In an ever-diversifying country, the landscape of the American classroom is shifting, requiring educational leaders and teachers to possess curriculum knowledge, cultural intelligence, and self-efficacy to understand students' cultural differences. This study aims to offer specific insights into four schools in the suburban Midwest working to…

Using a randomized control trial, this paper studies an at-scale preschool construction program that serves poor communities in rural Mozambique. We show that the program significantly increased preschool enrollment in treated communities by 73 percentage points, from a small base of 2 percent of children enrolled in preschool in control…

In an era of accountability, educational leaders seek and implement reform efforts to help promote school improvement and student achievement on a regular basis (Marzano et al., 2014). When considering school improvement, a possible strategy to increase student achievement could be the relationship between the school leadership style and the…

Purpose: Collective efficacy (CE)--a group's belief in its capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to reach a goal--is an important organizational property because it facilitates goal attainment. The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed-methods study was: (1) to affirm the link between CE and student achievement;…

A large amount of research has been conducted in the area of teacher retention as it relates to the impact teachers have on student achievement and closing the achievement gap. Retaining highly effective teachers each year helps ensure students are provided with high quality and rigorous instruction. Teacher retention is imperative in areas of…

The role of a principal has drastically changed since school reform and accountability of the No Child Left Behind legislation in 2001. Principals are responsible for curriculum, academic performance of students, instructional practices and overall organization of a school. According to research, effective leadership is related to students'…

Background: A separate, apartheid system of schooling in South Africa entrenched European racialised ideologies of white supremacy that left a legacy of social, economic, and educational inequalities. The 1995 White Paper for Education, the 1996 South African Schools Act, and the Revised National Curriculum Statement outlined steps for equalising…

Background: While there is now considerable evidence in support of a relationship between executive function (EF) and academic success, these findings almost uniformly derive from Western and high-income countries. Yet, recent findings from low- to -middle-income countries have suggested that patterns of EF and academic skills differ in these…

Indulgence in risky behavior is a reason for low academic performance. We hypothesized that four constructs including academic aspiration, self-confidence, interest in schooling, and peer influence mediate the relationship between risky behavior and academic performance. Data are from 1256 school-going girls in urban slums who came from the lowest…

Closing the poverty-related attainment gap in schoolchildren is a stated priority for the Scottish Government. In the present study, we examine the poverty-related attainment gap in Glasgow, a city wherein more than half of the 100 most deprived areas in Scotland are to be found. Further, we examine the potential mediating role of school…

Background/Context: The literature review by Phelps in this special issue highlights the challenges of research-practice partnerships and other forms of insider-outsider collaboration in education. In addition to addressing well-known challenges, this case study article focuses on the full-service community school model as a strategy to address…

We study a teacher incentive policy in Washington State that awards a financial bonus to National Board certified teachers in high poverty schools. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that the bonus policy increased the proportion of certified teachers in bonus-eligible schools by improving hiring, increasing certification rates of…

Mindfulness based interventions (MBIs) for teachers can improve classroom interactions, teacher mindfulness, and well-being, yet whether teacher focused MBIs also benefit children remains largely unexplored. This cluster randomized trial with 36 urban elementary schools, 224 K-5th grade teachers (M[subscript age] = 41.5) and 5200 children…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the characteristics of effective principals in high-poverty, high-performing urban elementary schools and how these align to the 21 Responsibilities identified by Marzano, Waters & McNulty (2005).The researcher was able to interview ten candidates that met the criteria for the study.…

Research shows that family involvement in learning activities at school improves students' academic performance and social cohesion. This study analyses the impact of involving families through interactive groups, dialogic literary gatherings and tutored library in a Mexican primary school in a highly underprivileged urban area, within the…