Michael Little, Tim Drake, Lora Cohen-Vogel, Austin Gragson, Victor Cadilla
{"title":"Principal Leadership of Pre-K Programs in Elementary Schools: Evidence from North Carolina","authors":"Michael Little, Tim Drake, Lora Cohen-Vogel, Austin Gragson, Victor Cadilla","doi":"10.1177/08959048241271365","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048241271365","url":null,"abstract":"Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) programs are becoming increasingly common in elementary schools across the United States—in fact, a recent analysis of federal data revealed that 57% of public schools have a Pre-K grade. Despite the prevalence of Pre-K programs in schools, principals—known to be among the most important factors in school success—often lack the knowledge and professional supports to effectively lead Pre-K programs. In this study, guided by sensemaking theory, we work to advance knowledge on Pre-K principal leadership through a sequential mixed-methods analysis of elementary school principals in the state of North Carolina. Our study includes a statewide survey of all lead and assistant principals in the state ( N = 520) as well as follow-up interviews with 27 of the surveyed principals. Our findings reveal that while they report strong conceptual support for the Pre-K programs in their schools, principals demonstrate limited engagement with them. We also find that principal background and preparation in early education and the proportion of students from a Pre-K program that ultimately enroll in the school for kindergarten are important factors that help explain variation in principal orientations to Pre-K leadership.","PeriodicalId":47728,"journal":{"name":"Educational Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142268022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Educational Policy: Analysis, Action, and Advocacy Across Contexts","authors":"Jeffrey S. Brooks, Matthew P. Sinclair","doi":"10.1177/08959048241274334","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048241274334","url":null,"abstract":"This article is the introduction to a special issue of Educational Policy titled, “Educational Policy: Analysis, Action, and Advocacy Across Contexts.” The special issue presents contemporary education policy analyses from the United States, Canada, and Australia, which collectively represent methodological, contextual, and theoretical diversity. Individually, they offer detailed examinations of education policy processes and outcomes with a common focus on equity. The articles represent a spectrum of approaches to analysing education policymaking and enactment and point out various ways that educators, scholars, policymakers, and activists can take action. In this article, the co-editors identify key themes that distinguish the special issue’s contribution and explain the importance of education policy analysis that informs future advocacy toward more equitable policy processes and outcomes across contexts.","PeriodicalId":47728,"journal":{"name":"Educational Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142224199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Relationship Between Teacher Collaboration and Instructional Practices, Instructional Climate, and Social Relations","authors":"Robert Shand, Roger D. Goddard","doi":"10.1177/08959048241278290","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048241278290","url":null,"abstract":"There is growing consensus about the importance of teacher collaboration. Less clear are the mechanisms by which teacher collaboration can positively impact student achievement. We address this gap by examining two questions using panel data methods. First, does the degree to which teachers collaborate predict future growth in conditions relevant to student learning, including teachers’ instructional practice, instructional climate, and trust relations? Second, does growth over time in collaboration affect growth in these outcomes? We find evidence that both collaboration at baseline and its growth over time are positive predictors of change in teacher practice, instructional climate, and trust relations.","PeriodicalId":47728,"journal":{"name":"Educational Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142224204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Associations Between Administrative Burden and Children’s ECE Stability During the Covid-19 Pandemic","authors":"Karen Babbs Hollett","doi":"10.1177/08959048241271356","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048241271356","url":null,"abstract":"The Covid-19 pandemic caused widespread closures of early care and education (ECE) facilities that negatively impacted children’s socioemotional, behavioral, and academic development. Policies permitting child care centers to remain open by obtaining waivers from closure directives involved varying levels of administrative burden. This study examined administrative burden within waiver policies and its association with ECE stability, as measured by children’s enrollment in waiver-obtaining child care centers. I found Black children were significantly less likely than White children to be enrolled in a waiver-obtaining center, and also far less likely to have a center that obtained a waiver very early on in the pandemic. Analyses showed rates of enrollment in waiver-obtaining centers were far lower among children whose centers experienced more administrative burden, and suggested racial disparities in ECE stability were driven by Black children’s concentrated residence in communities where the waiver application process was more burdensome.","PeriodicalId":47728,"journal":{"name":"Educational Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142185356","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Heather McCambly, Krystal Villanosa, Claire L. Mackevicius
{"title":"Educational Philanthropy’s “Racial Reckoning” in the Wake of 2020: Understanding Grantmakers’ Responses to Racialized Crises","authors":"Heather McCambly, Krystal Villanosa, Claire L. Mackevicius","doi":"10.1177/08959048241263843","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048241263843","url":null,"abstract":"The intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic and anti-Black violence prompted talk of racial reckoning among educational grantmakers in 2020 to 2021. This study examines the nature and extent of this reckoning, offering insights into policy actors’ responses to racialized crises. Through an analysis of grantmakers’ professed policy repertoires—consisting of administrative practices, sites of intervention, and sources of expertise—we delineate the mechanisms shaping grantmaker responses to sociopolitical crises. While some grantmakers temporarily shifted administrative practices in response to COVID-19, deeper changes remained elusive. The study highlights how institutionalized white-centered norms and practices persist within educational policymaking, constraining material progress toward racial equity. Moreover, it underscores the pivotal role of proximity to racial injustice in motivating substantive