Announcing the Journal of Spatial Equity and Education: A New Venue for Place-Based Scholarship

TNEFP launches a peer-reviewed, open-access journal at the intersection of geography, educational finance, and institutional equity. Submissions are now open for the inaugural issue.

Today, Tennessee Educational Funding and Policy (TNEFP) is proud to announce the launch of the Journal of Spatial Equity and Education (JSEE), a peer-reviewed, open-access journal dedicated to rigorous scholarship on how place, power, and policy shape educational outcomes.

Submissions for our inaugural issue — Volume 1, Issue 1, publishing August 2026 — are open now, with a submission deadline of June 1, 2026.

Why this journal, and why now

Educational inequality is not distributed randomly across the map. It follows zip codes, school district boundaries, state funding formulas, and centuries of policy decisions that have concentrated resources in some communities and drained them from others. The consequences are measurable in per-pupil spending, teacher retention, facilities quality, postsecondary access, and the life trajectories of students who had no say in where they were born.

Yet the scholarly conversation about educational equity too often treats geography as a footnote rather than a central analytic frame. Studies examine outcomes without interrogating the spatial logic that produced them. Policy evaluations measure effects without mapping where those effects land hardest. Quantitative analyses control for location as a nuisance variable rather than treating it as a site of inquiry.

JSEE exists to change that. We publish research that takes seriously the question of where — where resources flow, where opportunity concentrates, where policy fails, and where communities are building something different.

What we publish

JSEE welcomes original research across a range of formats and methodological traditions. Our scope includes:

• Spatial analysis of educational resource distribution and school finance

• Geographic dimensions of educational access, opportunity, and outcomes

• Place-based inequities across K–12 and higher education

• Critical geography and race in educational contexts

• Rural, urban, and suburban education policy

• Quantitative and qualitative methods for spatial equity research

• Policy evaluation with explicit spatial or geographic components

We are equally committed to methodological rigor and policy relevance. JSEE is a venue for researchers whose work is simultaneously technically sound and consequential — scholarship that can withstand peer scrutiny and inform decisions that affect students, families, and communities.

How the journal works

JSEE operates on a double-blind peer review process. Every manuscript is reviewed by two to three external experts, with final decisions made by our editorial board in consultation with the Editor-in-Chief. Our target turnaround from submission to first decision is 90 days.

As an open-access journal, every article JSEE publishes is freely available to readers worldwide — no paywalls, no subscription barriers, no institutional access required. We believe research on educational equity should itself be equitably accessible.

The editorial team

JSEE is led by an editorial team with deep expertise in education policy, educational leadership, and quantitative methods. Our Editor-in-Chief is Dr. Rajah E. Smart, Ed.D. Our Associate Editors are Dr. Phillip Caldwell II, Dr. Karri Grob, Dr. Robert L. Bryant III (managing editor), and Grant Sim.

We are actively building our reviewer network and welcome inquiries from scholars interested in serving as peer reviewers.

How to submit

Authors can submit manuscripts through our Scholastica portal at jsee.scholasticahq.com/for-authors. Complete submission guidelines, including formatting requirements, anonymization protocols, and information about manuscript categories, are available on the portal and on the JSEE page at tnefp.org.

Key dates for the inaugural issue:

• Submission deadline: June 1, 2026

• Peer review period: June–July 2026

• Publication: August 2026 (Volume 1, Issue 1)

Help us build this

A new journal is only as strong as the community around it. If you are a scholar working in any of the areas within JSEE's scope, we invite you to submit your work. If you know colleagues whose research belongs in these pages, please share this announcement with them. If you are interested in joining our reviewer pool, reach out to us directly.

Questions about the journal, the submission process, or the editorial vision can be directed to info@tnefp.org.

We are building JSEE as a venue where the best place-based educational scholarship can find a home — rigorous, open, and unflinching about what the geography of educational opportunity actually looks like in this country. We hope you will be part of it.

Dr. Rajah E. Smart, Ed.D. Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Spatial Equity and Education, Director

, Tennessee Educational Funding and Policy