Background: Receiving free or reduced-price meals (FRPM) at school benefits resource-constrained families financially and nutritionally. However, many families in the United States do not apply for FRPM, and many eligible students do not eat school meals, possibly due to stigma. Methods: This study is a secondary qualitative analysis derived from…

This study critically analyzes the discursive constructions of immigrant children from low-income households in Norwegian official publications between 2014 and 2024. The study uses Foucauldian discourse analysis to explore the representation of these children, the power dynamics and knowledge claims present in these discourses, and the…

Congressional Republicans are reportedly considering spending cuts to balance the cost of extending the tax cuts they enacted in 2017. One proposal is to raise the eligibility threshold for the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which lets schools provide federally reimbursed free meals to all students. This change would cut the number of…

Adolescent girls face distinct challenges that require tailored and girl-centered responses. This brief draws on the knowledge of program implementers and researchers who work on community-based girl group (CBGG) programs (often called "safe spaces") in various low- and middle-income settings and the US. It summarizes emerging lessons…

Mexico's pioneering conditional cash transfer program Progresa, later renamed Prospera, operated over two decades in a shifting policy landscape. We exploit the program's sudden and unexpected rollback to estimate whether, two decades after rollout studies documented its initial impacts on schooling and labor, the program still raised enrollment…

We examine the effects that household exposure to housing price declines, captured by measures of negative equity, have on children's academic performance, using data on public school students and housing transactions from the State of Florida. Our empirical strategy exploits variation over time in the timing of family moves to account for…

This study aimed to design and validate the Teacher-Reported Reading Engagement Survey (TRRES) to complement self-reported measures and comprehensively assess reading engagement among adolescents. Drawing insights from literature and expert feedback, a new 10-item Likert scale instrument was created, capturing three facets of reading engagement:…

Rural students comprise nearly half of all students enrolled in public schools in the nation. With increasing amounts of students living in poverty, rural school districts are combating many issues but with fewer resources than urban and suburban school districts. In addition, new Federal and state regulations continue to be enacted, sometimes to…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to provide rich descriptive answers from caregivers in a rural Title I school district in regards to their participation in their children's education as well as any perceived barriers that potentially would prevent participation. Using Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler's (2010) Model of Parental Involvement, the…

This qualitative narrative inquiry aimed to explore current classroom teachers' preferred leadership characteristics of school leadership; specifically, the complex relationship between teacher perception of principal leadership characteristics and their influence on teacher retention on Title I campuses. This was a 2-part narrative inquiry…

International students pursuing higher education in the United States incur additional expenses compared to domestic students by spending on foreign credential evaluations and visa applications. These costs are usually not reflected in program fee structures, are non-refundable, and are not covered by financial aid, creating significant, and often…

This study used a large administrative data set of Head Start programs across the United States, the Head Start Program Information Report (PIR), to explore disparities in program rates of screening, referral, and identification for early intervention between Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) and Head Start (HS) programs. Results from…

Background: Children residing in households with very low food sufficiency (VLFS), where there is "often" not enough to eat, are more likely to experience academic, health, and psychological challenges. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a temporary universal free school meals (UFSM) policy was implemented, improving food access for children…

Access to arts education in the United States continues to be inequitably distributed as a function of socioeconomic status and race. In response, arts practitioners and policymakers have worked to expand access to arts education among children from lower-income households and racially or ethnically minoritized (REM) backgrounds. In so doing, they…

Rooted in relational philosophies, restorative practices (RP) in schools are initiatives that seek to provide alternatives to exclusionary discipline. Restorative conferences (RC), in particular, aim to repair harm and reintegrate youth following a conflict. Despite abundant theorizing about conference benefits and hypothesized mechanisms of…