We tested an emotional labor (EL) model, in the form of surface acting and deep acting, as a mediator in the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and burnout as experienced by public school principals. A questionnaire survey of public-school principals in a Pennsylvania County was used to collect data. Data was analyzed using…

This quantitative comparison study was conducted to determine if there is a significant difference in multicultural and social justice competencies (MSJCC) between urban and rural school counselors in Pennsylvania. The purpose of the study was to discover how school counselors in different geographical areas assess their work within a…

Despite many differences across Pennsylvania's rural school districts, band programs face similar recruitment, retention, and matriculation challenges. Rural school districts in Pennsylvania account for 235 of the 499 school districts in Pennsylvania while educating less than 20 percent of the student population in the state. In addition, rural…

Making is a movement present in the United States which fosters creativity and invention through the creation and sharing of products. This case study of one Western Pennsylvania school district's integration of Making into its lower and upper secondary schools shows how the investment in space and equipment, guided by visionary leadership, can…

While existing literature documents disparities in and implications of absenteeism and truant behavior, less is known about truancy as defined in state laws. Habitual truancy, which can trigger external punitive responses, is particularly underexplored. The current study utilizes administrative data from the universe of Pennsylvania schools to…

School-wide positive behavior interventions and supports (SWPBIS) relies on the implementation efforts of frontline service providers such as teachers, administrators, and staff. The full version of the positive behavior interventions and supports--action and commitment tool (PBIS-ACT Full) measures the individual implementer variable of…

The Pennsylvania Department of Education's (PDE's) Office for Safe Schools partnered with REL Mid-Atlantic to conduct a study using data from PDE's school climate survey. This survey, which is available on a voluntary basis to any school in the state, provides a way to track school climate and identify schools that need additional support to…

These are the appendixes for the full report, "Changes in School Climate during COVID-19 in a Sample of Pennsylvania Schools." The REL study analyzed changes in scores from a pre-pandemic year (2018/19) to the 2020/21 and 2021/22 school years, both of which were affected by COVID-19 and related policy changes. These technical appendixes…

This executive summary highlights the value of making chronic absence data transparent and available to families, community partners, and other stakeholders outside school systems. Aimed at motivating action, this report: (1) shares key findings from the analysis of the scale, scope, and concentration of chronic absence in schools throughout the…

In this brief, Research for Action examines the prevalence of school policing in Pennsylvania schools. While data on police presence is limited, this brief is able to examine: (1) race/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in school police staffing and spending; (2) race/ethnic disparities in referrals to law enforcement and school-based arrests by…

Over the past decade, chronic absence has gone from being a virtually unknown concept to a national education metric that provides every school in the nation with critical data on how many students are missing so many days of school it jeopardizes their academic success. The inclusion of chronic absence in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was…

This study looks deeply inside 17 schools that stand at the vanguard of the current revolution in teaching. This new National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL) report reveals the substantive ways in which these schools are providing their teachers with more time to reflect on, develop, and hone their craft, by very explicitly leveraging an…

Since 2004, the National Institute for School Leadership (NISL) has offered the Executive Development Program (EDP), a leadership program for sitting school principals that is typically delivered in two-day workshops once per month over 12 months. From its inception through 2018, 15,000 principals across 23 states have participated in the EDP.…

This study examines the accuracy of performance ratings from the Framework for Leadership (FFL), Pennsylvania's tool for evaluating the leadership practices of principals and assistant principals. The study analyzed four key properties of the FFL: score variation, internal consistency, year-to-year stability, and concurrent validity. Score…

This "Stated Briefly" report is a companion piece that summarizes the results of another report of the same name. This study examines the accuracy of performance ratings from the Framework for Leadership (FFL), Pennsylvania's tool for evaluating the leadership practices of principals and assistant principals. The study analyzed four key…