海角社区

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Yilin Wang

Description:听Child Care Financial Assistance (CCFA) plays a critical role in supporting access to child care for low-income families. Although state and federal investments increasingly invest in the quality of subsidized child care programs, less is known about whether children receiving CCFA attend high-quality programs and how program quality influences the stability of child care arrangements, an important policy outcome given the challenges of instability caused by subsidy disruption. Additionally, research on subsidy-related dimensions of quality, such as providers鈥� responses to subsidy disruptions, remains limited. Differences between center-based and family child care (FCC) providers have also not been fully captured in existing research and in practice.

To address these gaps, our study examines how child care program quality practices help explain the relationship between CCFA stability and child care stability, with separate analyses for children in center-based (6,631 children from 544 centers) and FCC (3,425 children from 1,086 FCCs) programs in Massachusetts. We examine three program quality practices, offering care during subsidy disruptions, professional development, and family engagement, using statewide survey data collected from Massachusetts child care providers between July and November 2022. Information on CCFA and child care stability was obtained from administrative records from 2021 to 2024.

Three main findings emerged. First, among center-based providers, offering care during subsidy disruptions explained the link between subsidy stability and care stability, suggesting that this practice may buffer children from care disruptions. Second, for children in centers, higher levels of family engagement and professional development were associated with greater care instability, highlighting that some commonly used quality practices may not fully account for the practical constraints and needs of low-income families. Third, among FCC providers, none of the program quality practices examined explained the relationship between CCFA stability and child care stability, underscoring the need for further evidence on FCC-specific program quality.Findings from our study have several implications for improving the effectiveness of CCFA in Massachusetts: First, results highlight the importance of providers鈥� ability to offer care during subsidy disruptions, particularly in center-based settings. Because not all programs have the financial capacity to provide care during subsidy gaps, the state could explore policy options such as grace periods or other mechanisms that support continuity of care during subsidy disruptions. Second, findings suggest a need to examine whether current program quality practices adequately reflect the needs of children receiving CCFA. Policymakers could consider more inclusive family engagement strategies that better accommodate families from diverse economic backgrounds. Finally, results underscore the importance of distinguishing between center-based and FCC settings when defining and measuring quality. It highlights the need for further research to identify FCC-specific quality practices, such as relational supports with families, and to ensure that state quality standards appropriately recognize and leverage the unique strengths of FCC providers.

Time: 7:45-9:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Raquel Mu帽iz

Description:听Restrictive law and policy contexts have increasingly become the norm across the U.S. In this lecture, I draw attention to how systemic contexts shape educational (in)equity. I draw attention to two interrelated areas. First, I discuss how law and education policy are mechanisms that have over time shifted the discretionary bounds for practitioners, establishing restrictive conditions that hinder educational equity for students who have experienced substantial adversity. Second, I discuss how research use operates as a strategy and mechanism that informs educational equity policy debates in courts and policymaking contexts. I conclude with potential pathways to shape and leverage conditions, strategies, and conditions in furtherance of educational equity.

Time: 9:45-11:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Vincent Cho (Chair and Organizer), Lindsay Mosca

Description:听This presentation uses Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems theory to examine how equity-oriented data practices operate across interdependent layers of the school system, from central office leadership to family engagement. The project employs a qualitative case study design focusing on a single school district, with 40 semi-structured interviews, eight observations, and document analysis. Each scholar-practitioner pursued a distinct line of inquiry: district-level leaders' framing of equity and organizational learning; instructional coaches' role in shaping equity-minded data use; data team dynamics; and families of color's data needs and school decision-making. Findings will offer a multilayered view of how educators understand and enact equity-oriented data practices.

Time: 4:15-5:45 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Matthias von Davier

Description:听In NCME 2023, just a few weeks after the release of GPT-4, we organized a panel discussion on the potential implications of GPT-4 and other advanced AI tools in educational assessment. We held a follow-up discussion one year later at NCME 2024. Now, for NCME 2026 (three years after GPT-4鈥檚 debut), we propose a new panel discussion to examine how the landscape of assessment has been reshaped by the transformative influence of powerful AI in both industry and academia. Our discussion will center on what has truly worked, what remains hype, and what the future may hold for assessment. We will focus on six key areas: skills and constructs, item and task development, psychometric methodologies, reimagining assessment administration, upskilling psychometric practitioners, and preparing the next generation of measurement professionals. We hope this panel discussion will catalyze the exchange of ideas and insights across the assessment community, guiding us toward a more cohesive understanding of AI鈥檚 transformative potential in assessment.

