COVID-19 forced many colleges and universities to suspend in-person operations in spring 2020. Students and instructors abruptly shifted to virtual learning and teaching, and most employees began w...

In 1994 and 1995, David Tyack, William Tobin, and Larry Cuban (Tyack and Cuban 1995; Tyack andTobin 1994) coined the term “grammar of schooling” to characterize the long-lasting and largely unchanging core elements of schooling. These elements include batch processing of students, separation of classes by academic discipline, age-graded classrooms, teaching as transmission, leveling and tracking, and

Although initially ideologically diverse, the charter school movement has become increasingly aligned with neoliberal ideology, which assumes that public services, including education, are improved through market forces, such as accountability, competition, efficiency, and managerialism. Yet little is known about how leaders of ideologically progressive charter schools sustain their founding pedagogical

A growing number of schools across the globe have implemented design thinking (DT) as an instructional approach to increase student engagement, motivate creative thinking, and teach students to problem solve. Although offering significant opportunity to students, implementing DT can involve pushing against the traditional “grammar of schooling.” Drawing on in-depth qualitative case study data, we present

One educational structure with its own grammar is the student-teacher relationship. The conventional relational grammar involves teachers and students connecting to pursue academic learning—a grammar rooted in both historic attempts to define the professional domain of teaching as the transmission of academic knowledge as well as current efforts to “learnify” education. This study describes 154 student-teacher

Project-based learning (PBL) approaches seek to challenge the grammar of schooling by providing opportunities for students to (a) explore meaningful questions using multiple disciplinary lenses; (b) read, interpret, and produce a wide range of texts as they engage in disciplinary inquiry; and (c) develop and use a range of social-emotional skills as they work together to solve real-world problems.

For each generation of progressive educators since the early twentieth century, the history of attempted classroom, school, and district reforms to alter the “grammar of schooling” has been a dismal tale of disappointment and failure. The structures of the age-graded school and the district bureaucracy, both of which tilt pedagogy toward teacher-centered instruction, have seemingly forged cage-like

The structure of US public education is changing. Rather than exclusive district management of schools with standardized programs, new types of systems have emerged. In the case of “portfolio” systems, advocates argue that choice, performance-based accountability, and autonomy challenge traditional schooling and foster a diversity of options for parents. Yet there is limited empirical evidence on these

This study reports on findings from a convergent parallel mixed methods analysis examining the perspectives of college students concerning their teaching considerations at a rural district with severe teacher-staffing problems. Based on a framework of multiple attribute utility theory, a utility analysis was used to compare the relative importance of working characteristics for a sample of college

This study explores disparities in reclassification outcomes between Chinese and Latinx English learner (EL) students in one large school district, along with possible mechanisms that drive these differences. Using mixed methods including discrete-time hazard modeling of longitudinal administrative data and analysis of in-depth interviews with veteran EL educators and administrators, we find large

Instructional reform in the United States is often accompanied by financial investment. Recent evidence suggests that such funding can improve educational outcomes; however, unexplained heterogeneity in the relationship between resources and outcomes has led to calls for research on the processes by which resources translate into instructional improvement. In responding to this call, this case study

Commentators have observed a “discourse of derision” in news coverage of the US education system, but the contours of this discourse are not well understood. This article pairs quantitative content analysis with qualitative framing analysis to sharpen the conceptual and empirical focus of the discourse of derision as an object of study. We theorize four components of this discourse—tone, assessments

In this article we discuss a collaborative research project meant to ground community members’ voices in curriculum design. We argue that performing collaborative research with students and parents can better inform curriculum design decisions, particularly for communities whose identities, knowledge(s), and ways of being have been historically marginalized. Building from the culturally responsive

A growing body of evidence suggests that schools’ partnerships with neighborhood organizations can improve educational outcomes, but less is known about how educators, who play a crucial role in procuring, carrying out, and maintaining such partnerships, conceptualize the different organizations in their environment. This study uses data from 52 qualitative interviews to systematically examine how

This qualitative case study employing a critical race theory methodology uses Derrick Bell’s conceptualization of racial fortuity to examine the ways leaders at Carver High School responded to accountability pressures related to supporting students of color. Findings highlight how school leaders’ espoused racially just improvement initiatives and definitions of success were actually instantiations

