Comprehensive and accessible sexual health education (SHE) can improve knowledge and skills among youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). This case study highlights how a mid-sized school district adapted and delivered SHE in high school special education (SpEd) classrooms. Using feedback from students, teachers, and I/DD experts, school district staff adapted and piloted a SHE unit for youth with I/DD. Lessons incorporated universal design for learning principles while addressing sexual health topics and teaching strategies for youth with I/DD. Training and technical assistance improved educator comfort and delivery of SHE. Districts creating and piloting a SHE unit should consider providing training and coaching for SpEd teachers, working with SpEd leadership to gain support and access, engaging parents to increase buy-in and reduce opt-outs, and eliciting ongoing feedback from students and teachers. More practice-based research is needed to advance I/DD-inclusive SHE. Future studies examining how SHE curriculum for special education is developed, adapted, taught, and evaluated are needed while centering student voice.

ABSTRACT While research has identified a link between leadership diversity and various school outcomes, the demographic makeup of the US principal workforce has only marginally shifted over the last decade. Meanwhile, student diversity has increased, resulting in a representation gap. This study is grounded in Representative Bureaucracy Theory, examining conditions that stifle districts from attaining a diverse workforce and identifying transformations to close the gap. It utilizes a mixed methods approach by examining descriptive statistics to evaluate existing leadership representation gaps while also conducting content analysis of archival documents from six U.S. urban school districts. Findings underscore that causes are systemic and embedded in structure and culture, such as a lack of culturally responsive recruitment criteria and strategic plans without commitment to diversity. We offer several implications, including strengthening pipelines, expanding preparation programs, setting diversity goals, and building inclusive cultures.

Over the past several years, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in schools have garnered increasing backlash from right-wing parents. In this article, I analyze these school board meetings, paying specific attention to how racial ideology works in this context. I ask: What racial ideologies are at play in parent debates over DEI efforts in suburban schools? How are these ideologies leveraged to political ends in school board meetings? Specifically, how do parents use their racial ideologies to argue against their school districts’ decision about DEIs? To answer these questions, I analyze data from school board meetings and parent Facebook groups from 2020 to 2022 at three school districts in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I find that while districts use diversity ideology to advocate for DEI efforts, critical parents weaponize color-evasiveness to oppose these efforts. I describe this weaponization, arguing that it occurs in three parts: moral claims, statements of harm, and demands for recompense. By analyzing how people use racial ideologies in conflict, I illustrate how dominant ideologies are dynamic tools that can be leveraged to achieve political goals.

ABSTRACT Special education teacher leadership plays a critical role in advancing inclusive practices and improving academic and social outcomes for students with disabilities. Despite increased attention to teacher leadership, the experiences and perspectives of special education teachers remain underexamined. This qualitative study explored how special education teachers define and enact teacher leadership, as well as the supports and barriers that shape their engagement in leadership roles. Forty-five K–8 special education teachers in United States public schools participated in semi-structured interviews. Using inductive content analysis, three themes were identified: conceptualizations of teacher leadership, supports that facilitate leadership, and systemic obstacles that constrain participation. Teachers described leadership as grounded in collaboration, advocacy, and informal mentorship, often enacted without formal recognition. At the same time, they identified persistent barriers, including administrative gatekeeping, professional isolation, and role overload, which limited access to and sustainability of leadership roles. These findings highlight how special education teacher leadership is both essential and structurally constrained within school systems. Implications are discussed for school leadership, district policy, and teacher preparation, with particular attention to creating equitable and sustainable leadership structures that recognize and support the contributions of special education teachers.

