Children's experiences during early childhood are critical for their cognitive and socio-emotional development, two key dimensions of human capital. However, children from low income backgrounds often grow up lacking stimulation and basic investments, leading to developmental deficits that are difficult, if not impossible, to reverse later in life…

The most recent OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey enables educators, policy makers and the wider community to compare Australian students with each other, as well as with their counterparts across the world. PISA measures the extent to which 15-year-old students near the end of compulsory education have acquired the…

During the 2017 General Session, the Legislature passed House Bill 212, "Incentive for Effective Teachers in High Poverty Schools," which provides an annual salary bonus to eligible teachers in high poverty schools. This report is provided to the Education Interim Committee to evaluate the extent to which a salary bonus improves…

Nutrition insecurity, reflected by poor nutrition, limited physical activity, unsafe food practices, and food insecurity, is a significant national health concern. Poor health disproportionately affects minority and low-income populations. The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) is the nation's first nutrition education program…

School climate is a well-studied issue in educational research. However, surveys of school climate tend to be analyzed using item-centered as opposed to person-centered methods. The current study evaluated the 2018 South Carolina School Climate Survey using advanced applications of mixture modeling in an attempt to identify latent profiles at the…

Equitable instructional practices have a positive impact on the academic achievement of students living in high poverty. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore teachers' perceptions of their abilities to implement equitable instructional practices in high-poverty schools. Gorski's equity literacy framework was the approach used…

The application of information literacy (IL) skills is essential for K-12 students to succeed academically and in life (Yu et al., 2016). It thus follows that K-12 students need teachers who can teach IL concepts effectively. This is even more true for learners growing up in poverty who already face many barriers to their achievement. Due to a…

The purpose of this study was to review and analyze the strategies teachers use in order to develop positive teacher/student relationships in the classroom of a high-poverty, at-risk school district. The cross-case analysis was performed to determine teacher perceptions of their interactions with students and how they influence academics and…

During the 2017 General Session, the Legislature passed House Bill 212, "Incentive for Effective Teachers in High Poverty Schools," which provides an annual salary bonus to eligible teachers in high poverty schools. This report is provided to the Education Interim Committee to evaluate the extent to which a salary bonus improves…

This thesis examines the budget reductions of six high and six low poverty school districts in California and Texas during the Great Recession. While recent studies have supported the positive influence of spending on student outcomes, few have looked at what happens when financial shocks constrain budgets. The study blends the National Center for…

Difficulty transitioning from school to higher education or work remains one of the key barriers facing girls in disadvantaged contexts, with far-reaching implications for their futures and wellbeing. In this report, the first in a three-year research project on girls' transitions into higher education or work, we seek to understand the challenges…

School concentrated disadvantage has been linked to poorer academic achievement and psychosocial functioning in prior research. The current study expands upon prior examinations of school concentrated disadvantage by applying a measurement approach first described by Michelmore and Dynarski in 2017, where eligibility for free and reduced-price…

This mixed-methods, longitudinal study utilized survey data from a sample of (primarily) Black and Latinx adolescents' (n = 643) and qualitative interviews with a subset of adolescents (n = 39) to consider changes in adolescents' beliefs about poverty and economic inequality throughout high school as well as the sources of their beliefs.…

In response to growing pushback to decades of privatization and disinvestment in high-poverty communities of color, elected officials and business leaders in the United States have turned to 'community-engaged strategies' to advance education reform. This qualitative case study of a California school district, the Oakland Unified School District,…

Researchers are combining self-reports from mobile surveys with passive data collection using sensors and apps on smartphones increasingly more often. While smartphones are commonly used in some groups of individuals, smartphone penetration is significantly lower in other groups. In addition, different operating systems (OSs) limit how mobile data…