Alexandra Aylward
Biographic Data
| ID | 3983414 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alexandra Aylward |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alexandra |
| FAMILY NAME | Aylward |
| SIGNATURE | AYLWARD A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Nevada, Reno |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1321-6778 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 59 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Where Place Meets Policy
Racial disproportionality in special education persists as a spatialized injustice shaped by local histories and geographies. Using a critical-spatial lens, we conducted an explanatory sequential mixed-methods study to examine how context mediates both disproportionality citations and district responses. Quantitative analyses of California data showed that large-city districts serving high proportions of Black, Indigenous, and Latine students wer…
A Critical Examination of Special Education Policy Using a Multi-Layered Systemic Approach for Policy Analysis
Understanding how system-level educational inequities manifest across contexts and over time is critical for informing research, policy, and practice. This paper advances a theoretically grounded, interdisciplinary conceptual framework—the Multilayered Systemic Approach for Policy Analysis (MSAPA)—for research on systemic inequities related to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), including its racial disproportionality accounta…
Top Down and Bottom Up
Despite increasing calls for transparent integration, the mixed methods field lacks replicable approaches that center theory to answer multilevel-systems questions. We describe the Deductive-Inductive Dual Pillar Integration Process (DID-PIP), a five-phase integration technique for multilevel research. The DID-PIP centers a theoretical framework to generate meta-inferential understandings of multilevel systems that moves beyond confirmation or re…
Why Are So Few Latinas Serving as Superintendents? A Call to Action Following a Decade of Minimal Progress
The superintendent is one of the most important positions within public school districts because they have the capacity to influence policies, practices, and perceptions among school staff while simultaneously holding sway over the public. Yet, few Latinx administrators are hired into the superintendency – even fewer are Latinas. Consequently, districts are never gaining access to talented leaders that can help foster improved educational experie…
Understanding the Superintendent Pipeline
A recent study published in Educational Researcher by White (2023) examined superintendent gender gaps. This work required 4 years of internet searches to identify and match superintendent names with each of the roughly 13,000 school districts in the United States. Although this study provided important insights into the superintendent gender gaps, the study is unable to examine gaps for females of color or the long-term career pathways of superi…
Understanding policy reverberations across the educational ecosystem to effectuate change
The Aftermath of Disproportionality Citations
We used a situated approach to examine the aftermath of citations for racial disparities in special education and discipline. The study was conducted in one suburban school district and examined staff’s interpretations and responses to multiple disproportionality citations. We found that historical, spatial, and sociocultural contexts mediated stakeholders’ interpretations and reactions to citations and the consequences of their responses. Our fi…
“Following the Breath”
Given the prevalence of mental health issues for both educators and adolescents in rural Montana, this project is designed to help mitigate the impact of stressors by providing coping strategies linked to improvements in overall mental health outcomes for teachers, which may ultimately lead to improved co-regulation of students and classroom climate. The immediate goal of this pilot study was to measure physical and mental health outcomes of educ…
Mitigating Rural Adolescent Trauma
Enduring Equity Questions
In this article, we document patterns of local education agency (LEA) disproportionality citations within one U.S. state spanning an 8-year time period immediately following the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to understand the following: (a) how patterns of disproportionality citations manifest over time in suburban locales, and (b) how often LEAs experience and subsequently are able to successfully…
Trauma-Informed Yoga
In a state ravaged by suicide and a mental health crisis, this study sought to mitigate impacts of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and depressive and anxiety symptomology in high school students in a rural Montana community. Through a seven-week, twice weekly intervention of trauma-informed yoga, participants experienced statistically significant reductions in anxiety (GAD-7) and increases in Strengths and Difficulties (SDQ-11) overall score…
“A smartphone made my life easier”
Unpacking the Logic of Compliance in Special Education
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ([IDEA] 2004; IDEA Amendments 1997) is a civil rights-based law designed to protect the rights of students with disabilities in U.S. schools. However, decades after the initial passage of IDEA, racial inequity in special education classifications, placements, and suspensions are evident. In this article, we focus on understanding how racial discipline disparities in special education outcomes relate…
Exclusion from Educational Opportunity in Diversifying Rural Contexts
