Strengths, Challenges, and Resources Across Schools in a Midwest State: Focusing on Historically Underserved Students

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 1:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Practices of Addressing Inequality in Different Learning Spaces and Settings (Table 12)

Abstract

Research spanning decades has consistently suggested that children’s lives outside of school profoundly influence their achievement in school. However, before state education agencies and relevant educational policymakers can efficiently address the harmful consequences associated with out-of-school factors (e.g., poverty), it is important for them to understand the landscape of their schools’ existing student support. In response to the need for actionable data to aid in decision-making, we partnered with a Midwest state education agency to administer a state-wide principal survey focused on strengths, needs, resources, and barriers faced by their schools and students. Survey findings unpacked the state’s student support landscape and included particular insights on the student support landscape of historically underserved student populations served by the school.

Authors

• Nan Yang, Boston College

• Kathleen Trong Drucker, Boston College

• Yan Leigh, Boston College

• Red Paulin, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Gia Pedro, Boston College

• Mary Elizabeth Walsh, Boston College