Suburban School District Research Articles

Exploring the Reading Motivation of Less-Motivated Adolescent Latinx English Learners

This qualitative study explored reading motivation among high school English learners whose first language was Spanish. Latinx English learners (N = 87) from two southeastern, suburban school districts took part in the first stage of the research. The researcher utilized subscores for self-concept as a reader and value of reading from a recognized reading motivation survey instrument along with reading subscores on a nationally recognized standardized language assessment to identify students who could be presumed to be less-motivated readers (n = 14) for interview selection. Responses from six randomly selected interviewees from this less-motivated pool of participants demonstrated that they faced numerous obstacles toward becoming proficient readers, including challenging home environments and debilitating anxieties. Overall, a series of complex factors were shown to inhibit reading motivation. Implications and practical recommendations for educators are discussed.

Relations of Emotion Regulation, Negative and Positive Affect to Anxiety and Depression in Middle Childhood

The associations between coping, emotion regulation, and child psychopathology have been the subject of extensive research. Many studies have focused on voluntary processes of emotion regulation. In addition to controlled regulatory processes, children’s involuntary, automatic processes based in individual differences in temperament may also impact emotion regulation and children’s psychological adjustment. The current study examined the relations of emotion regulation and temperament to children’s symptoms of anxiety and depression in middle childhood. Study participants included 126 children (50% Male, 68.0% Caucasian; M = 9.60 years, SD = 0.52) recruited from a suburban school district. Participants completed self-report measures of emotion regulation, trait affect, and anxiety and depression severity. Results showed that children reported using active self-regulatory strategies more than any other form of emotion regulation in response to anger, worry, fear, and sadness. Significant relationships were found between negative affect and poor emotion regulation or “dysregulation” (r = 0.25, p < 0.01) as well as positive affect and dysregulation (r = −0.22, p < 0.05). Furthermore, emotion dysregulation moderated the relation between trait negative affect and depression (∆R2 = 0.01, F(1117) = 4.78, p < 0.05). This study provides further support for the well-established relations between temperament and internalizing disorders in children. It suggests that children in this age group tend to use active strategies to regulate to negative emotions. Additionally, it shows that children high in trait negative affect and emotion dysregulation may be at increased the risk for depression.

Kindergarten Teachers’ Use of Writing Scaffolds to Support Children’s Developing Orthographic Knowledge

ABSTRACTOrthographic knowledge is information about the writing system stored in memory that children draw upon to read and write. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the ways in which kindergarten teachers use verbal scaffolds to support children’s development of orthographic knowledge during writing instruction. This case study of four teachers over four weeks in a suburban school district included observations, semi-structured interviews, and surveys. Findings indicated that teachers regularly used a wide range of scaffolding strategies during writing instruction; however, teachers tended to use more high-support than low-support scaffolds. Teachers employed scaffolds more often in the independent writing context. This study represents a first step in closely observing the verbal scaffolds kindergarten teachers use to build children’s orthographic knowledge during writing instruction.

Leveraging a Handbook for Principal Mentoring: Pathways in a District Context

Mentoring is one important construct to support novice principals in this time of change. This study investigates the impact of a district-developed handbook to support co-constructed mentoring practices and cultivate a learning culture within a suburban school district. The handbook offered a framework of interactive systems and tools for communication and relationship building including guiding questions for deep discussion and analysis of practices and culture, data collection, and webinars. Use of the handbook was perceived to deepen instructional leadership capacity and to foster the colearning of the leaders through shared experiences. An emerging emphasis on professional learning among the participants in the mentoring program was unanticipated. Implications of these findings are offered within a specific district context for cultural shifts and improved student outcomes.

Replication of It's Your Game…Keep It Real! in Southeast Texas.

Despite the recent efforts of the Office of Adolescent Health to replicate programs with demonstrated efficacy, there are still few evidence-based HIV, sexually transmitted infection (STI), and teen pregnancy prevention programs that have been replicated in "real-world" settings. To test the effectiveness of It's Your Game…Keep It Real! (IYG), an evidence-based STI and pregnancy prevention program for middle schools, the curriculum was implemented by teachers in urban and suburban middle schools in Southeast Texas from 2012 to 2015. IYG was evaluated using a group-randomized wait-list controlled effectiveness trial design in which 20 middle schools in nine urban and suburban school districts in Southeast Texas were randomized equally, using a multi-attribute randomization protocol, to either the intervention condition (received IYG) (n = 10 schools comprising 1936 eligible seventh graders) or the comparison condition (received usual care) (n = 10 schools comprising 1825 eligible seventh graders). All students were blinded to condition prior to administering the baseline survey. The analytic sample comprised 1543 students (n = 804, intervention; n = 739, comparison) who were followed from baseline (seventh grade) to the 24-month follow-up (ninth grade). Multilevel regression analyses were conducted to assess behavioral and psychosocial outcomes at follow-up. There were no significant differences in initiation of vaginal or oral sex between study conditions at follow-up. However, at 12-month follow-up, compared with students in the comparison condition, students in the intervention condition reported increased knowledge, self-efficacy, and perceived favorable norms related to HIV/STIs, condoms, and/or abstinence; decreased intentions to have sex; and increased intentions to use birth control. Knowledge outcomes were statistically significant at 24-month follow-up. This IYG effectiveness trial did not replicate the behavioral effects of the original IYG efficacy trials. However, it adds to the growing literature on the replication of evidence-based programs, and underscores the need to better understand how variations in implementation, setting, and measurement affect the behavioral impact of such programs.Clinical trial registration clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03533192).

