There has been an increasing focus on test scores and rankings in schools. However, the focus on children's standardized test scores has come at the cost of their social relations. As a reaction to this test-centric focus, new approaches claim that nature is important not only for children's social relations but also for their scholastic…

This study focuses on the academic progress of English learners (ELs) from 2018 to 2023 during remote learning and compares it to their non-EL peers. Using a mixed-methods approach, data was collected from a southern California middle school. The findings reveal that a decrease in GPAs, an increase in chronic absenteeism, and a decrease in state…

Background: Promise programs have grown exponentially. Yet, we are still learning how systemic barriers affect promise program students' abilities to meet promise program requirements and their postsecondary goals. Objective: The Degree Project (TDP) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was the nation's first randomized control trial of a promise scholarship.…

Background: Youth with ADHD are at risk of academic impairments, dropping out of high school, and dysfunction in young adulthood. Interventions delivered early in high school could prevent these harmful outcomes, yet few high school students with ADHD receive treatment due to limited access to intervention providers. This study will test a…

Studies have documented widespread academic disengagement in middle and high school students. This disengagement has been tied to a myriad of negative outcomes, including failure to graduate from high school and transition into college and meaningful vocations. Supporting adolescents in cultivating a sense of beyond-the-self purpose is one factor…

This study reports on an investigation of the differences in results between students with special educational needs assigned to special classes or regular classes in lower secondary education. Cognitive competencies were measured using curricular Finnish and mathematics tasks, school achievement using grade point average (GPA), and learning…

Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest partnered with the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) to examine Arkansas's middle and high school indicators of postsecondary readiness and success, building on an earlier study of these indicators (Hester et al., 2021). Academic indicators include attaining proficiency on state achievement tests,…

StudentU is a comprehensive program that provides education, nutrition, and social support services to disadvantaged middle and high school students outside of the regular school day. In this paper I investigate the effects of this multiyear program on the early high school outcomes of participating students by exploiting data from oversubscribed…

Navigating academic demands in middle and high school may be particularly challenging for youth experiencing emotional and behavioral difficulties, and screening practices are a necessary first step in identifying youth in need of services. The goal of this study was to inform efficient universal screening practices in secondary schools by…

Current literature on dual language programs is focused at the elementary school level, while research at the secondary level remains sparse. Hence, this study addresses the literature gap by considering the impact of school organization and instruction on these programs. Specifically, this collective case study examines the effective features of…

Brief, targeted self-affirmation writing exercises have recently been offered as a way to reduce racial achievement gaps, but evidence about their effects in educational settings is mixed, leaving ambiguity about the likely benefits of these strategies if implemented broadly. A key limitation in interpreting these mixed results is that they come…

Because the relationship between school disciplinary models and truancy outcomes is unknown, it is difficult for school leaders to understand the costs and benefits of punitive versus nonpunitive discipline. To achieve the State of Georgia's stated policy objectives of lowering truancy and its negative outcomes, this knowledge gap needs to be…

StudentU is a comprehensive program that provides education, nutrition, and social support services to disadvantaged students outside of the regular school day. In this paper I investigate the effects of this multi-year program on the early high school outcomes of participating students by exploiting data from oversubscribed admissions lotteries.…

Being a youth mentor is popular among college students, yet little is known about how their initial characteristics are related to mentoring satisfaction. Survey data from college women enrolled in a youth mentoring program (n = 158) and a comparison group (n = 136) were analyzed to determine how initial characteristics of youth mentors (a) differ…

One approach to reducing persistent racial/ethnic achievement gaps is to tackle their social-psychological dimensions, including the negative consequences of stereotype threat and other identity threats in school. Initial research suggested that a particularly promising approach is brief self-affirmation writing exercises for 7th grade students;…