Suburban School District Research Articles

Teachers' and Principals' Familiarity with School Wellness Policy: A Health Promoting Schools Assessment.

The current study explored teacher and principal familiarity with school wellness polices in primary schools, including who serves on school wellness committees, and who should implement and enforce wellness policies in the school. An electronic survey guided by the Health Promoting Schools framework was administered from February to May 2020 to teachers and principals from one urban and one suburban school district in the Midwestern United States. There were 450 participants; response rates were 28% (urban), 33% (suburban), and 51% (school principals). Only 41.7% of the aggregate participant pool were familiar with their wellness policy. Participants were more familiar in the suburban compared to the urban district (χ2 = 68.2, p-value ≤ 0.001). Teachers/health teachers, nurses, and principals were most likely to be on wellness committees, and the most preferred wellness champions were teachers, nurses, and food service staff. Teachers and nurses are integral to school wellness and health education as part of multiple systems that can promote school health. The Health Promoting Schools framework is useful for guiding examinations to improve understanding of school wellness within school communities.

Development of a sexual consent intervention for adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Tailored sexuality education for adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities is a crucial, yet unmet, need as this population is particularly at risk for sexual abuse and victimisation. However, there are no evidence-based interventions to specifically address this need. This paper presents the development of an intervention framework to address equity in sexuality education and support adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities to understand and provide sexual consent, a foundational aspect of sexuality education and sexual health. The Sexual Health Equity Project team used a Community-Based Participatory Research approach to develop a four-module sexual consent intervention for adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We leveraged a diverse, interdisciplinary team in a suburban Midwestern school district, and used Backward Design to create objectives and assessments which were rooted in findings from qualitative data by special education teachers. The resulting sexual consent intervention, Ask Me First-Choices, is comprised of four modules covering topics including definition of sexual consent; decision-making strategies and practice; communicating consent and refusal, identifying situations of consent and non-consent; and legal issues surrounding consent. Each module is divided into five components for content delivery: (1) introduction, (2) lecture, (3) supplemental activity, (4) assessment, and (5) conclusion. We detail the intervention's unique aspects, emphasising areas where we used Universal Design for Learning principles to support teachers' instruction and students' learning. Our efforts to create a sexual consent intervention directly address sexuality education equity issues. We offer commentary on our design process and decisions, as well as recommendations for future groups who want to develop sexual health interventions in similar contexts for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Next steps include further testing and validation of the sexual consent intervention to build the evidence-base of sexuality education for adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Middle school girls PE: pushed to compete or pushed aside

ABSTRACT Physical education (PE) class can be the first-time students experience structured physical activities, and competitive activities may comprise the majority of activities. If a student experiences success they may want to continue participation; however, after middle school, female participation declines sharply. The framework used in this study, the Theory of Planned Behaviour, guided the examination of the perceptions and experiences of middle school female students in competition in PE. Forty-six seventh- and eighth-grade students identifying as female, from four suburban northeastern school districts, participated in focus groups and were observed during competitive activities in PE. Informal interviews with the PE teacher were conducted. Two major themes emerged: (1) students had insight into organizing teams and skill development and (2) pushed to compete or pushed aside. This study suggests students identifying as female in middle school have well-developed perceptions based upon their experiences in PE and provide a strong indication that how teachers organize class and behaviour management influence these perceptions.

Discovering ME: An innovative planning tool for students with significant disabilities

BACKGROUND: The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) requires transition plans for students with disabilities to be based on high-quality, age-appropriate transition assessments. However, educators struggle to garner reliable assessment results for students with significant disabilities, because so few assessments are designed or validated for students with these barriers. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this practice brief is to share details on the process, called Discovering ME, which provides an effective transition assessment and planning tool that is critical to increasing students’ employment outcomes, especially for those who face the most significant barriers to employment. METHODS: Sixty-one students across rural, urban, and suburban school districts participated in Discovering ME. Data were collected across five years, including demographic information and examples of students’ top career cluster areas for future employment. In addition, a statewide survey was conducted with educators participating in Discovering ME on the effectiveness of this early career planning process. RESULTS: The Discovering ME process provides career-related opportunities for students with significant barriers in the home, school, and community in a variety of career clusters based on their expressed interests. Educators report that the focus of this process on students and their interests helped to create positive experiences for them by creating opportunities for success. CONCLUSION: The Discovering ME process provides students with disabilities with authentic, coordinated career awareness and development activities and the building of self-determination, work readiness, and community integration skills.

