The 10 most-cited articles in American Educational Research Journal, 2021

This article documents the patterns of White-Black and White-Hispanic enrollment gaps in Advanced Placement (AP) and Dual Enrollment (DE) programs across thousands of school districts in the United States by merging several data sources. We show that the vast majority of districts have racial enrollment gaps in both programs, with wider gaps in AP than DE. Results from fractional regression models indicate that geographic variations in these gaps can be explained by both local and state factors. We also find that district-level resources and state policies that provide greater access to AP and DE are also associated with wider racial enrollment gaps, implying that greater resources may engender racial disparity without adequate efforts to provide equitable access and support for minority students.

This study examines a diverse set of nearly 100 private institutions that adopted test-optional undergraduate admissions policies between 2005–2006 and 2015–2016. Using comparative interrupted time series analysis and difference-in-differences with matching, I find that test-optional policies were associated with a 3% to 4% increase in Pell Grant recipients, a 10% to 12% increase in first-time students from underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds, and a 6% to 8% increase in first-time enrollment of women. Overall, I do not detect clear evidence of changes in application volume or yield rate. Subgroup analyses suggest that these patterns were generally similar for both the more selective and the less selective institutions examined. These findings provide evidence regarding the potential—and the limitations—of using test-optional policies to improve equity in admissions.

The authors theorize what we call managerialist subterfuge, drawing on distinct ethnographic studies to examine how adult “partners” leverage the language and strategies of corporate managerialism to undermine youths’ radical visions of change. Critical analysis of patterns in interview and participant observation data across two youth participatory action research projects revealed the ways in which adult interventions functioned to co-opt youths’ activist agendas; following the rationale that youth who are presumed to be in need of adult management are “out of their depth” when it comes to civic matters. The authors assert that managerialist subterfuge functions as a mechanism to further bureaucratize youth activism and absolve state actors of accountability for harm that Black youth and youth of color experience.

A growing number of schools are adopting restorative justice (RJ) practices that de–emphasize exclusionary discipline and aim for racial equity. We examine student discipline as RJ programs matured in Meadowview Public Schools from 2008 to 2017. Our difference–in–difference estimates show that students in RJ schools experienced a profound decline in their suspension rates during the first 5 years of implementation. However, the benefits of RJ were not shared by all students, as disciplinary outcomes for Black students were largely unchanged. While the overall effects of RJ in this context are promising, racial disproportionality widened. Our results suggest that the racial equity intentions of RJ may be diluted as schools integrate RJ into their existing practices.

This critical race ethnography examines a secondary-level dual-language (DL) program, a bilingual-education model thought to provide Latinxs educational equity. Drawing from a three-stage recursive analytic approach, I present evidence that a DL program’s policies and practices valued offering Latinx youth biliterate schooling only so long as DL was available and advantageous to Whites—which ultimately excluded some Latinx students from bilingual education and/or accessing its benefits. I theorize DL functions as white property when DL perpetuates racial hierarchies and preserves the value of a white racial identity, thereby maintaining Whites’ inequitable material accumulation. I problematize the logic of DL—highlighting that DL has the elitist tendencies of world-language education—and assess DL’s potential to deliver educational justice to Latinxs.

Guided by legal, sociolegal, and higher education concepts, we use an embedded case study of university administrators at a public institution to examine how they negotiate and institutionalize principles of freedom of expression and inclusion in responses to the proliferation of on-campus hate speech following the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Our findings reveal that an institution's legal context and administrators’ interpretations of law and law-related pressures shape their understanding of hate speech–related incidents, and the permissible responses, in ways that make it nearly impossible to consider and implement inclusion-focused practices. We advance the concept of “repressive legalism” to explain these dynamics and discuss implications for policies and practices that support both open, robust expression and inclusion for students of color.

The public narrative surrounding efforts to improve low-performing K–12 schools in the United States has been notably gloomy. But what is known empirically about whether school improvement works, which policies are most effective, which contexts respond best to intervention, and how long it takes? We meta-analyze 141 estimates from 67 studies of post–No Child Left Behind Act turnaround policies. On average, policies had moderate positive effects on math and no effect on English Language Arts achievement on high-stakes exams. We find positive impacts on low-stakes exams and no evidence of harm on nontest outcomes. Extended learning time and teacher replacements predict greater effects. Contexts serving majority-Latina/o populations saw the largest improvements. We cannot rule out publication bias entirely but find no differences between peer-reviewed versus nonpeer-reviewed estimates.

A core motivation for the widespread teacher evaluation reforms of the past decade was the belief that these new systems would promote teacher development through high-quality feedback. We examine this theory by studying teachers’ perceptions of evaluation feedback in Boston Public Schools and evaluating the district's efforts to improve feedback through an administrator training program. Teachers generally reported that evaluators were trustworthy, fair, and accurate but that they struggled to provide high-quality feedback. We find little evidence that the training program improved perceived feedback quality, classroom instruction, teacher self-efficacy, or student achievement. Our results illustrate the challenges of using evaluation systems as engines for professional growth when administrators lack the time and skill necessary to provide frequent, high-quality feedback.

Prior research has shown that English learner (EL) classification is consequential for students; however, less is known about how EL classification affects student outcomes. In this study, we examine one hypothesized mechanism: teacher perceptions. Using a national data set (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Cohort of 2010–2011 or ECLS-K:2011), we use coarsened exact matching to estimate the effect of kindergarten EL status on teachers’ perceptions of students’ academic skills. We further explore whether that impact is moderated by instructional setting (bilingual vs. English immersion). We find evidence that EL classification results in lower teacher perceptions. This impact is, however, moderated by bilingual environments. In bilingual classrooms, we do not find evidence that EL classification results in diminished perceptions. This study adds to research on teacher perceptions and the effects of EL classification.

Despite scholarly consensus on the positive influence of peers’ parental education on students’ academic achievement, less is known about whether marginalized students reap similar benefits as their nonmarginalized counterparts. Using data from the China Educational Panel Survey and a quasi-experimental design, we show that the impact of classmates’ parental education on test scores is significantly stronger for local students than for migrant students in urban schools. These differential effects are largely driven by rural-to-urban migrants and not by urban-to-urban migrants. Additionally, we find that rural migrant students benefit less from the positive effects of peer parental education than their local counterparts, especially when their local peers hold higher levels of discriminative attitudes toward rural migrant students in their classes.