Allison Firestone

San Francisco Unified School District

Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) is a set of practices designed to build on students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds as teaching and learning occur. Although CRT can have positive effects on student outcomes, little research has examined teachers’ self-efficacy to implement CRT practices. Using the Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Effic...

Until recently, existing research on teacher professional development (PD) has largely relied on teacher perceptions and self-reports to evaluate effectiveness. Though more current research has used a diverse array of designs and methodologies to examine impact on teacher knowledge, practice, and student learning, uncertainty regarding the effectiv...

Teachers who draw upon specialized knowledge in their instructional practice can be drivers of positive student outcomes, especially for students classified as having special educational needs. Although there are generally agreed upon characteristics of high-quality instruction that can be measured with well-constructed instruments (e.g., Danielson...

Using a dis/ability critical race theory (DisCrit) and critical quantitative (QuantCrit) lens, we examine disproportionate application of exclusionary discipline on multiply marginalized youth, foregrounding systemic injustice and institutionalized racism. In doing so, we examined temporal-, student-, and school-level factors that may result in exc...

Root causes of disproportionality in exclusionary discipline are multiply determined. Teachers’ perceptions and implicit biases, enacted within the contexts of schools as racialized organizations, shape how educators interpret and respond to student behavior. Focusing on the referral phase of the disciplinary process, this systematic review of theo...

The attachment is available for download and use and includes the test, information on test development, and scoring protocol.

Studies related to disproportionate special education identification of students from historically marginalized groups have used increasingly complex analyses to understand the interplay of factors that cause and maintain disparities. However, information regarding the influence of students’ grade level at initial special education placement remain...

Content Acquisition Podcasts (CAPs) have been shown to positively impact preservice teachers’ knowledge in critical content areas compared to traditional modes of content delivery (e.g., a lecture). However, survey research has shown that both faculty and students at the university level prefer that technology enhance rather than replace in-person...

Well-designed mathematics instruction focused on concepts and problem-solving skills associated with measurement and data analysis can build a foundational understanding for more advanced mathematics. This study investigated the efficacy of the Precision Mathematics Level 1 (PM-L1) intervention, a Tier 2 print- and technology-based mathematics inte...

Mathematics interventions aimed at accelerating the learning of students with mathematics difficulties (MD) should be developed through a design science approach such as the Curriculum Research Framework (CRF). Precision Mathematics is a National Science Foundation-funded DRK–12 Design and Development project focused on building mathematical profic...

In this study, the authors examine the impact of a community service learning course on undergraduate students’ decisions to pursue careers as special education teachers or related service providers. Participants (N = 134) completed a course involving volunteer service with persons with disabilities in the local community and were surveyed as to wh...