This dissertation investigates the impact of limited technology access, the quality of remote learning experiences, and racial disparities on SAT math scores among 11th-grade students. The study spans two academic years, 2018/2019 and 2022/2023, offering a longitudinal perspective on the trends in math scores. The research employs a quantitative…

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…

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…

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…

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…

This paper describes the development and use of a tool designed to support educators to use a broad range of professional knowledge to enable inclusive literacy teaching that delivers social justice and narrows the attainment gap associated with poverty. The tool encourages teachers to formally recognise and act on a wide range of evidence about…

Accounts of educational opportunity gaps for Black boys are overwhelmingly focused on later years of development. Achievement and discipline disparities are evident across their lifespan. Life course and intersectionality theories were used to develop a framework for understanding obstacles Black boys face during their preschool through high…

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an unprecedented adoption of online learning in community colleges. On one hand, online learning increases access and offers students flexibility and convenience. On the other hand, existing research illustrates online courses increase achievement and equity gaps. Hence, this article contends that online learning in…

Achievement gaps exist along the lines of race, gender, sexuality, social class, and ability status from elementary school to graduate school in the United States. Instructors can help reduce achievement gaps by adopting practices that have been shown to promote the success of students from marginalized groups, so-called "inclusive teaching…

Social media has increased students' cultural awareness today, pivoting a need to implement cultural responsiveness in the classroom climate. Twenty-first-century learners need effective teachers who create meaningful experiences and optimize student learning by intentionally working to connect with students, adapting to diverse cultures, and…

In all years of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in primary mathematics education, Finland ranked in the lower places (44-61) in the dispersion index (the difference in scores between the 95th percentile and the 5th percentile), while Israel ranked in the upper places (1-3) in the same index. In the last PISA test, Israel…

What if you had a collaborative process of looking at student data that could pinpoint student gaps in learning and suggest effective strategies to close those gaps? What if you knew not only what you should "start" doing to enhance student learning, but also what you should stop doing because it hasn't given you the hoped-for results?…

This book explains seven critical steps to improve children's writing. Though seemingly 'natural', writing proves devilishly difficult for far too many school pupils and closing this gap can have a lasting impact on their academic and life success. With the goal of giving every teacher the knowledge and skill to teach writing with confidence, it…