In this research article, Leslie K. Finger and David M. Houston explore how different ideas about the objectives of education can influence families' schooling preferences and choices. For their study they employed a conjoint experiment embedded in an online survey to examine participants' preferences for various school characteristics, including…

While research has consistently shown the positive effects of having a teacher of the same race on various student outcomes, the literature has not examined how racial match affects the everyday interactions within classrooms. This research article by Dan Battey, Luis A. Leyva, Immanuel Williams, Victoria A. Belizario, Rachel Greco, and Roshni…

In this article, A. Adrienne Walker introduces the concept of person fit to education stakeholders as a source of evidence to inform the trustworthiness of a test score for interpretation and use (validity). Person fit analyses are used in educational measurement research to explore the degree to which a person's test score can be interpreted as a…

In this article, Jessica Wolpaw Reyes investigates the link between lead exposure and student achievement in Massachusetts. Childhood exposure to even low levels of lead can adversely affect neurodevelopment, behavior, and cognitive performance. Using a panel dataset of cohorts of children born in the 1990s who were third and fourth graders in the…

In this article, Uma Jayakumar, Rican Vue, and Walter Allen present their study of Young Black Scholars (YBS), a community-initiated college preparatory program in Los Angeles. Through in-depth interviews and surveys with twenty-five middle- and higher-income Black college students, they document the positive role of community in facilitating…

Supporting undergraduate achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines is paramount to ensuring our nation's continued scientific and technological advancement. In this quantitative study, Lorelle Espinosa examines the effect of precollege characteristics, college experiences, and institutional setting on the…

Children of immigrant backgrounds--children who are immigrants themselves or were born to immigrant parents--are the largest segment of growth in the U.S. school population. In this exploratory interdisciplinary analysis, Filindra, Blanding, and Garcia Coll ask whether the context of policy and political receptivity, even when they are not…

Drawing from the educational experiences of fifty-four undocumented immigrant college students, Laura E. Enriquez seeks to uncover the concrete ways in which social capital is used to successfully navigate K-12 educational institutions and pursue a higher education. Enriquez argues that there is a need for a more grounded understanding of how…