Review of Educational Research, Ahead of Print.
This meta-analysis synthesizes research findings on the effects of integrated STEM education implemented in K12 settings. The implementation fell into three categories: (1) adopting integrated STEM education, (2) using extra teaching and learning strategies to enhance integrated STEM education, and (3) using specific learning technologies to support integrated STEM education. Student learning outcomes were investigated in terms of knowledge and skills acquisition, problem-solving task performance, and student perceptions. Based on 124 extracted and coded studies (2010–2022), the findings are as follows. All three types of interventions yielded a medium effect on knowledge acquisition and a small effect on student perceptions. Besides, adopting integrated STEM education had a large effect on cognitive skills; using extra teaching and learning strategies in integrated STEM programs produced a medium effect on cognitive skills and problem-solving task performance; using specific learning technologies had a small effect on problem-solving task performance. Some factors, such as task type (inquiry or design-based task) and program duration, may influence STEM learning outcomes. Future studies should pay more attention to the effective design and implementation of STEM programs by integrating the four core characteristics of STEM education, applying extra teaching and learning strategies, incorporating relevant learning technologies, and assessing learning outcomes in multiple dimensions.

Review of Educational Research, Ahead of Print.
Universal behavior screening is used in schools worldwide to detect students with and at risk for behavioral challenges. A plethora of instruments is available for this purpose, though little metascience has been conducted to review and synthesize methods used to study these instruments in educational settings, nor is there a comprehensive list of instruments to support educators in selecting an appropriate tool. We conducted this review to provide a rigorous—and accessible—overview of the research base for universal behavior screening instruments to facilitate educators’ decision-making process when selecting a systematic screening tool for the students they serve and identify areas of further refinement for the research community. This scoping review includes an extensive list of behavior screening instruments, an examination of how these tools have been studied, and areas for future research. We identified 56 behavior screening instruments. The most common psychometric analyses included coefficient alpha for internal consistency, correlations between theoretically related variables, and confirmatory factor analysis. We discuss other methods currently employed as well as methods and complexities for consideration in future research.

Review of Educational Research, Ahead of Print.
Over the past decades, theories of cross-language transfer have widely focused on the proficiency required to transfer a single linguistic modality in one language to that same linguistic modality in another language (e.g., first-language reading to second/foreign-language reading). To move beyond cross-language transfer in a single modality, a new theory, the transfer integration hypothesis proposes that reading and writing are related across learners’ first and second languages. To test the transfer integration hypothesis, this systematic qualitative review synthesizes the findings of peer-reviewed studies on the reading-writing connections across languages. Evidence of cross-language reading-writing connections to support the transfer integration hypothesis was found with much variability resulting from literacy and linguistic factors. These factors include multilinguals’ language experience and grade level, reading and writing measures, language exposure, motivation, language proficiency, and language structure similarities and distance.

Review of Educational Research, Ahead of Print.
To better connect theory and research with practice, educational research organizations such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA) urge scholars to cultivate meaningful partnerships with communities and schools. Despite these efforts, participatory research—especially that which comprehensively advances transformative, relevant, and equity-oriented goals across research processes—remains rare within the field. This meta-methodology analyzes articles published across AERA journals to answer the following question: In what ways do educational research articles braid participatory values discourse (“the talk”) with relational, reciprocal, and responsible methods (“the walk”)? Results illuminate the potential for such work to (1) value relationality through (re)allocation of researcher and participant roles, (2) value reciprocity through construction of community-determined transformative purposes, and (3) value responsibility through legitimization of partner expertise. The study offers implications for co-design, co-implementation, co-interpretation, and co-sharing of research, theory, and practice, as well as methodological recommendations for researchers and community leaders.

