Scaling Gender and Sexual Diversity Policies in K-12 Schools

As policy debates concerning LGBTQ+ students and staff continue across the American education system, there is not a clear description of the prevalence of local policy protections, even in states with legislative mandates, nor a strong understanding of how to expand reform initiatives. After conducting a document analysis of policies with a statewide, representative sample of districts, this study uses Illinois as a case study to describe several educational policy levers to scale gender and sexual diversity (GSD) reforms across federal, state, intermediary, and local institutions. The results indicate all districts complied with top-down legislative mandates, but few policies referenced gender or sexual diversity if not state-mandated. A minority of districts enacted policies through administrative guidance (27%), often using language from a state intermediary organization. Results from the regression analysis suggest local factors, such as district size, per pupil spending, and rurality, contribute to adopting guidance, but not policy protections. This study indicates both top-down and bottom-up pathways matter for expanding GSD-related reforms.

The Bind of Unilateral Power Dynamics and Youth Voice in School Politics

Research has shown the value of including youth, especially minoritized students, in school- and district-level educational decision-making. However, power dynamics, as related to adultism, along with other inequities, are barriers to youth’s political influence. We elucidate these barriers by exploring the possible relationship between adult-adult power dynamics, on one hand, and levels of student voice in schools, on the other. Interviews with teachers and administrators about youth voice initiatives indicated that bounded rationality illuminates how limiting access to knowledge, a form of power, can impact educator decision-making. In addition, bounded rationality bolsters unilateral power structures and therefore curtails youth voice. However, we also found that building relational power between teachers and students and maneuvering beyond bounded rationality increases opportunities for youth voice.

Policy Diffusion of Performance Funding Equity Metrics: Traditional Neighbor and Dyadic Survival Analyses

While previous research on higher education policy diffusion often conceptualizes diffusion as occuring across neighboring governments, we conceptualize policy diffusion as also occuring across pairs of governments (dyads) regardless of geographic proximity. We apply both conceptualizations and use survival analysis techniques to examine factors associated with state adoption of performance funding equity metrics. Results show that the proportion of neighbors with equity metrics is unrelated to the likelihood of adopting a metric for either the 2- or 4-year sector, suggesting no evidence of policy diffusion across borders. The directed dyad analysis reveals that states are less likely to adopt a 4-year metric when the other state in the pair already operates a 4-year metric, indicating that states look beyond neighbors in policy avoidance behaviors. Internal state factors such as higher levels of legislative professionalism and greater enrollment of underrepresented minority and low-income students increase the likelihood of policy adoption. A state is less likely to imitate the adoption of 2-year equity metrics in another state when the pair show greater differences in legislative professionalism, minority and low-income student enrollment, income per capita, and income inequality. Our research highlights the utility of quantitatively modeling policy diffusion across governmental units that are distantly located, especially for higher education policy components that are nationally visible.

Youth of Color Social Movements for Racial Justice: The Politics of Interrogating the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Youth social movements for racial justice, especially against police violence, are on the rise. And this broader policy landscape is reflective of how youth are addressing racism in policing in their local context. Therefore, by drawing upon scholarship related to Black Radicalism, activism, and social movements, this study examines how youth of color activists are fighting against the overpolicing of their schools and communities in two specific contexts: Wake County, North Carolina and Chicago, Illinois. This study demonstrates how context shapes youth of color social movement building, that youth are strategic in how they employ activism, and ultimately adults can either impede or help advance youth’s demands for justice.

Student Voice in School Improvement: A Principal in the Nuevo South Reflects on a Student-Centered Practitioner Inquiry

The purpose of this brief is to share my reflections as a practitioner-scholar conducting a student-centered inquiry. My dissertation sought to provide a channel for accessing Latinx students’ voices regarding their experiences in credit recovery programs. I share what I learned from students and how the power harnessed by the input of authentic student voice is now driving instructional change throughout the building and the district. I conclude with recommendations for other practitioners on ways they may begin to include students in school improvement efforts as co-leaders, co-researchers, and co-policy actors.

The Politics of Student Voice: The Power and Potential of Students as Policy Actors

Historically and contemporarily students have been critical to bringing issues of justice in education policy to the fore. Yet, there have been limited formal spaces that elevate student voice scholarship in educational policy. In response, this Politics of Education Association (PEA) Yearbook Issue of Educational Policy aims to serve as a platform for opening up new areas for investigation, especially connections between theory to practice specific to student voice in educational policy and the politics of education. This collection of feature articles and research briefs offer diverse examples of how students are influencing change in education policy and practice, while also presenting the political realities and tensions that emerge when students participate in policy leadership activities.

What is the Role of Adult Facilitators in Critical Participatory Action Research? Employing Affective Labor While Navigating the Politics and the Perils Alongside Minoritized Youth Researchers

Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) represents a tool for minoritized youth in shaping educational policies. Despite its promise, the politics of engaging in CPAR within structures ensnared in hegemonic ideologies can negate, devalue, and deny the contributions of youth voice. This study highlights how adult facilitators supporting youth researchers negotiate methodological tensions when the politics nested within oppressive structures converge with the ideals of CPAR. Using LatCrit methodology and employing affective labor theory, this qualitative study offers four counterstories interrogating the role of adult allies in CPAR, navigating the politics and perils of engaging in this work alongside minoritized students.

“This is Not Who We Are”: Students Leading for Anti-Racist Policy Changes in Alexandria City Public Schools, Virginia

This paper centers the voices of students who successfully struggled alongside justice-minded school board members and other concerned citizens to create anti-racist policy changes in Alexandria City Public Schools, Virginia. Specifically, we examine the history behind, and political processes involved with, changing the names of two local schools due to the racist political commitments of their namesakes. Lessons learned include the need to carefully structure the policy change process to include students, families, and other community members in critical dialog and amplify the voices of those most impacted by the structural racism that needs to be dismantled: The students.

Puerto Rican Student Activism and Enacting Consciousness in Chicago: Learned Lessons and Implications for Practice

This research study focuses on how the racialized experiences of second-generation Puerto Rican student activists in Chicago during the social movement era increased their political identity to demand structural changes in secondary and college contexts. Drawing from over a dozen interviews and 100 source materials, this research uncovers the relationship between racialization, political consciousness, and community-engaged student activism. The study concludes by highlighting lessons learned and implications for practice.

The Perceptions and Experiences of Faculty Implementing Florida’s Developmental Education Reform

Florida Senate Bill 1720 drastically changed developmental education, beginning in fall 2014. This paper considers affected faculty members’ perceptions and experiences with the passage and implementation of reform, according to focus group data provided by 294 participants at 21 Florida College System institutions between 2014 and 2019. We found that faculty members experienced feelings of powerlessness and meaninglessness—the two main components of policy alienation—related to the passage of SB 1720, with some reported opportunities for discretion and innovation at a local level. Despite feelings of alienation, faculty worked hard to facilitate student success through the changes.