Peer Observation to Improve Teacher Self-Efficacy

This qualitative descriptive study explored teachers’ perceptions of a peer observation structure, collegial visits (CVs), and CVs’ connection to teacher self-efficacy (TSE). The research question was: How do teachers perceive CVs, particularly with respect to their influence on TSE? Semi-structured interviews and a focus group were utilized to collect data from 13 K–12 educators from urban and suburban public school districts in the United States. The theoretical foundation included Bandura’s social cognitive theory and the triadic reciprocal causation model. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data, and four themes emerged: (1) cultural drivers and effects of CVs; (2) impact of formal and informal learning experiences on teachers; (3) teachers’ positive shift in (a) opinions and (b) emotions regarding CVs; and (4) teachers’ increased TSE throughout CV implementation. Conclusions highlighted that CVs were an effective vehicle for professional learning. The results provide qualitative evidence demonstrating that CVs foster educators’ TSE beliefs.

Universal screening in kindergarten: Validity and classification accuracy of Istation's Indicators of Progress-Early Reading.

Universal screening in reading is a common, and often required, practice in early elementary school. Computer-adaptive screening tools, such as Istation's Indicators of Progress-Early Reading (ISIP-ER), are often chosen for this purpose in schools. In our present study, we examine the validity evidence between the ISIP-ER in kindergarten and third grade State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) reading scores, the classification accuracy of ISIP-ER to predict which students will meet STAAR reading expectations, and a cut score to maximize classification accuracy for the local context. The sample included 962 students (Mage = 6.19 years; SDage = 0.37) from 15 elementary schools in one suburban school district in Texas. As for validity, the correlation between ISIP-ER in kindergarten and the third grade STAAR was moderate (r = 0.48). Classification accuracy analyses using the vendor-recommended cut score found sensitivity (0.63) and specificity (0.70) were all below recommended levels. Using a locally determined cut score, sensitivity (0.92) was improved, but specificity (0.33) was substantially decreased. The findings suggest ISIP-ER has some limitations in the accurate identification of students at risk for poor outcomes on a state-mandated reading test and will likely need to be combined with other assessments or progress monitoring data. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Racial Change in Suburbia: America’s Diversifying Elementary Districts and Their Effect on School Segregation

The ethnic and racial makeup of the United States has changed during the last several decades. Scholars have qualitatively shown how these changes affect school districts but have not identified their scale. We examine residential demographic change using a novel dataset derived from a geographic technique that leverages satellite imagery with 2000 and 2020 census data. We then analyze the effects of demographic change on student isolation and dissimilarity in elementary school districts. Our findings indicate that most elementary districts have changed, but the changes are uneven. The number of districts with White student intense isolation declined, particularly in suburban locales. Meanwhile, districts with student of color intense isolation increased, particularly in urban locales. These changes indicate that increasing diversity for White students has coincided with greater isolation for students of color. These findings should prompt scholars to reconsider their conceptualization of suburban school districts.

Fidgets and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Teacher Perceptions

ABSTRACT This qualitative study explores the lack of understanding of teacher perceptions on classroom utilization of fidgets with students who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Eight American special education middle school teachers from a midsized suburban public school district in Illinois were interviewed. Interview transcripts were reviewed to establish codes and themes. Three themes were identified: Misapplication of Fidgets, Support to Implement Fidgets Within the Classroom, and When Fidgets Work. Participants reported that fidgets can be a beneficial self-regulation tool in the classroom but may not serve as an appropriate educational tool for all students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Additionally, participants emphasized the importance of establishing ground rules and acknowledged the benefits of seeking support from external resources, such as a school-based occupational therapist, when distributing fidgets in the classroom, especially with more complex student cases.

