School Nurses Practices Promoting Self-Management and Healthcare Transition Skills for Adolescents with Chronic Conditions in Urban Public Schools: A Mixed Methods Study

Background: Adolescents and young adults (AYA) with chronic conditions should acquire self-management skills as part of their healthcare transition (HCT) from pediatric to adult-focused care. HCT/self-management skills have the potential to help mitigate health disparities among minority AYA with chronic conditions. This study investigated school nurses’ practices promoting HCT/self-management skills in urban public schools. Methods: Seventy-nine nurses from three urban school districts in Massachusetts completed a survey of 32 Likert-type questions on HCT/self-management skills, eight demographic questions, and five open-ended practice questions assessing how often they have asked students with chronic conditions about HCT/self-management skills, based on the UNC TRxANSITION IndexTM. Results: Among the 79 school nurses who participated (response rate 76%), 67% never or rarely assessed students’ knowledge of HCT/self-management, and 90% would use a tool that promotes/measures HCT/self-management skills. Conclusion: In our study sample, most school nurses acknowledged the importance of assessing HCT/self-management skills. The majority favored using a tool to promote these skills.

Urban School District Performance: A Longitudinal Analysis of Achievement

We used the Stanford education data archive (SEDA) data to examine the heterogeneity among urban school districts in the United States. The SEDA 2.1 includes data sets on students’ mathematics (Math) and English language arts (ELA) achievement from 2008 to 2014 at the district level. Growth mixture modeling was used to uncover the underlying growth trajectories for urban student achievement from the third to the eighth grade. Two and three growth patterns were observed for ELA and Math achievement, respectively, over time. We used the critical theoretical framework QuantCrit to centralize race in the analysis of the data and shared implications for future research.

Educators’ Beliefs and Perceptions of Implementing Restorative Practices

Many urban school districts are adopting restorative practices (RP) as a means to reduce suspensions and resolve racial discipline gaps. In this study, we use a sensemaking framework to examine educators’ beliefs about discipline and their perceptions of RP and its implementation. We draw on survey responses ( N = 363) administered after educators attended RP trainings in a large, diverse county in California. Our results show the majority of respondents possess beliefs or an understanding of RP that are compatible with the goals of the approach. Survey respondents cite challenges to implementing RP that are at times consistent (e.g., lack of time) and at times at odds (e.g., relatively low emphasis on lack of leadership as a hindrance) with the current literature. As suggested by sensemaking theory, we find attitudes and beliefs are predictors of educators’ experiences implementing RP, including challenges to implementation and effects of the practices.

An Empirically Grounded System of Supports for Improving the Quality of Mathematics Teaching on a Large Scale

Research on the teaching and learning of mathematics has made significant progress in recent years. However, this work has had only limited impact on classroom instruction in many countries. We report on an eight-year project in which we partnered with several large urban school districts in the US that were attempting to support mathematics teachers’ development of ambitious, inquiry-oriented instructional practices. These partnerships provided contexts in which we could iteratively test and revise conjectures about instructional improvement strategies intended to support teachers’ and others’ learning. The product of this work is a theory of action for instructional improvement at scale that spans from the classroom to school system instructional leadership. We present project findings as they relate to key elements of the theory including: teachers’ knowledge, perspective and practices; instructional materials and student assessments; participatory supports for teachers’ learning; and additional supports for currently struggling students.

Charter School Closure in Ohio’s Largest Urban Districts: The Effects of Management Organizations, Enrollment Characteristics and Community Demographics on Closure Risk

This study builds on previous research investigating management organizations (MOs), charter school locations, and closure by examining the effects of MO type (EMO, CMO and freestanding schools), racial enrollment, student achievement, and the community characteristics surrounding each charter school in Ohio’s eight largest counties with the largest urban school districts on the likelihood of closure between 2009 and 2018. We conducted a discrete-time survival analysis using life tables and binary logistic regression. Findings indicated that freestanding charter schools experience higher risks of closure than EMO and CMO managed charter schools in those counties. Although they are more likely to close, freestanding schools have higher student achievement in math and reading. Higher math proficiency reduces the likelihood of closure by 2.8%. However, community and enrollment characteristics are not statistically significant predictors of closure.

Urban Teenagers Talk about Leisure Reading

In urban school districts in the United States, it is not unusual for 80 percent of the eighth-graders to read below grade level. Schools are tackling low literacy levels by initiating literacy programs, many of which contain a focus on building the habit of leisure reading. While research has shown a connection between success in school and the amount of leisure reading students do, little is known about the leisure reading habits of urban teenagers. This paper reports the results of a three-part study investigating the leisure reading behaviors of urban teenagers and suggests strategies to support their literacy development.

Teachers’ Unions, Collective Bargaining, and the Response to COVID-19

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, school districts worked quickly to roll out distance learning plans in the spring. Sometimes these plans impinged upon or were directly in conflict with provisions found in collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) negotiated between teachers' unions and district administration. In this brief, we unpack how urban school systems changed CBAs to make way for learning under COVID-19 conditions. We review COVID-19–related contract changes in 101 urban school districts around the country. We find that twenty-five urban school districts returned to the bargaining table with teachers’ unions to negotiate short-term fixes to CBAs that allowed for more flexibility to implement distance learning. These contract changes focused on several areas of the CBA, including compensation, workload, non-teaching duties, evaluation, leave, and technology. We argue that the lessons learned in spring contract negotiations have implications for the design and implementation of fall schooling plans, and that how fall schooling plays out will shape teacher morale and labor relations beyond the 2020–21 school year.

Reframing Suburbs: Race, Place, and Opportunity in Suburban Educational Spaces

Most students in the United States attend suburban schools. However, most education research focuses on urban school districts. This may be in part because many of the core issues that currently drive education research—issues of race and class inequities, social mobility, immigration, English learning—are believed to be “urban” challenges. In this article, we argue that the changing nature of suburban schools and communities, and the history of their creation as education spaces, make them advantageous locations for education researchers to study many pressing issues and expand the ways we understand the intersections of race, place and inequality. We argue that education scholarship across multiple disciplinary orientations, theoretical foci, and substantive concerns can benefit from a deeper engagement with suburban education spaces and the issues and opportunities associated with them.

Identifying Meaningful Indicators of Parent Engagement in Early Learning for Low-Income, Urban Families

The purpose of this study was to identify indicators of parent engagement in early learning that would be relevant for children’s academic success; equitable for all families regardless of social, educational, or economic backgrounds; and actionable for urban school districts seeking to promote parent engagement with limited resources. Using a Delphi technique, a panel of parents, school staff, and researchers rated 106 parent engagement indicators extracted from stakeholder interviews. After multiple Delphi rounds and panel discussion, 30 indicators were retained. Retained indicators focused on home-based activities and home-school relationships/communication; no school-based activities met criteria for relevance, feasibility, and actionability.