Although the traditional 16-week schedule is widely used in higher education, time-compressed courses are increasingly being recognized as an approach to improve student success rates and expedite credential completion, thereby facilitating entry into the workforce. However, there is limited research to establish that the reported advantages of…

Title III Strengthening Institutions Program is a supplemental grant that was designed to help eligible higher education institutions improve and strengthen academic quality, institutional management, and fiscal stability of eligible institutions. A community college in the Midsouth region was the focus of this quantitative study. Graduation and…

Packed with practical tools, this book provides K-6 educators with a research-based framework for accelerating the reading and writing growth of underperforming students. Strategies and resources are included for building foundational skills, comprehension, and vocabulary; engaging students with independent reading and periodicals; developing…

We model schooling as a sequential process and examine why some children are left behind. We focus on the factors that explain selection at early stages of the education system. Our findings for Uruguay suggest that long-term factors, such as parental background or ethnicity matter across all education stages while the effect of short-term…

Given its status as one of the highest-poverty, lowest-performing states in the nation, this article examines the ways in which dimensions of neighborhood poverty may impact student achievement in Alabama over and above student characteristics. We employ a unique longitudinal dataset that combines eight years of district-level student achievement…

English learners' (ELs') opportunity gap in U.S. K-12 schools is well known. While many of us in the field of applied linguistics are committed to achieving greater parity for ELs, the field as a whole has a propensity to approach this opportunity gap by addressing ELs' linguistic needs. This response, however, is siloed in nature, resulting in…

Despite much empirical evidence highlighting the harmful effect of socioeconomic disadvantage on educational outcomes, there is a relative lack of understanding of how different risk factors impact upon attainment. Importantly, it has yet to be established what effect, if any, austerity cuts have had on the most disadvantaged students. Using rich…

This phenomenological study examined the reports of Foster Care Alumni (FCA) regarding their resilience while obtaining a postsecondary degree. According to recent estimates, there are 391,098 children in the U.S. foster care system (AFCARS, 2022, 2019; Child Trends, 2015). Foster youth are among America's most disadvantaged in terms of…

For several generations, the educational achievement gap of African Americans has continued to widen in the United States. The current study examined how racial identity influences the relationship between academic motivation and academic stress among African American college students. Participants for the study included 438 African American…

In 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic led to nationwide school closures, followed by a mandate for schools to reopen in 2020, posing challenges for ensuring both educational continuity and student safety. This paper presents findings from a mixed-method study involving ten campus principals in District A, South Texas, post-pandemic. Qualitatively, the…

Is the achievement gap real? Using a mixed-methods approach, this study reframed standardized testing through a Quantitative Critical and Black Critical lens. It interrogated the deficit framing of Black student achievement by asking the following questions: (1) To what extent do the aggregated standardized test scores for Black students in…

Racial disparities in infant health conditions have persisted for decades. However, there is surprisingly limited evidence regarding the long-term consequences of these disparities. Using novel linked administrative data from Texas and the shift to Medicaid Managed Care (MMC), I show that MMC-driven declines in infant health worsened cognitive and…

Although it's easy to connect out-of-school factors such as poverty or the pandemic to achievement gaps in schools today, education leaders need to focus on what's within their school or district's control to ensure equitable learning outcomes for their students. In this practical guide for K-12 instructional leaders, superintendent Teresa D. Hill…

The authors sought to identify the prevalence of food insecurity in a community college district during the COVID-19 pandemic. The team also investigated the association food insecurity had with academic performance. A sample of 238 individuals completed the survey, including a demographic questionnaire and the Adult Food Security Survey Module, a…

African American student academic performance is a topic of much concern in the U.S. (Allen, 1992; Cokley, 2000, 2002, 2003; Cokley & Moore, 2007; Cokley et al., 2015; Harper et al., 2012; Harper, 2015; Steele, 1992). Thus, the task of closing the academic achievement gap between Black and White students is a worthy assignment undertaken by…