Instructional supervision is essential for improving teaching quality and strengthening professional practice among teachers. Despite its importance, few empirical studies have explored the relationship between the extent of instructional supervision implementation and teachers’ performance in public elementary schools, particularly in the Bohol Division. This research examined the association between the implementation of instructional supervision and teachers' performance in public elementary schools in Congressional District I of the Bohol Division during the 2024–2025 school year. The study also described the profiles of instructional leaders, specifically Public Schools District Supervisors and School Heads, and assessed the extent of instructional supervision in two domains: technical implementation competence and behavioral competence. Teachers’ performance was measured using classroom observable indicators. Using a descriptive-correlational research design, data were collected from Public School District Supervisors, School Heads, and teachers via survey questionnaires and analyzed using appropriate statistical methods. The results revealed significant differences in the implementation of instructional supervision across respondents’ profiles. A significant positive relationship was also found between instructional supervision and teachers’ performance (ρ = 0.63–0.68, p < 0.01), suggesting that enhanced supervision practices contribute to improved teaching performance. These findings underscore the need to strengthen instructional supervision practices to enhance teaching effectiveness. In response to the results, an enhancement program was proposed to improve supervision strategies and promote higher teacher performance in public elementary schools.

ABSTRACT This study examines how Black superintendents and Black families co-create district policy to transform schooling for Black children. Drawing on interviews with four superintendents, it shows how policy emerges not from administrative decree but from collective design. Grounded in culturally responsive school leadership, findings identify three co-creative practices: Shared Design, where families and leaders draft policies together; Dialogic Accountability, where community feedback shapes implementation; and Cultural Translation, where familial knowledge reframes policy language and purpose. Co-creation functions as a form of Black educational governance,– a freedom practice bridging institutional power with community wisdom.

ABSTRACT This article discusses censorship and propaganda in US history curricula, noting four interdependent and overlapping elements often analyzed separately in academic literature. First, the authors observe purposeful omissions that truncate narratives and pit groups against each other. Second, they consider de jure and de facto school segregation as central to curricular censorship projects. Third, they call out efforts to propagandize US history curricula running parallel with restrictions on Indigenous, natal languages and cultural practices. They position collective resistance as a fourth element, observing that teaching revisionist US histories has incited and emerged from censorship campaigns. The authors surface these elements to remind us that book bans and other attempts to control what is considered part of US history and how it is taught in schools are not “unprecedented”, but are repeating scripts, deployed across time and place to justify colonization and domination. They also highlight a multi-year political effort to eliminate Mexican American Studies from the Tucson Unified School District. School officials called the program “seditious” and Arizona state legislators banned the courses, claiming they “encourage dissent”. The authors revisit this struggle as part of carrying forward the legacy of teaching critical revisionist histories, especially in times of crisis.

Resource-limited school districts often lack athletic trainers and real-time medical support during sports events, placing student-athletes at risk for improper care. The Detroit Public School Health Corps (DPSHC), a medical student-led initiative, was developed to fill this need through supervised sideline coverage by trained medical students. This study evaluates the program's first full year of implementation. The authors analyzed injury encounters during the 2024-2025 academic year across 280 athletic events at 16 Detroit public high schools. Thirty-one medical student volunteers, known as Health Leaders (HLs), received 12h of standardized training in emergency triage, musculoskeletal assessment, concussion management, and Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation (SBAR) communication. HLs were supported by attending physicians in pediatrics, sports medicine, and orthopedics, with real-time support available via phone for clinical decision-making. Post-event documentation captured injury characteristics, mechanism, anatomical location, clinical assessment findings, triage decisions, and athlete disposition. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize injury frequency, type, and clinical outcomes. A total of 89 injury encounters were documented, with lower extremity injuries being most common (56.2%), followed by head and neck injuries (23.6%). Over half (56.2%) of the injuries were fully managed on-site; 22.4% were referred for outpatient follow-up and 11.2% required emergency care. Only five athletes were transported by Emergency Medical Services. The DPSHC model demonstrates a feasible, cost-effective approach to expanding on-field sports medicine care in medically underserved school systems. The initiative provided timely care, enhanced safety, and offered meaningful clinical exposure for medical students. With appropriate training and oversight, medical students can help address systemic gaps in secondary school athletic healthcare. This model may be replicable in other resource-limited settings.

