A Classroom Observer Like Me: The Effects of Race-congruence and Gender-congruence Between Teachers and Raters on Observation Scores

State and local education agencies across the country are prioritizing the goal of diversifying the teacher workforce. To further understand the challenges of diversifying the teacher pipeline, I investigate race and gender dynamics between teachers and school-based administrators, who are key decision-makers in hiring, evaluating, and retaining teachers. I use longitudinal data from a large school district in the southeastern United States to examine the effects of race-congruence and gender-congruence between teachers and observers/administrators on teachers’ observation scores. Using models with two-way fixed effects, I find that teachers, on average, experience small positive increases in their scores from sharing race or gender with their observers, raising fairness concerns for teachers whose race or gender identities are not reflected by any of their raters.

Triennial Evaluations: Divorcing the Means from the Ends

Confusion among stakeholders regarding some aspects of the special education process—chiefly the triennial reevaluation—leads to misapplication of rules across districts and states based on interpretations of informal lore-based reasoning. Local education agencies (LEA) can determine that no additional data are needed and advise parents to forego the evaluation. Too, often, families who fear losing special education services for their child will acquiesce and decline the evaluation. Although this may be appropriate for some students, for others it can be a highly questionable and counterproductive decision. We illustrated the ways that avoiding triennial evaluations could hamper the ability of the LEA to adequately foster the student’s independence, monitor the student’s disability condition, and set and reach the student’s Individual Education Plans (IEP) goals. We argued that the major issue in decisions regarding triennial evaluations is centered on determining if a student is still eligible for special education services. This places too much attention on test-based eligibility and too little on educational needs, transition needs, and the instructional program. Triennial reevaluations should pivot from an “eligibility” focus to a “needs” focus, allowing schools and parents to gain a fresh understanding of the individual receiving the services. Failure to do so raises questions about the fidelity of assessment within the structure of special education service provision. Finally, we suggested that the motives underlying the practices for triennial evaluations illustrated here call the pragmatic acceptability of “full inclusion” into question.

A Content Analysis of Selected State Plans for Gifted and Talented Education

Programs for gifted and talented education should be guided by research-based practices, but states’ policies vary in their recommendations for programming, and in how they hold local education agencies accountable for implementing those recommendations. State plans for gifted and talented education rely on the voluntary compliance of districts to implement policies meeting students’ advanced academic needs and providing opportunities for talent development. State plans for gifted education may outline expectations, but leave much about the implementation up to districts. Even within a state, gifted education services vary widely across districts and individual schools. This research identified 11 state plans for gifted education that included guidance on identification, curriculum, service options, professional development, and program evaluation. Through thematic analysis, eight primary themes and three secondary themes were identified, which demonstrate the necessity of ongoing program evaluation balancing the need for standardization with the need to adapt policies to fit local contexts.

Responding to COVID-19 With the Aid of Mutually Beneficial Partnerships in Education

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the structures and routines of K-12 education. Districts and school systems worldwide continue to adapt their ways of working to address a variety of challenges–many of whose dimensions are complex, dynamic, and not entirely known. Without cooperation and collaboration among stakeholders, institutions, and communities, we will be less able to address students’ social, emotional, and learning needs. In this paper, we present evidence that suggests mutually beneficial partnerships between local education agencies (LEAs) and institutions of higher education (IHEs), grounded in improvement science, can serve as an essential resource to address dilemmas brought about by the pandemic. We examine the work of four partnerships in the Improvement Leadership Education and Development (iLEAD) Network. Our analysis suggests that what matters in this period of uncertainty is that partnerships take a systems perspective, pay direct attention to the needs of critical users, avoid pre-determined programs and solutions, and engage in disciplined inquiry across institutional boundaries to affect positive and lasting change. A deeper understanding of how these partnerships operate–their principles, routines, methods, and tools–can help educational systems support students during the current global health crisis.

Increasing Identification of Homeless Students: An Experimental Evaluation of Increased Communication Incorporating Behavioral Insights

Over 1.5 million students in the United States experience homelessness. These students are entitled to educational support through the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program. However, many homeless students are not identified and therefore never receive this support. Across 1,732 local education agencies in New Jersey, New Mexico, and New York, we conducted a randomized controlled trial of increased email communication incorporating behavioral insights targeting homeless liaison staff in order to increase the identification of homeless students. The intervention had an impact on the mean number of identified homeless students among the treatment local education agencies (3.62, 90% CI [0.32, 6.92], p = .07). The impact remained when outliers with high leverage were removed (1.51 CI [0.24, 2.79], p = .05). Within this sample, our analysis indicates that more than 3,000 additional homeless students were identified with a low-cost, low-intensity, behavioral intervention during the second semester.

Follower Engagement in Elementary Schools: A Multi-Site Study

As globalization continues to impact local education agencies, learning about constituent engagement in schools provides important insights into how these actors respond. Using a followership framework, faculty and support staff at three public elementary schools in geographically diverse areas of the United States were interviewed regarding their roles as followers within their school and their influence on the school’s ability to carry out its core purposes. Findings suggest that follower behaviors could be grouped in three broad categories: consideration, cooperation, and commitment. Behaviors of consideration included doing one’s job, learning expectations, fitting in, and isolating. Cooperation involved making an effort, settling in, following through, and working together. Finally, behaviors in the commitment category were paying it forward, taking it to the next level, building a legacy, and being part of a team. These follower behaviors appeared to move from actions revealing self-interest to those showing explicit social connection to the sites studied; however, even follower behaviors of consideration have potential positive ramifications for schools and other organizations. Leaders and committed followers would benefit from considering the full range of follower behaviors and asking themselves what those behaviors communicate about the varying needs, capacities, and contributions of all members of their organizations.

Criteria for Determining Eligibility for Extended School Year Services

Extended school year (ESY) services has been an understudied area of special education research. There is limited information available regarding ESY practices by local education agencies (LEAs) in determining eligibility as well as who receives what types of services. We surveyed special education directors across the nation to examine ESY practices by LEAs. Most notably, approximately two out of three special education directors (63%) reported that ESY services were only received by students in self-contained classrooms in their LEA. These LEAs that had no students outside of a self-contained classroom receiving ESY services also had a significantly lower percentage of students receiving ESY services as a whole. We recommend that this practice be discouraged as it effectively excludes students in inclusive settings who could benefit from ESY services and can steer parents away from inclusive placements if ESY services in the future will cease.

A Review of State-Level Procedural Guidance for Implementing Multitiered Systems of Support for Behavior (MTSS-B)

Given the authority of state government over public education, one means of narrowing the best-practice to actual-practice gap in education is by putting forth clear state guidance and recommendations to schools. To date, however, little is known about the national landscape of procedural guidance that is readily available to practitioners looking to implement multitiered systems of support for behavior (MTSS-B). The purpose of the current study was to conduct a systematic review of state department of education websites to understand what guidance is afforded to local education agencies regarding MTSS-B. Results supported that roughly half of the states provided some form of procedural guidance for MTSS-B; however, both the type (e.g., what interventions to use, how often to progress monitor) and level of guidance varied widely. When states did provide behavior-specific guidance, documents were most likely to include specification of what types of interventions and measures to utilize; information less typically focused on assessment such as indications as to how often data should be collected and reviewed or what decision rule(s) should be used to determine student responsiveness. Implications for local implementation and strengthening future state-level guidance for MTSS-B are discussed.