Educational Policy, Volume 39, Issue 2, Page 522-528, March 2025.
STEM Education Reform in Urban High Schoolscritically examines the reality of STEM at a school level in the United States. In essence, its fundamental questions include: What actually happens in schools—and especially to students—when STEM becomes the ...

Educational Policy, Volume 39, Issue 2, Page 494-521, March 2025.
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 & ...

Educational Policy, Volume 39, Issue 2, Page 390-427, March 2025.
Enrollment in online schools (OS) has increased significantly in recent years. Due to advancements in technology, OS are able to provide education entirely online to K–12 students. Despite their growth, there has been little research on the working ...

Educational Policy, Volume 39, Issue 2, Page 464-493, March 2025.
“Divisive Concepts” laws have sprung up around the nation as a backlash to the widespread commitments to anti-racist education that emerged in summer 2020. This critical policy analysis examines the concepts central to Florida’s “Individual Freedom Act” [...

Educational Policy, Volume 39, Issue 2, Page 324-356, March 2025.
The success and failure of education reform policies often depend on the strategies of reformers. This article suggests a framework to understand thepositionalityof reformers, as they vary in their strategy (i.e., technical vs. relational) and focus for ...

Educational Policy, Volume 39, Issue 2, Page 357-389, March 2025.
While recent research provides insights into how district and school leaders responded to the extraordinary disruptions created by the COVID-19 pandemic, less is known about the role of influential state-level education leaders during the crisis. In this ...

Educational Policy, Volume 39, Issue 2, Page 279-323, March 2025.
As the COVID-19 crisis disrupted schooling, recovery efforts in California included the adoption of Senate Bill (SB) 98, which mandated local educational agencies to complete Learning Continuity and Attendance Plans (LCPs). These plans act as critical ...

Educational Policy, Volume 39, Issue 2, Page 428-463, March 2025.
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 ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
This article presents a synthesized historiography of higher education in American prisons, exploring interactions of federal, state, and institution-level policies within six specific states: California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York, ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
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 ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
State-level postsecondary education governance has experienced a lull in successful reform efforts since the turn of the century. However, in 2020, the Utah System of Higher Education and Utah System of Technical Colleges were formally merged following a ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
Accountability efforts under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has brought greater attention to school-level processes and practices and their impact on student outcomes. This has pushed states to report more school-level inputs, including per-pupil ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
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 ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
This paper explores the policy, pedagogy, and practice affordances and constraints of teacher education as an environment to develop pre-service teachers’ antiracism commitments. Through critical analysis of interviews with pre-service teachers and ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
This longitudinal convergent mixed-methods study sheds light on how school-based personnel such as educators, counselors, and district leaders perceive the needs of immigrant youth. Additionally, we explore how immigrant youth experience belonging and ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
This study investigates the overrepresentation of Black students in special education by looking at the association of race and related variables with referral, identification, and placement. Analyses were performed on a statewide sample of students and ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
While we continue to see a growing push for the restoration and codification of recess in elementary schools, policy does not necessarily equal practice. Georgia recently passed legislation requiring at least 20 minutes of recess per day for students in ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
The intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic and anti-Black violence prompted talk of racial reckoning among educational grantmakers in 2020 to 2021. This study examines the nature and extent of this reckoning, offering insights into policy actors’ responses ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
Full-service community schools are increasingly adopted as educational policy nationwide to transform educational institutions into community hubs, addressing racial and social disparities and countering deficit narratives related to marginalized youth ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
Today’s school integration policies in the United States are often “race neutral.” Scholarship on these race-neutral school integration policies finds they do not change the racial and ethnic composition of schools or do so under very specific conditions. ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
Texas legislation mandated that colleges offer developmental education using a corequisite model, where students concurrently enroll in introductory college-level courses with supplemental developmental support. Using data from the population of Texas ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
Though researchers have documented the consequences and causes of chronic absenteeism, there is limited empirical evidence about what schools and districts are actually doing to improve attendance. This study presents evidence about the types of ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
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,...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
Dropping out of high school creates barriers to economic self-sufficiency. Career and technical education (CTE) may help students engage with school by showing the connection between school and work. Prior research has shown that high school CTE ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
Chile has followed the international trend of implementing a standards-based reform, with the particularity of encompassing both academic and non-academic outcomes. Drawing on interview data from four school cases in Santiago, Chile, this study examines ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
Although existing research explores the need for mental health for students in P-12 schools, scholarship regarding mental health needs and support for teachers is lacking, particularly in rural contexts. This study used sequential exploratory mixed ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
This qualitative study examines the experiences of student leaders working in partnership with teacher leaders to implement Vermont’s Act 77, a state mandated personalized learning policy. Drawing on a theoretical framework that connects the zones of ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
This study highlights the efforts of a Detroit-based community research group to understand chronic absenteeism in a way that acknowledges its underlying complexities. Employing Participatory Action Research, an intergenerational team of community members ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
Since 2020, legislators across the country have introduced bills aimed at banning instruction of Critical Race Theory in universities. This qualitative study examined 53 bills, most of which contained lists of “divisive concepts” that professors were ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
College policies may support intentional cross-cultural interactions among peers. This study examines the impact of having an international roommate on the college outcomes of domestic U.S. students. Using institutional data on more than 6,600 U.S. ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
Most college graduates in the United States earn excess credit hours (ECH) that do not apply to their degree. In response, multiple U.S. states and college systems have shifted the costs of ECH away from taxpayers and toward students—a response which ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
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 ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
As neighborhoods across New York City gentrify, Dual Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) has become a big draw for gentrifier families. Our research contributes to growing literature on DLBE gentrification by examining how a racially diverse group of ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
This interview-based study examines how justice-oriented K-12 administrators and teachers in Iowa make sense of the recent state-level education policy, H.F. 802. Synthesizing literature on Critical Policy Analysis and epistemic justice, we introduce ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
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 ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
There is growing consensus about the importance of teacher collaboration. Less clear are the mechanisms by which teacher collaboration can positively impact student achievement. We address this gap by examining two questions using panel data methods. ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) programs are becoming increasingly common in elementary schools across the United States—in fact, a recent analysis of federal data revealed that 57% of public schools have a Pre-K grade. Despite the prevalence of Pre-K programs ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
This study investigates the impact of an extended school week in 30 primary schools on track recommendations, an achievement-related outcome, at the school level. The intervention is part of a major urban policy in one of the most disadvantaged areas in ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
States diverge widely when it comes to education funding choices, leading to substantial differences in how much states spend on schooling, the role of local versus state revenue sources, and relative differences among districts in funding levels. Prior ...

Educational Policy, Ahead of Print.
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.