The implementation of equity-oriented reforms is never simply a technical matter: it involves directly engaging with the norms and politics responsible for reproducing inequitable opportunities and outcomes, and with efforts to promote educational justice. To date, there has been little research on how leaders in science education navigate the…

We assessed college students' perceptions of safety related to concealed carry of firearms on a university campus. Explicit assessments were collected before passage, before implementation, and after implementation of the law; implicit assessments were collected before and after implementation. For comparison, we included college students from a…

Anti-LGBTQ+ school legislation has proliferated across the United States in recent years, with potential consequences for both students and school counselors. Florida's controversial 2022 Parental Rights in Education Act offers one such example. In this descriptive, phenomenological, qualitative study, we examined the experiences of 10 Florida…

In response to concerns about the additional costs and time-to-degree associated with traditional developmental education programs, several states and postsecondary systems have implemented corequisite reform where academically underprepared students take both a developmental education course and college-level course in the same subject area…

For California's community colleges, fall 2019 marked the deadline for implementing the state's historic developmental education legislation, Assembly Bill 705 (Irwin 2017). AB 705 drove transformative changes in community college math and English programs as colleges implemented research-based placement policies designed to maximize students'…

This qualitative instrumental case study was designed to examine secondary teachers' perspectives of North Carolina's school-based mental health policy, known as SHLT003, which mandates all educators be trained in identifying, referring, and supporting, students showing signs of mental health issues, drug use, suicidal ideation, and sex…

California's Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA) funds the implementation of programs for justice system--involved or at-promise youth (i.e., youth who are at risk of becoming involved in the justice system). In this report, the authors evaluated the implementation of programs run by three Los Angeles (L.A.) County agencies that receive…

Dual enrollment, also known as dual credit, allows students to take college courses during high school. Studies have shown that dual enrollment has a positive impact on students' educational attainment. However, dual enrollment is complicated to implement given that it requires a partnership between a high school or district and a postsecondary…

Florida Senate Bill 1720 drastically changed developmental education, beginning in fall 2014. This paper considers affected faculty members' perceptions and experiences with the passage and implementation of reform, according to focus group data provided by 294 participants at 21 Florida College System institutions between 2014 and 2019. We found…

In 2022, Tennessee overhauled its education funding formula to improve outcomes for the 1 million students in the state. The Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement Act (TISA) was designed to simplify the existing funding formula and more equitably allocate resources to schools. Bellwether's case study, "After the Policy Win: First-Year…

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is required to submit this report to the Legislature regarding the status of existing charter schools, the number of petitions for new charter schools, and the action taken by school boards and DPI on petitions for new charter schools (see Wis. Stat. §115.28 (49)). This report offers the results…

Personalized, competency-based learning efforts often take place in a single classroom or school, but not systematically across districts, let alone states. To address this dynamic and increase the scale of personalized, competency-based learning, KnowledgeWorks, an independent nonprofit organization that partners with education stakeholders to…

Purpose: We examine the ways state education agency (SEA) and local education agency (LEA) leaders interpret and use educational policy to guide the provision of services for multilingual students classified as English learners (ELs) in their contexts. Our inquiry focuses on the external factors leaders describe that either enable or constrain…

Research for Action (RFA) in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin is engaged in a five-year mixed-methods study of the reforms associated with California AB 705. Over the course of the study, our team will assess the implementation, impact, and cost effectiveness of reforms associated with the law. This second interim report,…

Across the country, career pathways programs are a popular bipartisan tool for addressing state workforce shortages and ensuring students graduate high school with workforce-ready skills. Delaware Pathways is one such example, formally established by executive order in 2016 by then-Delaware Gov. Jack Markell. The program consists of state-approved…