Pre-launch preparations for a peer observation initiative viewed through a concerns model

ABSTRACTThis study was a qualitative comparative case study of two secondary schools (one urban high school and one suburban middle school) where teams of teacher leaders were in the planning stages of implementing an initiative about a peer observation protocol called collegial visits. The primary research question was, ‘How does a team of teacher leaders plan for a collegial visits initiative within an urban and a suburban school district?’ The urban high school had a triad of teacher leaders planning for the initiative, which included completing two pilot collegial visit cycles with teacher volunteers. The suburban middle school had a pair of teacher leaders planning for their initiative, which culminated in a spring pilot cycle. Overall, feedback about the collegial visits as a professional learning vehicle was overwhelmingly positive. The planning process was analyzed through the Stages of Concern framework. Teacher leaders selectively and strategically used associations or dissociations with teachers’ prior experiences with initiatives to allay anticipated personal stage concerns about the initiative. Teacher leaders also provided participants anticipated benefits of collegial visits to increase positive consequence concerns. Formal leaders were largely left out of the planning, and this decision appeared to enhance buy in from teachers.

Statement of Removal

AbstractIn this article, we draw on extensive research from a well-resourced and diverse suburban school district to illustrate how racial inequality becomes embedded in school disciplinary routines and contribute to racial differences in students' disciplinary experiences. We seek to build theory regarding how racial disproportionality in discipline happens, why some groups of students are selected to be disciplined more often than others, and why students from different racial groups experience different disciplinary outcomes. Drawing on research from organizational theory and critical race studies, we theorize that in carrying out the school's disciplinary routines, school adults are influenced by broader cultural narratives that associate blackness with criminality and whiteness with innocence. These beliefs about black and white people shape how students' behavior is perceived and responded to, leading to racial differences in students' experiences.

Empowerment through a teacher leadership academy

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of a teacher leadership academy (TLA) organized through a school district/university partnership in a small, US Suburban School District in increasing teachers’ participation in leadership activities. Design/methodology/approach TLA participants (n=11) were surveyed using the Teacher Leadership Activities Scale, and their results were compared to a control group of teachers in the district who were not participating in the TLA (n=12). Interviews and open-ended response items provided qualitative data to examine how the TLA contributed to teachers’ growth as leaders. Findings Results indicated that teachers in the TLA did increase participation in teacher leadership activities. Qualitative data revealed themes of many espoused benefits from TLA participation, including increased interactions with administrators, improved understanding of the obstacles associated with implementing changes, and expanded leadership capacity. Research limitations/implications Conditions that both enhanced and detracted from teacher leaders’ growth were identified and outlined, including formal leaders’ participation in TLA activities, material support for projects, and a supportive atmosphere (enhancers) and administrative roadblocks and the inability to remediate capacity issues for teacher leaders (detractors). Originality/value The conditions outlined above will assist those interested in creating TLAs in doing so with purpose and increased chance for buy in and success.

"“La Vida de los Emigrantes”

PurposeIn September 2014, 1,200 unaccompanied immigrant youth, from a region of Central America known for high rates of violence and homicide, enrolled in a suburban school district of New York State. This paper aims to highlight the stories of the newly arrived Central American high school youth, as told through Bilingual (Spanish/English) digital testimonios completed in the English Language Arts classroom. The author examines how the telling of their stories of surviving migration offers a way for the youth to respond to political and emotional struggles. The author also explores how the youth become active participants in the telling of political narratives/testimonios.Design/methodology/approachPart of a larger ethnographic case study, the author adopts the ethnographic approaches of the new literacy studies. Testimonios as a research epistemology privilege the youth’s narratives as sources of knowledge, and allow the youth to reclaim their authority in telling their own stories.FindingsThe integration of critical digital texts into the English Language Arts classroom created a participatory classroom culture where the Central American youth’s digital testimonios can be seen as a shared history of struggles that make visible the physical toil of their journeys, the truth of their border crossings and their enactments of political identities. As a collective, the youth’s stories become part of national and global political dialogues.Originality/valueAt a time when immigrant youth struggle for rights, to further their education and to negotiate the daily experiences of living in a new country, this research offers a unique perspective on the politics of inclusion and exclusion for unaccompanied youth.

