Systemic Racism and Educational Measurement provides a theoretical and historical reckoning with racism and oppression produced through educational measurement and research methodology. As scholars and professionals in the testing, measurement, and assessment of human learning and performance work to exorcise race sciences, white supremacy, and other injustices from the field’s research and practice, new insights are needed into their root causes. This book is the first to posit that the theory of the White Racial Frame was and continues to be applied to the foundations, process, dissemination, and use of educational measurement, leading to instruments, findings, and decisions that perpetuate the racialized social structure of our nation. Even among well-meaning stakeholders who aim to improve humanity and address inequities, the White Racial Frame shapes the field’s research questions, the methods utilized, the data valued, the interpretations made, and the language used throughout. Students and scholars of educational measurement, testing, and psychometrics will find invaluable clarifications of terminology, concepts, and theories integral to understanding systemic barriers in the field; explications of educational measurement’s core purposes and its influence by the White Racial Frame; and a series of alternate frames, theories, and epistemologies intended to guide educational measurement toward anti-racism and increased fairness.

Systemic Racism and Educational Measurement provides a theoretical and historical reckoning with racism and oppression produced through educational measurement and research methodology. As scholars and professionals in the testing, measurement, and assessment of human learning and performance work to exorcise race sciences, white supremacy, and other injustices from the field’s research and practice, new insights are needed into their root causes. This book is the first to posit that the theory of the White Racial Frame was and continues to be applied to the foundations, process, dissemination, and use of educational measurement, leading to instruments, findings, and decisions that perpetuate the racialized social structure of our nation. Even among well-meaning stakeholders who aim to improve humanity and address inequities, the White Racial Frame shapes the field’s research questions, the methods utilized, the data valued, the interpretations made, and the language used throughout. Students and scholars of educational measurement, testing, and psychometrics will find invaluable clarifications of terminology, concepts, and theories integral to understanding systemic barriers in the field; explications of educational measurement’s core purposes and its influence by the White Racial Frame; and a series of alternate frames, theories, and epistemologies intended to guide educational measurement toward anti-racism and increased fairness.

"The burgeoning multidisciplinary field of social and emotional learning (SEL) now has a comprehensive and definitive handbook covering all aspects of research, practice, and policy. The prominent editors and contributors describe state-of-the-art intervention and prevention programs designed to build students' skills for managing emotions, showing concern for others, making responsible decisions, and forming positive relationships. Conceptual and scientific underpinnings of SEL are explored and its relationship to children's and adolescents' academic success and mental health examined. Issues in implementing and assessing SEL programs in diverse educational settings are analyzed in depth, including the roles of school- and district-level leadership, teacher training, and school/n-/family partnerships"--