Suicide among Black youth is a public health concern. "Being Black" is not a risk factor for suicide; rather, sociocultural factors and social determinants of health influence suicidal behavior among Black youth. Factors related to the school environment are critical in understanding and preventing this loss of life. The purpose of this multiple-method study was to examine the historical prevalence of school interventions among Black students who went on to die by suicide in our study setting and assess the availability of mental health resources and support available to school personnel to support Black students. We gathered school records from all county residents who died by suicide during the ten years from 2013 through 2022. We also conducted semi-structured key informant interviews with school district psychologists and social workers. A total of 293 suicide decedents were included, most of whom were Black/African American. School issues were a contributing factor to suicide for several decedents. Four qualitative themes were developed, highlighting the impact of school-based factors, and particularly exclusionary discipline, on the mental health of students. There is an urgent need for trauma-informed, restorative, and non-punitive approaches behavioral issues in school, particularly for minoritized students.

During the 2021–22 school year, school administrators reported that approximately 72% of U.S. public schools experienced an increase in teacher absences compared to pre-pandemic years, and 49% noted more absences than the previous year. Complementing these, one substitute staffing firm found—based on data from school districts in 40 states—that up to 10% of teachers are absent daily, a notable rise from the pre-pandemic rate of 6%. This rise in absenteeism has led to a greater need for substitute teachers. However, variations in state qualifications for substitute teachers raise concerns regarding their effectiveness and impact on student achievement. Despite the growing body of research on substitute teaching in K–12 settings, there is a notable gap in studies examining its impact on early childhood education. This study seeks to address this gap by directly observing and comparing the instructional practices – opportunities to respond (OTR) and positive and negative feedback – used by lead and substitute teachers in preschool classrooms. Data were collected through 5497 min of systematic observations in an inclusive public preschool, using The Multiple Option Observation System for Experimental Studies Version 3 (MOOSESTM) software. The findings indicate that lead teachers provide significantly more OTRs and positive feedback than substitute teachers, with no difference in negative feedback rates. The findings are discussed in terms of practical implications for lead and substitute teachers. Also, the study highlights limitations and suggests directions for future research.

Schools are increasingly recognized as critical settings for delivering mental health interventions. The successful implementation of school-based programs like THRIVE, a parent-child intervention, is likely influenced by the organizational context and the school's readiness for change. This mixed methods study, part of a Type 2 hybrid implementation-effectiveness RCT, aimed to explore baseline contextual factors that may influence the implementation of THRIVE in school settings. Using a convergent mixed methods design, we investigated the climate of schools implementing THRIVE. Twenty-five interventionists were recruited from six school districts. Quantitative data were collected using the School Implementation Climate Scale (SICS) and Organizational Readiness for Change (ORC). Individual qualitative interviews guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) were also conducted. Schools were classified as resource-rich or resource-constrained using the Social Vulnerability Index. Descriptive and bivariate statistics were performed. Deductive thematic analysis was conducted. Results were integrated through a joint display table to identify convergences and divergences. The overall SICS score averaged 3.27 (SD = 0.66) and the overall ORC score averaged 3.79 (SD = 0.42), suggesting moderately positive school implementation climate and readiness. On average, participating schools demonstrated a strong focus on evidence-based practice (EBP) and high availability of training and resources for EBP, while providing limited incentives for EBP use (M = 2.09, SD = 0.93). They also presented a collaborative and supportive working environment with shared values but insufficient communication (M = 3.36, SD = 0.73). Qualitative findings are mostly consistent with quantitative results. Most interventionists (n = 24) believed THRIVE aligns with school values and family needs and remained optimistic despite barriers such as time commitment and negative perceptions. Compared to resource-rich schools (n = 11), resource-constrained schools (n = 14) placed less emphasis on EBP (t(23) = 2.37, p < .05) and had fewer facilitators (n = 5), but perceived greater benefits in implementing THRIVE (n = 14). This study found a moderately positive implementation climate and organizational readiness for change in schools adopting the THRIVE intervention. However, limited incentives, communication challenges, and resource constraints may hinder successful implementation. The divergence between strong support for EBPs and the lack of resources suggests that implementation strategies must be tailored and flexible to promote buy-in and address structural barriers. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06139874. Registered on November 27, 2023.

