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  Who’s “Smart” Enough for This Class? The Effect of Math Tracking on the Success of Students

  Libby Kreikemeier

  Tracking or the separation of students into different classrooms based on perceived ability, within the math classroom is often considered a norm today. Yet there is significant evidence pointing towards it being more harmful than helpful. This literature review explores the impact of math tracking on the success of students from middle school through higher education math.

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  Why You Should Care About Book Bans: Book Bans vs. Democracy

  Matthew Chandiles

  This project investigates the hindering effects of book bans as a constraint on the curriculum of real-world problems for America's youth. First, the cause-and-effect relationship of book bans under several rationales of protest, including political, personal, parental, or religious concerns are explored. Next a consideration of limiting the voices of marginalized and minoritized groups as a result of book bans is highlighted. Removing these literary resources and others in schools actively threatens a curriculum that promotes a holistic democratic education that prepares America's youth as informed, functional citizens.

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  Women Superintendents in the Rural Midwest: Narratives of Challenges and Resistance

  Anne Strothman

  Women represent 76.5% of all teachers in U. S. public schools (Institute of Education Sciences, 2020). Yet, only 26.7% of superintendents leading districts are women (Tienken, 2021, p.19). Although women have made gains in leading schools in larger districts, the same trend is not evident in smaller, rural school systems, which describe the majority of school districts in the United States (AASA: The School Superintendents Association, 2017). Scholars commonly attribute this disparity to gender bias prevalent in rural cultures. Quinlan’s analyses (2013) underscored the gender inequality and sexism that women can face in rural contexts. To help address gender inequalities in educational leadership, schools, districts, and educational leaders must develop an awareness of specific structural and sociocultural barriers to the superintendency faced by women in rural contexts and take proactive steps to understand and mitigate those challenges. This study focuses on the narratives and lived experiences of women superintendents in rural school districts, and of women who aspire to the superintendency in a rural context. This qualitative study also explored the effects that COVID-19 has had on these women’s experiences as rural superintendents, an important aspect of their experience since the pandemic has disproportionally affected women in the United States (AAUW, 2020; Donovan and Labonte, 2020; Hilferty et al., 2021; Karageorge, 2020). This study can help women interested in pursuing careers as rural school district leaders to learn about those challenges and thus prepare themselves better to overcome them. Finally, this study aims to promote gender equity in rural K-12 systems to support women serving in district-level leadership roles in providing leadership models for all students, especially those who identify as female.