This quantitative study delved into the knowledge and skills of equitable practices among a cohort of principals overseeing high-poverty schools and examined how this understanding influences their capacity to implement school-wide leadership practices in line with Standard 3 of the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL, 2017). PSEL…

When Black and Latino students are given advanced opportunities, they thrive alongside their peers. However, only a fraction of eligible students is enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP) Biology, Chemistry, and Physics courses, which means that most Black and Latino students are being denied vital learning opportunities that can set them up for…

Low levels of academic success for primary grade students attending rural schools located in the southern region of the United States may be related to student resilience. Researchers have found that educators can support the development of students' resilience, which can result in improved academic success, but little is known about how teachers…

This article explores a theoretical model of professional development that combines the goals of further equipping teachers through professional development while at the same time equalizing learning environments for the students. Any steps toward equalizing learning environments helps to close the opportunity gap and decrease the achievement gap…

School personnel are accountable for the academic "achievement" of students with and without disability labels (Every Student Succeeds Act [ESSA], 2015). In Wisconsin, "achievement" is measured via performance on standardized academic assessments (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction [DPI], 2019). The use of these…

This study investigates whether teaching practices of non-minorities who teach Black students has an impact on the achievement gap between Black and White students. There is a lack of awareness of culturally relevant teaching in the U.S public school system (Epstein, 2005). Per NCES (2015), 80% of public schools have a high density of Black…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) gives educators a fresh opportunity to think through how to ensure that all students achieve at high levels, especially kids from low-income families and kids of color. The new law continues with four principles that had been in earlier iterations, all of which have important implications for students from…

This paper describes high quality teaching practices in two schools that produce exceptional growth for all kinds of students. These practices focus on making the most of instructional time and exposing students to high quality content in a variety of contexts. They prove teachers don't need to choose between differentiating to meet students'…

Blackstone Valley Prep, a K-12 charter school network, admits students from across four racially and socioeconomically diverse communities in the northeast corner of Rhode Island. The network integrates students within classrooms, regardless of performance level. Its culturally responsive curriculum aims to reflect and incorporate the range of…

The 2017 AERA Annual Meeting theme emphasizes Achieving the Promise of Equal Educational Opportunity. Amongst the most complex issues facing schools is how to provide such opportunity to refugee populations. This paper presents a narrative synthesis (Popay et al., 2006; Rodgers et al., 2009) of empirical literature describing schools educating…

What teachers do and how students perform intersect, making teachers a critical factor for determining student success. When teachers use effective practices, they maximize the probability that students will be actively engaged in instruction. Student engagement is one of the most well-established predictors of achievement; when students are more…

The only thing that more testing will tell us is what we already know: The schools that disadvantaged children attend are not being given the supports necessary to produce achievement gains. Students cannot be tested out of poverty, and while NCLB did take us a step forward by requiring schools to produce evidence that students were learning, it…

This brief is part of a series that shares findings from a research collaboration between the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University and Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) focused on understanding implementation of the community school model in the district. Community schools aim to address students'…

The purpose of this study is to understand how two high school principals purposely worked to disrupt the inequities in educational opportunities and outcomes that had previously existed for marginalized students in their schools. Committed to a social justice agenda, the two principals systematically changed the culture, structures, and processes…

Educators are committed to providing students the best possible education by using the practices and tools they know (Zmuda, Kuklis, & Kline, 2004). Unfortunately, the status quo for grading and assessment practices is faulty, outdated, and ineffective. Current practices have unwittingly hindered student progress and motivation (O'Connor,…