As a nation, we spend more than $1 billion a year on federally mandated educational tests that 30 million students must take each year. The country spends an additional $1.2 billion on test preparation materials designed to help students pass these tests. While test mandates were put in place with good intentions, increasingly educational leaders and policy makers are questioning these test based reform efforts. Some question whether these programs are doing more harm than good. Others call for the development of more and better tests. Given the vast amount of resources our nation pours into testing, is it time we pay closer attention to these testing programs? Is it time we hold the testing industry and policy makers accountable for the tests they make and use? Is it time we invest resources to develop new ways of testing our students? The Paradoxes of High-Stakes Testing explores these and other questions, as it helps parents, teachers, educational leaders, and policy makers better understand the complexities of educational policies that use tests as a lever for improving the quality of education. The book explores: >> how testing is used to enable teachers and schools to be more effective and improve student learning, >> why testing is so ingrained in the American psyche and why policy makers rely on testing policies to reform our educational system, >> what we can learn from a long history of test-based reform efforts that have occurred over centuries and across continents, >> what effects testing has on teaching and learning in our schools when it is used to solve political, social, or economic problems. Most importantly, the book describes several ways in which testing can be improved to provide more accurate and more useful measures of student learning. Many of these improvements capitalize on technology to provide teachers with more detailed, diagnostic information about student learning and measure skills that some leaders argue are essential for the 21st century work force. Exploring what is within reach is critical because current testing policies are hindering these improvements. Finally, given that testing is and will continue to be an integral part of our educational system, the book concludes that, like other sectors of our society, educational testing must be more closely monitored to ensure that high quality tests are used to measure student achievement and to minimize the negative effects that testing has on students, schools, and our society. Given the opportunity our nation has to rethink and redesign its testing policies, The Paradoxes of High-Stakes Testing presents a clear strategy to maximize the positive effects of educational testing.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Anti-Racist Educational Leadership and Policy helps educational leaders better comprehend the racial implications and challenges of the current educational policy landscape. Each chapter unpacks a policy issue such as school choice, school closures, standardized testing, discipline, and school funding, and analyzes it through the racialized and market-driven lenses of the current leadership context. Full of real examples, this book equips aspiring school leaders with the skills to question how a policy addresses or fails to address racism, action-oriented strategies to develop anti-racist solutions, and the tools to encourage their school community to promote racial equity. This important book demystifies a complex policy context and prepares current and future teacher leaders, principals, and superintendents to lead their schools towards more equitable practice. 2021 Winner of the AESA Critics’ Choice Book Award.

Confronting Racism in Teacher Education aims to transform systematic and persistent racism through in-depth analyses of racial justice struggles and strategies in teacher education. By bringing together counternarratives of critical teacher educators, the editors of this volume present key insights from both individual and collective experiences of advancing racial justice. Written for teacher educators, higher education administrators, policy makers, and others concerned with issues of race, the book is comprised of four parts that each represent a distinct perspective on the struggle for racial justice: contributors reflect on their experiences working as educators of Color to transform the culture of predominately White institutions, navigating the challenges of whiteness within teacher education, building transformational bridges within classrooms, and training current and inservice teachers through concrete models of racial justice. By bringing together these often individualized experiences, Confronting Racism in Teacher Education reveals larger patterns that emerge of institutional racism in teacher education, and the strategies that can inspire resistance.

Many racial and ethnic groups in the United States, including blacks, Hispanics, Asians, American Indians, and others, have historically faced severe discriminationâ€"pervasive and open denial of civil, social, political, educational, and economic opportunities. Today, large differences among racial and ethnic groups continue to exist in employment, income and wealth, housing, education, criminal justice, health, and other areas. While many factors may contribute to such differences, their size and extent suggest that various forms of discriminatory treatment persist in U.S. society and serve to undercut the achievement of equal opportunity. Measuring Racial Discrimination considers the definition of race and racial discrimination, reviews the existing techniques used to measure racial discrimination, and identifies new tools and areas for future research. The book conducts a thorough evaluation of current methodologies for a wide range of circumstances in which racial discrimination may occur, and makes recommendations on how to better assess the presence and effects of discrimination.

In 2021, the United States Census Bureau reported that in 2020, during the rise of the global health pandemic COVID-19, homeschooling among Black families increased five-fold. However, Black families had begun choosing to homeschool even before COVID-19 led to school closures and disrupted traditional school spaces. Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice and Popular Culture offers an insightful look at the growing practice of homeschooling by Black families through this timely collection of articles by education practitioners, researchers, homeschooling parents and homeschooled children. Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice and Popular Culture honestly presents how systemic racism and other factors influence the decision of Black families to homeschool. In addition, the book chapters illustrate in different ways how self-determination manifests within the homeschooling practice. Researchers Khadijah Ali-Coleman and Cheryl Fields-Smith have edited a compilation of work that explores the varied experiences of parents homeschooling Black children before, during and after COVID-19. From veteran homeschooling parents sharing their practice to researchers reporting their data collected pre-COVID, this anthology of work presents an overview that gives substantive insight into what the practice of homeschooling looks like for many Black families in the United States.