Low-income, racial/ethnic minority youth in under-resourced schools have certain opportunities to acquire cultural capital that is valued in dominant institutional contexts. I use observational data from 6 months of debate practices and competitions with two teams in the Chicago Debate League, as well as interviews with 12 debaters and 2 coaches, to show that debate participation can contribute to

Early Career Teacher (ECT) turnover is a critical issue; the teacher turnover rate is significantly higher among ECTs as compared with experienced teachers, and they are more likely to fill vacancies in hard-to-staff schools. This study examines how principal leadership might affect ECT turnover by using a large-scale, nationally representative data set, the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Survey (BTLS)

This article studies socioeconomic inequalities in educational attainment in 21 European countries for cohorts born between 1925 and 1989, and asks the question whether reforms to track students later in the school career have reduced inequalities. Country fixed effects models show that inequalities by parental occupational class were reduced after policies were implemented that separated children

Education researchers and political scientists have long raised theoretical objections to market-based reforms like school choice on the grounds that these policies may undermine public participation in democratic politics and erode public support for public institutions like schools. Little work, however, has empirically tested this claim. Drawing on a unique dataset of 191 off-cycle school bond elections

Empirical studies have concluded that rural students experience lower rates of college enrollment and degree completion compared to their nonrural peers, but this literature needs to be expanded and updated for a continually changing context. This article examines the rural-nonrural disparities in students’ postsecondary trajectories, influences, and outcomes. By comparing results to past research

The use of law enforcement in schools raises concerns about impacts on school discipline. Drawing on a large-scale qualitative study of approximately fifty schools across two school districts, this study explores school resource officers’ (SROs’) involvement in school discipline and how it is shaped by their context. We use interview, focus group, and observation data from nearly 200 participants to

Student-parents compose a significant proportion of the student population at community colleges across the United States and Canada. The conflicting demands they face as they navigate academic, financial, and family responsibilities are considerable. Drawing on interviews with student-parents and administrators at two community colleges, we focus on the extent to which student-parents were able to

Little is known about the role of local school boards in the policy-making process, particularly in terms of educational equity. Framed by concepts from existing scholarship on school board effectiveness, cultural responsiveness, and the opportunity gap, this article critically explores how school boards address policies and practices related to the education of English learners (ELs). Based on interview

Critics of standards-based reform often cite an accountability policy environment that disproportionately affects teachers compared with principals and district officials. We directly examine this disproportionality. In our three study states of Texas, Ohio, and Kentucky, we use survey analysis to understand how policy environments for district officials, principals, and teachers differ. We find that

Compared with traditional public schools (TPS), charter schools on average have much higher teacher turnover rates. Our study draws on segmented labor market theory to examine the dynamics of the teacher labor market in charters and TPS, focusing on newly hired teachers. Based on longitudinal data for Utah’s public school teachers, we employ multiple methods to determine how the timing of newly hired

Although there is an interest in elevating youth voice within school settings, schools remain unprepared for the wide range of expression that may be included in soliciting youth voices, preferring polite expressions over overtly emotional or negative feelings expressed about school. This case study examines boundary setting in a youth voice initiative in a high school nationally known for their work

We investigate student mobility in a choice-based system that has gone to scale, New Orleans, to gain insight into an underlying improvement mechanism of choice-based reform and its potential equity-related consequences. In contrast to typical analyses of mobility, this study distinguishes incumbent school characteristics that can cause students to search for a new school (“push” factors) from those

When educational leaders think about how to solve problems, we expect them to identify a problem, think about causes and a theory of action, implement changes, and reflect on effects. This straightforward sequence is actually quite challenging. Through writings and interviews collected over 2 years within a doctor of education program, this study examines leaders’ problem solving in real-life organizational

Charter school effects remain uncertain. Small lottery studies on high-performing charters produce impressive results, but large observational studies on the full range of charter schools are less encouraging. To make matters worse, these observational studies that aim for representativeness are based on only switchers, a small and unrepresentative population, arguably defeating the purpose of this

Black and Latino adolescent boys and young men from low-income communities face numerous perceived and actual barriers to achieving their postsecondary educational goals. To advocate for more precise interventions, this study investigated how black and Latino eleventh grade boys’ college ambitions were shaped by their school’s college-going culture, racial stereotyping, and their families’ economic

