This article is a multiple case study of policy in Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon. Both cities have developed programs that utilize government funding to increase access to public school K-5 arts education. While each city used a different path for advocacy and policy change, there were common threads that could be used as a framework…

Physical educators, including adapted physical educators, are often called upon to advocate for their students with disabilities, their physical education programs, or themselves to affect change in practice or a student's Individualized Education Program. These advocacy efforts are most effective when physical educators are knowledgeable about…

In the United States, systemic racism against people of color was brought to the forefront of discourse throughout 2020, and highlighted the on-going inequities faced by intentionally marginalized groups in policing, health and education. No community of color is immune from these inequities, and the activism in 2020 and the consequences of the…

State summative assessments play an important role in measuring student learning and guiding educational improvement efforts, despite their limitations. But there is growing momentum in individual states and nationally to rethink these assessments with an eye toward reducing time spent on testing and increasing the tests' instructional relevance.…

Scholars of political economy have raised the question of whether recent populist movements around the world signal the decline of neoliberal hegemony. What would such a decline mean for education policy, an arena that has been dominated by a neoliberal common sense for several decades? This study investigates the policy discourse of former U.S.…

The purpose of this study is to investigate policy coalitions of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) at U.S. congressional hearings. This study is grounded in the advocacy coalition framework, which argues that advocacy coalitions are forged by policy actors who have similar policy preferences. To identify the coalitions, according to the policy…

Every year we invest billions in professional development to build teachers' capacity to better address the diverse academic needs of every student. Yet student learning continues to fall short of expectations in too many places. We must ask the question: Is there a better way to invest in the professional learning of teachers across America? Our…

Special education scholars have traditionally experienced a significant disconnect between their experience as researchers and the fast-paced realities of policy and politics. We propose that higher education leaders should be drivers of change, not recipients of outcomes, and by extension, that there is a need to ensure that the preparation of…

In early care and education (ECE), including early intervention and early childhood special education (EI/ECSE), professionals regularly express a love for the individualized nature of the work with children and families as a large reason why they enter this workforce. This article aims to provide ECE professionals supporting young children with…

Since March 2021, school district leaders have been developing and implementing plans to spend their "ARP dollars," that is, the historic $122 billion allocated from the American Rescue Plan to help districts recover from the devastating effects of the pandemic. The money, also referred to as ESSER funds (Elementary and Secondary School…

Fostering Opportunities is an innovative student engagement program for middle school and high school students who have experienced foster care. The goal of the program is to help youth who have experienced foster care be successful in school and ultimately earn a high school credential. Fostering Opportunities was developed because of the clear…

In this article, we argue that ESSA provides a unique policy window for district-level leaders to advance an equity agenda by working closely with local community advocates. Drawing from a larger qualitative, multiple case study on the role of school boards in three U.S. Mountain West school districts, we focus on community advocacy committed to…