Research has begun to show that certain schoolwide characteristics--such as student-centered learning environments, leadership, and safety--can be important for improving student outcomes. In keeping with these insights, school improvement efforts around the country are becoming less narrowly focused on the performance of individual students and…

Survey research frequently involves the collection of data from multiple informants. Results, however, are usually analyzed by informant group, potentially ignoring important relationships across groups. When the same construct(s) are measured, integrative data analysis (IDA) allows pooling of data from multiple sources into one data set to…

This study evaluated the longitudinal psychometric properties of the Authoritative School Climate Survey (ASCS) using a statewide sample of middle and high schools across 8 years. Multilevel confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test the longitudinal measurement invariance of three scales on the ASCS: disciplinary structure, teacher…

Research documents positive associations between school climate and student outcomes, and, as such, many policymakers have positioned it among their chief priorities for school improvement. Despite this increased focus, extant research has offered mixed findings on the presence and magnitude of racial school climate disparities. The present study…

This study aims to describe the culture and climate of selected middle and high schools in Alabama's River Region. Teachers and administrators from nine middle and eleven high schools in the four-county region of Central Alabama completed two electronic surveys: (a) the School Culture Survey (SCS) developed by Steve Gruenert and Jerry Valentine…

Disciplinary incidents at U.S. public middle- and high-schools are a public policy concern. Although businesses popularly give credence to leaders' subjective intelligence, principals' reports of their schools' strengths and weaknesses are questioned. To determine whether principals' reports carry legitimacy as indicators of student offenses, the…

In 2010, California adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for math and English. The new standards are part of a state effort to prepare students for college and careers in the 21st-century global economy and narrow longstanding achievement gaps. The state's implementation is complete, but because districts decide whether and when they…

Schoolwide expectations are a critical component of tiered systems of support, particularly when established with input from faculty and staff and then taught to all students. The expectation matrices depicting these expectations for all key settings serve as important instructional tools when teaching schoolwide expectations. In this study, we…

High-profile school attacks highlight the need for effective school safety solutions. School safety tip lines offer a prevention-based solution. However, little is known about their effectiveness. Using a quasi-experimental multilevel design, we examined the association between school tip-line adoption and violent threats and attacks at school…

Little is known about principals' perceptions and their links to how school safety practices operate. Using data from School Survey on Crime and Safety from 2,009 public schools in the US, the current study examines the extent to which principals/administrators' perceptions of academic climate and crime risk are related to school practices…

The 2022-2023 AASA Superintendent Salary & Benefits Study marks the ninth consecutive edition of this study. The 2022-2023 version employed a slightly revised and updated survey instrument. The survey tracked the demographics, salary, benefits, and other elements of the employment agreements of school superintendents throughout the country.…

Threat assessment has been proposed as a method for schools to respond to student threats of violence that does not rely on exclusionary discipline practices (e.g., suspension, transfer, expulsion, arrest). The present study compared disciplinary consequences for 657 students in 260 schools using the Comprehensive Student Threat Assessment…

This Data Point examines whether public schools in the United States used ability grouping (also referred to as tracking) as a method to organize classes or students. It uses data from the public school data file of the 2017-18 National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS), which is a national sample survey of public and private K-12 schools,…

The 2021-22 AASA Superintendent Salary & Benefits Study marks the ninth consecutive edition of this study. The 2021-2022 version employed a slightly revised and updated survey instrument. The survey tracks the demographics, salary, benefits, and other elements of the employment agreements of school superintendents throughout the country. The…

The Pennsylvania Department of Education's (PDE's) Office for Safe Schools partnered with REL Mid-Atlantic to conduct a study using data from PDE's school climate survey. This survey, which is available on a voluntary basis to any school in the state, provides a way to track school climate and identify schools that need additional support to…