This study explores the effect of waiver school improvement designations on student achievement. In states that received waivers, schools designated for improvement had worse outcomes than undesignated schools (−0.044 SD). The average effect obscures the significant positive effect of the designations in 14 of the 44 states that received waivers. Federal per pupil education funding accounted for half of the effect of waiver school improvement designations on student achievement. These results reinforce the importance of providing additional resources to support school improvement, particularly for post-pandemic school improvement policy.

This study investigated causal links between states’ principal evaluation policies and academic achievement among economically disadvantaged students, focusing on two policy levers: (1) required inclusion of student growth data (output-based) and (2) mandated observations or site visits (input-based). States enacting the output-based principal evaluation policy did not typically have higher National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) achievement scores among eighth-grade free or reduced lunch eligible (FRL) students than states without these policies. In contrast, the input-based policy had a small-to-moderate positive effect on eighth-grade reading achievement scores, particularly among FRL students. The importance of focusing on principal behaviors rather than student achievement is discussed.

This paper examines the financial resources allocated to Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) schools under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in the United States. Our analyses demonstrate that CSI schools do receive additional funding and spend more than comparable non-CSI schools. However, we question whether the magnitude of this support is sufficient to promote meaningful improvement for these schools. Our research reveals that CSI schools receive and spend about $345 more per pupil compared with non-CSI schools, but to elevate low-performing schools to the average performance of non-CSI schools would require a significantly larger investment, between $8,000 and $21,000 per pupil yearly. The existing financial support associated with accountability designations is insufficient to support the improvement activities of low-performing schools. We argue for increased and sustained funding for low-performing schools, coupled with support in decision-making and accountability for resource allocation.

Certain statewide promise programs require students to demonstrate financial need, while state performance funding policies sometimes incorporate a financial bonus that incentivizes colleges to enroll or graduate low-income students. We use data on public, 4-year colleges from 2007–2008 to 2019–2020, and incorporate difference-in-differences analyses and event studies. We find that colleges affected by promise programs in Louisiana, New York, and Washington observed no changes to the number and percent of first-time, full-time (FTFT) Pell grant recipients. Colleges in states subject to a performance funding bonus experienced no changes to the number and percent of FTFT Pell grants recipients, and colleges in Louisiana subject to both policies experienced no changes to either outcome.

Education policy has long been analyzed as a cycle where various actors influence different stages. However, few such studies have focused on identifying and interrogating the specific moments that shape an education policy’s overall equity trajectory. This article uses Bowe, Ball, and Gold’s policy cycle as an exploratory theoretical framework, focusing on the historic Review of Funding for Schooling (2011) in Australia, which evaluated the nation’s school funding policy. The authors concentrate on the Context of Text Production phase of its policymaking process, and consider the implications for equity. From this work, the authors highlight two “critical moments” that they argue significantly influenced how the appointed panel approached equity. Their theorizing of a “critical moment” offers valuable insights for researchers and stakeholders seeking to understand or influence education policy.

As postsecondary developmental education policy reforms are implemented, increased attention must be given to students with learning and attention disabilities. The purpose of this study was to bring these students into the conversation, by examining their representation in developmental education broadly, as well the effect of this intervention on their college persistence and credit accumulation. Results show students with learning or attention disabilities are overrepresented in developmental education and could experience heterogenous effects on their postsecondary outcomes. Policymakers should be purposeful about consideration of this growing group of students in continued developmental education reforms.

Student absenteeism in the earliest years of elementary school has been linked to a range of negative outcomes. Though the literature has examined numerous factors that are associated with children missing school, the role of teachers—especially at the early elementary level—has not been well understood. Given that students spend the majority of their time in elementary school with one teacher in a single classroom, a large component of early elementary school is underexplored, and our understanding of absenteeism remains incomplete. In this vein, we looked into whether having novice versus more experienced teachers was linked to the frequency of student absenteeism in the earliest years of school. Using a national dataset including repeated observations of students in grades K-2, we found that novice teachers have students with fewer absences and a lower probability of being chronically absent. There were no differences in the outcomes of novice teachers as a function of child nor classroom characteristics. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

This study highlights the Community Schools (CS) implementation experience of five rural Vermont schools. Principals and CS coordinators participating in a state-funded program aimed at CS establishment were interviewed to understand better their experience with implementing a school/district-wide policy and reform effort. Findings suggest several elements play a critical role in the successful implementation of rural CSs, including leveraging already-present community engagement practices, school leader embodiment of CS values/mentality, as well as collaborative leadership practices that broaden participation and level the field for all parties involved. Implications for community school implementation within rural contexts are discussed.

We draw on several critical paradigms, disciplines, and theories to interrogate 13 anti-LGBTQ+ educational policy texts. Using Institutional Theory (Anagnostopoulos et al., 2010; Carpenter & Feroz, 2001) and Poststructural Policy Analysis (Bacchi & Goodwin, 2016), we explore how these texts may cause separations between policy and practice, how they construct “teachers” and “students” as subjects and objects of the state, and how they promote cisheteropatriarchy. The terms reactive evasion and identity evasiveness are presented to describe central discursive mechanisms in the texts. The term identity specificity, or the humanizing practices of recognizing diverse identities, is coined as a fundamental component of educational quality. We situate our work as an enunciation of critical resistance within anti-oppressive discourses and assert three main arguments: (a) these dictates will adversely affect educational institutions; (b) a fundamental component of educational quality is identity specificity; and (c) policy not centered on the humanizing testimony of those about whom that policy is generated reinforces oppressive regimes.

This paper uses a reflective, retrospective case study methodology to analyze data from a 10-year University-Community partnership focused on supporting implementation and improvement of a Prenatal-Grade 3 (P3) system in an elementary school. Using a framework for centering equity in Collective Impact approaches, we analyze the steps we took as research partners/program evaluators to address racial and other inequities while highlighting missed opportunities to better center racial equity in the evaluation and P3 Initiative work. Through our analysis, we seek to identify where and how racial inequities surfaced, to describe how systemic racism influenced the evaluation and P3 Initiative process, and how this served to perpetuate the status quo and prevent transformative systems change. Results speak to opportunities for researchers, funders, and policymakers to identify and disrupt conventionally-accepted approaches to educational research and to work more effectively to advance educational equity for children and their families.