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In a stereotypical image of a high-school debate tournament, straight-A students compete to see which renowned prep school team comes out on top. Increasingly, this is no longer the case: [...]

State takeovers of struggling school systems represent some of the most contentious policy decisions in education. The transfer of decision-making power from a locally elected school board to the state is often undertaken with the goal of dramatically improving student academic achievement in districts that have been persistently low performing over many years. The results of such reforms have important equity implications, as the districts targeted for takeover often serve high concentrations of low-income students of color. In this article, Beth Schueler describes a recent paper she co-authored with Joshua Bleiberg that sheds light on how this significant shift in education governance affects children and their learning. In the paper, they find no evidence that state takeover benefits student academic achievement and some evidence that it can be disruptive to student reading performance in the early years of reform.

Two years of disruptions to schooling, coupled with recession and other pandemic-induced effects, appear to have widened preK-12 educational inequality. In particular, low-income students of color fell further behind their higher income White peers than they were pre-pandemic, on average, with the largest declines in math achievement. High-dosage tutoring and vacation academy programs can reduce this educational inequality by providing individualized instructional support to those students hardest hit by COVID-19 and by contributing to students' overall social and emotional well-being. However, program design and targeting matters for maximizing positive impact and avoiding unintended consequences. State leaders, including state boards, have a special role to play in the success of efforts to provide individualized support for the students who need it most.

Despite interest in online learning for meeting student needs at scale, existing research finds relatively low levels of engagement in most forms of virtual learning, especially among economically disadvantaged students. This is concerning as the COVID-19 pandemic forced a dramatic increase in remote learning among students and educators who did not specifically opt into the model. We study an early innovative effort to virtually serve such K-12 students and teachers and to capitalize on the unique advantages of distance learning to promote educational equity amid the pandemic. This five-week, largely synchronous, summer program served nearly 12,000 rising 4th-9th graders, mostly low-income students of color. To expand access to excellent educators, "mentor teachers," selected based on merit, provided PD and videos of themselves teaching daily lessons to "partner teachers" across the country. We interviewed a representative sample of teachers and analyzed educator, parent, and student surveys. Our study adds to the existing online learning literature by illustrating that it is possible to virtually engage a more generalizable set of students and teachers than have previously been studied and to use technology to extend the reach of talented teachers. Strategies for online engagement that scholars have identified when studying more specialized groups pre-pandemic appear relevant with a more generalizable population, such as the inclusion of meaningful content and a synchronous delivery format. Consistent with prior research, teachers appreciate receiving adaptable curricular materials and differentiated PD. Findings have implications for future uses of online learning, during periods of disruption and more typical times.

State takeovers of school districts typically involve dramatic changes to the workforce in the targeted school system and are often undertaken for the express purpose of improving a school system's finances. However, little is known about how takeover affects education spending, particularly the distribution of funds across schools within districts. This has important implications for human resources because inequitable spending exacerbates teacher quality shortages for schools that serve marginalized students. We capitalize on a novel source of school-level education spending data for 2018-2019 to examine how takeover influences overall spending, equality of spending across schools within districts, and race-, ethnicity-, and class-based gaps in spending across schools. We do this for a national sample of 24 districts taken over between 2013 and 2019 matched to a set of untreated comparison districts with a high propensity for takeover. We find that state takeover is associated with higher levels of education spending, and that the greater funding promotes racial and ethnic fiscal equity but does not increase income-based school finance equity. Importantly, average increases in school spending are likely too small to substantially affect educational inequality. Therefore, takeover does not seem to be a sufficient mechanism for meaningfully mitigating within-district finance inequity.

The public narrative surrounding efforts to improve low-performing K-12 schools in the United States has been notably gloomy. But what is known empirically about whether school improvement works, which policies are most effective, which contexts respond best to intervention, and how long it takes? We meta-analyze 141 estimates from 67 studies of post-No Child Left Behind Act turnaround policies. On average, policies had moderate positive effects on math and no effect on English Language Arts achievement on high-stakes exams. We find positive impacts on low-stakes exams and no evidence of harm on non-test outcomes. Extended learning time and teacher replacements predict greater effects. Contexts serving majority-Latina/o populations saw the largest improvements. We cannot rule out publication bias entirely but find no differences between peer-reviewed versus non-peer-reviewed estimates.

