The religious diversity of students and staff within a secular school system may sometimes create tensions. To better understand the possible issues generated by and practical accommodations made with respect to these tensions, interviews were conducted at the district level with key administrators in metropolitan school districts in British…

Background/Context: Most research on "elite" schools has focused on the private sector. However, as a result of economic residential segregation, a number of public school districts exist which may plausibly be construed as socioeconomically elite. Districts of this sort remain relatively understudied. In particular, few researchers have…

Background: Schools have increasing responsibility to address healthy eating, but physical barriers influence their ability to adopt and sustain recommended strategies. We took advantage of a natural experiment to investigate the role of the physical environment in shaping healthy eating attitudes and practices among school staff members. Methods:…

This study explored the moral complexity of student drug and alcohol policies that are often disciplinary, punitive, and exclusionary in nature. The Ethic of the Profession and its Model for Students' Best Interests (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2016; Stefkovich, 2013), a professional ethical construct for educational leadership and for school…

Employing longitudinal, multisite comparative mixed-methods, we describe patterns of reclassifying and not reclassifying eligible English learner (EL) students to fluent English proficient, and we identify factors impeding and facilitating reclassification. Analyses of administrative data for 7 cohorts of students over 3 years in one district and…

School administrators are in the best position, but often lack the knowledge, to help low-income, minority youth transition to college. Consequently, some youth are not meeting their full potential and there are long-term, deleterious consequences on local economies as wage earning potential stagnates. Using Aslanargun's, Farmer-Hinton's, and…

This report describes a problem-based learning project focused on the information available to superintendents related to improving student attendance. This information has the potential to assist school districts in improving the attendance of each student as is required by attendance standards such as those of the fifth version of the Missouri…

This report describes a problem-based learning project focused on the information available to superintendents related to improving student attendance. This information has the potential to assist school districts in improving the attendance of each student as is required by attendance standards such as those of the fifth version of the Missouri…

This report describes a problem-based learning project focused on the information available to superintendents related to improving student attendance. This information has the potential to assist school districts in improving the attendance of each student as is required by attendance standards such as those of the fifth version of the Missouri…

This qualitative case study explored the policies and procedures used to effectively address cyberbullying at a technology-based middle school. The purpose of the study was to gain an in-depth understanding of policies and procedures used to address cyberbullying at a technology-based middle school in the southern United States. The study sought…

This study investigates barriers to facilitating family-school partnerships with immigrant families as identified by teachers in an urban school district with high rates of immigration. Participants consisted of 18 elementary teachers who identified predominantly as Hispanic (38.9%) or non-Hispanic White (33.3%), were frequently bilingual (55.6%),…

This qualitative phenomenological study employed narrative inquiry to describe the decision-making processes that Texas school districts followed in enacting firearms policies that allow school employees to carry concealed weapons on district property. Exploration of the lived experiences of eight Texas superintendents in such schools contributed…

The threat of terrorism is a concern in public facilities including schools. This study focused on school districts in a southwestern state. Terrorism emergency preparedness policies are well-documented as measures to protect students and staff in school districts from terrorism threats and vulnerabilities. However, those threats and…

The purpose of this study was to determine how an urban school district's code of conduct aligned with actual school/class behaviors, and how stakeholders perceived the ability of this document to achieve its number one goal: safe and productive learning environments. Twenty participants including students, teachers, parents, and administrators…

As charters and other public and private schools of choice have created a new landscape in many urban areas across the country, some districts have adopted the idea of creating "portfolios" of options. Central to the philosophy of a portfolio district is continuous improvement, as lowest-performing schools are transformed or replaced.…