists about the relationship between teacher well-being and learner performance. In this study we used data from the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) to look at the interplay between teacher-related factors (including stress), and the mathematics achievement of Grade 9 learners from South Africa in the 2015 TIMSS. The results show that levels of teacher stress, teacher qualification, class size, as well as the type of area in which the school is situated are all significantly associated with learner achievement. The findings of this study reveal that learners who are taught by teachers who feel more stressed, have large classes to contend with, are in schools located in poorer areas, and who are less qualified, are significantly more disadvantaged with regard to their mathematics education than their counterparts who are taught by teachers who do not share these problems. These findings suggest that it is important to consider the role of positive working environments for teachers in trying to find ways to improve the mathematics learning outcomes.