Large Metropolitan School District Research Articles

School knowledge of infectious diseases in schools: conducting surveillance and on-demand, symptomatic respiratory viral testing in a large pre-kindergarten-12th grade school district.

Limited data about acute respiratory illness (ARI) and respiratory virus circulation are available in congregate community settings, specifically schools. To better characterize the epidemiology of ARI and respiratory viruses in schools, we developed School Knowledge of Infectious Diseases in Schools (School KIDS). School KIDS is a prospective, respiratory viral testing program in a large metropolitan school district (pre-kindergarten-12th grade) in Kansas City, Missouri. During the 2022-2023 school year, all students and staff were eligible to participate in surveillance respiratory viral testing at school by submitting observed self-administered nasal swabs monthly. Participants could also submit a nasal swab for on-demand symptomatic testing when experiencing ≥1 ARI symptom, including cough, fever, nasal congestion, runny nose, shortness of breath, sore throat, and/or wheezing. Swabs were tested in a research laboratory using multipathogen respiratory polymerase chain reaction assays. Participants were evaluated for ongoing viral shedding by collecting two weekly nasal swabs (i.e., convalescent), following initial on-demand symptomatic testing. Participants were asked to complete an electronic survey to capture the presence and type of ARI symptom(s) before the collection of respiratory swabs. From 31 October 2022 to 29 June 2023, School KIDS enrolled 978 participants, including 700 students, representing 3.4% of the district student population, and 278 staff members. Participants submitted a median of six surveillance, one symptomatic, and two convalescent specimens during the study period. A total of 6,315 respiratory specimens, including 4,700 surveillance, 721 on-demand symptomatic, and 894 convalescent specimens, were tested. Overall, a virus was detected in 1,168 (24.9%) surveillance and 363 (50.3%) symptomatic specimens. Of the 5,538 symptom surveys sent to participants before scheduled surveillance testing, 4,069 (73.5%) were completed; ARI symptoms were reported on 1,348 (33.1%) surveys. Respiratory surveillance testing in schools is feasible and provides novel information about respiratory virus detections in students and staff attending school. Schools are an important community setting, and better knowledge of respiratory virus circulation in schools may be useful to identify respiratory virus transmission in the community and assess the impact of effective infection prevention measures.

Notes from the Field: Multipathogen Respiratory Virus Testing Among Primary and Secondary School Students and Staff Members in a Large Metropolitan School District - Missouri, November 2, 2022-April 19, 2023.

Notes from the Field: Multipathogen Respiratory Virus Testing Among Primary and Secondary School Students and Staff Members in a Large Metropolitan School District - Missouri, November 2, 2022-April 19, 2023.

COVID-19 Test Allocation Strategy to Mitigate SARS-CoV-2 Infections across School Districts.

In response to COVID-19, schools across the United States closed in early 2020; many did not fully reopen until late 2021. Although regular testing of asymptomatic students, teachers, and staff can reduce transmission risks, few school systems consistently used proactive testing to safeguard return to classrooms. Socioeconomically diverse public school districts might vary testing levels across campuses to ensure fair, effective use of limited resources. We describe a test allocation approach to reduce overall infections and disparities across school districts. Using a model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in schools fit to data from a large metropolitan school district in Texas, we reduced incidence between the highest and lowest risk schools from a 5.6-fold difference under proportional test allocation to 1.8-fold difference under our optimized test allocation. This approach provides a roadmap to help school districts deploy proactive testing and mitigate risks of future SARS-CoV-2 variants and other pathogen threats.

Building Sustainable Models of Research-Practice Partnerships Within Educational Systems.