Measurement Invariance of the Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener - Teacher Rating Scale

School-based universal screening in the social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) domains allows for the early identification of students in need of SEB support. Importantly, equitable assessment in universal screening for the SEB domains is critical to engage in accurate and ethical data-based decision-making. Measurement invariance is one method for examining potential inequities in assessment tools, permitting the ability to evaluate which assessments or assessment items perform differently across groups. As such, this study utilized multi-group confirmatory factor analysis to evaluate the extent of measurement invariance for a commonly used universal screening tool for the SEB domains: the Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener - Teacher Rating Scale (SAEBRS-TRS). The sample consisted of 1949 students in kindergarten through fourth grade in a Midwest, suburban school district. Examination of factor structures indicated the bifactor model yielded adequate fit and was utilized for measurement invariance testing. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis results provided preliminary evidence that the SAEBRS-TRS displays invariance across a variety of student characteristics. Specifically, results supported configural and metric/scalar invariance of the bifactor model across the student characteristics of racial or ethnic identity, sex assigned at birth, and eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch. Yet, future research is needed to corroborate these findings. Limitations, implications for practice, and directions for future research are discussed.

Teachers' psychological stress and wellbeing during a pandemic: Exploring latent profiles.

Teacher stress is at an all-time high. The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for teachers, which resulted in a record number of teachers intending to leave the classroom citing stress as a contributing factor. Understanding teachers' positive and negative psychological experiences, or well-being, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic will inform teacher wellness interventions intended to keep teachers in the classroom. Two hundred forty-six teachers from a suburban school district participated in a survey of well-being indicators, including affect, perceived stress, teaching self-efficacy, and preventive coping. A latent profile analysis identified four patterns of well-being: strained, resilient, lower teaching self-efficacy, and lower emotional well-being. While many teachers were resilient during the crisis, approximately two-thirds experienced global or isolated areas of strain. Additionally, the Classroom Appraisal of Resources and Demands-Revised, a theory-driven assessment of teachers' workplace appraisal of demands and resources, was associated with teachers' strained and resilient well-being profiles, making it a suitable screening tool for these groups. Layered screening and tailored intervention, based on teachers' well-being patterns, may help minimize teacher attrition during and postcrises. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Consequential Issues of Censoring Curriculum: Who Has the Right to Ban What’s Read?

Ms. Sampson, a White eighth-grade teacher in a predominately White suburban school district in the southern United States, decided to include several books in her lesson plan. Selected books were from the school’s library and had been previously approved by stakeholders as instructional resources for the district. One parent, a school board member, became enraged when he heard about the readings during a Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) back-from-spring-break celebration and contacted the district superintendent. A book was subsequently removed from the library and Ms. Sampson was placed on administrative leave without pay. This case centers on the critical race debate in public schools and how school leaders and other stakeholders address a teacher’s decision to diversify curriculum and instructional resources amid stakeholder pushback.

No Confidence Whatsoever: The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Leadership of a Superintendent in a Large Suburban School District

This case study involves a new school superintendent, unions, parent groups, and a school board. The case demonstrates how the emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic impacted the relationships between a school board, teacher and administrator unions, parent organizations, and the school superintendent. It is the story of educational leadership under unprecedented pressure.

Factors Impacting Implementation of Universal Screening of Developmental Language Disorder in Public Schools.

