Schools are an important part of any community, and are increasingly considered responsible for the social education of young people as much as their academic instruction. In doing so, many schools have adopted a 'zero tolerance' response to student conduct that involves harsh penalties for minor infractions. At the heart of this zero tolerance…

As large and complex campus organizations, collegiate marching bands face a variety of practical issues that must be addressed by directors through clear policies and effective procedures. Extant research on these groups focuses on pedagogical matters, ensemble histories, organizational descriptive analyses, participation factors and effects, and…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to discover to what extent student affairs professionals in higher education identify moral distress and associated factors in their roles as college or university student conduct administrators and to identify the sources of this distress according to the lived experiences of these professionals. The…

This article explores language use and investment among Somali-speaking children and adolescents in Sweden, through group interviews and survey data. Our findings indicate that there are incentives to invest in Somali language learning considering the reported language use patterns and the expressed positive attitudes towards Somali mother tongue…

The use of alcohol and illicit drugs within the undergraduate college population continues to be a serious problem in the United States. Young people and emerging adults have biological and psychological vulnerabilities to the effects of substance use. Many college students participate in risky substance use behaviors and suffer negative…

Because the pandemic exacerbated chronic absenteeism in many parts of the country, the need to understand how schools can improve student attendance has never been greater. Accordingly, this study breaks new ground by examining high schools' contributions to attendance after accounting for individual students' prior absenteeism and other…

This publication provides an overview of the literature on school safety in the United States, with a focus on equity. Using the framework developed by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), this publication situates a comprehensive school safety approach as a balance of three key elements: physical safety, school climate, and student behavior,…

Objectives: Following changes in federal regulations, the current study was an examination of differences in institutional responses to sexual violence among Georgia colleges and universities during 2013 and 2014. Participants: A total of 24 four-year institutions located in the state of Georgia were included. Method: Data were collected from…

Despite its risks, heavy drinking is widespread at universities. Increasingly, colleges are integrating harm-reduction perspectives into traditional punishment/deterrence-based alcohol policy approaches. One such programme is the Medical Amnesty/Good Samaritan (MAGS) policy, which reduces or eliminates punishing consequences for students seeking…

A sample of sexual- and gender-minority students (n = 65; 51.6% female; 55.8% White; M age = 16.94 years) reported more peer victimization, lower academic achievement, and poorer perceptions of school safety as compared to their heterosexual allied peers. Sexual- and gender-minority students demonstrating higher levels of sexual activity and…

This report presents the results of an exploratory study of suspension, discipline, and climate in K-5 and K-8 schools in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). The study was conducted between January 2016 and October 2017 by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) at the University of Pennsylvania, in close partnership with SDP…

To prevent and address students' problem behaviors and support their learning, the Department of Education and many states have promoted the use of multi-tiered systems of support for behavior (MTSS-B). This study evaluated one promising, intensive program of MTSS-B training and technical assistance. The MTSS-B approach seeks to change the school…

Recently, the federal government and colleges have sought new remedies to combat campus sexual assault (CSA). Additionally, there have been calls for shifts in college culture. For this reason, an understanding of attitudes about these policies and reforms is needed. To that end, the study examines three questions. First, to what extent does the…

This commentary responds to the approach used in establishing a plagiarism policy for preparatory year students at a medical university in Saudi Arabia. While appropriating others' ideas and passing them off as one's own is considered unethical in Western academia, the concept of textual ownership varies from culture to culture. Thus, this paper…

The Zero Tolerance policy was intended to eliminate learners who are a danger to a learning institution (Henson, 2012). The development of this policy was to assist schools with better policing approaches of students conducts by employing tough disciplinary action and subsequently provide a safer learning environment. While the Zero Tolerance…