School Operations Reporting and Student Academic Achievement

Understanding the factors that influence student learning outcomes is critically important to school administrators tasked with designing and staffing schools. Considerable research has assessed differences in student achievement by focusing on teacher quality, class size, teacher turnover, and student teacher ratio. While discerning the impact that teachers have on students is of obvious importance, there is also interest in understanding how the built environment influences student achievement. Here, we assess how the environmental characteristics of schools influence student achievement.We use a panel dataset from a suburban Denver school district of approximately 41,000 students to understand how school characteristics impact student achievement. Specifically, we evaluate the relationship between school environmental characteristics and standardized test scores. The school environmental characteristics include thermal comfort, acoustics, visual quality, indoor air quality, and Energy Star rating, which are specific to each of the 54 schools in the district. By observing students that transition between schools as they move from elementary to middle schools and from middle to high schools, we evaluate how the differing school environmental characteristics impacts achievement.When controlling for other school characteristics and student demographics, we find a school&amp;#8217;s Energy Star score, acoustics, and indoor air quality have a positive relationship with student test scores, while thermal comfort consistently has a negative relationship with test scores. The positive impact of the Energy Star score is particularly robust to differences in how the achievement model is specified. Given this, we evaluate the specific components of the Energy Star score. Overall, the results highlight the importance of evaluating both the environmental impacts and the impacts on student achievement associated with the construction of energy efficient schools.

Asserting the Capacity to be Free

In this article, I explore how the social contract of schooling and the three functions of schooling (Noguera 2003)—to sort, to socialize, and to control— impact and constrain the freedom and agency of a group of young Black and Latinx men in one suburban school district that was experiencing sociodemographic shifts in the Northeastern United States. I use qualitative data to frame how the young men experience schooling, and I show how the local community context facilitates the institutionalization of discriminatory sorting processes and racially prejudiced norms. I also show how the young men are excessively controlled and monitored via zero tolerance disciplinary practices, which effectively constrains their humanity and capacity to freely exist in their school and which inadvertently strengthens the connective tissue between schools and prisons.

Different teacher-level effectiveness estimates, different results: inter-model concordance across six generalized value-added models (VAMs)

In this study, researchers compared the concordance of teacher-level effectiveness ratings derived via six common generalized value-added model (VAM) approaches including a (1) student growth percentile (SGP) model, (2) value-added linear regression model (VALRM), (3) value-added hierarchical linear model (VAHLM), (4) simple difference (gain) score model, (5) rubric-based performance level (growth) model, and (6) simple criterion (percent passing) model. The study sample included fourth to sixth grade teachers employed in a large, suburban school district who taught the same sets of students, at the same time, and for whom a consistent set of achievement measures and background variables were available. Findings indicate that ratings significantly and substantively differed depending upon the methodological approach used. Findings, accordingly, bring into question the validity of the inferences based on such estimates, especially when high-stakes decisions are made about teachers as based on estimates measured via different, albeit popular methods across different school districts and states.

The Effect of the 2008 Recession on Gifted Education Funding Across the State of Texas

The effect of the 2008 Recession has reverberated throughout public education in the United States. This paper examines how the gifted education funding in the state of Texas changed following the Great Recession. The framework of a generalized longitudinal mixed effect model was used to explore this topic. Data acquired from the Texas Education Association included financial and demographic information on Texas School districts (n = 1,025) between the 1999–2000 and 2014–2015 academic school years. The primary finding was that the Great Recession adversely affected suburban school districts. These districts saw a greater percentage point reduction of budget allocated toward gifted programming (–.24) than rural (–.08), town (–.05), or urban (–.08) school districts (t = 2.72, p < .01).

Examining the roles of child temperament and teacher-child relationships as predictors of Turkish children’s social competence and antisocial behavior

The present study examined the concurrent contribution of Turkish children’s temperament and teacher-child relationship quality to their social competence and antisocial behavior, with a specific focus on the moderating role of teacher-child relationships (closeness and conflict) on children’s temperament (inhibitory control and shyness) when predicting social competence and antisocial behavior. Participants were 94 children (56 boys) with mean age of 7.05 years (SD = .88) enrolled in 24 classrooms from five elementary schools in a suburban school district in Turkey. Mothers reported on children’s temperament and teachers reported on their relationships with children as well as children’s social competence and antisocial behavior. SAS PROC MIXED was used to test hierarchical regression models of children nested within classrooms. Results showed that high conflict teacher-child relationships moderated the association between low shyness and antisocial behavior. Less shy children displayed more antisocial behavior at higher levels of teacher-child conflict. In addition, at high levels of child shyness, social competence ratings improved as teacher-child closeness increased. Inhibitory control was positively correlated with social competence and negatively correlated with antisocial behavior. The qualities of teacher-child relationships can effectively support children’s social competence and antisocial behavior depending upon their temperamental characteristics. Limitations and future directions of the current study are discussed.