To describe the 9-year journey of a group of language and literacy researchers in establishing and cultivating Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs). Those interested in incorporating implementation science frameworks in their research may benefit from reading our exploration into this type of work and our lessons learned. We showcase how a group of researchers, who are committed to collaboration with school practitioners, navigated building and scaling RPPs within educational systems necessary for our long-term implementation work. We provide details and illustrative examples for three, distinct, mutually beneficial, and sustainable partnerships. Three different practice organizations are represented: (1) a single metropolitan school, (2) a small metropolitan school district, and (3) a large metropolitan school district, highlighting specific priorities and needs depending on the type of practice organization. Each partnership has distinct research and practice goals related to improving language and literacy outcomes in children. We describe how the researchers assisted with meeting the partner practice organizations' goals and engaged in capacity building while producing rigorous scientific knowledge to inform clinical and educational practice. Additionally, we discuss how research priorities and strategies were pivoted in the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, illustrating our commitment to the partnerships and how to respond to challenges to guarantee long-term sustainability. By discussing three distinctive partnerships, we demonstrate the various ways researchers can approach RPPs and grow them into mutually beneficial collaborations and support implementation goals.

Marginalized Students’ Perspectives on Instructional Strategies in Middle-School Mathematics Classrooms

Marginalized students face a range of gaps in experience, highlighting the importance of understanding these students’ perspectives on their opportunities to learn. The current study contributes to this effort by reporting on marginalized students’ experiences and liking of mathematics instructional strategies in middle-school mathematics classrooms in a large metropolitan school district in the Southern U.S. Middle-school students (N = 466), many of whom attended racially segregated schools, sorted instructional strategies and discussed their experiences with the strategies in small groups or interviews. Most students reported that traditional and student-focused instructional strategies happened in their mathematics class, but fewer student-focused strategies were experienced in racially segregated schools than in racially balanced schools. Most students reported liking all but one of the student-focused strategies and not liking the traditional strategies. Common reasons that emerged during discussions of why students liked particular instructional strategies were that it provided opportunities to learn, built their confidence or increased their interest. Overall, marginalized students’ experiences and views should inform efforts to increase the instructional opportunities for all students.

Out of the Classroom and into the Field

Much empirical work has contributed to the understanding, defining, and re-framing teacher educator programs. Nevertheless, persistent areas of concern regarding teacher preparation models include clinical and field experiences. This article argues that student interns are prepared to teach subject matter, yet they require intentional, scaled support to apply best practices in urban school settings with Black children. The study explores the perceptions of pre-service instructional interns regarding their experiences in a large metropolitan school district. Utilizing a case study narrative inquiry research design, the researchers collected qualitative interview data. Further recommendations are put forward to encourage preparing pre-service interns to become engaged professionals for urban schools.

Going Big!: The Case of a Large District’s Effort to Maximize the Benefits of Dual Language Programming for their Children

Dual language (DL) programs have been held up as a promising means by which to reach student achievement goals across demographics (Collier & Thomas, 2004). Yet, the social and political risks associated with implementing DL programs are significant. This paper analyzes one large metropolitan school district’s rationale and preparedness for initiating its DL program, as well as the outcomes of its efforts to scale up the DL program to reach thousands of students, most of whom are children of color. The findings suggest that the district personnel used three pillars to rationalize their decision to implement their DL program: legal, research, and student demographics. In addition, the school district administrators, teachers, and parents showed varying levels of preparedness for the mass implementation of the DL program. While a young program with few quantitative data points to showcase its success, the qualitative data revealed that the program’s structure and professional development efforts for the teachers and principals benefited from a clear and ambitious vision and the unwavering support of the district’s executive leadership. In addition to the extensive data compiled from interviews with key stakeholders, case studies of two schools from the district are provided in order to highlight emergent tensions and showcase how the district’s efforts have materialized into intentional and dynamic DL learning environments.