Time: 7:45-9:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Katherine McNeill, Austin Moore, Maria Moreno Vera, Brianna Balke, Laura O'Dwyer

Description: Teachers need support听adapting curriculum for their students (McNeill et al, 2022). High-quality professional learning experiences anchored in curriculum materials can support teachers in their instructional practice (Lynch et al., 2019), which is called curriculum-based professional learning (CBPL) (Short & Hirsh, 2020). In this study, we investigated the impact of CBPL with a customization model on teachers鈥� beliefs, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and the teachers鈥� customizations. We worked with ninety middle school science teachers over the course of one school year as part of a randomized experimental study. For both groups, participating in the CBPL had a significant impact on teachers鈥� beliefs and PCK. The only differences we observed were in the customizations that the teachers submitted. For the teachers in the customization treatment group, their customizations included a greater focus on equitable engagement for their students suggesting the importance of providing a customization model centered on an equity goa

Time: 9:45-11:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Yerin Yoon

Description:听Ensuring that lower-achieving students remain engaged in school and connected to the labor market is critical for both individual mobility and broader social equity. With its recent expansion across comprehensive high schools, Career and Technical Education (CTE) has strengthened as a potential pathway to support these students. Leveraging the Massachusetts high school graduation exam threshold, I show that barely receiving a lower performance signal on required state test scores induces students to pursue CTE in later grades, particularly in high-quality programs. Using a Difference-in-Discontinuities design that compares the impact of this signal on postsecondary outcomes between students with and without access to CTE, I also find that access at this academic margin raises on-time graduation by 2 percent and four-year college enrollment by 6 percent, mitigating the negative effects of the low signal in 10th grade. Impacts are especially pronounced among Black or Hispanic students, with those who enter the workforce after graduation experiencing a 12 percent increase in earnings in the first year. These findings highlight how performance signals shape students鈥� educational pathways and underscore the value of expanding CTE access in comprehensive schools for students at risk of falling behind.

Time:听听2:15-3:45 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Bethany Fishbein, Ummugul Bezirh

Description:听This study examines mathematics attitudes and widening gender-achievement gaps observed over time, employing an IRT scaling approach to facilitate cross-country and cross-cohort comparisons. Findings reveal historical declines in attitudes, with gender-attitude gaps widening, paralleling achievement differences. The results raise questions about the evolving nature of affective constructs in analyzing achievement.

Time: 3:15-4:45 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Ummugul Bezirhan, Ji Yoon Jung, Matthias von Davier

Description:听This study examines semantic drift introduced by translating multilingual student responses into English for automated scoring. Using LaBSE and multilingual-E5 embeddings, we compare original and translated responses with global, local and pairwise metrics. Results show that LaBSE preserves semantic geometry more reliably while E5 shows better pairwise similarity.

Time: 3:45-5:15 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Eliana Castro

Description:听In this paper, I interrogate how 13 AfroLatinx tenth graders (1) made sense of world history instruction that foregrounded Black and Latinx people and experiences, (2) unpacked their racial/ethnic socialization at home, and (3) employed physical and digital spaces as extracurricular and subversive sources of information for identity formation. Data sources include student comments during a class discussion, student responses during one-on-one and focus group interviews, and parent-child dialogue during one joint family pl谩tica. Building on historical literature on marronage and the postcolonial concept of third-space hybridity (Bhabha, 1994), I theorize how these youths carved out a landscape of emerging racial/ethnic identities that were open, liberatory, and humanizing; resourceful, adaptable, and tenacious; and complex, sometimes yielding ambiguous outcomes.

