Equity
It remains a critical challenge to ensure all children—regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, and/or ability—have access to a high-quality education. We are at a pivotal time where communities and schools are navigating issues of equity, poverty, and opportunity gaps against a backdrop of shifting education policy. With access to exceptional data and a multi-disciplinary team of researchers and research partners, we are able to provide unique insight into these important issues.
In this webinar offered in partnership by the Alliance for Excellent Education, NWEA, the National Urban League, and Unidos US, learn about new NWEA research on academic trends of students during the past school year compared to a more typical school year, what these findings suggest about widening education inequality, recommendations for states and districts on how to use recent federal aid to transform education for historically underserved students, and the perspective a a district leader on what their district is doing to support students as they return to school.
Topics: Equity, COVID-19 & schools
Understanding the initial educational impacts of COVID-19 on communities of color
This report examines the academic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) students, with the goal of documenting achievement trends to provide leaders and policymakers with evidence to guide action to address educational inequities for BIPOC students.
Topics: Equity, COVID-19 & schools
In this webinar by the Alliance for Excellent Education, NWEA, and the National Center for Learning disabilities, learn about recent research on academic growth for students in special education before the pandemic and implications for policies and practices designed to spur COVID-19 recovery.
Topics: Equity, COVID-19 & schools, Seasonal learning patterns & summer loss
How can we support academic growth for students with disabilities (SWD) who may have experienced disproportionate academic impacts from COVID-19?
Topics: COVID-19 & schools, Equity
Understanding differential growth during school years and summers for students in special education
New research examining academic achievement and growth of students in special education and their peers who were never in special education during each school year and summer in grades K-4 shows that students with disabilities grow as much or more academically during the school year than their peers without disabilities during some years, but that steeper summer learning losses for students with disabilities contribute to widening disparities.
Topics: Equity, Growth modeling, Seasonal learning patterns & summer loss
Understanding differential growth during school years and summers for students in special education
This study compares within- and across-years academic growth for students who were ever in special education (ever-SPED) to students who were never in special education (never-SPED) in grades K-4. Ever-SPED students grew more in math and reading than never-SPED students during many school years, but lost more learning during every summer than their peers, leading to expanding disparities. These findings suggest that summer learning opportunities are crucial for improving educational outcomes for students with disabilities.
Topics: Equity, Growth modeling, Seasonal learning patterns & summer loss
Measuring middle school achievement trajectories for college readiness
This study identifies students’ academic trajectories in the middle grades relative to a set of college readiness benchmarks. We apply math and reading college readiness benchmarks to rich longitudinal data for more than 360,000 students across the nation. Student-level and school-level demographic characteristics significantly predict academic trajectories.
Topics: Equity, College & career readiness, Middle school
