US Schools Research Articles

A survey of US and Caribbean veterinary schools reveals strengths and opportunities in antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention and control activities.

To understand antimicrobial stewardship (AS) and infection prevention and control (IPC) activities in veterinary schools. An online survey was completed by representatives from American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges-accredited veterinary schools in the US and Caribbean prior to attending the Inaugural Small Animal Antimicrobial Stewardship Workshop for US Veterinary Schools. Responses were examined to identify patterns among AS and IPC activities and adherence to the AVMA core principles. Half (12 of 24) of the surveyed schools had an AS committee and most (79% [19 of 24]) had an IPC committee. Lack of dedicated staff time was a common barrier to AS (88% [21 of 24]) and IPC (75% [18 of 24]) reported by schools both with and without AS and IPC committees. Eleven of 24 schools (46%) reported performing at least 1 activity focused on each of the AVMA's 5 core principles of AS. Although 79% (19 of 24) of schools incorporate AS into preclinical curricula, training of clinical faculty (17% [4 of 24]), veterinary technicians and support staff (21% [5 of 24]), and house officers (42% [10 of 24]) is less common, despite these individuals engaging in teaching clinical-year veterinary students. Veterinary schools varied in established AS education and AS and IPC practices, though financial and human resources were a common barrier. A collaborative and cohesive approach to AS and IPC among schools to create sustainable frameworks for practice improvement will help combat the global threat of antimicrobial resistance. This is a critical action for settings where future veterinarians are trained.

From Settler Colonialism to Social Justice: Transforming US Schools through Guerrilla Pedagogy

From Settler Colonialism to Social Justice: Transforming US Schools through Guerrilla Pedagogy

The History of US Menstrual Health, School Nurses, and the Future of Menstrual Health Equity.

In the United States, adolescents suffer from inadequate menstrual health, meaning that adolescents are unprepared for menarche, lack the practical resources they need to comfortably and confidently manage menstruation, and receive inadequate health education and care for menstrual pain and disorders. In this article, we provide a historical analysis of the role of school nurses in addressing menstruation from the early 20th century up to the present day. We contextualize the current realities of school nursing and menstrual health education and clinical support. We argue that the decentralized US school system, a cultural aversion to open discussion about menstruation, and the outsized influence of commercial menstrual product manufacturers have hampered the ability of school nurses to deliver menstrual health education along with menstrual health support. Finally, we discuss implications for today's schooling experiences as well as recommendations for how to support school nurses in aligning our national approach to menstrual health toward the public health perspective of menstrual equity. (Am J Public Health. 2024;114(9):903-908. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307705).

How can we better engage female athletes? A novel approach to health and performance education in adolescent athletes

ObjectivesTo evaluate the impact of a video series versus online pamphlets/blog posts on Female Athlete Triad (Triad) and Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) knowledge in high school female runners.MethodsRunners...

Electrifying US School Bus Fleets Equitably to Reduce Air Pollution Exposure in Underserved Communities

World Resources Institute and Equitable Cities investigate how the fuel type and age of school bus fleets may be affecting U.S. communities disproportionately exposed to air pollution. Researchers explore how a focus on equity has brought zero-emission electric school buses to the school districts most harmed by the oldest, most polluting diesel school buses.

