Our critical historiography of e-learning policy in Ontario, Canada, traces the policy's trajectory through three settlements (2006-2022) and shows how successive governments have mobilized neoliberal discourses of personalization, access, and choice to justify new arrangements with private actors, within a broader sociopolitical context that includes increased privatization and commodification of public institutions, cuts to public spending, and imagines individuals as rational subjects driven to maximize their economic potential. This context exacerbates challenges students marginalized by schooling already face. Findings from our critical discourse analyses of government documents and news media reports also demonstrate that online learning in Ontario is neither personalized nor customizable but instead is centralized, standardized and, by design, operates independent of rather than interdependent with community. Further, our findings highlight the interdependence of schools - online and in-person - with social processes that create and perpetuate inequality, including gendered and racialized poverty, locally and abroad.

Despite everyone's best intentions, RPP-produced research may still fall short of being responsive to the needs of practice partners. The COVID-19 pandemic arguably magnified the demand for research to help education leaders make informed decisions in unprecedented ways. Were RPPs able to be responsive to practice-side partners in their time of need? We draw upon data collected as part of the 2019, 2020, and 2021 National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships' (NNERPP) annual reports to explore this question. Our findings suggest an increase in design-based projects, in addition to increases in quick-turnaround research syntheses in order to accommodate partner needs.

Classroom placement of twins is an ongoing issue for educational policy. Many educational jurisdictions have standard policy most commonly founded in the belief that separation supports individual identity, personal development and academic opportunity. This study examined the effects of classroom placement in a sample of 560 twin pairs whose behaviors were assessed from ages 5 to 12 years. We found no detrimental effect of classroom sharing on twins' social development. In contrast, this study provides evidence that educating twins together is associated with modest positive twins' behaviors and social functioning at school. Implications for educational policies are further discussed.

With the 2015 passage of the (ESSA), the oversight of language policy in US schools shifted from federal to state governance. Although the education of students officially designated as English learners (ELs) has historically been grounded in federal law, we argue that English learners' educational experiences are also largely influenced by societal attitudes towards immigrants and immigration. Using a critical policy analysis (CPA) approach, we examine how twelve states' immigrant policy contexts are associated with the EL educational policies articulated in their ESSA implementation plans. We find that states' demographic and immigrant policy contexts combine to produce four distinct approaches toward EL education, from departing to approaching equity.

Families indicate that fit and safety are priorities in school selections. It is not clear, however, whether school racial composition shapes families' perceptions of anticipated school belonging. Using a survey experiment with students and parents actively choosing NYC schools, I find that families expressed racialized judgments of belonging. Among schools that were otherwise similar, respondents anticipated feeling most welcome in schools with the highest proportion of their racial group and least welcome in schools with the lowest portions of their ingroup. Families' race-based assessments of school quality could be a key mechanism to explain racial segregation in school choice programs.

School-choice policies are expected to generate healthy competition between schools, leading to improvements in school quality and better outcomes for students. However, the empirical literature testing this assumption yields mixed findings. This systematic review and meta-analysis tests this theory by synthesizing the empirical literature on the competitive effects of school choice on student achievement. Overall, we found small positive effects of competition on student achievement. We also found some evidence that the type of school-choice policy and student demographics moderated the effects of competition on student achievement. By examining whether school competition improves outcomes, our findings can inform decisions of state and local policymakers who have adopted or are considering adopting school-choice reforms.

Despite the growing media attention paid to charter-school unions, comparatively little empirical research exists. Drawing on interview data from two cities (Detroit, MI, and New Orleans, LA), our exploratory study examined charter-school teachers' motivations for organizing, the political and power dimensions, and the framing of unions by both teachers and administrations. We found that improving teacher retention, and thus school stability, was a central motivation for teacher organizers, whereas, simultaneously, high teacher turnover stymied union drives. We also found that charter administrators reacted with severity to nascent unionization drives, harnessing school-as-family metaphors and at-will contracts to prevent union formation. As the charter sector continues to grow, understanding why teachers want unions and how those unions differ from traditional public school unions is crucial to analyzing the long-term viability of these schools and the career trajectories of the teachers who work in them.

A growing body of research examines the role of elite networks, power, and race in the advocacy for market-based reforms and their ultimate effects on students, teachers, and communities of color. Yet, less research explores how such reforms interact with gender in the workplace, especially how policies such as school choice, competition, and incentive-based pay impact female actors within K-12 schools (e.g., teachers, school leaders). The current research on marketization and privatization in education has largely overlooked the potential impact on women in schools. We review the literature on women in K-12 education and in the economy more generally, and organize it conceptually to identify areas for future inquiry. After synthesizing and summarizing themes across diverse bodies of literature, we contend that as schools privatize, we may see greater gender disparities in education leadership and teaching.

Bullying is a significant problem in U.S. schools. Policies have been developed to reduce bullying, yet policy implementation by educators is an essential yet difficult and complex process. Few studies have investigated factors that act as barriers to or facilitators of bullying policy implementation and teacher protection of students. This study examined the influence of school context on educators' capacity to implement a statewide bullying law and protect students from bullying following the enactment of the policy. Data were collected from 505 educators in 324 schools. School administrators tended to rate fidelity of policy implementation and teacher protection of students higher than teachers, education support professionals, and student service professionals. Policy implementation fidelity scores were higher in high schools than elementary schools. School size and the prevalence of student suspensions were inversely related to implementation fidelity. Higher levels of teacher protection were reported in elementary schools.

In this study, the authors explore English as a Second Language (ESL) placement as a measure of how schools label and process immigrant students. Using propensity score matching and data from the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the authors estimate the effect of ESL placement on immigrant achievement. In schools with more immigrant students, the authors find that ESL placement results in higher levels of academic performance; in schools with few immigrant students, the effect reverses. This is not to suggest a one-size-fits-all policy; many immigrant students, regardless of school composition, generational status, or ESL placement, struggle to achieve at levels sufficient for acceptance to a 4-year university. This study offers several factors to be taken into consideration as schools develop policies and practices to provide immigrant students opportunities to learn.