As educational stakeholders endeavor to prepare more students for postsecondary success, the construct of college readiness has gained national attention. Scholarly perspectives vary regarding what constitutes readiness, but even less is known about the perceptions of secondary educators tasked with preparing college-ready students. Drawing on interview data and sensemaking theory, we explore the perspectives

Many students who experience extended school absences or dropout episodes reengage with school and complete a diploma or alternative credential within 4 years of beginning ninth grade. However, these students have not been extensively studied, and the factors that affect reengagement decisions are not well understood. Using an educational resilience framework and the High School Longitudinal Study

An analysis from 2002 to 2014, aligning media reporting of the effectiveness of the fully online K–12 cyber charter school model with data on enrollment flows to cyber charter schools and expenditure and demographic indicators across all 500 residential public school districts in Pennsylvania, finds a three-part geospatial-social process. Initial high-tech cachet surrounding the option stimulated statewide

A substantial proportion of Latina/o college students enroll at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and emerging HSIs. Utilizing data from the University of California, Los Angeles Cooperative Institutional Research Program, this study quantitatively examines the choice process of Latina/os enrolled at 4-year HSIs, emerging HSIs, and non-HSIs. Guided by traditional theories of college choice and community

Towns that border American Indian reservations provide important contexts for studying relationships between educational institutions and marginalized communities. This study applies critical discourse methodologies to evaluate policies from districts bordering reservations, districts geographically distant from reservations, and districts located on reservations. Broadly, the study addresses the question

We examine how district administrators’ conceptions of equity relate to the implementation of finance reform. We use sensemaking theory and four views of equity—libertarian, liberal, democratic liberal, and transformative—to guide a case study of two districts, finding evidence of two conceptions of equity: (1) greater resources for students with greater needs and (2) equal distribution of resources

States and districts are revising discipline policies to reduce out-of-school suspensions (OSSs), but the consequences of these reforms are largely unknown. We examine a reform in Philadelphia that prohibited OSS for classroom disorder infractions. Employing a difference-in-differences approach, we examine the relationship between the reform and student suspensions, achievement, and attendance. For

Racial and ethnic student body diversity is essential for medical schools to serve their educational mission of addressing racial and ethnic health inequities in the United States. Yet bans on the practice of affirmative action in six states have led to declines in students of color enrolled in medical schools. In this article, we examine prior stages that contribute to enrollment declines—namely,

More than 15 years after the passage of No Child Left Behind, billions of dollars have been spent on school-turnaround policies and initiatives. Yet, this growing “school improvement industry” has received surprisingly little consideration. This study is an initial effort to begin to better understand this industry’s supply side. We use qualitative research techniques to analyze the websites of 151

This qualitative collective case study investigates elementary teachers’ experience with stress and the mechanisms of change related to developing resilience following a mindfulness-based intervention, Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE). Results suggest that the amount of stress teachers experience is less important than how they conceptualize their stress. Teachers who developed

Recommended Citation Ryan, Ann Marie. Lost Classroom, Lost Community: Catholic Schools’ Importance in Urban America by Margaret F. Brinig and Nicole Stelle Garnett. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014. 202 pp., $48.00.. American Journal of Education, 125, 1: 141-146, 2018. Retrieved from Loyola eCommons, School of Education: Faculty Publications and Other Works, http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/699805

Tracking remains a pervasive sorting mechanism in US high schools. Anthony Giddens’s theory of structuration provides a useful framework for understanding how tracking is enacted and how its inequities might be interrupted. This study examines whether teachers reify tracks by systematically structuring generative rules differently for students in low and high tracks. Using the Classroom Assessment

In recent decades, changes to the education policy landscape have made local public engagement more difficult. Among these changes are increased centralization of policy making, the rise of school choice, and mayoral and state takeovers of urban school districts. Philadelphia is at the vanguard of these changes. We discuss how community-based organizations in Philadelphia responded to the challenges

Despite gains in baccalaureate and master’s degree attainment, women continue to earn lower shares of doctor of philosophy degrees (PhDs) in many fields, a pattern that is often pronounced in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This article uses comparative case study to understand organizational trajectories toward gender parity achieved in two STEM PhD programs—chemistry and civil

Critics of school disciplinary policies have long noted that African American, male, low-achieving, and special education students experience higher rates of school suspensions and expulsions. However, research that seeks to estimate the effects of suspensions on student outcomes rarely accounts for the preexisting differences that distinguish students who are and are not suspended. Using quasi-experimental