Developmental language disorder (DLD) is an underidentified neurodevelopmental disorder that affects, on average, one out of 11 kindergarten-age children (ages 4-6 years). Children with DLD can face academic, behavioral, psychiatric, emotional, and social challenges. Universal screening is seen as an effective way for public school districts to increase DLD identification rates. However, little is known about factors impacting implementation of school-based universal screenings for DLD. We partnered with a large suburban school district in the Intermountain West region of the United States to gather detailed perspectives from school personnel regarding the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of universal screening in their district. Using a two-phase mixed-methods design, we first conducted focus groups to identify potential barriers and facilitators to universal screening. We then used the qualitative data from the first phase to develop a 20-item survey to assess agreement with the focus group results among a wider group of district speech-language pathologists and kindergarten teachers from the school district. Our survey showed moderate levels of agreement with our focus group results. In particular, school personnel showed high levels of support for universal screening for DLD, with interesting interplay across various factors: (a) the negative impact of unmanageable workload on personnel under both referral- and universal-based identification formats, (b) the preference for paraprofessionals to administer screenings, (c) the role that Response to Intervention programs may play in offsetting workloads associated with universal screenings, and (d) the need for increased awareness and education about child language development and impairment among general education teachers and the public. Recommendations for incorporating these factors into more useful and applicable collaborative research-based efforts are presented. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23661876.

Factors affecting educational leader wellbeing: Sources of stress and self-care

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed-methods research is to understand leader stressors, the impacts of stress, self-care strategies used to mitigate stress, and gender-related differences. Research Methods: School and district leaders in a suburban school district in the northeastern United States ( n = 33) completed a mixed-methods survey. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed separately. Data were compared and integrated, then interpreted to understand educational leaders’ experiences. Findings: Leaders reported high levels of role-related stress from external pressures, responsibilities related to managing others, interactions with families, and job-related concerns. Impacts of this stress were multifaceted and found to spill over to home. Female leaders were more likely to report stress from concern for the well-being of others and from interactions with teachers and staff. To mitigate effects of stress, leaders engaged in cognitive, emotional, occupational, spiritual, and physical self-care. Female leaders were more likely to report occupational self-care and social support seeking. Implications for Research and Practice: This research suggests that districts should invest in providing mentorship, professional learning communities, and professional development focused on well-being to support educational leaders. More research is needed on individual and school-level characteristics that may influence leader experiences of stress and engagement in self-care.

Measuring teachers’ momentary affect: An exploratory experience sampling study

As researchers and school leaders increasingly recognize the importance of teachers’ emotions for both teachers and students, it is imperative that researchers document teachers’ affective experiences using ecologically valid methodologies. In this study, we use the experience sampling method to explore the momentary emotions of 238 teachers in two suburban school districts in the Northeast region of the United States. Using 1443 momentary affective reports, we report patterns in affect that emerged across the full sample of teachers, including the types of emotions teachers experienced most frequently and most intensely, as well as variance in momentary affective experiences, both within and across teachers. We consider ways in which professional role, professional activity, and affective appraisals relate to teachers’ momentary affective experiences, and conclude with a discussion of implications for future research and practice.

“This is not going to be a quick fix”: a grounded theory study of superintendents leading school integration through redistricting

PurposeThis study investigated how superintendents lead the process of within-district racial and socioeconomic integration.Design/methodology/approachThe researchers used Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology to analyze interviews with superintendents, documents and videos from four school districts in suburban, southeastern Pennsylvania.FindingsThe emergent “Leadership for In-District Integration” theory indicated that superintendents who led redistricting initiatives aligned their systems for organizational equity only after developing culturally competent leadership practices and building trusting relationships within the school community. Despite these efforts, only two of the four districts achieved racial or socioeconomic balance in the targeted grade levels. In all districts the efforts to integrate their schools for equity were ongoing.Practical implicationsThe current study's findings indicate that school leaders may face less conflict with constituents about school desegregation if they capitalize on existing needs to redraw district boundaries for other purposes. Superintendents seeking to engage in such work should set clear goals for what constitutes desegregation, view integration as more than demographic balancing and seek support to develop culturally competent leadership practices that build trusting relationships among community members.Originality/valueThe Leadership for In-District Integration theory adds conceptual and practical value to the field of educational administration by effectively illustrating what it meant to superintendents to integrate a school system and revealing insights that may help other school leaders make such a change. This research is significant because it is one of the few studies that focuses primarily on leadership factors associated with integration within suburban school districts.