Universal Free School Meals and School and Student Outcomes

The White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health included expanding free school meals to all students, regardless of income, which has sparked debate in the United States. To assess the association between universal free school meals (UFSMs) and school and student outcomes in the United States. An expert panel-informed protocol was developed to evaluate intervention or cohort studies comparing UFSM programs, such as the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), with non-UFSM programs in US schools from August 2012 (excluding 2020-2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) in peer-reviewed publications or government reports. Outcomes included meal participation rates, attendance, dietary intake and quality, food waste, economic impact, food insecurity, anthropometrics, disciplinary actions, stigma, and shaming. A search of Medline, Econlit, Business Source Ultimate, ERIC, Agricola, Cab Abstracts, and CINAHL was performed in April 2024. Two researchers screened articles for inclusion, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias, using the Risk of Bias in Nonrandomized Studies of Interventions tool, for each included study. Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations was used to assess the certainty of evidence for each outcome. The search identified 2784 records, with 6 studies included, representing more than 11 000 elementary, middle, and high schools. Nonrandomized intervention studies performed difference-in-difference or rate ratio analysis to investigate CEP participation rates, attendance, anthropometrics, and/or suspensions. CEP was associated with increased lunch (3 studies; moderate certainty) and breakfast (1 study; very low certainty) participation. School attendance was unchanged or improved in schools with CEP compared with schools without UFSM (2 studies; low certainty). CEP was associated with lower obesity prevalence (1 study; very low certainty) and fewer suspensions (1 study; very low certainty). Reasons for downgrading the certainty ratings included indirectness (data not fully representative of the United States) and inconsistency (small number of studies limiting ability to assess consistency). Despite the limitations, the evidence reflected well-designed longitudinal intervention studies appropriate for decision-making. In this systematic review, UFSMs were associated with increased meal participation, no or slight improvements in attendance, and decreased obesity prevalence and suspension rates; certainty of evidence was moderate for lunch participation and low or very low for other outcomes. Studies did not report several important outcomes, such as diet quality and food security, suggesting the need for more high-quality research encompassing policy-relevant indicators.

Beyond the discipline gap: the role of spectacular state violence in the discipline and punishment of Black and Indigenous children in US public schools

ABSTRACT Education research frequently measures and calls for an end to racial disparities in rates of US school discipline practices such as office referrals, suspension, and expulsion. This paper asks what a more expansive understanding of discipline can demonstrate about how schools discipline different students differently. Tracing the history of corporal punishment from Native boarding schools, through Ingraham v. Wright, to violent school policing and arrests today, the author finds that, because Black and Indigenous children can never be ‘normalized’ within white supremacist US schooling, the shift in disciplinary tactics that Foucault described never took place for these students and in fact, the functioning of normalizing school discipline for all depends on extraordinary, spectacular violence against the most marginalized. Rather than focusing on the discipline gap, education research must attend to the violence inherent in US schooling and seek to abolish it.

Family Medicine Clerkship Directors' Perspectives on USMLE Pass/Fail Scoring: A CERA Study.

Reports on the effects of changing the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) Step 1 examination scoring to pass/fail are evolving in the medical literature. This Council of Academic Family Medicine Educational Research Alliance family medicine clerkship directors' study seeks to describe family medicine clerkship directors' perceptions on the impact of incorporation of Step 1 pass/fail score reporting on students' family medicine clerkship performance. Ninety-six clerkship directors responded (56.8% response rate). After exclusion of Canadian schools, we analyzed 88 clerkship directors' responses from US schools. We used descriptive statistics for demographics and responses to survey questions. We used ꭓ2 analysis to determine statistically significant associations between survey items. Clerkship directors did not observe changes in students' overall clinical performance after Step 1 pass/fail scoring (60.8%). Fifty percent of clerkship directors reported changes in Step 1 timing recommendations in the past 3 years. Reasons included curriculum redesign (30.5%), COVID (4.5%), change in Step 1 to pass/fail (11.0%), and other reasons (3.7%). Forty-five percent of these clerkship directors did not observe a change in students' clinical medical knowledge after Step 1 went to pass/fail. Eighty-four percent of these clerkship directors did not compare student performance on clerkship standardized exams before and after Step 1 score changes. We found no significant relationship between Step 1 timing and student performance. This study represents an early description of family medicine clerkship directors' perceived observations of the impact of Step 1 scoring changes on student performance. Continued investigation of the effects of USMLE Step 1 pass/fail scoring should occur.

