This study aimed to identify potential gaps related to crisis preparedness at 98 public secondary schools, as such crises may occur following a substantiated eminent threat of school violence. Crisis preparedness data collected by trained external assessors captured knowledge of the procedure for responding in a safety-related crisis and process…

Although several studies have focused on why school climate is important, the timing of the collection of climate measures should be considered. This is of particular interest to schools that gauge school improvement efforts within a school year and are interested in how climate changes from the beginning to the end of the academic year. We show…

Schools are increasingly hiring full-time, unarmed school security professionals (SSPs), who are different from School Resource Officers (SROs), to help facilitate safe and supportive school climates. However, there is a paucity of literature about how they describe and engage with social emotional learning (SEL), particularly equity-focused or…

This paper describes a new paradigm for addressing threats of school violence. We advance a family-centered approach to supporting students to address the contextual characteristics of school violence and promote collaboration among families, school personnel, and students. We present a case study that demonstrate the utility of this…

We describe a holistic approach to promoting school safety that merges an emphasis on student voice with staff training in restorative practices. We first describe current approaches to keeping schools safe based on the existing research literature. Given that most of these approaches rely on access to credible information about potential threats…

The present study analyzed concurrent and predictive validity of single-item scales for assessing principal stress and coping. We examined concurrent and prospective relations among stress and coping single-items with principal job satisfaction, overall health, perceptions of school safety, and principal leadership self-efficacy. We also compared…

Background: In rural communities, understanding and improving school climate may benefit youth facing unique contextual challenges to well-being. As education research rarely focuses on rural schools, we aimed to examine school climate and student well-being with a particular focus on rural schools, compared to suburban schools. Methods:…

Positive school climate has been consistently associated with many desirable student outcomes in both middle and high schools. However, there has been little work comparing the perceptions across these two school settings. The U.S. Department of Education conceptualized a three-factor model for school climate consisting of safety, engagement, and…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, mask-wearing in classrooms has become commonplace. However, there are little data on the effect of face-masks on children's language input and production in educational contexts, like preschool classrooms which over half of United States children attend. Leveraging repeated objective measurements, we longitudinally…

Students often have differing perceptions of their school's climate. Although these subjective perceptions can be meaningful outcome predictors, discrepancies create challenges for those seeking to globally characterize or intervene to improve the climate of a school. Trained, outside observers can provide insights on perceptible and ostensibly…

The current study explored the experiences and activities of school resource officers (SROs) in an urban school district. Twenty-eight SROs completed a survey assessing their roles in schools and a focus group explored how the SROs build relationships with students and the types of student concerns they help resolve. Themes from the focus group…

Much recent literature has highlighted the stressful nature of teaching and its relations with teacher and student wellbeing. The present study extended this literature to focus on special education teachers. We first conducted a latent class analysis to characterize patterns of stress and coping among special education teachers (N = 404).…

Background: Although there is a substantial body of literature on school leadership and its relationship with student achievement, few studies have examined how change in leadership is related to organizational growth and school improvement. Also less well studied is the influence of contextual conditions on how leadership and organizational…

Drawing upon an ongoing school mental health survey being conducted in California, this article examines associations between high school students' mental wellness, including covitality (as measured with the Social Emotional Health Survey--Secondary), and school safety perceptions and experiences. Student self-reports reveal a strong positive…

Bullying bystanders' reactions are important for either stopping or perpetuating bullying behaviors. Given school-based bullying programs' focus on bystanders, understanding the associations between school-level factors and individual bystander responses can improve intervention efficacy. Data from 64,670 adolescents were used to examine bullying…