Longitudinal weight status and academic achievement in elementary schoolchildren in the United States.

Childhood overweight and obesity have a well-established negative impact on children's health. Overweight and obesity might also negatively impact children's academic performance, but existing literature on this association is inconclusive. This study uses a longitudinal design in a large, diverse elementary school sample to rigorously test the association between longitudinal weight status and academic achievement. Analyses also investigate modification by sex, race/ethnicity, and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF). In a large suburban school district in the United States, 4936 Grade 4 students were recruited. Demographic, course grade, and standardized test data were collected from school records for Grades 3-5, and body mass index and CRF were assessed each year. Students wore accelerometers during the school day for up to 15 days across three semesters (Grade 4 Fall and Spring, Grade 5 Fall) to objectively measure physical activity. Multiple imputation addressed missing data and multilevel analyses controlled for student demographics and clustering within schools. Unadjusted multilevel models found small negative associations between persistent obesity and course grades and standardized test scores, but these associations largely disappeared when controlling for demographic characteristics. Residual associations for math and writing course grades were attenuated when controlling for CRF, though some marginal negative associations for math and writing remained for students who developed obesity during follow-up. There was also evidence of marginal negative associations with course grades for students who developed overweight/obesity. There was no evidence of modification by sex or race/ethnicity. Results suggest very small associations between weight status and academic achievement that were largely explained by sociodemographic factors and CRF. Evidence of an association between weight status and achievement was stronger among students who developed overweight/obesity. Interventions promoting healthy weight and high CRF remain critical for schools given the link between student health and achievement.

Beyond Good Intentions in Special Education Policy: Engaging With Critical Disability Intersectional Research

This article describes critical disability intersectional qualitative approaches aimed to not just analyze but also contribute and transform special education policy research. We specifically examine the shortfalls of education policies that construct race and disability as essentially separate and distinct characteristics, failing to consider students’ intersectional identities. By utilizing findings from a case study of a suburban school district that struggled with multiple forms of racial disparities in special education, we demonstrate how a critical disability intersectional qualitative approach can generate new understandings of policy processes by shedding important light on the dual nature of disability.

JUE Insight: White flight from Asian immigration: Evidence from California Public Schools

Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial group in the US but we know little about how Asian immigration has affected cities, neighborhoods and schools. This paper studies white flight from Asian arrivals in high-socioeconomic-status suburban Californian school districts from 2000–2016 using initial settlement patterns and national immigrant flows to instrument for entry. We find that, as Asian students arrive, white student enrollment declines in these higher-income suburbs. These patterns cannot be fully explained by racial animus, housing prices, or correlations with Black/Hispanic arrivals. Parental fears of academic competition may play a role.

Switching for Survival and Success? Black Students’ Struggles, Shifting, and Solidarity Within the St. Louis Desegregation Plan

ABSTRACT The St. Louis Voluntary Desegregation program, and its corollary, the Interdistrict Transfer Plan, have existed in some form since 1983. At its height, approximately 13,000 Black students from the city of St. Louis transferred into predominantly White and suburban school districts, representing the largest voluntary desegregation plan in the United States. County and school district leaders responsible for the plan have slowly reduced the number of Black transfer students, and a November 2016 agreement extended the plan for a five-year period to allow about 1,000 new students to enroll through the 2023–2024 school year. Emanating from qualitative interviews with 37 Black former students who participated in the plan between 1983 and 2018 (Waves 1–4), this article captures participants’ experiences, agency, their struggles, and solidarity efforts to ensure their chances of surviving and succeeding in schooling contexts that drastically differed from their home and community environments. Given the impending ending of this plan at the end of the 2023–2024 school year, findings provide implications for research, educational policy and reform, and schooling practices that create and sustain culturally affirming and educationally enriching environments for Black students.