changes to policy repertoires. We conclude with an appeal to grantmakers and other policy actors to shift from performative reckoning to tangible reparative actions that can weaken racialized structures.","PeriodicalId":47728,"journal":{"name":"Educational Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142224203","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rezoning Educational Opportunities: The Relationship Between School Attendance Zone Boundary Changes and Access to Schools of Varying Quality","authors":"Sarah Asson","doi":"10.1177/08959048241271370","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048241271370","url":null,"abstract":"U.S. public schools provide substantially different educational opportunities to students—even within school districts, where attendance zone boundaries (AZBs) shape most children’s access to schools. The (re)drawing of AZBs is therefore a highly consequential policy decision. In this paper, I study how AZB changes in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area affect children of different races between 2000 and 2020, including how they alter children’s travel times to school and access to school-level educational opportunities. Findings are starkly unequal, with rezoning disproportionately negatively affecting Black and Hispanic children. Results highlight the need for educational leaders to explicitly consider how AZB changes will redistribute opportunity within their districts.","PeriodicalId":47728,"journal":{"name":"Educational Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142224200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Race Placed: Special Education Identification and Placement of Black Students","authors":"Hardy Murphy, Cassandra Cole, Hannah Bolte","doi":"10.1177/08959048241268017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048241268017","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates the overrepresentation of Black students in special education by looking at the association of race and related variables with referral, identification, and placement. Analyses were performed on a statewide sample of students and teachers to investigate relationships between student, teacher and school demographics, and special education identification and placement. The results find (1) black students assigned to black teachers are less likely to be identified for special services, (2) black students are less likely to be in inclusive placements with increases in white student enrollment, and (3) black students are more likely to be identified for special services and placed in more restrictive settings.","PeriodicalId":47728,"journal":{"name":"Educational Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142224202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The State of Elementary School Recess in Georgia: Policy, the Pandemic, and Patterns of Play","authors":"Karyn A Allee, Erica DeCuir, Dawn M Robinson","doi":"10.1177/08959048241271367","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048241271367","url":null,"abstract":"While we continue to see a growing push for the restoration and codification of recess in elementary schools, policy does not necessarily equal practice. Georgia recently passed legislation requiring at least 20 minutes of recess per day for students in PK-5. The purpose of this research study was to survey elementary school educators to reveal the temporal (i.e., duration, frequency, and cancellation practices) and descriptive (i.e., type, equipment, place) characteristics of recess in Georgia’s public elementary schools. The results of this study, which can be summed up statistically and descriptively as less recess overall, and less free play specifically, as well as reduced access to safe play spaces since the onset of the pandemic, yield important policy implications for Georgia’s school children. These implications relate to persistent disparities in immediate and long-term positive outcomes for children across multiple domains including academic, social-emotional, and behavioral.","PeriodicalId":47728,"journal":{"name":"Educational Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142227726","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sarah Diem, Deonte E. Iverson, A. Welton, Sarah Walters
{"title":"A Path Toward Racial Justice in Education: Anti-Racist Policy Decision Making in School Districts","authors":"Sarah Diem, Deonte E. Iverson, A. Welton, Sarah Walters","doi":"10.1177/08959048241271329","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048241271329","url":null,"abstract":"The U.S. education system has been a critical site in the nation’s ongoing fight for racial equity. Yet, despite many attempts to promote equity within and across schools, efforts fall short in a system designed to uphold norms rooted in whiteness and white supremacy. We need anti-racist educational leaders who can identify and push back at the racial bias embedded in educational policies. Through a research-practice partnership with a Midwestern high school, we sought to understand how an anti-racist policy decision-making protocol can be used to redress inequitable policies to be racially just. The anti-racist policy decision-making protocol promotes social justice by empowering school practitioners to become policy agents. Implications from our findings point to the need for school practitioners to be critically introspective and identify and directly address the politics of whiteness that can ensue when working in partnership to do anti-racist policy change.","PeriodicalId":47728,"journal":{"name":"Educational Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141921871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"School Funding and Equity in Australia: Critical Moments in the Context of Text Production Phase of the Education Policy Cycle","authors":"Matthew P. Sinclair, Jeffrey S. Brooks","doi":"10.1177/08959048241268250","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048241268250","url":null,"abstract":"Education policy has long been analyzed as a cycle where various actors influence different stages. However, few such studies have focused on identifying and interrogating the specific moments that shape an education policy’s overall equity trajectory. This article uses Bowe, Ball, and Gold’s policy cycle as an exploratory theoretical framework, focusing on the historic Review of Funding for Schooling (2011) in Australia, which evaluated the nation’s school funding policy. The authors concentrate on the Context of Text Production phase of its policymaking process, and consider the implications for equity. From this work, the authors highlight two “critical moments” that they argue significantly influenced how the appointed panel approached equity. Their theorizing of a “critical moment” offers valuable insights for researchers and stakeholders seeking to understand or influence education policy.","PeriodicalId":47728,"journal":{"name":"Educational Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141923736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}