School leaders must make decisions and implement strategies to improve a school climate and student achievement, and it benefits them to understand which areas of school climate have the greatest impact on student achievement. The State of Georgia measures school climate and student achievement with its school accountability measure, the College…

The U.S. Department of Education, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, underscores every child's right to integrate, receive support, and fully participate in school life. The problem is that significant disparities exist in reading growth scores between students with disabilities taught in special-education resource settings and…

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to describe and understand the experiences of co-teaching all-online through the perspectives of general education and special education co-teachers at the middle school level during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study followed Bandura's social cognitive theory with emphasis on self-efficacy…

Research has indicated that there is a direct link between student academic achievement and school quality. Research has also indicated that the leadership style of school principals influence teacher attributes, from adeptness and job contentment to academic focus and engagement levels. Even though the research on professional learning…

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…

School climate can have a notable impact on student academic, social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes. It is also a critical component of school improvement efforts, as demonstrated by recent federal and state initiatives to provide resources and supports for increased school climate measurement, accountability, and improvement. The primary…

For more than 100 years, education communities have debated how best to educate the young adolescent. Proponents of both the junior high school model and the current middle school model have advocated for a specialized approach to educating adolescents that emphasizes the developmental needs of students. To accomplish this, various organizational…

Assessment of principal effectiveness is a complex process due to the multidimensional nature of their job. Historically, a disproportionate significance has been placed on standardized assessment scores when evaluating school leaders, therefore states are beginning to emphasize other factors such as school climate in order to increase employee…

The purpose of this brief is to provide information about how to evaluate school climate at the primary and secondary levels. Norms and ranges are provided and based on a national data; this data can help schools to contextualize local data. Information for interpreting the data and unit if for data-based decision making is also included.

Teacher attrition has been a problem for school systems for more than 30 years. Large numbers of new teachers leave the profession within their first 5 years of service, creating a significant cost associated with hiring and training of replacement teachers. Attrition is problematic for a middle school in the state of Georgia. New teachers at the…

Nationally, school-based mental health (SBMH) is seen as an avenue to increase access to children's mental health services and promote mental health awareness. The current article describes the implementation of a statewide SBMH program focusing on partnerships between community-based providers and local school systems, with providers embedded…

The purpose of the current study was to examine perceptions of school climate among students who self-identify as having an emotional and behavioral disorder (EBD) and their counterparts without disabilities on the "Georgia Student Health Survey 2.0." Although research examining the link between perceptions of school climate and student…

The purpose of this quantitative comparative study was to determine the existence or nonexistence of performance pass rate differences of special education middle school students on standardized assessments between pre and post co-teaching eras disaggregated by subject area and school. Co-teaching has altered classroom environments in many ways.…

Over the past three decades, much of the conversation about LGBTQ students in schools has centered on safety--anti-bullying policies, the "safe space" of gay-straight alliances, and "safe zones" marked by rainbow-colored stickers on classroom doors. In this article, Michael Sadowski argues that it's time to move beyond safety…

Animal populations are monitored over time to assess the effects of environmental disaster and disease, as well as the efficacy of laws designed to protect them. Determining the abundance of a species within a defined area is one method of monitoring a population. In "Capture" Me if You Can, middle school students will use data collected…