Definitions of teacher experience vary by state and research study. Most states consider a teacher inexperienced if they have between 1-5 years of experience in the classroom as full-time educator. Pennsylvania's 2015 plan identified inexperienced teachers as those with one or less years of teaching experience, but the federal Civil Rights Data…

In recent years, some school districts across Allegheny County have made noteworthy changes to school policing. While some districts have sought to reduce or eliminate reliance on police, a growing number of other districts in the county have, with community support announced expanded police presence and in some cases have decided to arm police.…

Research for Action's "Educational Opportunity Dashboard" is an interactive on-line tool to synthesize data and rank all 50 states by how well they provide students access to schools that offer 14 indicators of educational opportunity from the federal Civil Rights Data Collection. On the Dashboard the indicators are compiled into an…

New York City is one of several large school districts around the country that are actively working to promote "computer science for all" students. Launched in 2015, NYC's CS4All initiative aims to ensure that all public school students learn computer science--especially female, Black, and Latinx students, who are starkly…

Concerns for student safety are a commonly cited reason for the presence of police in schools. But as the nation grapples with the appropriate roles and responsibilities of police more broadly, the time is right to shine a light on what we know about the effects of police in schools. This brief summarizes the research related to this question.…

The focus of this study is on understanding different indicators of academic performance in high school, college enrollment, and college persistence of English Learners--including variation in attainment among active and former English Learners--to support their path to high school graduation and access to college. To understand the academic…

The goal of state special education funding should be to equitably distribute funds that are adequate for all schools to meet their legal obligation to provide a free and appropriate public education to students with disabilities. Unfortunately, inadequate state special education funding is growing more common in Philadelphia schools. In this…

The scarcity of teachers of color (TOCs) in Pennsylvania has been well-documented. In 2018, Research for Action (RFA) reviewed the literature on the benefits of teachers of color for all students and highlighted barriers, strategies, and initiatives in "Patching the Leaky Pipeline: Recruiting and Retaining Teachers of Color in…

Recent data from Chicago Public Schools (CPS) show that active English Learners were less likely to graduate from high school (77% did so in 2023) than their peers (85%) and less likely to enroll in college (56% of 2022 English Learners high school graduates enrolled in college compared to 66 percent of their non-English Learners high school…

Close to 3,000 students in Allegheny County public schools were identified as experiencing homelessness during the 2018-19 school year, or 2.0% of the total student population. Meanwhile, homelessness rates have been growing in recent years and lost income due to COVID-19 is likely to bring even more students to the point of housing and…

Long before closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, many Pennsylvania schools faced a different health crisis: unsafe facilities. Crumbling buildings, asbestos, lead, and other school facility health and safety risks plague many schools across Pennsylvania, particularly in low-income districts and those that enroll a high percentage of Black and…

Teacher mobility, or teacher turnover, has long garnered attention as a critical educational equity gap. This attention is warranted as, within schools, teachers have the single greatest impact on student achievement. The unprecedented interruptions to school-based learning and the trials of navigating remote and hybrid instruction due to the…

In 2013-14, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the nation's third-largest school district, implemented several changes to the policies governing its pre-kindergarten (pre-k) application and enrollment process. Two policy changes that were central to the school district's strategy focused on increasing access to full-day pre-k for high-priority student…

Educators are centrally important in the fight for racial justice and access to high-quality education. This has never been more true than in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the public acknowledges the crucial role that our public school teachers play in the well-being of our children and of our society at large. Yet our teacher workforce is…

The United States is plagued by large disparities in life outcomes between racial and ethnic groups. Researchers have documented how gaps in outcomes are related to gaps in access to opportunity, both in education and otherwise. Yet, as documented in this report, too often state policymakers still fail to provide equitable learning opportunities…