Given family-school engagement is correlated with student academic achievement, educational researchers have long been interested in the construct. However, measuring parental engagement is deceptively challenging. The concept includes school-based engagement, home-based learning support, and family-school communication. In this article we focus exclusively on measuring school-based family engagement. Examining this topic requires measuring parents' perceptions of their engagement with schools alongside the barriers that may limit their involvement. However, it is not obvious that barriers items should function like a traditional survey scale. We addressed these measurement challenges through a survey design process that synthesized academic theory with empirical findings from parent respondents, resulting in three survey tools: an engagement scale, a school invitational barriers sub-scale, and a non-school barriers composite measure. Three studies (n = 385; n = 266; n = 589) provide evidence that the school-based engagement tools effectively measure engagement patterns. We conclude by describing the potential uses of the tools for educators and researchers.

Access to quality secondary schooling can be life changing for students in developing contexts. In Kenya, entrance to such schools was historically determined by performance on a high-stakes exam. Understandably then, preparation for this exam is a priority for families and educators. To increase the share of students entering these schools, some educational providers offer targeted instruction for students they believe have a chance of securing a spot. We use a randomized control trial to evaluate the impact of these "symposia" programs--week-long, sleep-away camps where eighth-grade students receive a burst of academic instruction from teachers who are selected based on merit. While similar models have been tested in the United States, less is known about this type of intervention in developing settings. We find these programs were not particularly effective for the average nominated student relative to a typical week of school. However, we find large, positive effects among students attending schools from which few students are nominated for symposia. We provide suggestive evidence that this was because students from low-representation schools had fewer pre-camp practice test resources outside of school. The results have implications for program design and the growing literature on the effectiveness of appropriately targeted individualized instruction.

What guidance does research provide about how to improve school district performance in the United States? Despite over 30 years of inquiry on the topic of effective districts, existing frameworks are relatively narrow in terms of disciplinary focus (primarily educational leadership perspectives) and research design (primarily qualitative case studies). To bridge this gap for researchers, we first review the theoretical literatures on how districts are thought to affect educational outcomes, arguing that an expanded set of disciplinary perspectives—organizational behavior, political science, economics—have distinct theories about the types of district-level policies that might improve district-wide performance. Using these frameworks as a guide, we next conduct a review of quantitative studies that estimate the relationship between district-level inputs and educational outcomes, finding benefits of policies that cross disciplinary perspectives: higher teacher salaries, data use, and school autonomy and parental choice in the context of district-wide turnarounds. Our review also reveals the need for significant additional causal evidence and provides an inter-disciplinary map of theorized pathways through which district-level policies could influence student outcomes that are ripe for rigorous testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catching students up who have fallen behind academically is a key challenge for educators, and can be difficult to do in a cost-effective manner. This field experiment examines the causal effect of a program designed to provide struggling sixth and seventh graders with math instruction delivered in small groups of roughly ten students by select teachers over weeklong vacation breaks. The program was implemented in a set of low-performing Massachusetts middle schools undergoing turnaround reforms. Attendance at these "Vacation Academies" increased the probability that students scored proficient or higher on Common Core-aligned math exams by 10 percentage points and reduced students' exposure to exclusionary discipline by decreasing out-of-school suspensions post-Academy. I find suggestive evidence of positive spillover effects on English Language Arts achievement and end-of-course grades in math and reading. Participants assigned to a single primary teacher for the entire week saw larger reductions in out-of-school suspensions than did students who rotated through teachers specializing in particular lessons. However, teacher specialization was associated with greater test score gains, suggesting a trade-off in outcomes depending on program design. Overall, the program's low cost and lack of a highly competitive teacher selection process make it a scalable approach to individualizing instruction.

Purpose: School district superintendents say politics is the number one factor limiting their performance, yet research provides limited guidance on navigating the political dynamics of district improvement. State takeovers and district-wide turnaround efforts tend to involve particularly heated and polarized debates. Massachusetts' 2012 takeover of the Lawrence Public Schools provides a rare case of state takeover and district turnaround that both resulted in substantial early academic improvements and generated limited controversy. Method: To describe the stakeholder response and learn why the reforms were not more contentious, I analyzed press coverage of the Lawrence schools from 2007 to 2015, public documents, and two secondary sources of survey data on parent and educator perceptions of the schools. I also interviewed turnaround and stakeholder group leaders at the state and district level regarding the first 3 years of reform. Findings: I find that the local Lawrence context and broader statewide accountability system help explain the stakeholder response. Furthermore, several features of the turnaround leaders' approach improved the response and reflected a "third way" orientation to transcending polarizing political disagreement between educational reformers and traditionalists. Examples include leaders' focus on differentiating district-school relations, diversifying school management, making strategic staffing decisions, boosting both academics and enrichment, and producing early results while minimizing disruption. Implications: The findings provide guidance for state-level leaders on developing accountability systems and selecting contexts that are ripe for reform. The results also provide lessons for district- and school-level leaders seeking to implement politically viable improvement of persistently low-performing educational systems.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to identify and turn around struggling schools, with federal school improvement money required to fund evidence-based policies. Most research on turnarounds has focused on individual schools, whereas studies of district-wide turnarounds have come from relatively exceptional settings and interventions. We study a district-wide turnaround of a type that may become more common under ESSA, an accountability-driven state takeover of Massachusetts's Lawrence Public Schools (LPS). A differences-in-differences framework comparing LPS to demographically similar districts not subject to state takeover shows that the turnaround's first 2 years produced sizable achievement gains in math and modest gains in reading. We also find no evidence that the turnaround resulted in slippage on nontest score outcomes and suggestive evidence of positive effects on grade progression among high school students. Intensive small-group instruction over vacation breaks may have led to particularly large achievement gains for participating students.

