Federal policy in the United States has urged high schools to expand offerings in career and technical education (CTE) coursework to address persistent gender inequities in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical (STEMM) fields. Unfortunately, gender composition in engineering and health sciences CTE enrollment is highly…

In this study, we asked whether Montessori schools, which tend to have high student engagement, are associated with lower average rates of chronic absenteeism and/or smaller racial disparities therein relative to non-Montessori schools. We use multilevel modeling to answer this question, following an approach proposed in Author et al., (in press)…

We study the total, market-level effects of charter schools, and their mechanisms, on a national level and across multiple outcomes. Using a generalized difference-in-differences method, we find that increasing the charter market share by 10 percentage points increases math and ELA elementary/middle test scores of the entire geographic district in…

The purpose of this study was to explore high school course-taking sequences and their relationship to college enrollment. Specifically, we implemented sequence analysis to discover common course-taking trajectories in math, science, and English language arts using high school transcript data from a recent nationally representative survey. Through…

Research shows that the intensity of high school course-taking is related to postsecondary outcomes. However, there are various approaches to measuring the intensity of students' course-taking. This study presents new measures of coursework intensity that rely on differing levels of quantity and quality of coursework. We used these new indices to…

Academic discourse communities and learning circles are characterized by collaboration, sharing commonalities in terms of social interactions and language. The discourse of these communities is composed of jargon, common terminologies, and similarities in how they construe and communicate meaning. This study examines the extent to which discourse…

The current study provided voice to nominated exemplar classroom teachers in identifying malleable, discrete aspects of the classroom environment, teacher behavior and practices that define culturally responsive instruction. Interview data from a sample of 13 teachers was analyzed using a consensual qualitative research approach. Results provided…

Schools offer an advantageous setting for prevention, early identification, and treatment of mental health problems for youth. However, school mental health (SMH) services are typically not based on evidence for effectiveness, nor are they efficiently delivered, with SMH practitioners (SMHPs) able to only treat a small number of students in need.…

The Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) was awarded an Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Early Phase grant from the U.S. Department of Education in 2017 to develop, implement, and test a promising program to improve student achievement and educational progress for high-need students: Reenergizing Leadership to Achieve…

Developing models and using mathematics are two key practices in internationally recognized science education standards such as the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, 2013). In this paper, we used a virtual performance-based formative assessment to capture students' competencies at both "developing" and "evaluating"…

Earning industry certifications helps people prepare for jobs in a range of careers. Doing so in high school may help students prepare for college as well. Using administrative data on two cohorts of first-time 9th graders in Florida, we examined whether earning a certification was associated with postsecondary enrollment and degree attainment and…

Online credit recovery will likely expand in the coming years as school districts try to address increased course failure rates brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Some researchers and policymakers, however, raise concerns over how much students learn in online courses, and there is limited evidence about the effectiveness of online credit…

This study examines a critical but understudied group in Massachusetts: immigrant newcomers in public high schools. We define newcomers as English learners (ELs) in their first 12 months of schooling in the United States and focus on those who arrive in grades 9-12. These students, many of whom are overage and with interrupted formal educational…

Utilizing a person-centered approach, the present study explored two-hundred and sixty-five adolescents' reports of self-disclosure, help, conflict, and conflict resolution with a close friend to investigate variability in profiles of friendship quality, whether gender and gender homophily and ethnicity homophily of friends are associated with…

Social-emotional learning (SEL) and character education are important components of adolescent development. In this study, we evaluated a randomized controlled trial of CharacterStrong, a curriculum that combines SEL and character education that included 1609 students and 242 teachers across 14 schools. This study applied baseline target…