Time: 7:45-9:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Katherine McNeill, Austin Moore, Maria Moreno Vera, Brianna Balke, Laura O'Dwyer

Description:听Teachers need support adapting curriculum for their students (McNeill et al, 2022). High-quality professional learning experiences anchored in curriculum materials can support teachers in their instructional practice (Lynch et al., 2019), which is called curriculum-based professional learning (CBPL) (Short & Hirsh, 2020). In this study, we investigated the impact of CBPL with a customization model on teachers鈥� beliefs, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and the teachers鈥� customizations. We worked with ninety middle school science teachers over the course of one school year as part of a randomized experimental study. For both groups, participating in the CBPL had a significant impact on teachers鈥� beliefs and PCK. The only differences we observed were in the customizations that the teachers submitted. For the teachers in the customization treatment group, their customizations included a greater focus on equitable engagement for their students suggesting the importance of providing a customization model centered on an equity goal.

Time:听4:15-5:45 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Faythe Beauchemin, Brenda Luo, Li Yong, Geying Zhang

Description:听Young children will face around nearly four times as many climate disasters as their grandparents did, including wildfires, storms, floods and droughts (Thiery et al., 2021). Understanding children鈥檚 perspectives about climate change is an urgent need considering that children are environmental stakeholders, future voters and potential climate justice advocates facing the pernicious effects of local and global environmental degradation (Woodard & Schutz, 2024). In this presentation, we explore how children in a first and second grade classroom used their transnational knowledges within interactive read-alouds (Wiseman, 2010) and inquiry groups (Goudvis et al., 2019) to make sense of climate change from a global perspective.

Time: 2:15-3:45 p.m.

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Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Katherine McNeill, Austin Moore, Maria Moreno Vera, Brianna Balke

Description: Teachers play a pivotal role in developing culturally responsive science instruction, yet often need support in shifting their classrooms鈥� culture and epistemic power structures. This chapter focuses on research from three different professional learning communities (PLCs) that developed and used an equity-centered curricular customization model with teachers to support their enactments of middle school science curriculum materials. Specifically, the customization model consisted of four stages: (1) (Re)establish an equity goal with student data; (2) Analyze curricular materials to plan customization; (3) Enact and collect student data; and (4) Reflect on the equity goal and enactment. The chapter shares examples from each PLC focused on a different equity goals: supporting emergent multilingual learners, increasing relevance and encouraging more voices and perspectives. By centering their work on their students, the teachers were able to develop more responsive and expansive science classrooms that looked significantly different depending on their equity goal.

Time: 4:15-5:45 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Faythe Beauchemin

Description:听We explore how a second-grade teacher created a multilingual literature partners program (MLPP) to work towards greater linguistic justice (Baker-Bell, 2020) in her English-medium classroom by creatively incorporating languages with fewer pedagogical resources into her literacy curricula (Najarro, 2025). We view less pedagogical resources not just as an instructional constraint but also as a linguistic justice issue closely tied to what linguistic models of personhood (Flores et al., 2016) count as legitimate and get affirmed or not in classrooms. While the teacher located a plentiful supply of Spanish-English picturebooks to enact translanguaging pedagogies (Garcia et al., 2016), she struggled to find resources in Marshallese, other than simple Marshallese-English dual-language picturebooks written by elementary students on the Marshall Islands. By creating another site for literacy learning through the MLPP, she was able to effectively draw upon Marshallese in her instructional design to ensure that Marshallese students鈥� languages would be affirmed.

Time: 4:15-5:45 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Faythe Beauchemin

Description:听This symposium explores how translanguaging can be taken up, encouraged, and cultivated in literacy spaces by teachers and education researchers to reflect and empower bi/multilingual youth. We draw on translanguaging as a theoretical and pedagogical stance that normalizes flexible use of multiple language resources. After giving an overview of translanguaging practices in literacy contexts, scholars will share findings from five different qualitative studies on translingual pedagogies. Attendees will then be given time to discuss key issues and questions in small groups with the presenters. Through presentation of empirical data and subsequent discussions, attendees will explore possibilities for applying translanguaging as both a pedagogical approach and theoretical lens for understanding literacy interactions.

Time: 4:15-5:45 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Shalini Sivathasan

Symposium Description:听This symposium will provide a nuanced consideration of risk and protective factors within LGBTQIA+ populations. The first presentation will examine longitudinal trajectories of bias-based bullying victimization among gender minority adolescents, with attention to the function of social support. The second talk will present findings linking typologies of violent victimization and perpetration among LGBTQ+ adolescents with mental health and absenteeism. The third presentation will describe qualitative findings about the role of mentors and role models for transgender and nonbinary youth. The final talk will present findings on mental health and quality of life among autistic adults, considering the role of sexual and gender minority identification. The Discussant will offer critical commentary and actionable strategies to support reducing risk and facilitating resilience.