Racial/ethnic disproportionality within special education refers to the over- or underrepresentation of a racial/ethnic group in an educational category, program, or service in comparison to the group's proportion in the overall population. The educational equity implications of disproportionality have been discussed in multiple studies, and schools may risk receiving federal citations and sanctions in significant instances of disproportionality.…
The Effect of School Funding on Opportunity Gaps for Students With Disabilities
School finance reform has recently centered on providing schools with more equitable access to resources to reduce opportunity gaps for students. Although special education is often a prominent part of larger equity conversations, special education funding is commonly excluded from school funding reform initiatives. Given the costly nature of special education programs, it is imperative that scholars and policy makers understand the effects of fu…
Stressors and Barriers to Using Mental Health Services Among Diverse Groups of First-Generation Immigrants to the United States
Stressors and Barriers to Using Mental Health Services Among Diverse Groups of First-Generation Immigrants to the United States
Unpacking the Logic of Compliance in Special Education
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ([IDEA] 2004; IDEA Amendments 1997) is a civil rights-based law designed to protect the rights of students with disabilities in U.S. schools. However, decades after the initial passage of IDEA, racial inequity in special education classifications, placements, and suspensions are evident. In this article, we focus on understanding how racial discipline disparities in special education outcomes relate…
The Aftermath of Disproportionality Citations
We used a situated approach to examine the aftermath of citations for racial disparities in special education and discipline. The study was conducted in one suburban school district and examined staff’s interpretations and responses to multiple disproportionality citations. We found that historical, spatial, and sociocultural contexts mediated stakeholders’ interpretations and reactions to citations and the consequences of their responses. Our fi…
Exclusion from Educational Opportunity in Diversifying Rural Contexts
Racial/ethnic disproportionality within special education refers to the over- or underrepresentation of a racial/ethnic group in an educational category, program, or service in comparison to the group's proportion in the overall population. The educational equity implications of disproportionality have been discussed in multiple studies, and schools may risk receiving federal citations and sanctions in significant instances of disproportionality.…
Enduring Equity Questions
In this article, we document patterns of local education agency (LEA) disproportionality citations within one U.S. state spanning an 8-year time period immediately following the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to understand the following: (a) how patterns of disproportionality citations manifest over time in suburban locales, and (b) how often LEAs experience and subsequently are able to successfully…
The Effect of School Funding on Opportunity Gaps for Students With Disabilities
School finance reform has recently centered on providing schools with more equitable access to resources to reduce opportunity gaps for students. Although special education is often a prominent part of larger equity conversations, special education funding is commonly excluded from school funding reform initiatives. Given the costly nature of special education programs, it is imperative that scholars and policy makers understand the effects of fu…
Why Are So Few Latinas Serving as Superintendents? A Call to Action Following a Decade of Minimal Progress
The superintendent is one of the most important positions within public school districts because they have the capacity to influence policies, practices, and perceptions among school staff while simultaneously holding sway over the public. Yet, few Latinx administrators are hired into the superintendency – even fewer are Latinas. Consequently, districts are never gaining access to talented leaders that can help foster improved educational experie…
Understanding the Superintendent Pipeline
A recent study published in Educational Researcher by White (2023) examined superintendent gender gaps. This work required 4 years of internet searches to identify and match superintendent names with each of the roughly 13,000 school districts in the United States. Although this study provided important insights into the superintendent gender gaps, the study is unable to examine gaps for females of color or the long-term career pathways of superi…
Understanding policy reverberations across the educational ecosystem to effectuate change
Trauma-Informed Yoga
In a state ravaged by suicide and a mental health crisis, this study sought to mitigate impacts of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and depressive and anxiety symptomology in high school students in a rural Montana community. Through a seven-week, twice weekly intervention of trauma-informed yoga, participants experienced statistically significant reductions in anxiety (GAD-7) and increases in Strengths and Difficulties (SDQ-11) overall score…
Stressors and Barriers to Using Mental Health Services Among Diverse Groups of First-Generation Immigrants to the United States
The Effect of School Funding on Opportunity Gaps for Students With Disabilities
School finance reform has recently centered on providing schools with more equitable access to resources to reduce opportunity gaps for students. Although special education is often a prominent part of larger equity conversations, special education funding is commonly excluded from school funding reform initiatives. Given the costly nature of special education programs, it is imperative that scholars and policy makers understand the effects of fu…
“A smartphone made my life easier”
Unpacking the Logic of Compliance in Special Education
