The school-to-prison pipeline represents an educational environment that allows public schools to push many at-risk children out of school and into the juvenile justice or the adult criminal justice system. Consequently, this study explores the disproportionate rates of discipline when comparing Black and White female students in the national…

This article examines historical context shaping the achievement gap while considering school choice. Students in low performing districts are often labeled as unmotivated or not achievement oriented. These assertions are upheld by citing attendance rates, graduation rates, and achievement data. This research article demonstrates that a sample of…

Students placed in special education programs for emotional and behavioral disorders with emotional disturbance (ED) identification have academic outcomes that lag both students in regular and special education. This issue is especially important for youth attending urban schools. Although prior research has examined students identified as ED,…

To influence school achievement, researchers investigate student academic help-seeking. However, a growing population of students of color combined with the risk of poorer academic performance yields attention toward African American student academic help-seeking. In this review, 13 studies analyzed sampling characteristics, theoretical…

A meta-analysis, including 13 studies, was undertaken on the relationship between the exercise of student prayer and academic and behavioral outcomes in urban schools. Analyses both with and without sophisticated controls (e.g., socioeconomic status, race, and gender) were used. Additional analyses were done to determine whether the effects of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect "reflective coping, suppressive coping, and reactive coping" had on stress and indicators of well-being among Hispanic undergraduate students (N = 177) from a Hispanic Serving Institution. Findings demonstrate that both reactive and suppressive coping had separate but important…

Response to intervention (RtI) is touted as an equity-focused provision of special education policy that holds promise for reducing overrepresentation and providing academic opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. However, teachers working to implement RtI have encountered complex challenges that stifle equitable…

Immigrant students in U.S. educational system experience challenges learning to adapt and integrate into new educational environments. Little is known, however, about factors that facilitate acculturation strategies of immigrant youth from West Africa and how they affect their academic success and challenges faced. Considering the current…

Despite ongoing reform efforts, academic achievement in the U.S. educational system is declining both on internal measures as well as on international comparative assessments. While students from affluent backgrounds continue to do well academically, there is a growing achievement gap as underprivileged urban students fall further behind. This…

This study examined factors contributing to achievement gaps between White and African American students in 2,868 diverse school districts across the United States. Using pooled data across five school years (2008-2013), six grade levels (grades third to eighth, which typically include students aged 8 years-14 years) and two different subjects…

In 2003, in an effort to address St. Louis Public Schools' (SLPS') declining enrollment and debt, the interim superintendent closed 16 schools. In 2016, more than a decade since the school closings, the enrollment dwindled from 44,000 students to half that number. This study is an examination of the closed schools to determine if displaced African…

Since "Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education" et al., school districts seeking to voluntarily integrate schools have designed a host of metrics to structure within-school diversity using characteristics of students' neighborhoods rather than the race of individual students. This study utilizes a correlational-multiple…

Many Latino students miss opportunities to develop their full potential in U.S. schools. Increasing attention is being paid to the malleable, nonacademic, factors that can affect student learning. The current study sought to evaluate the impact of school climate on Language Arts grade for Latino students in a large, low-income, urban middle…

An extensive meta-analysis, including 52 studies, was undertaken on the relationship between character education and student achievement and behavioral outcomes. Additional analyses were done to determine whether the effects of character education differed by student grade level, locale, race, and so on. The results indicated that character…

Educational scholars have argued that poverty can hamper student achievement. In this critical discussion paper, we provide a historiography of how urban poverty increased in America over the last 30 years of the 20th century. We contend that educators and educational researchers working in P-12 urban schools should understand how federal urban…