Time: 11:45 a.m.-1:15 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Vishal Easwar

Description:听The purpose of this AERA Memorial Session is to recognize and honor the legacy of Dr. Barry J. Zimmerman, a prominent scholar in the fields of learning andinstruction, self-regulated learning, and motivation. We will honor the work of Dr. BarryZimmerman, who was an influential participant in AERA鈥檚 Division C, Motivation SIG,and Studying and Self-Regulated Learning SIG. Given his impact across these units,this session will be co-sponsored by all three units.

Time: 11:45 a.m.-1:15 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Vishal Easwar, Meghan Coughlan, David B. Miele

Description:听Regulatory focus theory posits that promotion and prevention motivational systems underpin strategic behavior, but their relation to study strategy usage across domains is unclear. The current work examined whether domain-specific promotion and prevention motivations predicted course-specific study strategies in undergraduates (Study 1: N=111; Study 2: N=269) who were concurrently enrolled in math and social science courses. Across domains, prevention motivation was positively associated with the strategies of self-testing, negative monitoring, implementing feedback, spacing, and cramming, which may be useful for preventing setbacks. Promotion motivation was positively associated with the strategies of positive monitoring and class participation, which may be perceived as gain-oriented in nature. These findings have implications for self-regulated learning theory and interventions focused on student learning.

Time: 1:45-3:15 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Lauri Johnson

Description:听This paper unearths the forgotten efforts by the Los Angeles school district to lead for diversity in the late 1940s and the resulting conservative backlash. Focusing on the roleof Superintendent Alexander Stoddard as he promoted the UNESCO programin the Los Angeles City schools during the post-World War II years, which purported to develop world mindedness and intercultural understanding, this historical case study details how he faced opposition to the curriculumfrom populist housewives, conservative reformers, and the Los Angeles school board during the early 1950s. In light of current book banning and anti-DEI policies across the country, this study provides lessons for today鈥檚 school district leaders about how to navigate curriculum controversy and envision a more equitable future.

Time: 11:45 a.m.-1:15 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Charlie Cownie, Myra Rosen-Reynoso, Audrey Friedman, Maria Moreno. Vera, Andrew Miller

Description:听This study explores a comprehensive, data-driven approach to school improvement in urban Catholic elementary schools facing enrollment decline, staffing shortages, and financial strain. Grounded in Complexity Theory, the research examines three case study schools using mixed methods to identify adaptive strategies that foster academic excellence, spiritual formation, and inclusive community. Tools such as the Modified Catholic School Systems Transformation Heuristic and Catholic Identity Assessment Tool guided collaborative reflection and action. Findings highlight challenges in teacher recruitment, special education services, and facility limitations, while showcasing innovative leadership, community engagement, and strategic planning. This research offers a replicable model to support sustainability and equity in Catholic education, particularly in underserved urban contexts.

Time: 1:45-3:15 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Vincent Cho,听Sergio听David听Barrag谩n

Description:听ClassDojo is one of the most widely used educational apps in the U.S. Its newer communication features - direct messaging, social media-style posts, and instant translation - raise questions about the app's potential to build relationships between school and home. Using interviews with teachers and parents, this paper explores how ClassDojo's features are perceived as supporting involvement, engagement, and building relationships. Guided by media richness theory and family engagement frameworks, findings show that ClassDojo's communication features can potentially enable rich, personalized, and equitable connections between families and schools.

Time:听1:45-3:15 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Lauri Johnson (Chair and Discussant)

Description: Roundtable, Division F - Historical Inquiry in Education

Time: 3:45-5:15 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Martin Scanlan

Description:听Our school communities continue to grow more pluralistic across multiple dimensions of diversity. Schools play a central role in educating this increasingly diverse population and face historic and current challenges in doing this. This work is grounded in socio-cultural learning theory of communities of practice (COPs). Members of the COP dug into seven specific dimensions of diversity: disability, socioeconomic status, race, language, sexual identity and gender identity, religion, and social ecosystems. For each dimension we asked a leading scholar and team, part of the COP, to: 1) map the histories and current realities, 2) develop a summary of empirical literature highlighting best practices, and 3) highlight tools and strategies to support leaders in creating inclusive schools.