Cultural Competence of Urban Middle School Physical Education Teachers

Much literature cites how cultural clashes among teachers and students can undermine educational processes and cause feelings of mistrust among students in school settings. This research examined the cultural competence of secondary PE teachers who taught in diverse urban schools. The research questions guiding the study were (1) what do urban teachers know about students and the community they serve? (2) what instances of cultural distance exist between teachers and students in these schools? and (3) how do teachers bridge cultural distance between themselves and their students? Using qualitative research methods, we examined the cultural competence of six purposively sampled PE teachers in an urban school district over one school year. Participants were recruited based on recommendations from the PE supervisor in a large metropolitan school district in the Southeastern United States. Data collection included multiple interviews (n = 36), teaching observations and field notes (n = 18), and teaching workshops (n = 4).Subscribe to TPE

Going Big!: The Case of a Large District’s Effort to Maximize the Benefits of Dual Language Programming for their Children

Dual language (DL) programs have been held up as a promising means by which to reach student achievement goals across demographics (Collier & Thomas, 2004). Yet, the social and political risks associated with implementing DL programs are significant. This paper analyzes one large metropolitan school district’s rationale and preparedness for initiating its DL program, as well as the outcomes of its efforts to scale up the DL program to reach thousands of students, most of whom are children of color. The findings suggest that the district personnel used three pillars to rationalize their decision to implement their DL program: legal, research, and student demographics. In addition, the school district administrators, teachers, and parents showed varying levels of preparedness for the mass implementation of the DL program. While a young program with few quantitative data points to showcase its success, the qualitative data revealed that the program’s structure and professional development efforts for the teachers and principals benefited from a clear and ambitious vision and the unwavering support of the district’s executive leadership. In addition to the extensive data compiled from interviews with key stakeholders, case studies of two schools from the district are provided in order to highlight emergent tensions and showcase how the district’s efforts have materialized into intentional and dynamic DL learning environments.

The Benefits, Risks, and Challenges of Get-Tough and Support-Oriented Approaches to Improving School Safety

Schools have adopted get-tough policies and support-oriented policies, each of which creates not only potential benefits but also potential risks for youth delinquency and education. This article identifies potential benefits and risks of get-tough approaches and support-oriented approaches, respectively, to reduce delinquency. It then identifies challenges that can arise when schools seek to balance both get-tough and support-oriented policies. We illustrate these challenges by drawing on prior scholarship on these policies as well as a process evaluation of a large metropolitan school district’s pilot initiative to promote school safety and academic performance by assisting court-involved youth. We argue for developing a stronger empirical foundation for school-based approaches that aim to improve school safety and educational outcomes of youth.

Growing Healthy Kids Program Evaluation

To provide evaluation results for a 4 year intervention program, Growing Healthy Kids, in a K-2nd grade school setting. The Growing Healthy Kids School Enrichment Kit Program is a school-based nutrition education program that has been delivered to more than 12,000 K-2nd graders over 4 years in a large metropolitan school district. Program evaluation consisted of pre/post-tests of students before and after the intervention, follow-up surveys with teachers who implemented the program, and a survey of 3rd grade students. A validated survey was administered to intervention (n=79) and control (n=112) students. An increase in knowledge gain from the pre/post-tests were found for all three grades for all years (p<0.05). The majority of teachers in all grades reported improvement in being more confident in teaching nutrition, being more aware of nutrition, making healthier meal and/or snack choices, improved handwashing, and increased physical activity. For the 3rd grade study, those who had received the intervention in K-2nd grade scored higher on two behavior variables (vegetable intake, p=0.042 and breakfast intake, p=0.025). Self-efficacy was a stronger predictor (p<0.0001) than knowledge for behavior outcomes for both the control and intervention groups. The Growing Healthy Kids School Enrichment Kit Program is effective in increasing nutrition knowledge and behavior of K-2nd grade students in an effort to reduce obesity.

Can incentives for parents and students change educational inputs? Experimental evidence from summer school

This paper examines whether incentives for parents and students can increase educational inputs, in this case, specifically, attendance. We evaluate the impact of randomly-assigned incentives for improving attendance at the summer program of a large metropolitan school district. Students were assigned to one of three experimental conditions: (1) financial incentives for parents combined with non-financial incentives for students, (2) non-financial incentives for students (no incentives for parents), and (3) control. We find that the combination of the parent and student incentives increased the daily attendance rate by 9% and the likelihood of having perfect attendance by 63%. The student-only incentives had a smaller and statistically insignificant effect on attendance. We find little evidence that these incentives affected attendance rates or standardized test scores during the regular school year following the summer program, but we do find that they increased the likelihood of re-enrolling in the district.

