Purpose: Recent attempts to measure schools' influence on students' social-emotional learning (SEL) show differences across schools, but whether these estimated differences measure the true effects of schools remain unclear. To better understand these measures, we examine the stability of estimated school-by-grade effects across 2 years using…

The practice of temporarily removing students from school as a form of punishment (i.e., suspensions) remains quite common. This study uses longitudinal data from a large, urban school district in California to assess whether the use of suspensions improves school safety in the following school year. Additional analyses by student race and…

African American male students face a multitude of challenges that may lead to poor academic and social outcomes at school. There is extensive research on the predictors of their problems, but far less on the factors that can lead to positive outcomes. To address this gap, this exploratory study asked two main questions. Does racial-ethnic…

Reading motivation may help explain some discrepancies in higher education attainment among Latinx adolescents. Using a person-centered approach to understand underlying reading motivation profiles among N = 254 Latinx adolescents, results identified four ordered classes of reading motivation including, (a) a "High" class characterized…

This study examined associations among a concurrent set of social-emotional strengths and school membership across the United States (N = 1,009) and Chinese (N = 747) students aged 9 to 11 years old. Results identified significant positive relations of school membership with four social-emotional strengths (i.e., gratitude, optimism, zest, and…

Guided by the social-cognitive theory and job demands-resources model, this study examined how educators perceived online teaching self-efficacy and social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies concurrently and interactively influenced educators' compassion fatigue during distance learning in the COVID-19 pandemic among 321 educators in…

The current study was designed to examine one possible weight stigma-reduction mechanism: school-level weight diversity. It was hypothesized that greater weight diversity among same-sex peers at school would attenuate the negative association between weight and academic achievement. Across 26 urban public middle schools, 5,991 sixth-grade students…

Objective: To assess the relationship of moderate and late preterm birth (32[superscript 0/7]-36 [superscript 6/7] weeks) to long-term educational outcomes. Study Design: We hypothesized that moderate and late preterm birth would be associated with adverse out- comes in elementary school. To test this, we linked vital statistics patient discharge…

Building on research that has demonstrated the benefits of Dual-Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) programmes on students' bilingual, academic, and cross-cultural development (Lindholm-Leary and Hernández 2011), this study examines the links between dual language proficiency and competence in elementary students enrolled in a Cantonese DLBE…

Many teachers are concerned about their ability to work effectively with students who have a diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The purpose of this quantitative descriptive study was to determine the perceived efficacy of common interventions used to address negative ADHD behaviors in the elementary and middle school…

In this article, the researchers examined general vocabulary, academic vocabulary, and reading comprehension growth trajectories of adolescent redesignated fluent English proficient (RFEP) students using individual growth modeling analysis. The sample included 1,226 sixth- to eighth-grade RFEP students from six middle schools in an urban school…

School value-added models are increasingly used to measure schools' contributions to student success. At the same time, policymakers and researchers agree that schools should support students' socialemotional learning (SEL) as well as academic development. Yet, the evidence regarding whether schools can influence SEL and whether statistical growth…

A growing body of literature suggests students' feelings of belongingness influence academic achievement (Faircloth & Hamm, 2005). Additionally, research indicates that many urban African American students are disconnected from the school setting because of a cultural divide between students and educators (Thompson, 2004). This investigation…

This article examines the relationship between exposure to violence, fear of exposure to violence, and sexual risk among a sample of urban middle school youth. The sample included 911 seventh-grade students who completed self-report surveys. Approximately 20% of the sample reported at least one direct threat or injury with a weapon in the past 3…

Classroom size, curriculum, and student attendance are all important factors that affect student outcomes, but these factors cannot compare to the classroom teacher's influence on student academic performance. Unfortunately, highly qualified teachers are not equally effective in different school settings. Findings associated with highly effective…