Pedagogical and Social School Climate: Psychometric Evaluation and Validation of the Student Edition of PESOC

Previous studies indicate that school climate is important for student health and academic achievement. This study concerns the validity and reliability of the student edition a Swedish instrument for measuring pedagogical and social school climate (PESOC). Data were collected from 5,745 students at 97 Swedish secondary schools. Multilevel confirmatory factor analyses were conducted, and multilevel composite reliability estimates, as well as correlations with school-level achievement indicators, were calculated. The results supported an 8-factor structure at the student level and 1 general factor at the school level. Factor loadings and composite reliability estimates were acceptable at both levels. The school-level factor was moderately and positively correlated with school-level academic achievement. The student PESOC is a promising instrument for studying school climate.     

Which New Yorkers vote with their wallets? The impact of teacher quality data on household sorting,and residential and school demographics

This paper examines the relationship between the February 2012 New York City teacher quality data release, the racial and ethnic composition of elementary and middle public schools and their neighborhoods, and housing prices. A unique dataset that links teacher quality to school characteristics, housing prices and characteristics, and Census data is used to estimate a difference-in-difference model to estimate the impact of the teacher quality release on housing prices. These results are then used to estimate the impact of the data release on residential and school demographics. The results in this study provide the first evidence of the effects of teacher quality measures on the housing market in New York City and the demographic shifts in residential and school mobility patterns as a result. The data suggests that the housing market responds significantly to the new information that was provided by the release of the teacher quality information, even when taking into consideration the school grades and other variables that may influence teacher quality measures. The magnitude of how much housing prices increase is greatly impacted by certain neighborhood demographics and the results show that Hispanic neighborhoods with a high proportion of free and reduced price lunch students are among the neighborhoods that had the highest increase in housing prices due to the teacher quality release. Not only that, but the areas that had the highest increase in housing prices due to the teacher quality release have experienced increases in the proportion of white students and the neighborhoods are becoming more racially diverse.     

School Choice in Black and White: Private School Enrollment Among Racial Groups, 1990–2000

This study investigates how much the racial composition of communities influences the private school enrollment rates of members of different racial groups. Some scholars argue that private school enrollment contributes to racial segregation in public schools because White families attempt to enhance the social status of their children by leaving public schools serving communities with higher percentages of children who are Black. A second group of scholars argue that private school enrollment is primarily based on nonracial factors. A third, related perspective argues that race is of diminishing importance in driving behaviors such as school choice. This study explores these perspectives using 1990 and 2000 Public Use Micro Data Samples to estimate private school enrollment rates by student race and community racial composition. Findings indicate that private school enrollment rates among Asian, Black, and Hispanic students do not fluctuate much with community racial composition. By contrast, private school enrollment rates among White families are strongly and positively correlated with the percentage of children in their communities who are Black—even after holding constant a series of individual and community-level factors that may account for this trend. Moreover, the association between race and choice has changed little between 1990 and 2000.     

成就目标、自我效能、学习策略和学业成就的关系研究

对545名中学生进行测量，以探讨成就目标、自我效能、学习策略与学业成绩的关系。结果表明：掌握目标、成绩目标与自我效能、学习策略有显著的正相关，回避目标与自我效能、学习策略存在显著的负相关，自我效能与学习策略有显著的正相关；掌握目标、自我效能和学习策略与学业成绩有显著的正相关，而回避目标与学业成绩则有显著的负相关；学习策略直接影响学业成绩，成就目标和自我效能对学业成绩的影响是间接的。     

Place evaluation and self‐esteem at school: the mediated effect of place identification

Like neighbourhoods, companies or housing, schools are considered a location for which the student must develop feelings of attachment and identification. The purpose of this research is to test a path model in which the evaluation of the image of the scholastic institution plays a role in the process of sociospatial identification in the school place; this identification is itself involved in the development and maintenance of positive academic self‐esteem. Two hundred and seventy‐eight students registered at secondary schools participated in the research by responding to a questionnaire composed of a series of scales. The results show a good fit between the model and the data, since the students’ self‐esteem proved to be partially explained by the quality of their identification with their institution. The status of the level of sociospatial identification as a mediator variable was also confirmed.     