Revisiting the Buffering Hypothesis: Social Support, Work Stressors, Stress Related Symptoms, and Negative Affectivity in a Sample of Public School Teachers

This study tests if forms of social support have a buffering effect on the relationship between actual workplace risk job stress and psychosomatic work stress taking into account Negative Affectivity (NA). The buffering effect maintains that social support acts a moderator variable that enables individuals to withstand the adverse impact of work stress on psychological states such as psychosomatic stress and job stress. Additionally, as suggested in the job stress literature, a measure that assesses an individual’s predisposition to be effected by the presence of work stressors, negative affectivity, which is a personality variable that involves the experience of negative emotions and poor self-concept, is included. Low negative affectivity is characterized by frequent states of calmness and confidence while high negative affectivity with unease and lack of confidence. Negative affectivity may influence the degree to which stressful events affect the level of stress experienced by individuals. Thus previous studies that report a relationship between work stressors and work related stress symptoms may overstate the actual impact that stressors have because negative affectivity has not been incorporated as a control variable. This study will also examine whether social support continues to buffer the relationship between stressors and stress symptoms when NA is included in the model. Based on the relevant literature, hypotheses are stated on the effect that NA has on the stressor-stress symptom relationship and if social support buffers (moderates) the relationship between stressors with NA as a model variable. These hypotheses are tested with a sample of urban, public school teachers from a large metropolitan school district. Implications of study outcomes and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Relationship Between Motivation and Learning in Physical Education and After-School Physical Activity

Purpose: A primary goal of physical education is to develop physically literate individuals with the knowledge, skills, and confidence necessary for a physically active lifestyle. Guided by the expectancy-value and interest motivation theories, the purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between students' motivation and health-related fitness knowledge developed in physical education and their after-school physical activity participation. Method: Third-, 4th-, and 5th-grade students (N = 293) from 6 elementary schools in a large metropolitan school district in the United States provided data on expectancy beliefs and perceived task values, situational interest, health-related fitness knowledge, and after-school physical activity. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a simultaneous multiple regression model. Results: It was found that expectancy beliefs (β = .20, t = 2.16, p = .03) and perceived exploration demand (β = .25, t = 2.58, p = .01), a source for situational interest, were positively related to after-school physical activity. The 2 variables, however, accounted for only 11.2% of the variances for children's after-school physical activity participation. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that students' active exploration and expectancy beliefs for success in physical education have limited influence on leisure-time physical activity participation.

Motivation and Physical Self-Concept in Physical Education: Differences by Gender

This paper examines the relationship between dispositional goal orientations, the perception of different motivational climates and physical self-concept in physical education classes. An additional purpose was to examine the nature of these relationships among boys and girls. Eight hundred and eighty-four students from a large Spanish metropolitan school district were participants in this study and completed questionnaires assessing the above mentioned variables. Results revealed that sport competence and physical condition were the domains of physical self-concept that had a greater connection with goal orientations and motivational climates. Gender differences were also identified for all variables except for task orientation. In addition, the task-involving motivational climate was the main predictor in the sport competence and physical condition subscales in the case of the girls, while ego and task orientation were, respectively, the strongest predictors for the same physical self-concept subscales in the case of the boys. In order to provide more inclusive teaching, especially for students with low self-concept, this study suggests the need to create classroom participation that favours task-involving motivational environments.

Enhancing teacher moral judgment in difficult political times: Swimming upstream

Teachers at eight elementary schools in a large metropolitan school district participated in a multi-year program of professional ethical dilemma discussions that took place at monthly school meetings over a two-year or three-year period and focused on real-life situations faced by elementary school teachers. Discussions were structured using the Four Component Model of Moral Judgment. The DIT-2 served as a measure of moral judgment. Results proved to be counterintuitive; teacher moral judgment did not improve over time. We discuss the implications of promoting moral and democratic sensibilities at a time when American classrooms are tightly controlled and teachers held accountable for student performance on high stakes tests.

