In this critical qualitative study, we draw on interviews with sitting Presidents of Color in one state to explore the racialized dimensions of the college and university presidential search and appointment process. Informed by Ray’s racialized organization tenets of whiteness as a credential and racialized agency, our findings show that participants felt hyper-scrutinized and judged against white, masculine standards, norms, and expectations and had to endure explicit and implicit undermining of their potential for campus leadership. Our findings provide practice implications and recommendations for making presidential searches and appointments in higher education more racially equitable and inclusive.

Utilizing Utah state data, the aim of this study is to examine the association between language program types programs (dual language programs [DLI], sheltered instruction [SEI], and English as a second language [ESL]) since first grade and third-grade basic literacy skills of Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs) in the United States. We employ propensity score matching (PSM) to generate matched samples using child and family factors known to be associated with children’s early literacy: child sex, immigrant status, unhoused status, special education status, child met Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) benchmark at start of first grade, as well as family income and parental language (DLI & ESL, n = 380; DLI & SEI, n = 380; SEI & ESL, n = 550). Regression models comparing early literacy outcomes for each matched group indicate small trends, based on effect sizes, in favor of DLI programs when compared to other program types, although differences were not statistically significant. Implications for policy and practice related bilingual education are addressed.

Principal preparation programs play an important role in developing future school leaders’ skills and practices. Internships, or structured opportunities for future leaders to engage in the work of school leadership in hands-on, authentic ways, are among the most essential components of principal preparation. Using longitudinal data from 12 programs in North Carolina, this study extends research on internships by examining the pathways of interns from prior- to post-internship employment. We find that internships are highly localized around interns’ prior- and post-employment schools but not their preparation program, with wide variability in placements between programs. Interns’ demographics do not play a large role in shaping the geography of internship placements. However, we find that preparation program type is strongly related to the geography of internship placements, suggesting that differences in program structure may shape internship placements. We conclude by highlighting the limitations and discussing implications for future research.

This partnership-based study identified how many middle and high school students take care of parents, siblings, and grandparents at home, via student surveys across Rhode Island public schools (N = 48,508; 46% White non-Latinx; 21% Latinx; 47% girls). Further, we investigated how students’ caregiving for family related to their school engagement, belonging, and emotional well-being. A sizable proportion of students reported caring for family for part (29%) or most of the day (7%). Girls and Black, Asian, Latinx, Native, and multiracial youth were more likely to care for family, compared to boys and White non-Latinx youth. Caregiving students from all demographics were more likely to experience intense sadness compared to noncaregivers, revealing a need to support caregiving youth in schools. In addition, caregiving girls reported lower levels of school engagement and school belonging. However, caregiving for part of the day was related to greater belonging among Black and Native youth.

Belonging is a critical factor for supporting student success and well-being in school. Unfortunately, the work of fostering belonging at school for all students continues to face significant challenges. One reason is that the field of education is working from a limited conception of school belonging, based mainly in the discipline of psychology. Belonging is more than just a psychological sense—it is also a social, cultural, and even political process. In this article, Paul Kuttner explores six aspects of belonging that are underemphasized in the school belonging literature, arguing that we should think of school belonging as agentic, intersectional, systemic, political, place-based, and a right. Kuttner proposes a definition of belonging that encompasses these aspects and uses it to suggest future directions for research and practice.

In this article, we analyze student survey data related to sense of belonging and relationships with teachers and adults within and across the fastest growing subgroup of K–12 public school students: students classified as English learners (ELs). Students classified as ELs in our study, overall, felt a similar sense of belonging, or slightly higher sense of belonging than their never and formerly EL-classified peers; however, within the sense of belonging constructs, students classified as ELs varied in their perceptions of school climate. Additionally, current EL-classified students who took the survey in English were more positive than those who took the survey in another language; however, once student demographics and school contexts were held constant, survey language was weakly related to our outcome measures. We conclude by discussing how our findings can guide K–12 education policies, practices, and research to foster inclusive educational environments.

There has been a surge in the number of Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), which are degree-granting, nonprofit, postsecondary institutions that enroll at least 25% Hispanic/Latinx/e undergraduate students. Although HSI scholarship has increased dramatically since around 2010, there is still a gap in knowledge about individuals who fall within the “H” and the diversity among HSIs themselves. Using critical theory and critical methods, the articles in this special topic collection explore the complexities of the Hispanic/Latinx/e identity and the various ways that HSIs fall short of and meet the challenges of serving students at the intersections of identity. This introduction provides a brief overview of the eight articles in this collection and explains the need for this critical approach to HSI scholarship, which we call “intersectional servingness.” We outline the contributions of these eight articles and call on practitioners, scholars, policy intermediaries, funders, and federal agencies to consider the complexities of the “H” while making decisions, advancing research, implementing policies, and creating funding streams that will enhance intersectional servingness.

There is a movement to improve alignment between the early childhood and K–12 education sectors, which I term The Alignment Agenda. This qualitative study provides an in-depth description of this agenda through analysis of data from interviews with 25 elites (e.g., state director of early learning) associated with the agenda and associated documents. The analysis focuses on (1) the problems with the status quo that necessitate alignment reform, (2) the nature of proposed alignment reforms, and (3) the challenges and facilitators of advancing the alignment reforms. Understanding how elites associated with the alignment agenda think about the movement, including key features of alignment reforms, has relevance for policy and practice because these individuals are closely—if not directly—involved in the process of policy development and implementation at the local, state, and federal levels. Further, attention to the topic of aligning the early childhood and K–12 education sectors is likely to increase in coming years as proposals for expansion of the early childhood education sector are adopted and implemented.

Nationally, many school districts are facing a teacher workforce sustainability crisis, and job retention for novice teachers of color is a key area of focus for educational leaders and policymakers. In this study, we draw on nine years of administrative data from Texas K–12 public schools to better understand how teacher-principal ethnoracial matching is associated with patterns of teacher retention and system-exit. Teacher labor markets are geographically small, so we link data from the National Center for Education Statistics containing geographic locale information to explore how the relationship between ethnoracial matching and novice teacher career outcomes varies across urban, suburban, rural, and town school contexts. We find that matching is associated with an increase in the probability of retention and a decrease in the probability of system-exit, with important variation for novice Black and Latinx teachers working in some nonurban school locales.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, our teacher preparation program shifted to an online setting, disrupting a key feature of practice-based teacher preparation: preservice science teachers' (PSTs) approximation of rigorous and responsive instruction during extended pedagogical rehearsals, called macroteaching. Given this unplanned shock to their preparation, we examined how PSTs viewed macroteaching and their evolving participation in the teaching rehearsal. Using a situative perspective, we collected multiple forms of data. We found that although PSTs wanted to enact rigorous and responsive instruction, their participation was deeply affected by the sudden shift to an online setting. Our analysis of video-recorded lessons confirmed PSTs' observations that their instruction became less rigorous and responsive over time. We conclude with questions about teacher preparation during the pandemic.