Classroom management,school staff relations,school climate,and academic achievement: testing a model with urban high schools

Urban learning environments pose distinct instructional challenges for teachers and administrators, and can lead to lower achievement compared to suburban or rural schools. Today’s educational climate increasingly emphasises a need for positive academic outcomes, often measured by standardised tests, on which student educational opportunities, teacher benefits and school funding can be based. By applying an ecological framework to the urban school environment, it could be possible to better understand and ultimately improve the educational context at multiple levels. This study examined how classroom management, staff relations and school climate contribute to academic achievement, as measured by ACT scores. In a large urban American public school system, 208 teachers from 38 high schools were surveyed. A model was tested in which, when academic achievement was accounted for over time, classroom management and staff relations contributed positively to school climate, and climate in turn contributed to academic achievement. Structural equation modeling revealed that the data fitted the proposed model. Results illustrate the roles of school and classroom factors related to academic performance and underline the importance of classroom management strategies and positive learning environments. Results suggest avenues for interventions to increase academic achievement by supporting students through the lens of an ecological framework.     

中学生理想与拖延行为的相关研究

目的：了解中学生理想和拖延行为的现状,探讨中学生理想和拖延行为的关系.方法：采取分层整群抽样方法抽取1048名中学生,用中学生理想问卷和Aitken拖延问卷（API）进行调查,运用Spss17.0对调查数据进行统计分析.结果：中学生在自我理想、社会理想、生活理想维度及理想总分上存在着显著的性别差异,且女生的水平高于男生.而在拖延总分和理想的学业维度、职业维度和道德维度上没有显著的的性别差异.在理想各维度和拖延总分上均有一般中学学生高于二类重点中学学生.且在学业理想和理想总分上一类重点中学也高于二类重点中学学生.中学生理想各维度与拖延行为存在显著正相关.结论：中学生理想和拖延行为存在显著正相关,在性别和学校层次上也存在着显著差异.学业理想和职业理想对拖延行为有显著的正向预测作用.     

Between a “ROC” and a School Place: The Role of Racial Opportunity Cost in the Educational Experiences of Academically Successful Students of Color

Despite numerous reform efforts, schools have not achieved equitable academic outcomes for all students. To better identify where schools have failed, research has sought to understand the complex role the school environment plays in mediating academic success, particularly for students of color. In this article, we forward the concept of racial opportunity cost and then use it as a lens to encapsulate the price academically successful students of color pay in their pursuit of school success. Through individual and focus group interviews, 18 African American and Latina/o students revealed nuances of the costs their academic achievement brought in the racialized, White-normed spaces that often permeated their school cultures. The purpose of this article is to provide theoretical support for the racial opportunity cost concept using existing interdisciplinary scholarship and to describe the racial opportunity costs that emerged from our analysis of student interviews.     

Democracy,Justice, and School Closures

Over the past few decades, school closure has emerged as a key strategy for education reform. Districts across the country have moved to close schools deemed to be chronically underperforming by official metrics as way to promote academic achievement. More recently, a sizeable body of literature has emerged raising significant questions about the wisdom of school closures, with some scholars and activists criticizing school closures as an injustice. In this article, Ellis Reid takes seriously the claim that the adoption of school closures as a reform strategy is unjust. Drawing on work in democratic theory, Reid argues that the widespread embrace of school closures to "turn around" schools thought to be failing rests in part on racially stigmatizing ideas about schools serving Black and Latinx students and the communities in which these schools are embedded. Importantly, racial stigmatization is not an isolated problem but rather points toward a broader crisis in American democracy. Ultimately, Reid argues that responding to this crisis demands that we take seriously the arguments advanced by the critics of school closures and adopt a broader view of the value of a school.     

Factors influencing the academic achievement of the Turkish urban poor

This study estimates the individual and combined effects of selected family, student and school characteristics on the academic achievement of poor, urban primary-school students in the Turkish context. Participants of the study consisted of 719 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade primary-school students from 23 schools in inner and outer city squatter settlements. The findings indicated that the set of variables comprising student characteristics, including well-being at school, scholastic activities and support, explained the largest amount of variance in academic achievement among the urban poor. Although the effect sizes are small, family background characteristics and school quality indicators were also found to be significantly related to academic achievement. The implications of this study for improving primary schools in urban poor neighborhoods are discussed.     

