This paper examines national gaps and trends in geography achievement in eighth grade from 1994 to 2018. Statistical models comprising student- and school-level variables were developed to predict achievement using data provided by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Although there were statistically significant relationships between achievement and school-level attributes such as geographic region and school sector, the magnitudes of the coefficients were relatively minor and inconsistent over time compared with student-level characteristics such as gender, race, ethnicity, and parental education. The results inform current policy directions and efforts to foster educational equity in K-12 geography.

Computers and geospatial technologies such as Geographic Information Systems, Google Earth, and the Global Positioning System (GPS) are increasingly common tools for geography instruction in schools. The NAEP Data Explorer was used to conduct an analysis of geography achievement in the eighth grade based on differences in students' access to and uses of computers and other technologies at home and school. The analysis over the study period (1994-2018) documents the emergence of technologies available to support geography instruction. Results point to differences in geography achievement associated with differential access to technology and applications of technology for geographic learning.

The relationship between teacher quality and student achievement is often at the heart of educational debates about student success. In this study, we leverage data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to explore relationships between geography achievement in the 8th grade and various indicators of teacher quality. We found positive associations between achievement, years of teaching experience, and teacher participation in workshops, curriculum committees, and other forms of training and professional development. However, the benefits of teaching experience, training, and professional development are not uniformly experienced by different groups of students.

Efforts to transform educational systems advocate for shifting and expanding the voices of those who generate research. This study was part of a project that brought together mathematics teachers, youth workers, and researchers to create equity-centered noticing frameworks for mathematics instruction. We explore youth workers’ understandings of the relationship between local educational equity problems and larger structural forces. By applying the framework of critical bifocality, we explore how youth workers demonstrate praxis where their pedagogical responses are animated by an understanding of the inherent linkages between broad social, economic, and political forces and educational equity issues in the local community. © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Over the past 35 years, a range of ‘new’ policy actors and networks has emerged from the private sector under the rationale of efficient, free-market alternatives to traditional public policymakers. Under a critical policy studies framework, this paper uses discourse analysis and interviews with key stakeholders to examine how one regional workforce development initiative–the UpSkill Houston initiative–promotes a business-driven vision of education reform. We find that their programmatic narratives promote this vision through a focus on closing the ‘skills gap’ and tailoring education to best meet the labor needs of regional industries. We further note that UpSkill Houston espouses a skills-based vision of a worker pipeline directly from the education sector into high-growth regional industries. We situate UpSkill Houston’s programmatic narrative within an expanding number of private regional workforce development initiatives that seek to leverage postsecondary public education resources to support regional business interests. We argue that initiatives such as UpSkill Houston are important to investigate, as they are among an increasing trend of new education policy actors and networks that exert control over education policy. © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

While educators and policymakers increasingly link the '21st-century' skills of communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and self-directed learning to graduate success in important high-technology industries, few studies look at how technological college faculty - who are expected to help instil these important skills in students - learn to better teach such skills. Faculty development research shows that feedback- and reflection-oriented social learning improves instruction, but has not typically investigated the full scope of beneficial teaching-focused interactions, formal and informal, in which faculty engage. Using a social network perspective, which focuses on the empirical contours of relationships across settings, this mixed methods study explores (1) the people with whom technological faculty discuss teaching, referred to as 'teaching-focused personal networks;' (2) the comparative contours of these networks by faculty development involvement, teaching experience, institution type, and discipline; and (3) how, if at all, faculty believe these networks influence their communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and self-directed learning instruction. Survey data (n = 192) indicate that most respondents discuss teaching with a core personal network of about four contacts, commonly institutional colleagues, around once a month. Data also show that network size, diversity, and strength - measures connected to actionable, relationship-based information and support, or 'social capital' - are broadly similar among faculty of varying subgroups, with one exception: respondents reporting involvement in in-depth faculty development programming have larger and stronger networks. Qualitative results show that most faculty reporting teaching-focused personal networks perceived them to benefit their teaching of communication, teamwork, problem-solving, or self-directed learning through support, reflection, feedback, and sharing new ideas.

Panel regression analysis is used to examine the impact of trade clusters on transportation costs along the southern border of the United States. CIF/FOB ratios are utilized as the transportation cost measures. Grubel-Lloyd and Herfindahl-Hirschman indexes are utilized to identify trade clusters in the sample. Data are assembled for four customs districts (El Paso, Laredo, Nogales, and San Diego) during a 20-year period between 1995 and 2015. Empirical results suggest that trade clusters are associated with reduced transportation costs. These results differ from those of the northern border of the United States, where trade clusters have higher transportation costs.

Response process validity evidence provides a window into a respondent's cognitive processing. The purpose of this study is to describe a new data collection tool called a whole-class think aloud (WCTA). This work is performed as part of test development for a series of problem-solving measures to be used in elementary and middle grades. Data from third-grade students were collected in a 1-1 think-aloud setting and compared to data from similar students as part of WCTAs. Findings indicated that students performed similarly on the items when the two think-aloud settings were compared. Respondents also needed less encouragement to share ideas aloud during the WCTA compared to the 1-1 think aloud. They also communicated feeling more comfortable in the WCTA setting compared to the 1-1 think aloud. Drawing the findings together, WCTAs functioned as well if not better, than 1-1 think alouds for the purpose of contextualizing third-grade students' cognitive processes. Future studies using WCTAs are recommended to explore their limitations and other factors that might impact their success as data gathering tools.

Think alouds are valuable tools for academicians, test developers, and practitioners as they provide a unique window into a respondent's thinking during an assessment. The purpose of this special issue is to highlight novel ways to use think alouds as a means to gather evidence about respondents' thinking. An intended outcome from this special issue is that readers may better understand think alouds and feel better equipped to use them in practical and research settings.