Review of Educational Research, Ahead of Print.
Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs are widely used, yet concerns have arisen about whether the evidence for these programs extends to students of color (SOC). The data in this study include published articles (n = 158) of trials (n = 97) of SEL interventions (n = 32) from the CASEL SELect list of evidence-based SEL programs. Using racial frames common in intervention research, we examined the extent of SOC representation in SEL intervention trials, how authors attend to race/ethnicity in their analyses, and whether and how these analyses show evidence that these programs benefit specific racial/ethnic groups. While doing so, we discuss the complex nature of race and racism in SEL research. Eight interventions provided some evidence that they benefit Black students and four showed some evidence that they benefit Hispanic/Latiné students. No trials provided evidence of benefit to any other groups of SOC. Findings suggest that while representation of SOC in SEL trials has improved, additional research is needed to understand to whom the evidence for SEL program effectiveness applies.

Review of Educational Research, Volume 95, Issue 1, Page 154-170, February 2025.

Review of Educational Research, Ahead of Print.
A growing body of educational research uses opportunity hoarding as a construct to understand advantaged families’ engagement in K–12 U.S. schooling. Our systematic review of the literature reveals that advantaged parents hoard educational resources and opportunities in three key areas: (1) the creation and maintenance of white space; (2) school choice/selection; and (3) organizational routines. While much can be learned from the extant research, we detail conceptual, empirical, and methodological gaps in the literature as well as outline a future research agenda that can inform equity-oriented educational policy, practice, and scholarship. We argue that the concept of opportunity hoarding serves as a useful analytic tool for understanding how actors advantaged by race and/or class create and maintain educational inequities and can guide efforts to ameliorate it; therefore, it is important to understand how educational researchers might extend its use.

Review of Educational Research, Ahead of Print.
When beginning readers read aloud, the teacher’s feedback affects their reader identities. Teacher’s feedback may also imprint a strong model of what reading is and what proficient readers do. This systematic review investigates the characteristics of teachers’ feedback on elementary students’ reading and furthers its potential to support students’ agency in learning to read. A total of 52 empirical studies in K–5 settings were identified and analyzed. Findings suggest clear associations between how feedback was presented and what aspects of reading were targeted: typically, either explicit feedback on decoding or implicit feedback on meaning. Further, support for student agency was more strongly associated with implicit feedback practices. Finally, two groups of students—struggling readers and L2 learners—tended to receive feedback that does not promote agency. The review concludes by discussing the potential of feedback practices to support students in becoming proficient and independent readers.

Review of Educational Research, Ahead of Print.
Refugee and asylum-seeking youth of color from African and Middle Eastern countries contend with racist-ableist structures in host-nation schools, primarily through newcomer supports offered to them. Considering their unique migratory experiences, this comprehensive systematic literature review explored how youth of color from Africa and the Middle East are supported in host-nation schools already entrenched in systemic racism and ableism. This review advanced precarious citizenship as a framework to explain student experiences. The findings showed how segregation and exclusion, ableist determinations of civic fitness, and assimilationist imperatives introduced precarity and foreclosed educational opportunities. Implications for research and practice are discussed, emphasizing the importance of disrupting racism and ableism in supporting newcomer youth of color.

Review of Educational Research, Ahead of Print.
The series of high-profile Black deaths in the United States between 2012–2022 (e.g., Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor) mark an important turning point in studies of Black life in education. The increasing use of anti-Blackness theorizing coupled with the introduction of Black critical theory (BlackCrit) to the field of education has inspired new research investigations aiming to understand anti-Black racial harm more precisely. Growing interest in such study leads us to wonder how education researchers envision Black life in their work, and more specifically, the subject of Blackness and its relationship to notions of humanity. As scholars whose research demonstrates a disciplined intellectual commitment to Black humanity, we observe that a uniform scholarly conception of humanity + Blackness remains elusive. In this systematic review of 226 peer-reviewed articles, we seek to better understand (a) how education researchers conceptualize Black humanity in articles published during a period of intense social change and political upheaval in the United States (i.e., 2012–2022); (b) what specific claims they make about Black life as a result; and (c) what long-term implications emerge as a result of this knowledge production. Ultimately, this paper offers insight for sharpening the theoretical and interpretive heft of education research that probes the substance of Black people’s lived education realities, the knowledge from which is desperately needed to imagine, design, and steward education futures that all America’s children need to thrive.