Student suspension: A critical reappraisal

This paper analyzes national level data, gathered for the Safe School Study, to directly address the question, “Why are students suspended from school?” Data are available on students in both junior and senior high schools from a representative sample of the nation's schools. Using a range of analytical techniques, the paper attempts to tease out the relationships between (1) student misbehavior at varying types of schools and suspension rates, (2) the effects of teacher judgments and attitudes, (3) the effect of administrative structures, (4) the effect of perceived academic potential, and (5) the effect of racial bias. It is concluded that suspension rates cannot be regarded as a simple reflection of student misbehavior in school, but rather as the result of a complex of factors grounded in the ways schools operate. Suspension rates are best predicted by (1) knowing the kind of school a student went to, and (2) knowing how that school was run.     

The role of high school racial composition and opportunities to learn in students' STEM college participation

We analyze longitudinal data from students who spent their academic careers in North Carolina (NC) public secondary schools and attended NC public universities to investigate the importance of high school racial composition and opportunities to learn in secondary school for choosing a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) major. We consider school racial composition and opportunities to learn as contexts that shape students' decisions regarding college majors. Results of cross‐classified hierarchical logistic models indicate that attending schools with predominantly White students is negatively associated with declaring a STEM major and with graduating with a STEM major irrespective of students' own race. The finding suggests that for students in North Carolina, attending racially isolated White high schools is related to a decrease in adolescents' participation in STEM during college.     

Successful Alternative Middle Schools for Urban Minority Children: A Study of Nativity Schools

Much continues to be written about the failure of U.S. schools to provide a quality education for at-risk urban students. Private Nativity model schools have been instituted in response to the need to provide quality education at the middle school level for such students. As the number of these and other alternative middle schools increases, a thorough examination of the strengths and weaknesses of the model is needed. This study provides such a multimethod examination of 9 such schools. Analyses of students' self-perceptions, perceptions of the quality of the climate at their schools, and academic performance, as well as classroom observations, interviews with teachers, administrators, and students are provided. Results suggest that the success of the Nativity model rests primarily with: (a) a strong and committed teaching staff, (b) an extended school day in which students receive homework assistance and tutoring, (c) small class sizes and student-teacher ratios that afford considerable individual attention from teachers, and (d) a supportive peer environment.     

Supplying Choice: An Analysis of School Participation Decisions in Voucher Programs in Washington,DC, Indiana,and Louisiana

Since school voucher funds are public, policymakers fiercely debate how those funds should be spent. A goal of many decision-makers is to ensure that every private school option is “high-quality” through program accountability regulations. Private schools, however, decide whether to participate in a private school choice program and likely factor the amount of state regulations into that decision. This paper estimates the program participation decisions of the private schools in D.C., Indiana, and Louisiana. We specifically examine the impacts of voucher regulations on the supply-side of voucher programs. We employ a linear probability model to examine how school quality, as measured by revenue, tuition, enrollment, and Great School Review scores, is associated with program participation for schools. Results indicate that higher tuition-levels and larger cohort enrollments, conditions normally associated with high quality schools, identify schools that are less likely to participate in voucher programs. We also find a consistent negative relationship between Great Schools Review score and the school participation decision in all three locations; however, these coefficients are not statistically significant. State fixed effects reveal that private schools in D.C. and Louisiana, the two states that have higher regulatory burdens, are less likely to participate in voucher programs.     

中小学生学业质量现状与影响因素的实证分析——以江苏连云港市为例

连云港市中小学生学业质量监测与问卷数据显示,整体学业质量稳中有升,达标与优分状态良好,基础知识与基本技能扎实有效,城乡学业质量差距缩小,公办与民办学校以及男女生学业质量趋于均衡。存在的主要问题包括县际之间学业质量不均衡,不同内容领域学业水平表现不尽相同,高层次思维能力有待提高,学业测试工具的适切性需要增强等。根据影响中小学学业质量的"绿色指标"、区县层面、学校层面和学生层面四个维度的因素,大力提升教育的质量和现代化建设水平,需要树立科学的质量观,提升教育发展指标,深化课堂教学改革,构建质量标准体系并重视教师队伍建设。     

Race,Choice and Richmond Public Schools: New Possibilities and Ongoing Challenges for Diversity in Urban Districts

