This report questions how skills are distributed across the millennial population, focusing on the size and demographic characteristics of U.S. millennials with low literacy and numeracy skills, and the resulting impact on social and economic outcomes. The authors do this in part by examining the issue of "disconnected youth," a term…

This report provides current and historical labor force information about young people ages 16 to 24. In general, youth have a lower rate of labor force participation, and those who are in the labor force are less likely to gain employment than older workers. On the labor supply side, young people are making greater investments in education by…

Black teachers are disproportionately underrepresented in U.S. public schools. Over the past five decades, the percentage of Black teachers has not surpassed nine percent. Considering this trend, teacher education programs play a vital role in the retention of Black teachers. Hence, inadequate teacher preparation produces ineffective teachers,…

This study evaluated a brief social self-efficacy (SSE) measure among 4,122 public middle school adolescents and its association with aggressive behavior. Data analytic procedures included calculating mean ratings, standard deviations in addition to inspecting the scale's reliability, internal structure, and relationships to demographic and…

In this essay, Jason A. Grissom, Christopher Redding, and Joshua F. Bleiberg investigate the receipt of gifted services based on the socioeconomic status (SES) of elementary school students and their families. Using nationally representative longitudinal data, they show that gaps in the receipt of gifted services between the highest and lowest SES…

This study is a randomized control trial of full- versus half-day prekindergarten (pre-K) in a school district near Denver, Colorado. Four-year-old children were randomly assigned an offer of half-day (4 days/week) or full-day (5 days/week) pre-K that increased class time by 600 hours. The full-day pre-K offer produced substantial, positive…

Aspiring school leaders must be equipped with skill sets to facilitate the critical examination of district policies that reproduce inequities. Policies such as school choice, which have racial and socioeconomic implications for educational opportunity, require leaders to operate from a social justice identity while seeking to enhance their sense…

Objective: Existing research shows that sociodemographic factors are associated with dietary patterns among adolescents; however, little is known about when these relationships begin in children. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between dietary self-efficacy (SE) and dietary intake among children over time and by…

This article presents an exploration of the work of family engagement in a racially- and linguistically-diverse, high-poverty, urban school district in a state of continuous neoliberal reform. Drawing from qualitative research methods, it is argued that family engagement is being reshaped by the imperatives of educational neoliberalization while,…

In response to the nationwide phenomenon of elementary Black, male students suicide rates almost quadrupling in the last decade, this group of authors offer possible causal relationships between alarming suicide rates and school-wide anti-Blackness. Framed through a Critical Race Theoretical lens, this article pulls from anti-Blackness research,…

That the arts enhance academic achievement has been a claim of educators for the past century. This experimental study examined whether and to what extent the use of creative dramatics interventions increased the vocabulary achievement of fourth grade students in a language arts classroom. The 20-day study was conducted across five weeks of…

The purpose of this Professional Pathways for Teachers (PPfT) evaluation was to examine the measurement validity and reliability of PPfT appraisal data from the 2017-2018 school year in the Austin Independent School District. The PPfT appraisal is a multi-measure system that covers three areas: instructional practices (IP), professional growth and…

The purpose of this Professional Pathways for Teachers (PPfT) evaluation was to examine the measurement validity and reliability of PPfT appraisal data from the 2017-2018 school year in the Austin Independent School District. The PPfT appraisal is a multi-measure system that covers three areas: instructional practices (IP), professional growth and…

This generic qualitative study examined the characteristics of high-achieving elementary school African American males in Title 1 elementary schools, from the perspective of teachers, in an effort to address the academic achievement gap between African American students and their counterpart of other ethnicities. The research question for this…

The Colorado Department of Education recently received state funding to implement a Student Re-Engagement Grant Program (SRGP). The goal of this project is to inform the administration of the SRGP by looking back at data from a previously administered grant program, called Colorado Graduation Pathways (CGP). The CGP program was a federally funded…