Public Agenda surveyed Illinois residents to learn about how they view public higher education and what would help it serve them and the state better. Three research briefs highlight key findings from the broader survey findings. This brief finds that a large majority of Illinoisans believe higher education should be accessible, and many believe…

The vision for musically educating all children in tax-funded schools dates to the early 19th century, at a time when music was initially inserted into the curriculum of common schools. Is that vision being realized today? Why do all children not have equal access to music education by now, regardless of their locations, as per the democratic…

Decades of neoliberal capitalism have had a corrosive effect on public education, with implications for both the fiscal realities of education systems and the ideological values guiding curriculum and pedagogy. While the culture of neoliberalism has often been studied, it is equally important to expand analyses of the shifting material conditions…

Social-emotional learning has become a vital element for fostering holistic education and student development over the past few years in education. However, of all students, students with disabilities face barriers in accessing effective SEL. This gap highlights the more considerable systemic challenges of leadership development, a lack of…

Social-emotional learning has become a vital element for fostering holistic education and student development over the past few years in education. However, of all students, students with disabilities face barriers in accessing effective SEL. This gap highlights the more considerable systemic challenges of leadership development, a lack of…

Universal prekindergarten (UPK) programs often expand through mixed-delivery systems by offering seats in public schools and community-based centers (CBOs). Although this approach aims to meet varied family needs, little is known about potential systematic differences between CBOs that apply to UPK programs and those that do not. We examined…

This study examines the effects of universal public pre-kindergarten for 3-year-olds (Pre-K3) on later public education outcomes, including enrollment, school mobility, special education status, and in-grade retention from kindergarten through second grade. While universal pre-kindergarten programs typically target 4-year-olds, interest in…

For decades, there has been a well-coordinated effort to unmake public education in Canada and around the globe. Neoliberal reformers have undermined public education through increased privatization, marketization, and managerialism. Government austerity measures have shaped policy that falsely necessitates, validates, and legitimizes the…

Our current political moment has raised critical questions surrounding the efficacy of public education to deliver on its promise of social uplift. This ethnographic case study utilizes Louis Althusser's conception of ideology--which insists that the way to dismantle systemic injustice is first to recognize its imprint on our everyday actions--to…

This paper presents a comprehensive framework for evaluating and reforming education finance systems to ensure equity, adequacy, and equal opportunity in publicly funded education. We summarize decades conceptual work, explaining our evolving understanding of the role and purpose of school finance systems, leading to our current framing that the…

Those working toward equitable K-12 computing education in the United States have always had their work cut out for them: understanding how best to teach, developing robust curricula, designing novel tools, building teacher capacity, and supporting systemic change in schools to bring equitable computing education to young people. Collectively,…

School leaders juggle the often-inconsistent goals of maintaining support of middle- and upper-income families for public education and, at the same time, implementing policies to strengthen equity for low-income students. Author Iris C. Rotberg describes how these tradeoffs play out in different communities, the role of concentrated poverty and…

There is substantial evidence that issues of race and racism and are common in U.S. public schools, especially those greatly impacted by poverty and racial segregation. Unfortunately, it is highly likely many of these occurrences either go unrecognized, unacknowledged, or are perpetrated unknowingly by White educators and administrators--many of…

In this article, the authors utilize Miranda Fricker's conception of "epistemic injustice" to reexamine racial inequities in public education through the lens of "testimonial" and "hermeneutical injustices" experienced by minoritized youth. Drawing on their lived experiences as BIPOC researchers and teacher educators,…

Ghana is one of the few countries with prior cost-sharing funding approaches to upper secondary education to have rolled out a completely free upper secondary education policy. Whilst the empirical foundation of the emerging body of studies on the policy includes policy makers, implementers and a reliance on policy documents, the perspectives of…