Contribution: This study demonstrates the efficacy of an ecological belonging intervention in a first-year engineering programming course to increase belonging for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous (BLI) students and close academic equity gaps. Background: Introductory programming courses are often challenging for students and can shape belonging in…

STEM undergraduates navigate lengthy sequences of prerequisite courses covering volumes of science content. Given that these courses may contribute to attrition and equity gaps in STEM, research is needed to test the assumption that prerequisite content benefits students in their future studies and careers. We investigated the relevance of…

There have been substantial advances in the development of states' education data systems over the past 20 years, supported by large investments from the federal government. However, the availability of modern data systems has not translated into meaningful improvements in how consequential state policies, such as funding and accountability…

Childhood obesity is a pervasive health issue, with multifaceted implications for developmental trajectory. Participants included 5,573 K-5 students enrolled in a high-poverty urban public-school setting. Through an informal yet holistic assessment process, students identified as exhibiting overweight issues were compared to peers not designated…

A concerning reality in higher education is the persistent disparity in retention and graduation rates between students of color and White students. These persistent outcome differences are commonly referred to as opportunity or achievement gaps. To address these gaps, higher education institutions are enacting targeted approaches to mitigate or…

Research has documented that socio-economically disadvantaged students (SEDSs) lag behind in reading when compared with their counterparts from privileged backgrounds. Although well-designed instructional interventions could improve students' reading achievement, what is still unknown is which pedagogical approach could improve the reading of…

Former foster youth are one of the lowest-performing groups at the college level, despite existing support programs at colleges. Former foster youth often age out of the foster care system only to be faced with housing insecurity, food insecurity, and a lack of social capital providing support. Former foster youth student-single parents may face…

Prior to the United States' (U.S.) illegal occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom government in 1893 and illegal annexation in 1898, literacy rates and educational attainment in the Hawaiian Kingdom were amongst the highest in the world. In contrast to the educational history of the 19th century, the usurpation of the Hawaiian educational system…

A small subset of education studies analyzes school data collected seasonally (separating the summer from the school year). At first, this work was primarily known for documenting learning loss in the summers, but scholars have since recognized that observing how inequality changes between summer and school periods provides leverage for…

Gender differences in reading and math have been reported for many years. Girls outperform boys in reading (representing a school domain stereotyped as female); boys often perform slightly better in math (a stereotypical male domain). Research has so far investigated the contribution of domain-specific academic self-concepts and interests as well…

Food and housing insecurities among college students are a growing concern, undermining their well-being and academic and social success. This single holistic case study explored how food and housing insecurities impact students at a mid-sized public university in New York using Tinto's (1993) student integration framework. This framework suggests…

This study uses a concurrent embedded mixed-methods design to assess the impact of additional funding on student outcomes in a large, urban school district in the Southeastern United States. The district implemented student-based budgeting (SBB), which allocates dollars to schools based on student characteristics using a weighted student funding…

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, educators and policymakers have scrambled to assess the impact on student learning. Popular metrics that have gained traction are the notions of "years of learning lost" or "months behind," which attempt to quantify the educational setbacks caused by the pandemic. The allure of these…

Title 1 middle schools have always faced unique challenges. Students belonging to families with low socio-economic status and financial stress have to overcome various barriers before they are academically successful and ready for college, career, and life. The COVID-19 pandemic forced students to engage in education outside of traditional school…

Recent research in the United States suggests that student performance differences between private and public schools disappear once student and school level characteristics are controlled for. This is an important result as it suggests that in the absence of such differences delivery of education through public means can be as efficient as that…