In this study, I will explore some of the root causes behind middle school students' failure to attend class. Data shows that students are labeled chronically absent when they miss more than 10% of a school year, regardless of the absences- expelled, unexcused, or suspended. According to the U.S. Department of Education, about seven million…

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant disruption in schooling worldwide. Global test score data is used to estimate learning losses by modeling the effect of school closures on achievement by predicting the deviation of the most recent results from a linear trend using data from all rounds of PISA. Mathematics scores declined an average of…

Later school start times have emerged as a potential policy to improve the sleep and educational outcomes of teenagers. This study uses a quasi-experimental comparative interrupted time series approach to examine a 90-min delay in start times in an urban district in North Carolina. Results show that the later start time resulted in more sleep for…

The recent PISA mathematics results delivered disappointing news for the United States of America (USA). These results underscored the education system's continuing inequalities. An important question concerns to what extent and to which part of the educational system do these sources of inequality occur? In this paper we use PISA 2012 data merged…

Are state universities and state scholarship programs perpetuating income inequality in the United States? Using data from Florida on the number of students from each public high school in the state who attended a State University System (SUS) university and the number who received a Florida Bright Futures (FBF) scholarship, this paper attempts to…

For learners from disadvantaged backgrounds with limited science fair-related skills, knowledge, and community support, investigating the advisability of various ways of arriving at a science fair project topic is needed. This mixed-methods case study with an ex post facto criterion-group design uses questionnaire data and science fair awards…

This article shares research outcomes and recommendations for replication of a Food, Agriculture and Marine Ecosystems (FAME) pilot project that successfully supported high school aged youth involved in a new 4-H special interest program. The goal of the program was to recruit and engage underserved youth in STEM learning through the production of…

The purpose of this quantitative comparative study was to examine if gender and participation in a STEM curriculum have separate and/or interacting statistically significant effects on academic achievement of 8th grade middle school students attending Arizona Title I middle schools. The theoretical foundation was cognitive learning theory, which…

This study finds substantial reductions to criminal activity from the introduction of a comprehensive high school support program for disadvantaged youth living in the largest public housing project in Toronto. The program, called Pathways to Education, bundles supports such as regular coaching, tutoring, group activities, free public…

Involving students in policy debate is one of the most impactful academic interventions for secondary school students, according to a study, which between 2007 and 2017 followed about 3,500 students who were part of the Boston Debate League (BDL). The nonprofit supports debate teams in Boston Public Schools, which have a large concentration of…

Upward Bound (UB), created in 1965 to provide educational enrichment for low-income youths, had to be racially integrated. In 1966, I was among three White northern teens sent to integrate UB at Xavier University in New Orleans. My family had lived in North Carolina in the early 1960s, participating in civil rights actions, so I had had some…

The present study advances a model of critical civic motivation grounded in expectancy-value theory and highlights diverse manifestations of motivation among marginalized adolescents. The participants were 447 high school youth (85.0% Latinx; 62.9% low-income). Two complementary methodological approaches were employed to examine civic motivation,…

This report looks at the progress made during secondary school of young people from different backgrounds who were in the top third of attainers at the end of primary school. High attaining pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds have the best chance of becoming socially mobile, and "Social Mobility: The Next Generation" will explore,…

This paper assesses equality in Irish post-primary education, focusing on the provision of state-funded education and specifically on the provision of schools not segregated by religion, gender, or the charging of fees. Using the concept of the educational landscape, it integrates a macro-micro perspective that combines an analysis of national…

The study explores whether physical activity (PA) in early adolescence limits the risk of internalizing and externalizing problems in youth with difficult temperaments, from low-income families, or exposed to impaired family functioning. Participants (N = 1312; 53% girls) were drawn from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD).…