Comparison between dermatology coursework and veterinary student experience in Indonesian and US veterinary programs

AbstractBackgroundDermatological cases are commonly encountered worldwide. Dermatology specialists and a specific dermatology curriculum may not be available in some parts of the world.ObjectivesThis study's first objective was to describe the dermatology curricula at a sample of American and Indonesian veterinary schools. The second objective was to investigate veterinary students' opinions regarding their readiness and confidence in managing dermatological cases.Methods and MaterialsTwo online questionnaires were designed and distributed to veterinary schools in both Indonesia and the United States. One questionnaire was designed to evaluate the details of the dermatology coursework and distributed to a conveniently selected representative faculty of each school via email. The other questionnaire, which was distributed to veterinary students through a listserv, surveyed students' opinions about their education. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic data analysis.ResultsIn the United States, 63.7% of responding veterinary schools had a specific faculty member teaching dermatology. Dermatology coursework was mandatory in 55% and 0% of schools in the United States and Indonesia, respectively. Ten of 11 responding US schools offered dermatology rotations, yet this was only required for graduation in three schools. None of the Indonesian schools offered a dermatology rotation. Students in both countries reported that they were confident in their clinical skills regardless of the presence of a board‐certified dermatology referral clinician.Conclusions and Clinical RelevanceOur study presents an updated insight into dermatology education in the veterinary curriculum from the perspectives of both faculty and students in the United States and Indonesia.

A framework of justice-centered leadership practice: a qualitative, multidistrict study

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify key school leadership practices that center social justice and are evidenced across multiple school and district contexts.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative, multidistrict research design is used within this study. Sampled across seven US school districts, 24 school leaders were interviewed about their justice-centered school leadership practices within and outside of their school buildings.FindingsParticipants engaged in five key domains of justice-centered practice, which included 13 practice areas and 28 sub-practices. These domains include (1) creating an inclusive and caring environment, (2) promoting equitable opportunity to learn, (3) strengthening staff capacity for justice, (4) positioning families as partners in education and (5) building and extending community capacity and resources.Originality/valueThis study incorporates empirical data across diverse contexts and investigates actions relevant to diverse students and multiple justice-centered leadership approaches. By doing so, this study unearths a spectrum of justice-centered school leadership practices, presenting these in one of the few empirically grounded frameworks available in the literature. This framework provides an accessible, comprehensive and actionable starting place for practitioners hoping to lead in socially just ways and for preparation programs who will support these leaders.

Racialized Closures and the Shuttering of Black Schools: Evidence from National Data

In this article Danielle Marie Greene-Bell and Francis A. Pearman II examine racial disparities in school closures across the United States, with a particular interest in majority Black schools. Using survival analysis and longitudinal data, they find that majority Black schools are far more likely to close than non-majority Black schools and that these elevated closure rates are not fully accounted for by observable differences like achievement levels, enrollment patterns, and the socioeconomic status of their surrounding communities. Using the theoretical frame of BlackQuantCrit, they argue that this pattern of findings is consistent with the theory that school closures demonstrate historical and contemporary forms of anti-Blackness that affect US schools and the geography of opportunity more broadly.

Schooled and Sorted: How Educational Categories Create Inequality

Julian Betts of University of California, San Diego reviews “Schooled and Sorted: How Educational Categories Create Inequality” by Thurston Domina, Andrew M. Penner, and Emily K. Penner. The EconLit abstract of this book begins: “Explores the production, adaptation, and enactment of categories in US schools, focusing on how this categorization is essential to the education system and promotes inequalities within it.”

Book bans in political context: Evidence from US schools.