ABSTRACT At some point during the 2020–21 school year, the majority of U.S. school districts adopted a ‘hybrid’ instructional model that allowed families to choose whether to send their children to school or keep them at home for remote instruction. Drawing on policy enactment theory, this paper traces how PreK teachers enacted hybrid instruction in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, where PreK is voluntary, controlled by local school districts, and located in both public elementary schools and private child care centers. Drawing on a mixed-methods dataset comprised of a statewide survey of PreK school district administrators and 29 qualitative interviews with PreK teachers in nine school districts, we describe how teachers modified hybrid instructional policies to meet the needs of children and maintain the developmentally appropriate play-based pedagogies that teachers value. Our findings shed new light on crisis policy enactment (Bradbury et al. 2022) by showing how material, professional, external, and situated contexts (Braun et al. 2011) shaped teacher policy enactments across different PreK settings and hybrid instructional models. In particular, we find that PreK teachers experienced COVID-19 as an intensification of the decentralized and multilayered policymaking that often characterizes PreK in the U.S.

ABSTRACT Background Bilingual students in the United States often face systemic barriers to STEM learning, including linguistic obstacles, under-resourced learning environments, and culturally unresponsive instruction. Understanding students’ perceptions of their STEM learning experiences and environments is important because it shapes, or even predicts, their engagement, motivation, and achievement. Little is empirically known about how bilingual students perceive their STEM learning environments. Purpose To address this gap, the study aimed to (1) identify the latent factors underlying bilingual students’ perceptions of their STEM learning environments, (2) classify students into distinct engagement profiles based on these latent factors, and (3) examine how these profiles relate to students’ demographic backgrounds, including grade level, gender, and ethnicity. Sample Participants were 1,105 bilingual students from nine high schools in an independent school district in the southwestern United States. The sample was diverse in terms of grade level (9th–12th grade), gender, and ethnic background. Design and Methods The survey was developed and piloted to gather comprehensive data on students’ STEM learning experiences. Exploratory factor analysis identified latent factors of student perceptions, followed by k-means cluster analysis to group students by engagement patterns. Cluster membership was analyzed in relation to students’ demographic variables using chi-square tests of independence. Results Four latent factors emerged: (1) Pedagogical Effectiveness of Technology/Engineering Teachers, (2) Pedagogical Effectiveness of Science, Math, and All Teachers, (3) College Aspirations, Parent Support, and Self-Efficacy in Learning, and (4) STEM Learning Resources and School Climate. The cluster analysis revealed four engagement profiles. Approximately 65% of students belonged to disengaged or under-supported clusters, while 35% were highly engaged and well-supported. The cluster membership varied across students’ backgrounds. Conclusion Findings highlight the need for targeted educational supports that address the varied engagement patterns of bilingual students in STEM education. Supporting bilingual students requires a multifaceted approach involving instructional responsiveness, improved school resources, and strengthened home-school partnerships.

ABSTRACT Research indicates that the intense demands placed upon early-career special education teachers (SETs) may lead to their attrition, which is an important contributor to teacher shortages in the United States. In response, school districts may employ out-of-field (OOF) SETs who have not completed preservice training, known as conditionally certified SETs, to fill teacher vacancies. Teacher induction programmes can provide these teachers with resources to meet their role demands, which may promote their intentions to continue teaching. However, additional research on these programmes, particularly for OOF SETs, is warranted. Therefore, we investigated the experiences of first-year SETs, most of whom were conditionally certified and thus OOF, and their mentors in one school district’s teacher induction programme. We also sought to determine whether SETs’ perceptions of their mentors’ special education expertise and SETs’ own certification status related to their intent to return as SETs during the following school year. We discovered that first-year SETs, especially those OOF, face extensive demands, which their mentors are often unable to alleviate, leading to burnout. Nonetheless, OOF SETs’ passion for their jobs may protect against subsequent intent to leave. We discuss both practical and policy implications based on our findings.

