Chronic absenteeism rates have become an increasing problem after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (U.S Department of Education, 2022). There is a need to identify interventions to effectively target the heightened rates of student absences. This study examined the effectiveness of the Dine and Doodle intervention in increasing attendance in a…

Purpose/Objectives: Explore principal, foodservice staff, and parent perceptions of implementing reusable serviceware in elementary school lunch settings. Methods: Cross-sectional qualitative study conducted May-June 2024 in one California school district which recently transitioned to reusable serviceware. School staff (n=19) participated in…

To gain insight into the farm to school practices implemented across the country, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (USDA FNS) regularly conducts the Farm to School Census (Census). The Census is an online survey sent to all school food authorities (SFAs) in the U.S. and its territories that participate in the National…

The purpose of this study is to determine how parents of Ascension Public School students, grades pre-kindergarten through fifth, view the lunches provided by the school district. A review of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National School Lunch Program (NSLP) policies yielded ten major regulations with the greatest impact on…

Poor nutritional choices and unhealthy behaviors are considered responsible for the rise in childhood overweight and obesity and may reinforce each other, creating a vicious cycle. This paper studies a primary school intervention designed to break the cycle early in life by replacing date bars with calorie-equivalent meals lower in sugar and fat.…

For many years schools located within concentrated areas of poverty in an urban school county in south Florida have experienced alarmingly high teacher turnover rates and alarmingly low academic performance scores. In 2015, in a lauded expose printed by the "Tampa Bay Times," five schools, all of which would go on to become part of the…

I examine the student-achievement implications of school-level budgetary autonomy in public schools. I propose a theoretical model of a principal's allocation decisions and empirically examine determinants of participation and the resulting impacts on student achievement. A principal's years of administrative experience positively impact program…

Breaktimes are ubiquitous in English schools. Research suggests they have social value for children, but school staff often have a range of concerns about breaktimes and tend to undervalue them. However, there is little understanding about these times, not least because data are not collected about their organisation and characteristics. This…

This paper presents the findings of a multi-site case study focused on the role of mid-day supervisors in English primary schools. Ethnographic approaches were employed to gain an understanding of the role and how this is experienced by those who undertake it. This included a fully participatory phase where the researcher inhabited the role of a…

The issue of 'holiday hunger' (i.e. food insecurity during school holidays) has received increased attention in recent years, though research in this area is limited. Through qualitative, semi-structured interviews, the current study investigated the views of 12 primary school staff on the existence, impacts and potential solutions to holiday…

Excessive plate waste is generated in elementary school cafeterias. Adapting nutrition promotion strategies to target waste reduction and encouraging mindful and sustainable eating (MSE) are possible strategies to encourage students to reduce waste during school lunch. "Farm to Tray, Tray to Farm" is a 16-week intervention that aims to…

Fruit and vegetable intake for children in the United States is low, which puts them at risk for poor health in the future. The National School Lunch Program meal pattern and nutrition standards for participating schools include increased fruits and vegetables, compared to previous standards. Using a pretest-posttest design, this study examined…

An estimated 339,000 workers were employed in foodservice operations in the nation's elementary and secondary schools. While news stories often focus on so-called "lunch ladies," the school foodservice workforce encompasses employees ranging from front-line cafeteria workers to chefs and food preparation staff to administrators and…

The UK government is planning to increase the number of pupils attending state-funded selective grammar schools, claiming that this will assist overall standards, reduce the poverty attainment gap and so aid social mobility. Using the full 2015 cohort of pupils in England, this article shows how the pupils attending grammar schools are stratified…

Urban public school districts in the U.S. vary in quality. Educational policies, distribution of resources, and the challenges that students bring to the classroom differ substantially across localities. Little surprise, then, that academic outcomes--such as high school graduation rates and average school performance on standardized…