As improving low-performing schools has become a critical strategy to achieve educational equity in China, local educational departments have implemented various school collaboration programs. Drawing on international literature and empirical data from in-depth interviews and policy documents in two Chinese urban districts, this multiple-case…

This paper develops models to measure growth in student achievement with a focus on the possibility of differential growth in achievement for low and high-achieving students. We consider a gap-closing model that evaluates the degree to which students in a target group -- students in the bottom quartile of measured achievement -- perform better…

This study uses framing theory and the concept of causal stories to examine beliefs about causes and solutions to improving chronically low-performing schools in response to Michigan's school turnaround policy. Across cases, policymakers and district leaders assigned most responsibility to poor leadership, poverty, and chronic educator turnover as…

This essay provides a broad overview of adverse childhood experiences and their impact on the middle level learner. The author finds points of intersection between current research on traumatized students and tenets of the middle level philosophy to make the argument for trauma informed practices that holistically serve young adolescents.

The aim of this study was to identify the attitudes of undergraduate students in the Jordanian universities toward university violence and to suggest a solution(s) to prevent this violence. The study used both a mixed method approach to collect data from a stratified random sample of 540 male students selected from three geographic areas. The…

A sample of sexual- and gender-minority students (n = 65; 51.6% female; 55.8% White; M age = 16.94 years) reported more peer victimization, lower academic achievement, and poorer perceptions of school safety as compared to their heterosexual allied peers. Sexual- and gender-minority students demonstrating higher levels of sexual activity and…

In 2005, the Austrian government committed all schools to develop school policies supporting the learning of their students. One purpose of the paper is to seek evidence for the effectiveness of this governmental action. A second purpose is to suggest a special kind of multilevel model which can be applied to longitudinal data at the school level…

The Issue: School improvement policy for the past few decades has been characterized by mandated lists of activities--both well intended and research based--designed to stimulate a dramatic turnaround in student achievement. However, this prescriptive approach to policy, particularly federal policy, has not resulted in the systemic changes needed…

Since the 2012/13 school year Florida law has required the 100 lowest performing elementary schools in reading to extend the school day by one hour to provide supplemental reading instruction. In 2014 the law was broadened to include the 300 elementary schools with the lowest reading performance. A previous study of the state's first two cohorts…