This case study investigated the sensemaking strategies of school psychologists in their relationships with building based English Language Learner (ELL) teams. Through a review of literature, it was established that disproportional representation of ELLs is common, and can be ameliorated in part by comprehensive Response to Intervention (RtI)…

This research report examines the dramatic turnaround of the Mildred Avenue School in Mattapan, which won EdVestors' 2017 School on the Move Prize. We teamed up with EdVestors to investigate the role of teacher leadership and labor-management collaboration in driving rapid school improvement. In 2013, the Mildred was a school in crisis. Academic…

Intervention efforts in turnaround elementary schools in the U.S. have focused on academic interventions, missing the important link between students' social emotional competence and academic outcomes. The current study describes implementation of a multi-tiered approach to support young students' social emotional competence in an urban turnaround…

This article examines how urban principals can proactively respond to neighborhood violence through a community-oriented leadership framework. We analyzed principal interviews to understand the important and multifaceted roles of urban secondary school principals in creating safe and responsive schools that meet the diverse needs of grieving…

This case study was initiated to explore how 6 fourth-grade student mediators implemented an inner-city elementary school's violence prevention program based on peer mediation in the context of psychosocial theory. The participants were trained in conflict resolution to intervene with disputants who experienced unresolved disagreements. To…

Budget constraints and difficulty raising taxes limit school districts from expanding education programming, even when research shows that additional expenditures would generate economic benefits that are greater than costs. Recently, coalitions of private investors, philanthropists, education practitioners, and government finance analysts have…

Background: Asthma places a heavy burden on Chicago's schoolchildren, particularly in low-income, minority communities. Recently, our group developed a 10-week afterschool program, the Student Asthma Research Team (START), which successfully engaged high school youth in a Photovoice investigation of factors impacting their asthma at school and in…

"Student team reading and writing" refers to two cooperative learning programs for secondary students included in this intervention report: (1) "Student Team Reading and Writing" and (2) Student Team Reading. The "Student Team Reading and Writing" program (Stevens, 2003) is an integrated approach to reading and…

Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Teams use data to guide decisions about student social and academic behavior problems. In previous evaluation and research efforts, the authors taught team members to use Team-Initiated Problem Solving, a model that embeds data-based decision making into a broader problem-solving framework. In this study,…

A training course of two after-school sessions was run for teaching assistants (TAs) in a UK inner city primary school. The subject of the training was classroom use of a version of differential reinforcement of alternative behaviours (DRAs) known as Fair Pairs. The training introduced the concept of "Three Part Praise" within Fair…

This invited commentary includes observations about the article "Building Local Capacity for Training and Coaching Data-Based Problem Solving with Positive Behavior Interventions and Support Teams," published in the July 2011 issue of the "Journal of Applied School Psychology." In this article Newton and colleagues present an interesting field…

The purpose of this paper is to describe the Student Success Initiative (SSI) Pilot Project at Elmwood High School in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The article examines Elmwood High School's profile, its guiding philosophy, and its past efforts to support students. Additionally, it outlines the Elmwood SSI model, distinguishes the principal features…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a formative evaluation of the efficacy of the Team Advisory program, an in-school intervention in an urban public high school using fitness to teach study skills and social responsibility, based on the perspective of its faculty (n = 9). The first research question asks what do Boston English Advisors…

Closing the achievement gap in reading for struggling students is a goal that most urban schools are striving to achieve in this era of No Child Left Behind. Early intervention remains the best approach for successfully supporting those who struggle in the primary grades, but instruction must be targeted or matched to the assessed needs of the…

Too many students in high-poverty, urban communities drop out of high school, and too few graduate prepared for college and careers. Three national organizations--Talent Development Secondary, City Year, and Communities In Schools--have formed "Diplomas Now" in an effort to transform urban secondary schools so fewer students drop out and…