Time: 3:45-5:15 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Michale K. Russell, Daniel Raphael

Description:听Through a series of simulation studies that model operations of racial oppression at the individual, meso, and systemic levels on students and their learning experiences, this paper explores whether and to what extent Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) techniques under-estimate the effects of racial oppression. The analyses provide evidence that HLM techniques accurate estimate the simulated relationship between pre-test and post-test scores and the simulated intervention effect on post-test scores. However, analyses find that the HLM techniques systematically under-estimate the effects of various forms of racial oppression. This under-estimation becomes worse as sample sizes and variation in simulated effects of oppression increases.

Time: 7:45-9:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Ummugul Bezirhan, Matthias von Davier

Description:听Automated methods for classifying TIMSS items into cognitive domains using item content were evaluated using TF-IDF baselines, enhanced feature engineering, and transformer models. Enhanced TF-IDF achieved the strongest performance surpassing transformer models. Embedding analyses revealed minimal separation across cognitive domains underscoring fundamental construct level challenges.

Time: 9:45-11:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Ji Yoon Jung, Ummugul Bezirhan, Matthias Von Davier

Description:听Protecting personally identifiable information (PII) is critical for the secure automated scoring in ILSAs. We introduce LinguaPII, a novel PII detection framework that integrates regex-based patterns with fine-tuned multilingual named entity recognition. This supports the safe implementation of multilingual automated scoring while upholding data privacy standards.

Time: 9:45-11:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Ummugul Bezirhan (Invited Debater)

Time: 11:30 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Yuchen Wang, Zhushan Mandy Li

Description:听Missing data is a persistent challenge in large-scale educational assessments, often undermining the validity and reliability of statistical inferences. This study evaluates the performance of six imputation methods, which are traditional mean imputation, k-nearest neighbors (KNN), matrix factorization, deep autoencoders (DAE), multiple imputation by chained equations (MICE), and random forest (MissForest). The dataset of the PIRLS 2021, which includes 177 U.S. fourth-grade students and 101 variables, is applied for this study. To simulate realistic conditions, 10% of the observed data was randomly masked, and imputation methods were compared using root mean squared error (RMSE) and imputation accuracy. Results show that MICE achieved the lowest RMSE (8.55), while Random Forest attained the highest accuracy (0.67), significantly outperforming traditional methods and other machine learning approaches. Mean imputation and KNN exhibited limited effectiveness, while matrix factorization and autoencoders struggled to generalize in this context. These findings underscore the advantages of model-based imputation techniques in handling nonlinear dependencies and complex missingness patterns in educational data.

Time: 1:45-3:15 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Matthias Von Davier, Jeneve Swaby

Description:听This study uses digitalPIRLS 2021 log data to examine time on task, comprehension processes, and accuracy in digital reading. Linear and logistic mixed-effects models were used to investigate whether engagement varies across processes, how comprehension process difficulty is reflected in accuracy, and the relationship between response time and accuracy.

Time:听3:00-4:30 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Erin Wry, Matthias von Davier, Bethany Fishbein

Time:听3:30-5:00 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Bethany Fishbein (Organizing Chair), Ummugul Bezirhan

Description:听Large-scale assessments aim to provide internationally-comparable results that generalize to diverse student populations worldwide. Growing diversity in student populations and languages across participating countries, combined with the transition to digital platforms, renews emphasis on issues of exclusion, accessibility, and bias that can undermine the validity of results. While digital platforms enable integrating modern assessment technologies, they require addressing new threats to inequity to maintain representativeness and credibility. This session features four studies conducted to address inclusion, equity, and fairness in the design, administration, and analysis of TIMSS and PIRLS. Research examines the impact of excluding students with disabilities or language barriers from samples and discusses strategies to promote inclusiveness. Issues related to digital accessibility are investigated, focusing on evaluating typing demands across different writing systems. Moreover, a framework is provided for detecting and addressing language bias in scoring with artificial intelligence (AI), illustrating approaches to evaluate fairness in AI-based processes. Lastly, based on research examining the impact of nonresponse on measures of socioeconomic status, the session informs approaches to examine inequities within and across education systems. Together, the research highlights the trade-offs between methodological rigor and fairness, and provides evidence-based strategies to enhance the validity of international assessment results.

