Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the enablers and barriers to implementation of local school wellness (LSW) policies in Massachusetts schools. Findings will help inform the development of resources to support school nutrition directors and other important stakeholders who have the potential to influence implementation of these…

Objective: The current study tracked attitudinal and behavioral changes related to a campus-wide smoking ban. Participants: Students from 2 colleges in Massachusetts (N = 418; April 2014; N = 640 April 2018). Methods: Surveys tracked students' smoking habits, beliefs about smoking, and attitudes before and four years after the implementation of a…

Gender-Sexuality Alliances (GSAs) and inclusive school policies and practices that affirm youth with minoritized sexual orientations or gender identities (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer youth; LGBTQ+ youth) are two sources of support for LGBTQ+ youth that could promote school belonging. The current study tested a three-level…

To update its teaching and departmental review processes, Phillips Academy Andover, an independent boarding school in Massachusetts, commissioned RAND Corporation researchers to review the school's policies, conduct a literature review, interview other independent high schools, develop potential recommendations for revision of Andover's processes,…

Background: Suspensions can have negative effects on students' immediate academic and long-run outcomes, including increasing their likelihood of being arrested and incarcerated as an adult (Bacher-Hicks, Billings, Deming, 2019). School discipline practices have become a concern of families and policymakers and there have been increasing local,…

As many U.S. school administrators create policies around hair, many often neglect to consider racial differences, especially those pertaining to hair care and maintenance styles. News media outlets have recently highlighted the ways schools create and sustain racially biased policies and schooling environments, demonstrating the media's role in…

We describe a first-semester, integrated, introductory biology and chemistry course for undergraduates at Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA, USA. Our vision was to create a supportive learning community in which students could comfortably make connections between scientific disciplines as they learned necessary content for subsequent courses,…

Social, emotional, and academic development (SEAD) is a holistic approach to supporting students' development and learning that is integral to ensuring positive outcomes in school and beyond. Schools must ensure students experience healthy development and rigorous learning. Unfortunately, students of color, students from low-income backgrounds,…

Appropriate management by schools of all students with a concussion, regardless of the cause, has not received the same attention as sports-related concussions. Focus groups conducted with Massachusetts School Nurses in 2015 found that some had applied protocols required in the state's sports concussion regulations to all students with concussion,…

Previous studies on advanced middle and high school mathematics course enrollment have focused on the correlation of successful course completion and post-secondary outcomes for students. This instrumental case study examined how school related factors such as personnel and policy influenced equitable enrollment in middle and high school honors…

Despite the importance of trustees for higher education institutions, few studies address how they influence the institutions they steward. To address this gap, we used a social network approach within a comparative case study design to evaluate how trustees interacted with two private, elite universities: Harvard University and the Massachusetts…

Missed instruction can have a devastating impact on educational outcomes. Some reasons for missed instruction are beyond the control of schools and districts: some students miss school due to mental or physical illness or injury, and transportation problems sometimes are to blame. One major reason for missed instruction that schools can directly…

The growth of the public discourse on college completion and student debt has pushed policymakers and institutional leaders to implement a variety of policies aimed at incentivizing student completion. This article examines state-adopted excess credit hour (ECH) policies on student completion and median debt outcomes. Using a quasi-experimental…

Objective: Sexual violence within the collegiate environment is a pressing issue within American society. One way to address sexual violence is through the adaptation and implementation of a sexual assault policy by colleges and universities. The purpose of this study is to review sexual misconduct and assault policies of ten public universities…

How can access to public elementary schools of variable quality be justly distributed within a school district? Two reasonable criteria are: (a) that children should have equal opportunity to attend high-quality schools, and (b) school assignment policies should foster an overall increase in the number of high-quality schools. This article…