Students whose school environment fits their developmental needs also typically experience academic success and increased motivation. Most investigations of school fit, which focus on teachers' and students' perceptions, have found a general decline in fit across the transition from elementary to middle school. However, little research has examined the school-child fit from the parent perspective. In this article, we first detail the development process behind a new survey measure of parent perceptions of school fit. Second, using three online panel-based samples of parents from across the country (n[subscript 1] = 323, n[subscript 2] = 188, n[subscript 3] = 1,033), we evaluate the scale's measurement properties and conduct exploratory analyses examining grade-level and income-based differences on reported school fit. Finally, in line with previous research, we find that parents of middle school children perceived statistically significantly worse fit than parents of elementary school children. Among parents of high school students, we found that, on average, high-income parents perceive statistically significantly better fit than low-income parents.

Do schools reduce or perpetuate inequality by race and family income? Most studies conclude that schools play only a small role in explaining socioeconomic and racial disparities in educational outcomes, but they usually draw this conclusion based solely on test scores. We reconsider this finding using longitudinal data on test scores and four-year college attendance among high school students in Massachusetts and Texas. We show that unexplained differences between high schools are larger for college attendance than for test scores. These differences are arguably caused by differences between the schools themselves. Furthermore, while these apparent differences in high school effectiveness increase income disparities in college attendance, they reduce racial disparities. Social scientists concerned with schools' role in transmitting inequality across generations should reconsider the assumption that schools either increase or reduce all disparities and should direct attention to explaining why high schools' effects on specific outcomes and groups of students appear to vary so much.

Covid-19 school closures generated interest in tutoring to make up for lost learning time. Tutoring is backed by rigorous research, but it is unclear whether it can be delivered effectively remotely. We study the effect of teacher-student phone calls in Kenya when schools were closed. Schools (n = 105) were randomly assigned for 3rd, 5th and 6th graders (n = 8,319) to receive one of two versions of a 7-week weekly math intervention—5-minute accountability checks or 15-min mini-tutoring sessions—or to the control group. Although calls increased perceptions that teachers cared, accountability checks had no effect on math performance four months later and tutoring decreased achievement among students who returned to their schools after reopening. This was, in part, because the relatively low-achieving students most likely to benefit from calls were least likely to return and take assessments. Tutoring substituted away from more productive uses of time, at least among returners. Neither intervention affected enrollment. Tutoring remains a valuable tool but to avoid unintended consequences, careful attention should be paid to aligning interventions with best practices and targeting to those who benefit most. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We hypothesize that different positions of the wrist in the coronal plane makes the carpus susceptible to ulnar impaction. Methods: We prospectively enrolled 10 adult volunteers and obtained fluoroscopic images of each wrist in 12 different positions using a standardized protocol. Distances from the ulna to the lunate (UL) and ulna to the triquetrum (UT) were digitally measured as was the portion of the lunate surface area that was uncovered (LUR) with wrist deviation. Results: A wrist position of Pronation, Neutral Deviation, and Grip (P-ND-G) significantly shortened the ulnocarpal distance when compared to a position of Neutral Rotation, Neutral Deviation, and No Grip (NR-ND-NG). Radial deviation during pronation and gripping (Pronated, Radial Deviation, Gripping [P-RD-G]) resulted in the lowest mean UL distance (1.2 mm). UT distance was minimized by a position of ulnar deviation during a pronated grip (Pronated, Ulnar Deviation, Gripping [P-UD-G]) (3.1 mm). The lunate becomes more uncovered with radial deviation. Conclusion: Radial deviation minimizes the UL distance while ulnar deviation minimizes the UT distance during a wrist position of pronation and gripping. Further, there is more proximal lunate surface area uncoverage during all positions of radial deviation compared to ulnar deviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]