Background: Research has consistently shown that disadvantaged students have inequitable access to high-quality teaching (e.g., Isenberg et al., 2013; Goldhaber et al. 2018; Hanselman, 2019). This non-random sorting of students to teachers has been documented at multiple organizational levels, including districts, schools and classrooms (e.g.,…

The aim of this article is to advance knowledge on how Swedish primary schools organise education and what strategies they deploy to ensure inclusion and attainment of newly arrived migrant students. The article is based on semi-structured interviews with 30 teachers and school administrators, and one-year of fieldwork undertaken in two…

While most students receiving special education services in school are educated with the same general curriculum (i.e., instructional materials) as their peers without disabilities, students with extensive support needs and significant cognitive disabilities may qualify to receive instruction with alternate curricular materials aligned with…

Most students with complex support needs are taught in separate special education classrooms; one reason is teams that inappropriately use the intensity of support needs as the basis for placement in more restrictive placements. This study used Bayesian multilevel modeling to determine whether the intensity of student support needs predicted…

Middle school offers an entryway onto the path of college readiness. However, many practitioners and researchers have focused their efforts on high school students. Remaining is a population of potential college-going students, whose opportunities to prepare for college at an earlier stage are overlooked because middle school is not viewed as the…

This article reports on a small-scale research study utilising semi-structured interviews to discover and understand trainee teachers perceptions of inclusion in the Primary School. As future educators it is vital that trainee teachers understand, critique, and develop their thinking and around the concept of inclusion to ensure they continue, and…

This study used a mixed methods approach to examine student access and achievement differences based on the students' 7th-grade mathematics class placement. Additionally, this study investigated the difference between teachers' perceptions and pedagogical decisions based on their students' placement levels. Finally, this study asked for teacher…

The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive, multi-site case study was to determine the criteria individualized education program (IEP) teams used to find the least restrictive environment (LRE) placement for a student with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at the elementary school level. The theoretical framework of this study was Maslow's theory…

Students with complex support needs have intense and frequent support needs for learning and participating across multiple domains. Addressing those needs in a comprehensive manner is the purpose of special education, which is accomplished through instructional and Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals. Yet simply setting goals is…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental, quantitative study was to determine if there was a difference in student growth, in students in grades seven and eight in reading and math, based on their placement in advanced or general education courses. This study was conducted in a diverse, suburban junior high school which served four different…

To determine the impact of an administrator's decision on student placement in kindergarten classrooms, teachers were asked to share their perceptions on how that decision impacted their ability to deliver instruction and follow the district scope and sequence, as well as how that decision impacts student academic achievement and social and…

Gifted programs, designed to enhance engagement and rigor for students exhibiting talent or potential beyond their peers in the general education classroom, are not equitably identifying and serving Hispanic/Latino students. This qualitative study explored gifted programming at a Title I elementary school located in a largely Hispanic/Latino…

This quantitative survey design study examined whether children's ethnicity makes a difference in teachers' referral and placement decisions in gifted and talented (G/T) programs. A total of 524 teachers from all over the United States who have taught or currently teach pre-kindergarten through 5th grade participated. The participants were…

This study compares the impact of two New York State mathematics Regents-level course sequences on the number of secondary mathematics courses taken by New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) students and explores the potential that programming decisions could increase or diminish the mathematics learning opportunity and achievement of…

A homogeneous distribution of students in a class is accepted as a key factor for overall success in primary education. A class of students with similar attributes normally increases academic success. It is also a fact that general academic success might be lower in some classes where students have different intelligence and academic levels. In…