This qualitative interdisciplinary study explored the responses of Native American academics to selected contingencies of their tribal identities. Negative stereotypes emerged as an important topic from the narratives of 20 male and 20 female tribal academics in a variety of disciplines whom the author interviewed at 28 universities across the United States. Within the subjective experiences of their

This qualitative case study examines 43 black students’ understanding of the relationships of social identity, academic identity, and college-going aspirations. Specifically, we focus on understanding how stereotypes influence the academic motivation of black immigrant and black native-born students. Findings suggest distinctions across ethnicity and generational status in how black students perceive

Drawing on ethnographic research in urban schools serving recently arrived immigrant students in New York City, this article considers the importance of drawing on transnational attachments in culturally sustaining pedagogy for newcomer immigrant students. The authors document how recently arrived immigrant youth narrated real and imagined transnational attachments as they described their past, current

This qualitative study examined how a national program, established by Latina/o faculty, engaged in socialization efforts to foster persistence in doctoral degree programs. The study used spiritual activism as a framework to examine the mentoring relationships fostered among program participants. Data derived from interviews with 19 program alumni and document analysis. Findings revealed that the selection

Student engagement in education is key to ensuring successful learning. Engagement becomes crucial as students progress through high school and transition into young adulthood; however, engaging them in high school can be an arduous task. A career/education plan can help students make strong connections between their work in high school and their later lives. Through two-level propensity score matching

Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs; postsecondary institutions that enroll 25% or more Latinx students) are increasing in significance. But to what extent do students attending an HSI, or an emerging HSI (enrolls 15%–24% Latinx students), identify with an organizational identity for serving Latinx students? There is a need to understand how members identify with an organizational identity because

In a randomized controlled trial of a teacher data-use intervention, the Linking Study tested the impacts of a cyclical and collaborative process that linked teachers’ data on instructional practice with data on their students’ learning. This article describes the theory of the intervention and its roots in the literature as a backdrop for an intervention with 64 teachers in 27 professional learning

The practice of instructional rounds is a recent innovation in educational administration, intended to support administrators’ understanding of instruction through the development of common language. This longitudinal study examines the rounds practice of a network of superintendents over 6 years to understand how rounds serves as a vehicle for addressing inequities in students’ educational experiences

Teachers not only play a pivotal role in developing students’ knowledge and skills but also can serve as role models, which may be particularly beneficial for youth of color and children of immigrants. However, it is unknown whether relationships vary across student racial/ethnic and generational groups. Moreover, the link between teacher-student relationships and students’ academic expectations remains

Extracurricular programs, which tend to be both highly institutionalized and popular with parents, were hard hit by cutbacks during the Great Recession. This study uses conceptual research on organizational routines and institutional processes to examine this case of controversial policy making. Observing school district policy making in two communities, I investigate the role of a commonplace routine

Large urban school districts are increasingly offering their students options that break the link between residential location and school attendance. Individual decisions are likely to aggregate in different ways across communities, leaving students in some neighborhoods with more varied educational experiences. In this paper, I explore these patterns using a complete cohort of Chicago Public School

This article describes the study of career aspirations of high-achieving black and Latinx undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) students and uncovers a concern for helping others—an equity ethic. A lack of racial and ethnic diversity persists in STEM education and industries; consequently, the inspiration of black and Latinx students in STEM warrants exploration. Data were

Much debate surrounding teacher quality has focused on students’ standardized test scores, but recent federal and state initiatives have emphasized the use of multiple measures to evaluate teacher quality, including classroom observations. In this study, we explore differences across school districts in the relationship between student achievement outcomes and the observed quality of teachers’ instruction

Teacher teams are increasingly common in urban schools. In this study, we analyze teachers’ responses to teams in six high-poverty schools. Teachers used two criteria to assess teams’ goodness of fit in meeting the demands of their work: whether their teams helped them teach better and whether the team contributed to a better school. Their responses differed notably by school, depending largely on

We examine the impacts of early college high schools, small schools of choice located on college campuses. These schools provide a no-cost opportunity for students to earn college credit—or a 2-year degree—while in high school. Using rich administrative data on multiple cohorts of students and quasiexperimental methods informed by the within-study comparison literature, we estimate program impacts