A study of nine headteachers in England, using a research protocol developed and carried out in Ontario, finds implications for the professional development of school leaders with respect to their decision-making to achieve greater equity. The types of professional development that leaders found to be most effective within their particular…

The "on-time" degree completion crisis within the community college system is alarming. Only 5% of students graduate in two years (Complete College America [CCA], n.d.-a). Many community college students are low-income and racially and ethnically minoritized, and their graduation rates are low (CCA, n.d.-a). Community colleges around the…

Charter schools experience higher than average teacher turnover when compared with traditional public schools, with organizational characteristics cited as one contributing factor. This paper seeks to better understand organization characteristics by examining charter school recruitment. Through a multiple case study context, hiring materials…

The Partnership for College Completion (PCC) was founded to "advance equity in higher education" by supporting colleges and universities to improve college completion for Black, Latinx, and Pell-eligible students--those groups that experience persistent disparities in completion. Simultaneously, PCC engages in state policy reform to…

This paper explores the student achievement-related decision-making processes of eight school principals in Ontario, Canada. First, we describe Ontario's public education system with respect to neo-liberalism and student achievement. Next, we review general approaches to reducing the achievement gap as it pertains to matters of race. We then show…

Implementing institution-wide, systemic change is typically a long and often challenging task for college leaders to undertake. Because each institution is different, the combination of internal and external factors that drive institutional change can vary greatly from college to college, and from moment to moment. Achieving the Dream (ATD), which…

In Australia, under the National Assessment Plan, educational accountability testing in literacy and numeracy (NAPLAN) is undertaken with all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 to monitor student achievement and inform policy. However, the extent to which these data have been analysed to report student progress is limited. This article reports a…

A recent qualitative study by a team of researchers looked into how grade-level teams of teachers are thinking about causes and strategies based on looking at student performance data. What is interesting in these findings is how infrequently teachers attribute student results to instruction -- just 15% of the time. Teachers in this study were…

This qualitative phenomenological study explored how 19 school leaders in seven California comprehensive high schools were making sense of data and using data to transform their schools by closing achievement gap for historically underrepresented students. Data is a powerful tool in the hands of school leaders to transform patterns of inequality…

This paper addresses what we are calling "the gaps," the divergent and contextual understandings of "opportunity gap" and "achievement gap" evident in phenomenological interviews with principals and school district leaders. Drawing from a sample of 22 interviews in urban, inner-ring suburban, and outer-ring suburban…

To support state efforts to close postsecondary attainment equity gaps for students of color, Research for Action (RFA) developed a framework that describes three drivers behind efforts to place racial equity at the center of postsecondary policymaking and practice: awareness, inclusion, and integration. The framework is adapted from Equity in the…