Competency-based education (CBE) has emerged as a promising reform to address persistent concerns about student achievement and workforce readiness, yet implementation efforts consistently stall when districts attempt to alter traditional grading and credentialing practices. While prior research documents these challenges, the literature fails to explain why they persist. This study employs institutional theory and the concept of isomorphic pressures to examine how external forces constrain CBE implementation in three Michigan pilot districts. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with district administrators and school leaders conducted between 2019 and 2020, this qualitative study addresses two research questions: how normative pressures from parents and coercive pressures from post-secondary institutions influence districts' grading decisions, and how districts navigate these competing pressures. Findings reveal that normative pressures manifested as parental resistance to proficiency-based grading that deviated from their own educational experiences, while coercive pressures from post-secondary institutions led all three districts to maintain traditional transcripts despite their philosophical commitment to CBE. Districts responded through translation, converting proficiency scores to letter grades; supplementation, adding portfolios alongside traditional transcripts; and stakeholder education, investing in sustained parent communication. These strategies represent compromises that preserve institutional legitimacy while only partially advancing CBE goals. The study recommends that states develop formal partnerships with university systems to pilot competency-based transcripts, districts invest substantially in reshaping parental expectations, and policymakers extend implementation timelines to allow for gradual normative shifts.

Community resources may benefit children's long-term health, but the lasting impact of public spending in childhood is unclear. Identifying policies to address residential wealth and opportunity disparities could promote long-term health equity. To assess whether childhood exposure to public spending on community resources (public primary and secondary education, libraries, parks and recreation, and community development and housing) is associated with subsequent adult health. This retrospective cohort study used linked national datasets from 1977 through 2019. US cities with at least 150 000 residents in 1980 were included. Childhood public finance data covered 1977 through 2017, and adult health was measured in 2019. Included adults were in the 2019 Panel Study of Income Dynamics, were born between 1960 and 2000, and lived in a medium to large city before 18 years of age. Analyses were performed from August 2024 to March 2026. Total per capita operational spending on community resources, summed across city, county, and school district levels for the year and city when the respondent was 9 years of age. The main outcome was overall adult health rated as fair or poor. Secondary outcomes included cardiovascular disease (CVD), anxiety, and depression diagnoses. Data were analyzed using weighted linear probability models adjusted for demographics. Estimated margins compared the 25th and 75th percentiles of spending. Among 2214 adults (mean [SD] age in 2019, 38.9 [10.2] years; 1223 [52%] female), 389 (17%) reported fair or poor health, 458 (22%) reported CVD, and 184 (10%) reported anxiety or depression. A 1% increase in childhood community resource spending was associated with a 0.20 (95% CI, 0.04-0.35) percentage point decrease in adult fair or poor health and a 0.25 (95% CI, 0.07-0.44) percentage point decrease in adult CVD. To contextualize the magnitude, shifting from the 25th to 75th spending percentile decreased the estimated probability of reporting adult fair or poor health from 19.38% to 12.87%, a reduction of 6.51 (95% CI, 1.38-11.64) percentage points. A 1% increase in education (0.15 [95% CI, 0.02-0.29] percentage points) or library (0.05 [95% CI, 0.01-0.10] percentage points) spending was correlated with better overall health. Education (0.23 [95% CI, 0.07-0.39] percentage points) and community development and housing (0.04 [95% CI, 0.01-0.08] percentage points) spending were associated with lower CVD. No association was found for overall community resource spending or its individual four component sectors and anxiety or depression. In this cohort study of US urban adults, greater childhood exposure to community resource spending was associated with improved overall and cardiovascular health in adulthood. Variation in public spending levels may partially explain geographic differences in US health outcomes.

