Studies about collegiate food insecurity show its prevalence as a national issue that disproportionately affects students from marginalized groups. This study further contextualizes this work, examining the ways that multiply-marginalized students navigate systems of privilege and opportunity at selective, normatively affluent universities to meet…

Socioeconomic differences among low-income and racially minoritized students may be consequential for understanding the dynamics of school choice--especially in high-poverty and racially segregated urban contexts that are often targeted by school choice policies. Yet school choice research largely focuses on differences between groups and relies…

Informational text--resources whose purpose is to inform--is essential to daily life and fundamental to literacy. Unfortunately, young children typically have limited exposure to informational text. Two 9-week randomized controlled trials with 263 first-grade children from low-income communities examined whether free educational videos and digital…

Taking advanced courses in high school predicts many positive outcomes, yet low-income students and students who identify as Black and Hispanic are underrepresented. Policies such as "algebra for all" that accelerate middle school students into advanced courses are well-studied, but little is known about newer academic acceleration…

Utilizing a lottery-based natural experiment, this study assessed the longer-term impact of early colleges on postsecondary degree attainment. It found that early colleges significantly increased the overall degree completion and associate degree completion rates within 10 years of expected high school graduation. While the impact on bachelor's…

Understanding how marginalized students experience and perceive mathematics is critical to achieving the goal of inclusive and equitable math pedagogy. We report on 67 focus groups with 251 predominantly Black high schoolers experiencing economic marginalization in the Southern United States and attended to their achievement level and race-gender…

Scholars in distinct academic disciplines may examine the same or similar phenomena, often relying on concepts that are well known within each discipline. In this article, we examine two related sociological concepts--capital and adaptive preferences--each used to explain young people's choices and aspirations. We make the case that integrating…

This study examined whether pre-K benefits persist through the end of first grade and the extent to which persistence differs based on outcome domains, subsequent classroom environments, and key subgroups of children. Data from 2,351 children living in a large and diverse county in Virginia revealed that the initial benefits of pre-K for academic…

New York City's Pre-K for All (PKA) is the nation's largest universal early childhood initiative, serving over 64,000 four-year-olds annually. Stemming from the program's choice architecture as well as the city's stark residential segregation, PKA programs are extremely segregated by child race/ethnicity. Our current study explores the complex…

Although there is empirical evidence concerning the value of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), broader narratives about these institutions too often overemphasize challenges and depict them from a deficit perspective. We argue that such depictions elide the benefits of HBCUs within the higher education landscape and are rooted…

This study examines growth in language and math skills during the summer before kindergarten; considers variation by family income, race/ethnicity, and dual language learner status; and tests whether summer center-based care sustains preschool gains. Growth in skills slowed during summer for all children, but the patterns varied by domain and…

This article investigates the civic writing practices of more than 11,000 students writing letters to the next president in the lead up to the 2016 U.S. election. We analyze how letter topics are associated with socioeconomic factors and reveal that 43 topics--including ones prevalent among students such as immigration, guns, and school…

Although trends in the racial segregation of schools are well documented, less is known about trends in income segregation. We use multiple data sources to document trends in income segregation between schools and school districts. Between-district income segregation of families with children enrolled in public school increased by over 15% from…

This article examines the frameworks that stakeholders bring to debates about diversifying schools in gentrifying areas of New York City. Using critical ethnographic methods, I explore stakeholders' hopes and fears about the effects of shifting school demographics and the relationships between student demographics and school quality. I find that…

The article ''Transforming Educational Experiences in Low-Income Communities'' analyzes the efforts of a highly impoverished small elementary school to provide the kind of wrap-around services children in very poor communities need to give them a fair chance to succeed. For a child from a low-income family, what happens in the non-educational part…