Several contemporary demographic trends suggest that school systems in America’s central cities, typically characterized by high levels of racial and economic isolation, are being presented with new opportunities to create quality, diverse schools. Still, numerous obstacles linger. Using multiple sources of data and innovative mapping tools, this case study explores an urban district experiencing population growth and change and several different manifestations of school choice. Analyses indicate that levels of black-white elementary school segregation have risen rapidly over the past two decades, and now surpass residential segregation levels. The increase in school segregation has occurred alongside a district policy emphasis on both choice and neighborhood schools. While the current elementary school zones present a number of opportunities for further racial and economic diversity, high shares of students transferring out of their zone—either to another setting in the district or to a private school—undermine those possibilities. The example of Richmond, Virginia has important policy implications for countless other urban districts grappling with demographic shifts and the growth and popularity of school choice. Both trends offer crucial possibilities for central city school systems, but without careful attention to policy, will likely result in further stratification.     

Teacher Consultation to Enhance Implementation of School-Based Restorative Justice

ABSTRACT

Restorative justice (RJ) is an alternative approach to school discipline that has been gaining recognition in the public and academic spheres as a way to engage students who misbehave in school. RJ has promise to address racial/ethnic, gender, and disability disproportionality in school discipline. One aspect of school-based RJ that has received almost no attention in the literature is the professional development and ongoing support of teachers in schools using RJ. This article provides a review of extant literature on school-based RJ, teacher training, and consultation methods. Integrating the empirical literature on school consultation and teacher professional development, we argue that schools should implement a multitiered model of professional development to build teacher competency in RJ, specifically including the use of targeted teacher consultation. The proposed model is complementary to an RJ framework, systematic, and capable of evaluation; future research is needed to evaluate its effectiveness in practice.     

Parent involvement: perceptions of recent immigrant parents in a suburban school district,Minnesota

The study aimed to examine the perceptions of immigrant parents regarding their school’s efforts to encourage three types of parent involvement: Parenting, Communicating, and Learning at Home. The sample includes 106 immigrant parents with children who were enrolled in English Language Learners programmes at 10 schools in a suburban school district in Minnesota, USA. The results showed that depending on their ethnicities, the children’s school levels and the father’s educational level, the perceptions of the parents were significantly different in terms of the “Parenting” and “Learning at Home” involvement types. Mother’s educational level was significantly correlated to the languages used at home and to their children’s academic achievement in English. Results indicated that schools should consider ethnic backgrounds and educational levels of parents, and languages used at home to instil as collaborations between immigrant parents and schools.     

Diversifying High Schools in Racially Changing Suburban Districts: Expanding Opportunity,Creating Barriers?

Although demographic change is happening more rapidly at the elementary school level, the intersection of these demographic trends with the changing mission of high schools may offer the opportunity to reduce some of the persistent racial gaps in educational attainment. At the same time, when schools became diverse as desegregation took place, stratification within schools occurred, leading to inequality within diverse schools. Thus, this article seeks to examine whether high schools can help to expand opportunity for low-income students and students of color as suburban racial change occurs. To answer this question, this article draws on school-level interviews in six public high schools in racially changing suburban districts in some of the nation's largest metropolitan areas. High schools in this study focused on ways to provide access to diverse students through structural reforms and information dissemination, yet they also saw academic programs as a way to compete for certain students to shape their student body composition and maintain enrollment.     

THE ROLE OF SCHOOL LEVEL PROTECTIVE FACTORS IN OVERCOMING CUMULATIVE RISK FOR BEHAVIOR DIFFICULTIES IN CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND DISABILITIES

The study investigated whether school‐level protective factors could moderate the effects cumulative risk has upon behavior difficulties in children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The sample comprised 4,288 children identified with SEND: 2,660 pupils within 248 primary schools, and 1,628 pupils within 57 secondary schools. Risk factors associated with increases in behavior difficulties over an 18‐month period were summed to a cumulative risk score. Various school‐level factors were added to multilevel models, with interaction terms computed between cumulative risk and these variables to assess their potential protective effects. The primary school model revealed a significant interaction between cumulative risk and school academic achievement in predicting behavior difficulties. Higher levels of achievement in primary schools help reduce behavior difficulties for children most at risk. The secondary school model evidenced a significant interaction between cumulative risk and school percentage of students eligible for free school meals (FSM). Lower proportions within a school of children eligible for FSM were associated with reductions in behavior difficulties for children at high levels of risk. Interventions aimed at improving school‐level academic achievement and targeting high‐risk students attending schools with large proportions of children eligible for FSM would be beneficial.