Improving the Physical and Social Environment of School: A Question of Equity

This study explored the interplay between quality facilities and school climate, charting the effects of facility conditions on student and teacher attitudes, behaviors, and performance within schools slated for renovations in a large metropolitan school district. The research applied a school leadership–building design model to explore how six characteristics of facility quality—movement, aesthetics, play of light, flexible and responsive classrooms, elbow room, and security—interact with four aspects of school climate: academic press, community engagement, teacher professionalism, and collegial leadership. Because the schools were older and participants in the research perceived them as being in great need of maintenance and repair, the school building characteristics were often described as absent qualities. The survey data revealed moderate to strong relationships between the quality of school facilities and school climate. The interviews further explicated these relationships. Two additional themes—counterbalance and equity—emerged as being significant to occupants’ interactions with their current facilities. This study used a mixed-methods triangulation design–data transformation model. Specifically, school climate surveys, photo interviews with students, walking tours of the school facility, and formal interviews were triangulated to obtain complementary data and a more complete understanding of the educational facility to be renovated and its impact on occupants.

A Case for Content Specialists as the Elementary Classroom Teacher

The purpose of this study was to identify factors associated with the growing use of teacher specialists in the elementary schools, particularly in the area of mathematics. The elementary school principals of a large metropolitan school district located in northeastern Florida responded to an online survey that focused on the type of specialist model in use, why the decision was made to use alternative models, the grade levels and content areas of the modified specialist model teaching teams, and criteria for team members. This article describes aspects of why elementary schools changed from a traditional generalist model to a modified specialist model based on the team teaching approach and discusses the inherent benefits and problems.

Motivational Profiles and Flow in Physical Education Lessons

The purpose of this study was to use cluster analysis to identify differences in goal orientation and motivational climate profiles among students in physical education classes as well as differences among the observed clusters on perceived flow experiences. 983 students of 14- to 15-yr.-olds (M = 14.8 yr., SD = 0.91) from a large Spanish metropolitan school district were participants and completed questionnaires assessing goal orientations, motivational climates, and perceived flow. Analysis showed three distinct clusters with 40.3% of the sample with a High Motivation cluster, 27.6% in a Low Motivation cluster, and 32.2% in a Mastery Motivation cluster. These three clusters differed significantly in ratings of perceived flow. Clusters also showed different composition by sex. Implications of these results with regard to instruction in physical education classes are discussed.

Addressing urban high-poverty school teacher attrition by addressing urban high-poverty school teacher retention: why effective teachers persevere

Recruiting and retaining quality teachers specific for high-poverty schools in urban areas is a national concern, especially in light of the “No Child Left Behind” federal legislation. The educational realities, detrimental effects of poverty, and human despair that often depress low-income communities can prove to be quite overpowering for many teachers new to the profession and significantly contribute to high levels of teacher absenteeism, attrition rates, and teacher shortages. Examining this issue through a new lens, that being through the eyes of effective urban high-poverty school educators, has the potential to spark spirited conversations and debates among policy makers and educators alike so that significant polices and efforts can be developed and implemented. Therefore, the intent of this study was to develop a profile of high-quality educators who remain in urban high-poverty schools within a large metropolitan school district, and identify the indicators that influence them to remain. The results indicated that teachers who are African American, older, and more experienced define the profile of teachers most likely to remain beyond the first three years in this demanding setting. Additionally, these teachers reported that they remain because they believe they are well suited for teaching in high-poverty schools. Unless more attention is given to teacher retention, and why some educators are successful and persevere in even the most hard-to-staff schools, teacher attrition will continue to be a national concern. Key words: Urban teaching, teacher retention, teacher recruitment.