In the 2021-2022 school year, more books were banned in US school districts than in any previous year. Book banning and other forms of information censorship have serious implications for democratic processes, and censorship has become a central theme of partisan political rhetoric in the United States. However, there is little empirical work on the exact content, predictors of, and repercussions of this rise in book bans. Using a comprehensive dataset of 2,532 bans that occurred during the 2021-2022 school year from PEN America, combined with county-level administrative data, multiple book-level digital trace datasets, restricted-use book sales data, and a new crowd-sourced dataset of author demographic information, we find that (i) banned books are disproportionately written by people of color and feature characters of color, both fictional and historical, in children's books; (ii) right-leaning counties that have become less conservative over time are more likely to ban books than neighboring counties; and (iii) national and state levels of interest in books are largely unaffected after they are banned. Together, these results suggest that rather than serving primarily as a censorship tactic, book banning in this recent US context, targeted at low-interest children's books featuring diverse characters, is more similar to symbolic political action to galvanize shrinking voting blocs.

Sustainability Requires Many Faces of Support

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study focused on the sustainability of a school-wide health behavior intervention in rural schools in the Southwestern US. Informed by the seven premises of Theories of Action with Merit, the purpose of this study was to investigate which portion(s) of a five-year, school-wide health behavior intervention were still in practice (i.e. sustainable), and why they were maintained following the removal of funding and resources for the program. Method: Teachers (N = 41) participated in individual, semi-structured interviews during which they shared what aspects of the original intervention were retained as part of personal classroom practices or of the school culture. Teachers reflected on facilitators and barriers to the sustainability of these practices. Data also included field notes from campus visits. To establish trustworthiness, data triangulation (interview transcripts, survey results, and field notes) provided multiple angles of analysis, and two researchers negotiated all themes. Results: Using the premises of the Theories of Action with Merit, teachers’ comments often circulated around themes of administrative support and personal investment/interest in healthy behaviors. Additional themes of sustainability included feeling capable and physical activity being the “norm” at their school. Conclusions: Teachers’ personal beliefs and self-efficacy in physical literacy held the highest importance in sustaining classroom healthy behavior practices as opposed to the district or state expectations for healthy behaviors. Administrator support was key to whole-school integration and sustainability of practices, however, teachers described evidence of support differently suggesting administrators need awareness of how messages of support are being translated.

“Just for the Sake of Giving It:” An Exploration of Elementary Teachers’ Beliefs About Homework Practices

Homework is a common practice in US schools, with much discussion of its potential benefits and drawbacks. But there is more to learn about the complexities of teachers’ beliefs about homework’s purpose, benefits, and challenges. This interview study with elementary teachers uses a beliefs framework to explore beliefs and their influence on perceptions of homework. Findings reveal a web of tensions around homework broadly, with teachers holding complex and even contradictory beliefs about homework and its usefulness. These tensions relate to the array of individuals with an investment in homework, their workloads, and goals to support diverse students equitably.

Addressing imperial evasion: toward an anti-imperialist pedagogy in teacher education

ABSTRACT Despite the pervasive impact of US imperialism, it is often ignored in US schools and teacher preparation programs. This paper introduces the concept of imperial evasion, which refers to the process of ignoring and denying imperialism and its effects. The authors argue that it is imperative that educators work to interrogate imperialist ideologies through curricula, and prepare future educators to disrupt such ideologies, policies, and practices in schools. Using a collaborative scholarly personal narrative approach, the authors discuss their experiences and approach to designing and teaching a course on migration and education at a US university. Ultimately, this paper responds to calls to disrupt imperial ideologies in education by (1) providing a framework for identifying and naming imperial evasion and how it operates through schooling; and (2) describing and reflecting on curricular and pedagogical approaches to disrupting such evasions in a teacher education course.

Troublemakers: Young people as unruly activists in an anti-trans US school context

This piece of comics-based research (CBR) tells the story of young people’s activism and adult lassitude in progressive US communities where the transgender and nonbinary youth had seemed well supported, but were in fact targeted by school staff at two middle-grade schools. While there ensued various forms of protest and activism, adults encouraged children to engage in adult-curated, docile forms, such as making chalk art on the sidewalk in front of the middle school, or writing letters to administration. Many young people refused these forms and instead used “unruly” forms of activism. These included defacing school spaces and other means of disrupting institutional functioning. They saw adult-curated docile activism as a frustratingly inert treatment. Even in such a clear situation, many adults seemed still more uncomfortable with unruly activism, cast as “troublemaking” than with adult transgressions, and refused to see the children as anything other than improper. This comic describes children’s unruly activism in the context of adult violence and adult-curated docile activism as a form of control—and reflects on adult discomfort as a fulcrum of complex power. Reflections on reframing all child “misbehavior” as radical action conclude the comic narrative.