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ([IDEA] 2004; IDEA Amendments 1997) is a civil rights-based law designed to protect the rights of students with disabilities in U.S. schools. However, decades after the initial passage of IDEA, racial inequity in special education classifications, placements, and suspensions are evident. In this article, we focus on understanding how racial discipline disparities in special education outcomes relate…
Exclusion from Educational Opportunity in Diversifying Rural Contexts
Racial/ethnic disproportionality within special education refers to the over- or underrepresentation of a racial/ethnic group in an educational category, program, or service in comparison to the group's proportion in the overall population. The educational equity implications of disproportionality have been discussed in multiple studies, and schools may risk receiving federal citations and sanctions in significant instances of disproportionality.…
“Following the Breath”
Given the prevalence of mental health issues for both educators and adolescents in rural Montana, this project is designed to help mitigate the impact of stressors by providing coping strategies linked to improvements in overall mental health outcomes for teachers, which may ultimately lead to improved co-regulation of students and classroom climate. The immediate goal of this pilot study was to measure physical and mental health outcomes of educ…
Mitigating Rural Adolescent Trauma
Enduring Equity Questions
In this article, we document patterns of local education agency (LEA) disproportionality citations within one U.S. state spanning an 8-year time period immediately following the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to understand the following: (a) how patterns of disproportionality citations manifest over time in suburban locales, and (b) how often LEAs experience and subsequently are able to successfully…
Trauma-Informed Yoga
In a state ravaged by suicide and a mental health crisis, this study sought to mitigate impacts of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and depressive and anxiety symptomology in high school students in a rural Montana community. Through a seven-week, twice weekly intervention of trauma-informed yoga, participants experienced statistically significant reductions in anxiety (GAD-7) and increases in Strengths and Difficulties (SDQ-11) overall score…
The Aftermath of Disproportionality Citations
We used a situated approach to examine the aftermath of citations for racial disparities in special education and discipline. The study was conducted in one suburban school district and examined staff’s interpretations and responses to multiple disproportionality citations. We found that historical, spatial, and sociocultural contexts mediated stakeholders’ interpretations and reactions to citations and the consequences of their responses. Our fi…
Why Are So Few Latinas Serving as Superintendents? A Call to Action Following a Decade of Minimal Progress
The superintendent is one of the most important positions within public school districts because they have the capacity to influence policies, practices, and perceptions among school staff while simultaneously holding sway over the public. Yet, few Latinx administrators are hired into the superintendency – even fewer are Latinas. Consequently, districts are never gaining access to talented leaders that can help foster improved educational experie…
Understanding the Superintendent Pipeline
A recent study published in Educational Researcher by White (2023) examined superintendent gender gaps. This work required 4 years of internet searches to identify and match superintendent names with each of the roughly 13,000 school districts in the United States. Although this study provided important insights into the superintendent gender gaps, the study is unable to examine gaps for females of color or the long-term career pathways of superi…
Understanding policy reverberations across the educational ecosystem to effectuate change
A Critical Examination of Special Education Policy Using a Multi-Layered Systemic Approach for Policy Analysis
Understanding how system-level educational inequities manifest across contexts and over time is critical for informing research, policy, and practice. This paper advances a theoretically grounded, interdisciplinary conceptual framework—the Multilayered Systemic Approach for Policy Analysis (MSAPA)—for research on systemic inequities related to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), including its racial disproportionality accounta…
Top Down and Bottom Up
Despite increasing calls for transparent integration, the mixed methods field lacks replicable approaches that center theory to answer multilevel-systems questions. We describe the Deductive-Inductive Dual Pillar Integration Process (DID-PIP), a five-phase integration technique for multilevel research. The DID-PIP centers a theoretical framework to generate meta-inferential understandings of multilevel systems that moves beyond confirmation or re…
Where Place Meets Policy
Racial disproportionality in special education persists as a spatialized injustice shaped by local histories and geographies. Using a critical-spatial lens, we conducted an explanatory sequential mixed-methods study to examine how context mediates both disproportionality citations and district responses. Quantitative analyses of California data showed that large-city districts serving high proportions of Black, Indigenous, and Latine students wer…
Psychology (10 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Education Discipline and Inequality (7 works) · Medicine (5 works) · Pedagogy (5 works) · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies (5 works) · Clinical Psychology (4 works) · Critical Race Theory in Education (4 works) · Geography (4 works)