Rural children are a largely understudied population in language and literacy research, despite the fact that these children often enter school with delays in their language development. Since most rural areas suffered from so-called selective rural outmigration, many parents in rural areas are lower or middle educated. The home literacy climate,…

Indigenous students in the middle-school years who experience difficulties in basic mathematics are a particularly vulnerable group. During these years gaps in performance between educationally disadvantaged students and their peers widen, potentially leading to ongoing economic and social disadvantage. This proposal reports on a teaching…

The persistent failure of contemporary policies to improve school retention rates and close the achievement gap between students from low and high socio-economic (SES) backgrounds should be a matter of grave concern. In this article, we set out to show what it means to be educated in a context of disadvantage from the perspectives of young people…

According to UNICEF, 13.3 million children (0-17 years) worldwide have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Nearly 12 million of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa. Together, with other children who have been severely impacted by the AIDS pandemic, these orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) are at higher risk of missing out on schooling,…

This analysis of the Atlanta test-cheating scandal differs markedly from the version reported in the press. Using discourse analysis, I examined over 50 articles published in the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" ("AJC"), the hometown newspaper at the center of the investigation. Because newspapers are a primary source of…

Pakistani children and education face continuous challenges as a result of human callousness and natural forces. These ordeals are more extreme than in many other parts of the world; however, the disadvantages do not end there. An additional, less explored, issue is the effect of class distinction in the Pakistan school system. The majority of…

This study explored the role of elementary parent involvement coordinators (EPIC) in a Northeast Georgia Title I Charter School District. EPICs were charged with facilitating programs designed to build social capital and network closure for families. This nested case study explored the experiences of five EPICs, each located in one of the five…

For five years, a national testing program has been conducted in Australia. The National Assessment Program provides a basis for measuring improvement against the goals of the 2008 Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians and subsequently the National Education Agreement, which embodies a range of Council of Australian…

The current study considers grade repetition rates in the early years of school, Preparatory (Prep) to Year 3, in Queensland state schools, of which there is a significant gap in the Australian research literature. Data accessed from the Queensland Government's Department of Education and Training (DET), shows that particular groups of students…

America's unyielding academic achievement gap has been a national priority for a long time; yet, some schools have succeeded with academically disadvantaged youth. Usually, these institutions embrace a culture of success and follow an academic curriculum that is grounded in core knowledge and scholastic vocabulary. Academically disadvantaged…

In this paper, I show by means of Yosso's community cultural wealth theoretical framework how equal numbers of early school leavers (ESLs) from the rural and the urban parts of the North-West province cite similar reasons for their early departure from school. The conclusion drawn from this scenario is that, irrespective of their diverse…

With the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, California state policymakers are tasked with determining the subgroup threshold for school-level reporting. To inform this decision, this policy brief explores the implications of utilizing various subgroup sizes using data from the CORE Districts. The authors find that the 20+…

One of the modifications of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (known as the No Child Left Behind Act) gave parents of low-income students in low-performing schools a choice of Supplemental Educational Services (SEdS). SEdS include tutoring or other academic support services offered outside the regular school day, at no charge to students…

The major purpose of this study was to find out how to encourage Title I family engagement as the school funds were decreasing in the next school year. I wanted to determine how to continue, as well as increase, parental engagement at a Title I elementary school in a rural setting. The Title I program focuses on assisting students who are…

Educational processes directed at Indigenous peoples have long propagated a disparity between the educational successes of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students (May 1999), a contrast which can be acutely observed in Australia. It is not surprising, then, that the educational needs of Indigenous students have been poorly served, with the extant…