The mentoring and evaluating process enhances quality of teachers' serving in early childhood programs. The Early Educator Support (EES) Program is a new model of mentoring and coaching that aims to lend support to PreK teachers' working in nonpublic school settings. In this qualitative study, we examined the lived experiences of 12 mentors and…

This study examined the lived experiences of Black girls at a Predominantly White Independent School (PWIS). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight Black, female graduates of Arlington Hall, a private school in the Piedmont area of North Carolina. Transcripts were analyzed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to…

In 2013, the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA) passed its first private school voucher legislation with the introduction of the Opportunity Scholarship Program. The program was designed to provide private school tuition assistance to income-eligible families who chose to withdraw their child from public school and it represents a significant…

This report summarizes the fiscal effects of education choice programs across the United States from an analysis of 48 private education choice programs in 25 states plus D.C. The programs in the analysis include five education savings account programs, 22 school voucher programs, and 21 tax credit scholarship programs. This study estimates the…

Historically, private education has been an option mostly for families who could afford the cost or received financial help. Years of research have shown that many families would choose private schools and other educational resources for their children if they did not face insurmountable financial or geographical limitations. Private educational…

Recent research has shown that a religious upbringing renders children receptive to ordinarily impossible outcomes, but the underlying mechanism for this effect remains unclear. Exposure to religious teachings might alter children's basic understanding of causality. Alternatively, religious exposure might only affect children's religious…

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, private schools in the United States have reported unusually high numbers of applications from public school parents. School administrators have been required to manage the redesign of the school environment to ensure the safety of students without compromising student learning. Yet, it was unknown how…

Teacher evaluations are routinely conducted across the United States for licensure and professional development supports. However, there is limited research on the interrater reliability of these evaluation assessment systems, despite federal recommendations (Graham et al., 2012). This research explores the systematic approach to interrater…

Leader self-efficacy (LSE) is associated with leader emergence and effectiveness, and is a strong predictor of both individual and group performance. While some research exists related to the connection between LSE and adult leadership, more studies are required to better understand the details surrounding LSE as it relates to adolescents. This…

This implementation guide was developed to assist states that want to give more families access to needed educational opportunities and the ability to customize their children's learning. Surging enthusiasm among voters and policymakers means more states are likely to launch Education Scholarship Account (ESA) programs in the immediate future. The…

May 17, 2024 marks the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court decision that ruled segregated schools were "inherently unequal." At the time, North Carolina was one of 17 states that enforced de jure segregation, that is, segregation by law. The state of North Carolina and the school districts within…

Background: School closures were initially believed to mitigate SARS-CoV-2, but instead may have had a limited role in reducing community SARS-CoV-2 transmission. We describe a single school's experience with in-person education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: From August 17, 2020 through January 23, 2021, we conducted a prospective study…

This study examined the impacts of long-term exposure of outdoor adventure programming (OAP) for adolescent girls. This qualitative study shares the stories of the 8th grade students at the French Broad River Academy for girls, which is a private middle school that integrates OAP into its curricula located in Asheville, North Carolina, USA.…

This pilot study examined (a) the perceived barriers to creating high-quality social and emotional learning (SEL) IEP goals for autistic students without intellectual disabilities, and (b) the impact of using a data-driven SEL IEP goal builder--a key component of the Ivymount Social Cognition Instructional Package (IvySCIP)--on the quality of SEL…

School choice critics argue that choice programs drain resources from public schools and therefore harm students who remain in them. Because policymakers are tasked with balancing their states' budgets and ensuring that their public schools meet educational provisions in their states' constitutions, they are concerned with the fiscal effects of…