Time:听3:30-5:00 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Matthias von Davier, Bethany Fishbein

Time:听3:30-5:00 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Katherine McNeill

Description:听This paper explores how teachers adapt their curriculum to align with social justice goals while making sense of the affordances and constraints of their shared school culture. Drawing on the concept of pedagogical design capacity, the study highlights how teachers become 鈥渃ontext-strategic鈥� designers as they make strategic compromises between perceived ideal and feasible curriculum adaptations to create sustainable change within their school context. It emphasizes the importance of supporting teachers in this ongoing, context-strategic process of curriculum design.

Time: 7:45-9:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Patrick Proctor, Qinghua Liu, Brenda Luo

Description:听The purpose of the current study was to explore how a group of 30 multilingual educators enrolled in a university-based bilingual education endorsement (BEE) program made sense of bilingual theory, research, and controversies after 17 years of prohibition of bilingual education in Massachusetts.

Time: 7:45-9:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): A. Lin Goodwin (Discussant)

Description:听This session explores the use of counter-narratives for anti-racist transformation of schooling and society, developing the foundation for a robust and flexible transformative praxis that centers the lives, experiences, and actions of teachers, students, and families from multi-marginalized urban communities.

Time: 9:45-11:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听A. Lin Goodwin

Description:听California is among the leading states in teacher preparation, preparing over 10% of US teachers. Social justice-oriented teacher educators must navigate state policy contexts and complex socio-cultural contexts while maintaining commitments to justice and equity. This study explores how five CA-based social justice teacher educators describe terms, practices, and contexts shaping their work. Despite contested terms and varying practices, the socio-political context of California shapes and constrains the work of social justice teacher educators. Findings suggest the struggle is ongoing and California teacher preparation programs face regressive and aggressive pushback influencing their ability to sustain social justice teacher preparation.

Time: 11:45 a.m.-1:15 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Charlie Cownie, Myra Rosen-Reynoso, Audrey Friedman, Maria Moreno Vera, Andrew Miller

Description:听This study explores a comprehensive, data-driven approach to school improvement in urban Catholic elementary schools facing enrollment decline, staffing shortages, and financial strain. Grounded in Complexity Theory, the research examines three case study schools using mixed methods to identify adaptive strategies that foster academic excellence, spiritual formation, and inclusive community. Tools such as the Modified Catholic School Systems Transformation Heuristic and Catholic Identity Assessment Tool guided collaborative reflection and action. Findings highlight challenges in teacher recruitment, special education services, and facility limitations, while showcasing innovative leadership, community engagement, and strategic planning. This research offers a replicable model to support sustainability and equity in Catholic education, particularly in underserved urban contexts.

Time: 1:45-3:15 p.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Xiaohan Qian, Yan Leigh, Eric Dearing, Mary Walsh

Description:听Students鈥� attitudes toward school are crucial predictors of academic and developmental outcomes, yet few studies examine how school-based interventions influence those attitudes. This study investigates the relationship between integrated student support (ISS) and students鈥� perceptions of school. Drawing on data from schools implementing the City Connects model, we explore how ISS enhances opportunities for prosocial involvement and educator-student interactions鈥攌ey pathways that shape students鈥� sense of belonging and connection. Structural equation modeling suggests that ISS increases recognition from educators and affiliation with prosocial peers, which in turn fosters more positive attitudes toward school. Findings underscore the broader role of ISS in supporting students鈥� emotional engagement and provide new insights into how supportive environments promote whole-child development.

Time: 7:45-9:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Lauri Johnson

Description:听This paper explores how U.S. principals navigate听and mediate contemporary external tensions and influences听to lead successful schools in diverse, underserved communities. Cases featured in this paper are derived from the new ISSPP theoretical framing with ecological systems theory and complexity theory, as well as new protocols designed to elicit how principals navigate and mediate multiple, complex tensions in their schools. The research design featured apurposive sampling strategy, semi-structured qualitative听individual interviews, and qualitative coding in a comparative method.听Findings introduce a new leadership domain that highlights the interplay between successful principalship practices and the complex ecological systems in which they work. The paper concludes with implications for future research,听leadership preparation, and development.