Denying racial animus: Political discourse in Arizona anti-ethnic studies legislation

This paper contributes to the literature on racism denial through an analysis of the political discourse in defense of 2010’s Arizona Revised Statute 15-112 (ARS § 15-112), which can be considered a key antecedent to political moral panics centered on the presentation of history and identity in US schools. ARS § 15-112 was designed with the expressed intent of terminating Mexican American Studies education, and eventually all ethnic studies, in Arizona public and charter K-12 schools. This paper considers the discursive maneuvering used by political actors to simultaneously justify this legislation and dodge accusations of racial animus, both prior to the legislation’s signing and in the years following. It further analyzes the political discourse that allows for racism denial in certain spheres, including the legal realm, despite politically benefiting from the use of the Latino Threat Narrative. This paper discusses four primary forms of racism denial pervasive in this political discourse: 1) Absence discourse; 2) Framing racism around ‘extremes’; 3) Positive self-presentation; 4) Helping discourse. In addition to exploring how all four forms of denial are used in this case, the paper teases out helping discourse from positive selfpresentation, showing how the former focuses on reframing the actor while the latter reframes the action. Importantly, anti-MAS political actors and members of their shielding institutions attempted to frame racism and racial animus as inherently individual rather than systemic in every form of denial discussed.

Implementing a Palliative Care Junior Faculty Visiting Professor Program: Pearls and Pitfalls.

Palliative Care (PC) is a small, relatively young interprofessional sub-specialty; hence mentorship for early-career research faculty is widely dispersed across schools and universities. We developed the Junior Visiting Professor Program (JVPP) to provide junior faculty in palliative care (PC) with opportunities to meet multidisciplinary PC researchers from other institutions and to advance their research through networking and presenting their work. We describe how we designed and implemented the program, and we report on the first cohort of participants. We invited PC research groups from US schools of medicine and nursing to participate in this 5-year interprofessional exchange program by nominating junior faculty and serving as hosts. We matched nominees to host institutions based on nominee training experiences, nominee research interests, and host institution faculty expertise. In addition, we provided logistical guidance on visit planning. Post-visit, we surveyed both hosts and junior visiting professors (JVPs) regarding their satisfaction, perceived value, and suggestions regarding the program. We recruited 13 schools to participate and matched 10 nominees to host institutions in our first year. Nine JVPs completed their visit; 6 JVPs and 8 host faculty/staff responded to the post-visit survey. Overall, JVPs were highly satisfied with their matches and the visiting professor experience. Hosts were generally satisfied with their matches and believed the program to be mutually beneficial. The most frequent suggestion was for greater administrative support to plan visits. Structured, well-supported opportunities for networking across institutions is beneficial for emerging PC researchers and for building PC research capacity.

How does leadership affect teacher collaboration? Evidence from teachers in US schools

ABSTRACT The research literature reports that teacher collaboration has great potential to increase various teachers’ competencies; however, less has been said about how leaders can facilitate and support the development of these collaborations. This study examines the relative impact of distributed leadership practices, teacher professional learning, and innovative climate on teacher collaboration. Data are from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). The sample consists of 2,324 teachers from 159 US lower secondary schools. Results indicate that distributed leadership has a direct and indirect impact on teacher collaboration in that professional learning and innovative climate serve as mediators for the leadership–collaboration relationship. The findings imply a potential benefit to be gained from distributing leadership among various stakeholders throughout the school, as well as expanding access to improve collaborative pedagogical practice among teachers.