We examine policy influencers' perceptions of the targets of school-choice policy across five states, exploring how constructions varied for White and racially minoritized families, whether policy actors conceived of the "target" of policy as the child or the parent, and how these racialized constructions varied across different types of school-choice policies.

This study explores disparities in reclassification outcomes between Chinese and Latinx English learner (EL) students in one large school district, along with possible mechanisms that drive these differences. Using mixed methods including discretetime hazard modeling of longitudinal administrative data and analysis of in-depth interviews with veteran EL educators and administrators, we find large and persistent ethnic differences in reclassification outcomes across grade levels. Drawing on prior research on inequalities among immigrant students, we find evidence that individual background characteristics, social capital, school and instructional contexts, and stereotypes and bias all contribute to variation in reclassification patterns. Importantly, reclassification processes may be sensitive to racial and ethnic biases, disproportionately limiting Latinx EL students' reclassification.

We investigate student mobility in a choice-based system that has gone to scale, New Orleans, to gain insight into an underlying improvement mechanism of choice-based reform and its potential equity-related consequences. In contrast to typical analyses of mobility, this study distinguishes incumbent school characteristics that can cause students to search for a new school ("push" factors) from those features that can draw families to a new school ("pull" factors). We find evidence consistent with school performance playing both push and pull roles. However, for low-achieving students, the push of low performance at incumbent schools is stronger than the pull of high performance at potential destinations, implying that low-achieving students are more successful in exiting low-performing schools than they are in finding higher-performing schools to attend.

Our study examined the relation of advanced math course-taking to the educational attainment of rural youth. We used data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002. Regression analyses demonstrated that when previous math achievement was accounted for rural students take advanced math at a significantly lower rate than urban students. Compared to urban students, rural students have less change in their math achievement from 10th to 12th grade, are less likely to be enrolled in a 4-year college two years postsecondary, and these differences are explained by advanced math course-taking. Limitations, implications, and future research directions are discussed.

Using data from a household-based, stratified random sample of youth and their caregivers from low-income inner-city neighborhoods, this study examined the variability in the academic achievement of Latino youth. The results indicate a significant advantage in reading achievement for first- and second-generation immigrant youth, as compared to the third generation, which persisted even after controlling for important child, parenting, human capital, neighborhood, and demographic covariates. Follow-up analyses within the subsample of the first- and second-generation youth indicate that more recent arrival to the U.S. predicted higher reading achievement. Yet, there was no evidence of a similar immigrant advantage in math. The implications of these findings, limitations of the present study, and directions for future research are discussed.

Analysis of the National Education Longitudinal Study revealed that socioeconomically advantaged students persist in high school math at higher rates than their disadvantaged peers, even when they have the same initial placements and skill levels. These disparities are larger among students with prior records of low academic status because students from more privileged backgrounds persist in math coursework even when their prior performance predicts they will not. Among students with low middle school math performance, those from socioeconomically disadvantaged families appear to benefit from having consultants for coursework decisions, so that they make up ground with their socioeconomically advantaged peers.

This study expands research on an academic and social turning point for adolescents, the transition to high school, by analyzing how students' level of social integration into school can affect high school academic performance. Using nationally representative data, three different pathways emerged as students transition to high school, characterized by varying amounts of disruption and opportunity for new social relationships upon entering high school. Findings suggest that elements of middle school social integration, including teacher bonding, popularity, and extracurricular participation, affect academic achievement when students enter high school. However, the association between integration into school and academic performance appears to be contingent upon the pathway students follow.

Using new national data from Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement (AHAA), this article examines high school math patterns for students of different race-ethnicity and gender. Compared with white males, African American and Latino males receive lower returns from taking Algebra I during their freshman year, reaching lower levels of the math course sequence when they begin in the same position. This pattern is not explained by academic performance, and, furthermore, African American males receive less benefit from high math grades. Lower returns are not observed for minority female students, suggesting that more attention to racial-ethnic inequality in math among male students is needed.