Time: 9:45-11:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Xiaohan Qian, Yan Leigh, Eric Dearing, Mary Walsh

Description:听Students鈥� attitudes toward school are crucial predictors of academic and developmental outcomes, yet few studies examine how school-based interventions influence those attitudes. This study investigates the relationship between integrated student support (ISS) and students鈥� perceptions of school. Drawing on data from schools implementing the City Connects model, we explore how ISS enhances opportunities for prosocial involvement and educator-student interactions鈥攌ey pathways that shape students鈥� sense of belonging and connection. Structural equation modeling suggests that ISS increases recognition from educators and affiliation with prosocial peers, which in turn fosters more positive attitudes toward school. Findings underscore the broader role of ISS in supporting students鈥� emotional engagement and provide new insights into how supportive environments promote whole-child development.

Time: 7:45-9:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听Patrick Proctor (Discussant)

Syposium Description:听Multilingual children show diverse learning patterns across their two languages, yet research capturing this heterogeneity across multiple language domains and contexts remains limited. This symposium includes four studies revealing heterogeneity within multilingual children populations across home and school contexts. Four studies demonstrate how person-centered approaches uncover meaningful subgroups often masked by variable-centered analyses. The presentations examine: (1) language and reading experience profiles of Spanish-English emergent bilinguals in dual language immersion programs, (2) instructional time allocation patterns in classrooms serving multilingual children, (3) foundational literacy skill profiles across English and Spanish, and (4) home literacy practice patterns among Spanish-speaking families. Collectively, these studies challenge assumptions of homogeneity within multilingual populations and highlight the importance of recognizing diverse pathways in bilingual development.

Time: 9:45-11:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s): Sarah Fogelman, Maria Moreno Vera, Katherine McNeill

Description:听This qualitative study explores how middle school students鈥� science identities are shaped through participation in a customized unit designed to integrate critical consciousness and real-world relevance. Drawing on pre- and post-interviews with students, the research highlights how a curriculum that connects scientific learning to issues such as health disparities and access to food resources can support shifts in students鈥� perceptions of science and themselves as 鈥渟cience people.鈥� Findings focus on two key themes: (1) a movement from abstract or stereotypical views of science identity toward more relational, applied understandings, and (2) an expanded awareness of science as a tool to understand and address social issues. The study offers implications for equity-oriented curriculum design and inclusive science instruction in middle schools.

Time: 9:45-11:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听A. Lin Goodwin (Invited Presenter)

Description:听Drawing on the Akan concept of Sankofa, 鈥済o back and fetch it鈥�, this symposium brings together past and present Division K Vice Presidents for a conversation and reflection on this year鈥檚 Division K theme: 鈥淗onoring Educational Roots, Cultivating Teaching Futures: Reimagining Teacher Education for Collective Liberation鈥�. Panelists will engage in collective remembering of what we have (un)learned in teaching and teacher education and interrogate tensions between dominant narratives and marginalized knowledges of historically excluded communities. The session positions unforgetting as radical resistance, calls for freedom dreaming, and urges this community to reimagine teaching and teacher education for collective liberation.

Time: 9:45-11:15 a.m.

Boston College Lynch School Contributor(s):听A. Lin Goodwin (Presenter)

Description:听Despite evidence that a professionalized teaching workforce can lead to improved instructional quality and enhanced student outcomes, many efforts to mandate high-quality teaching have led to teacher de-professionalization, increased teacher workload, standardization of curriculum and assessment, and public distrust. This paper examines teaching professionalization, drawing on commonly accepted attributes of professions. Using critical policy analysis, we analyze three recent policy developments鈥攖eacher performance assessments, curriculum restrictions and book bans, and the unregulated rise of generative artificial intelligence in education. We analyze how these developments influence teachers鈥� roles, autonomy, and professionalism. Ultimately, we consider why the professional status of teachers remains contested and dynamic, particularly in an era of polarization.

Time: 1:45-3:15 p.m.