A sea change is underway in the nation's approach to dealing with young people who get in trouble with the law. Although the country still leads the industrialized world in the rate at which it locks up young people, the youth confinement rate in the United States is rapidly declining. In 2010 this rate reached a new 35-year low, with almost every…

Music educators in the United States and those who support them currently wrestle with the fact that students from low-income communities and homes are underrepresented across the country's music programs. Music education classes, particularly at the secondary level, do not represent the broader population enrolled in U.S. public schools. In…

This paper is a study of part of the Algebra Project's program for underrepresented high school students from the lowest quartile of academic achievement, social and economic status. The study focuses on students' learning the concept of function. The curriculum and pedagogy are part of an innovative, experimental approach designed and implemented…

In England, despite making up 60% of the secondary school teaching workforce, women continue to be underrepresented in secondary school headship. In this paper, we focus on the experiences of women working in the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) as a site for headship preparation. This paper draws on survey findings from a study of women's and men's…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the racial conflict that occurred at the University of Michigan (UMI) earlier last year when Black students expressed their frustrations with the underrepresentation, racial discrimination and disparaging remarks against African Americans on campus (Jaschik, 2014). Because student affairs is the service most…

As a nation wrestles with the need to train more professionals, persons with disabilities are undereducated and underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The following project was proposed to increase representation of students with disabilities in the STEM disciplines. The program emphasizes an integrated…

Research from the past 40 years indicates that Black students in primary and secondary school settings are subjected to exclusionary discipline, including suspension and expulsion, at rates two to three times higher than their White peers (Children's Defense Fund, 1975; Skiba, Michael, Nardo, & Peterson, 2002). Although this phenomenon has…

In this article, we present findings from a three-year comparative longitudinal and ethnographic study of how schools in two cities, Buffalo and Denver, have taken up STEM education reform, including the idea of "inclusive STEM-focused schools," to address weaknesses in urban high schools with majority low-income and minority students.…

This study examines the impact of affirmative action bans in six states (California, Washington, Florida, Texas, Michigan, and Nebraska) on the matriculation rates of historically underrepresented students of color in public medical schools in these states. Findings show that affirmative action bans have led to about a 17% decline (from 18.5% to…

The Community College Survey of Men (CCSM) assesses predictors of student success for historically underrepresented and underserved men in community colleges. The instrument is designed to inform programming and service-delivery for male students (Wood & Harris, 2013). While the instrument was designed for community college men in general,…

Women currently outnumber men in obtaining undergraduate degrees but are underrepresented within STEM fields. However, women's representation varies by STEM field, and even further by STEM subfield. One field that has held a persistent low representation of women is physics. This paper seeks to uncover the truth behind an anecdotal claim that the…

African American women leaders are often found in urban schools that have been exhausted of resources and lack support. However, due to their disproportionate representation in urban schools, African American women principals have become adept at uniting and engaging stakeholders in marginalized school settings into action. The intent for this…

Aspirations for higher education by people from low socioeconomic status backgrounds are now a focus of government policy in many OECD nations. This is part of a global trend emphasizing the perceived benefits of "raising" aspirations among under-represented groups as a social inclusion strategy to widen university participation, but…

In this commentary, we argue that social capital theory, the idea that membership in a group creates opportunities to acquire valuable information and resources from other group members, is a useful framework in which to consider ways to increase diversity in the Earth System Sciences (ESS) and in the science, technology, engineering, and…

Academic self-concept is positively related to individual achievement but negatively related to class- or school-average achievement: the big-fish--little-pond effect (BFLPE). This contrast effect results from social comparison processes. The BFLPE is known to be long-lasting, universal and robust. However, there is little evidence regarding its…