Our nation's schools are faced with numerous critical challenges and problems; meeting federal and state mandates, state standards, elevating academic achievement, increasing parental involvement, and violence in the schools (Gould, 2011; Kowalski & Cangemi, 2011; Simpson, LaCava, & Graner, 2004). Violence in many U.S. schools continues to…

Teaching in a democracy is challenging and filled with dilemmas that have no easy answers. For example, how do educators meet their responsibilities of teaching civic norms and dispositions while remaining nonpartisan? "Democratic Discord in Schools" features eight normative cases of complex dilemmas drawn from real events designed to…

The SELF Foundation afterschool program involved 255 students at Key, Revere, and Meyerland (formerly Johnston) middle schools in tutorials and enrichment activities to support their academic, social, and emotional development. All students at SELF schools were allowed to participate in a character-building essay contest for prizes. Program impact…

The California School Climate and Safety Survey-Short Form (CSCSS-SF) was developed as a streamlined version (54 items) of the original CSCSS (102 items) for school safety teams to gather information regarding student perceptions of campus climate, safety, and experience of victimization. Using a longitudinal dataset, this study implemented…

Creating safe, caring school environments continues to generate ongoing conversation in the media, professional journals, and academic research, especially through the persistent attention given to incidents and impact of bullying on youth. In Canada, several provincial governments have instituted or are debating the implementation of antibullying…

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between school climate and student outcome variables. The secondary purpose was to examine the relationship between the use of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and the same student outcome variables. Variables depicting student perceptions of school climate,…

Inequality in educational outcomes is a frequent topic of policy debate. This paper investigates one potential source of educational inequality--school safety. With panel survey data of middle school students, this paper estimates racial gaps in student feelings of safety in the classroom, in the hallways, and outside the school building, and how…

School bullying is a worldwide worrisome phenomenon that occurs within a broad context in which pupils and teachers can either reinforce or undermine violent behavior through interaction. Based on a nationally representative sample of students in Israel, this study examined patterns in student perceptions of student and teacher responses to school…

This study examined student perceptions of their school environment (specifically, safety and inclusion in the school, experiences being bullied, and clear expectations for behaviour) and their relation with academic achievement at the school level. Participants were students in 969 elementary schools and 73 middle schools who took part in a…

Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the impact that function, experience, and training of Independent School District School Resource Officers (ISD SROs) have on school climate. The participants were ISD SROs (n = 172) and teachers (n = 162) located in middle and high schools in Texas. Method: The Role of Law…

Symbolic interaction and stage-environment fit theories were used to examine associations between several aspects of the perceived school environment and youths' school-related experiences during the first semester of middle school in a sample of 390 youth living in a southeastern U.S. county. Perceived school environment included learning…

The goal of this study was to develop a parent school climate survey of high practical utility, grounded in theory, and supported by evidence of the reliability of its scores and validity of the inferences for their use. The Delaware School Climate Survey-Home is comprised of seven factors: Teacher-Student Relations, Student-Student Relations,…

The AISD Student Substance Use and Safety Survey, administered annually to a random, representative sample of AISD students in middle schools and high schools, provides self-report data on student knowledge, attitudes, and behavior related to substance use and school safety issues. This report summarizes results for the 2009-2010 school year.

This report, written by WestEd's Adam Voight, Gregory Austin, and Thomas Hanson, describes a study that examines what makes successful schools different from other schools. Rather than define success in absolute terms, this study's definition is based on whether or not a school is performing better than predicted given the characteristics of the…

The Afterschool Alliance, in partnership with MetLife Foundation, is proud to present the second in their latest series of four issue briefs examining critical issues facing middle school youth and the vital role afterschool programs play in addressing these issues. This series explores afterschool and: the Common Core State Standards, students…