In this qualitative study, the authors investigated seventh- and eighth-grade students' participation in an elective civics course focused on the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The researcher and classroom teacher collaborated to embed literacy strategies into his curriculum in this design-based research study. The intervention cycle was…

Concerns about a strong positive correlation between leadership and student success (Wood et al., 2013) coupled with community input around hiring from outside an organization, as opposed to hiring from within, contributes to the complexity of filling superintendent vacancies The limited research available on this issue is amplified due to the…

We understand the terrors of this historical moment: rising white nationalism and white supremacist violence, xenophobia, homophobia, sharpening economic inequality, homelessness and underemployment, neoliberal assaults on workers and the environment, Islamophobia, attacks on immigrants, kids in cages. While schools are guilty of perpetuating some…

At the turn of the 20th century, Pink Teas (alternately known as "suffrage teas") were held by women who championed women's right to vote. In this article, the author provides historical background on Pink Teas and ideas of how to teach about them in the elementary classroom.

Background/Context: Despite its emphasis on pluralism, empirical research on asset-based pedagogies has typically focused on culturally, linguistically, or racially homogeneous groups of students. The rise of interest in culturally relevant pedagogy in the 1990s coincided with the resegregation of many school districts. As a result, few scholars…

Civics education shouldn't be confined to dusty textbooks, as evidenced by this assortment of projects. In one unit, elementary students play out the presidential election--from campaigning to inauguration day--using the Storypath approach. In another project, 5th graders explore the controversy about Confederate monuments by studying a local…

2020 was a challenging time to navigate mental health and wellness. With a global pandemic, an emotionally charged U.S. presidential election, and a spike in racially motivated violence, students maneuvered trauma associated with these events in unprecedented ways. The cumulative challenges of this year motivated museum educators at the Cleveland…

In response to media reports of increased teasing and bullying in schools following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, we investigated its prevalence with a Virginia school climate survey completed by approximately 155,000 seventh- and eighth-grade students in 2013, 2015, and 2017. Survey results were mapped onto presidential election results…

This study measures the effect of ethnic favoritism on primary education using data from the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey. In line with previous studies, this study confirms that having a coethnic president is expected to improve the likelihood of completing primary education. This study demonstrates that ethnic favoritism operates at the…

First-grader students engaged in a guided historical inquiry about Abraham Lincoln. The teacher carefully intertwined historical content, close reading, critical thinking, and text-based writing during Reading, Writing, and Social Studies classes. Students scrutinized secondary sources, which were largely biographies of Lincoln, to build their…

In December 2018, the Education Week Research Center, with the assistance of the Journalism Education Association, conducted an online survey of nearly 500 K-12 journalism educators to learn more about the current status of the programs in which they work. This report examines survey results regarding President Trump's criticism of the media,…

How do we preserve our civil society and dynamic political system and prepare students to be active citizens in a democratic society? The need for civic education is more essential now than ever before, and students deserve access to powerful civic lessons that actively engage them in learning about our democracy. The ultimate goal would be for…

Teaching about presidential elections at the elementary level can seem a bit daunting at times. Students are quick to share their strong opinions on the current candidates running for office. These opinions often involve repeating feelings and phrases shared by parents around the dinner table the night before. For the average seven- or…

Early in the semester, during a seemingly benign math lesson over money, one of the students in my second and third grade blended classroom halted the instruction to ask "Wait! Why are there no women on money? Is there any money with women on it?" Never one to miss an opportunity to get my students thinking critically, we took some time…

In 2018 there have been constant anti-immigrant rhetoric, policies, and enforcement. Most recently, Trump referred to immigrant children as "future criminals" who needed to be kept in prison-like detention centers and "tender age facilities" (Min Kim, 2018). Meanwhile, the 4.5 million children of immigrants already in the US…