Context: In recent years, 44 U.S. states have proposed legislation that restricts the teaching of race and racism in social studies. Commonly called "anti-critical race theory" (anti-CRT) legislation, these laws are notoriously difficult to interpret and have led many social studies teachers to avoid discussing race and controversial…

The purpose of this study was to examine the presence of continuous improvement and improvement science in the Consolidated State Plans required by ESSA. Through an exploratory qualitative content analysis, we examined 52 state plans to determine the extent education policies encourage professional educators to use a continuous improvement and…

In 2021, Illinois became the first state in the United States to require that K-12 students learn about Asian American history. Illinois achieved this when lawmakers passed House Bill 376 (H.B. 376), colloquially known as the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act. H.B. 376 received praise for being the first legislation…

In 2011, Public Act 97-8, commonly referred to as Senate Bill 7 (SB 7), was signed into law by Governor Pat Quinn. Senate Bill 7 was one of the most significant changes to the Illinois tenure laws since the laws were enacted in 1941. Using discourse analysis methodology, this study examined the language used by various organizations and…

Trauma studies scholars emphasize naming or acknowledging trauma to promote healing. In response to the recent political and curricular whiplash in the Commonwealth of Virginia, this paper investigates the prevalence and nature of traumagenic events in Virginia's social studies standards. Data analysis suggests that conceptual insights from trauma…

This paper utilizes a conceptual framework uniting neoliberalism, neoconservatism, and poststructuralism to examine four education bills from the Kansas state legislature proposed in 2023. Utilizing critical discourse analysis to frame policy documents as forms of text and discourse, this paper unpacks language-in-use, structures of power, and…

Antiblackness is a persistent feature of American society with continued implications for the experiences, outcomes, and well-being of Black communities. In the wake of widespread protests against antiblack police brutality and heightened awareness of racial injustices in 2020, federal, state, and local political actors swiftly began a concerted…

On March 28, 2022, Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 1557 "The Parental Rights in Education" bill into law, taking effect July 1, 2022. As written, the bill: (a) prohibits discussion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, and all other terms and concepts related to sexuality and gender (LGBTQ+)…

"Divisive Concepts" laws have sprung up around the nation as a backlash to the widespread commitments to anti-racist education that emerged in summer 2020. This critical policy analysis examines the concepts central to Florida's "Individual Freedom Act" [HB7] of 2022, to determine its intent and impact in ameliorating or…

Between the decades of 1970 through 1999, there were major shifts in higher education in New Jersey. Utilizing a grounded theory approach this dissertation created a database of legislation, hearings transcripts, and education reports. Searching this database for commonly used terminology, this dissertation was seeking a pattern in language use…

The U.S. Constitution is the most well-known governing document in the country--studied by students, endlessly interpreted and reinterpreted by judges and political pundits, and placed in the category of near-religious reverence by many Americans. In the last 50 years it has been amended exactly once, in a ratification process that took over 200…

Reports of sexual relationships between teachers and their students have risen across the country. This study qualitatively examines existing school district policies in Nevada to determine what the existing policies cover, how the potential consequences are outlined, whether the policies give teachers guidance on how to navigate tricky ethical…

A new "bilingual/plurilingual education renaissance" in California was ushered in with the passage of state Proposition 58 in 2016. Program planners, however, have struggled to meet the need for bilingual/plurilingual teachers within a linguistic context ravaged by two decades of restrictive policies. This restrictionism has resulted in…

Background: In the past decade, the laws governing teachers' employment have been at the center of legal and political conflicts across the United States. Vergara v. California challenged five California state statutes that provide employment protections for teachers. In June 2014, a California lower court declared the statutes unconstitutional…

The purpose of this paper is to not analyze how effective or ineffective Senate Bill 1720 has been since its implementation five years ago; rather, the paper's guiding goal is to closely examine a report recently published in February 2019 by The Center for Postsecondary Success (CPS) at Florida State University, claiming SB 1720 a success. In the…