ABSTRACT This article critically examines public school board reviews in Ontario, Canada, as tools for accountability, democratic governance, and anti-racist reform. Using qualitative document analysis of four reviews conducted between 2013 and 2019 – Near North, Toronto, York Region, and Peel District School Boards – the study analyzes responses to governance failures, financial mismanagement, and systemic racism. Informed by Critical Race Theory, Critical Whiteness Studies, and critical democracy, findings show reviews rely on technocratic, procedural framings that reveal how neoliberal, technocratic accountability reforms fail to address systemic racism, reinforcing inequities. Anti-racist, community-centered, and relational accountability measures are required for critical, democratic transformation in schooling.

Vaping is a concern in schools. School vape detectors could discourage vaping inside the school; however, there is no evidence of their effectiveness. This study investigated high school student and staff perceptions of vape detectors in a public school district in northwestern Ontario, Canada. Two school principals conducted interviews and students (n = 58) and staff (n = 73) in all area high schools (n = 5) completed online surveys. Open-ended questions assessed perceived challenges and benefits of vape detectors. Responses were coded and a thematic analysis identified major themes. Perceived benefits of vape detectors included helping identify students who vape at school, discouraging vaping at school, and improving restroom access. Perceived challenges included students evading detection and vaping moving to other locations at school. School staff and students within these schools identified various perceived benefits and challenges with vape detectors. Additional evidence is needed for the impacts of vape detectors on student vaping.

This study examines how critical participatory action research (cPAR) can advance education measurement development by positioning Black and Latino students and their teachers as co-researchers. As part of the Adapted Measure of Math Engagement (AM-ME) Project, a three-year partnership with a school district in the Midwestern region of the U.S., students, teachers, and academic researchers collaboratively defined math engagement, co-created survey items, analyzed qualitative evidence, and developed practice recommendations. Drawing on reflections, artifacts, and action-planning products from the AM-ME Research Group, findings show that participation fostered new researcher identities for students and teachers, strengthened cultural responsiveness and methodological rigor, and generated actionable classroom and district strategies. The project highlights how embedding cPAR into measurement development may produce more credible and culturally grounded instruments and cultivate youth and teacher agency while directly informing educational practice. These results highlight the potential of participatory methodologies to bridge research and practice and to expand how developmental and educational sciences conceptualize student engagement.

Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) has been associated with increased risks for adverse developmental, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes in childhood. However, there are limited data on academic achievement. We aimed to compare longitudinal academic achievement test scores in school-aged children with and without a history of NAS while controlling for relevant biologic and socioenvironmental variables. This retrospective, observational cohort study used a large, comprehensive, linked dataset from the South Carolina Integrated Data System to evaluate standardized English/Language Arts (ELA) and math achievement scores from grades 3-8 for children with and without a history of NAS. Linear mixed effects modeling assessed test scores by NAS group and grade, with random effects to account for correlation within school districts, schools, students, and mothers. Thirteen bio-socio-environmental variables were also included in the models. The analysis sample included 3494 students: 814 (23%) children with a history of NAS and 2680 (77%) without, frequency matched in a 1:3 ratio according to birth year, sex, mother's education level, and insurance payer at birth. 30.5% had a mother with less than a high school education and 85.1% were insured by Medicaid/uninsured. Mean test scores between students with and without a history of NAS were similar for ELA (-6.3 points, [95% confidence interval (CI): -15.1 to 2.5], p = 0.16) and math (-8.9 points, [95% CI: -16.9 to -0.9], p = 0.030). In a sample of children matched on bio-socio-environmental factors and for whom potential confounders were controlled, we found similar academic achievement scores between children with and without a history of NAS. These results emphasize the importance of socioenvironmental factors on childhood outcomes and suggest prenatal opioid exposure and NAS contribute minimally to academic achievement. This work was supported by funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse 5K23DA055096 award to Dr. Tammy Corr.