Historically, students of color have experienced an increased risk for exclusionary discipline outcomes (Children's Defense Fund, 1975). Discipline disproportionality continues to be a major problem in our schools today (McIntosh et al., 2018). The focus of most of the research has been on African American males; however, African American females…

Virginia law mandates the use of threat assessment in all public schools, yet there is little research on grade-level differences. This study investigated a statewide sample of 3,282 threats from 1,021 schools. Threats significantly differed across grade level in demographics, characteristics, and outcome. As grade increased, students were more…

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…

Community traumatic events such as mass shootings, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters have the potential to disrupt student learning. For example, these events can reduce instructional time by causing teacher and student absences, school closures, and disturbances to classroom and home routines. This paper uses a quasi-experimental research…

This randomized controlled study examined disciplinary outcomes for 201 students who made threats of violence at school. The students attended 40 schools randomly assigned to use the Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines or follow a business-as-usual disciplinary approach in a control group. Logistic regression analyses found, after…

The author discusses reading "The Bridge to Terebithia" to a third-grade class prior to release of the film version. Reading of the final chapter followed by two days the April 16, 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech University, just seventy miles from the classroom. Although none of the college students from the author's town died, everyone…

Strong school and family ties have long shown success in influencing positive child development and lasting academic success. While a multitude of programs exist to help facilitate the school-family connection, one program in particular, Families and Schools Together, or FAST, stands out as an effective prevention program that is suitable for a…

The National Capital Region (NCR) is home to more than one-and-a-half million children and youth (ages birth through 24 years). Although the NCR is known as a place with a highly transient population, if history is any guide, many of these young people will remain in this region and fundamentally shape the quality of life--not only for themselves,…

"The Achiever" is a monthly newsletter designed expressly for parents and community leaders. Each issue contains news and information about and from public and private organizations about school improvement in the United States. Highlights of this issue include: (1) New Online Tool Simplifies Financial Aid Process; (2) Rigor in K-6:…