High School Teachers’ Perceptions of Giftedness, Gifted Education, and Talent Development

The purpose of this study was to form a deeper understanding of how high school teachers view giftedness and gifted education. Open-ended surveys and interviews were conducted with high school teachers in a suburban school district with three large high school, and data were analyzed using a grounded theory methodology. Data were collected and analyzed in two phases with two groups of teachers ( n1 = 7 and n2 = 13). Text data from both phases were analyzed separately and then validated using constant comparison processes. Initial coding, focused coding, and theoretical coding led to data categories and an emergent theory to explain high school teachers’ perceptions regarding gifted education. Results indicated a need to clarify the perception of giftedness among high school teachers, as well as how effective training of those teachers can be implemented.

An Evaluation of an Unstructured and Structured Approach to Increasing Recess Physical Activity

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of structured and unstructured programs implemented to increase physical activity (PA) for students during the recess period of the school day. METHODS: Two suburban school districts in Colorado (USA) implemented different techniques to increase recess PA during the 2015-16 school year. The structured program implemented in one school district included planned activities and games for students, led by a recess paraprofessional. The unstructured program implemented in the second school district provided equipment to students during recess by instructing teachers to roll out equipment carts at the beginning of the recess period. Students were able to use equipment, although it was not required. The amount of available equipment was recorded by the school district implementing the unstructured program. PA was observed using the System for Observing Play and Leisure Activity in Youth (SOPLAY). Evaluators recorded baseline and follow-up observations for sedentary activity, moderate activity (MPA), and vigorous activity (VPA). Observations from individual schools were aggregated so data analyses could be performed at the district level, and the distribution pattern for each variable was examined and noted to be either normally distributed or not normally distributed. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each variable of interest at the district level, and parametric and nonparametric tests were used to determine if the differences were statistically significant after adjusting for compounded error with a Bonferroni correction (p < 0.004). RESULTS: For the unstructured program (i.e., increased equipment): MPA increased and VPA significantly (p < 0.004) increased, while sedentary behavior decreased. For the structured program: MPA and VPA did not increase, whereas sedentary behaviors were higher following the program, though changes were not significant. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that the degree of effectiveness may vary between structured and unstructured recess PA programs. However, additional variables outside of the scope of this study such as teachers’ interaction with students or the fidelity of the program may influence student PA during recess, and should be evaluated in future research.

Suicide Prevention for School Communities: An Educational Initiative for Student Safety.

A knowledge gap exists in school communities regarding suicide prevention and means reduction education. The article highlights two core interrelated topics: school nurse engagement in dialogue with students' families and the implementation of an innovative, community-based suicide prevention educational program at a suburban public school district. The authors provide an overview of the public health problem of suicide for students, current student challenges, role of the school nurse in suicide prevention, and a key gap in current school nursing practice. At the request of the school counselors and principal, an innovative suicide prevention educational program was initiated as a community-based project at a large suburban public school district in Texas. The two overarching goals for this community-based collaboration are the following: school nurses will engage in frank, productive conversations with students' parents and families about suicidality concerns and increase the school community's knowledge about suicide prevention. This school community knowledge includes effective risk mitigation and means reduction strategies to better manage suicidality in students. Ultimately, this ongoing family and school community collaboration aims to prevent student deaths by suicide.

Later Start, Longer Sleep: Implications of Middle School Start Times.

Although adolescents generally get less than the recommended 9 hours of sleep per night, research and effort to delay school start times have generally focused on high schools. This study assesses the relation between school start times and sleep in middle school students while accounting for potentially confounding demographic variables. Seventh and eighth grade students attending 8 late starting schools (∼8:00 am, n = 630) and 3 early starting schools (∼7:23 am, n = 343) from a diverse suburban school district completed online surveys about their sleep behaviors. Doubly robust inverse probability of treatment weighted regression estimates of the effects of later school start time on student bedtimes, sleep duration, and daytime sleepiness were generated. Attending a school starting 37 minutes later was associated with an average of 17 additional minutes of sleep per weeknight, despite an average bedtime 15 minutes later. Students attending late starting schools were less sleepy than their counterparts in early starting schools, and more likely to be wide awake. Later school start times were significantly associated with improved sleep outcomes for early adolescents, providing support for the movement to delay school start times for middle schools.

Racial discrimination experiences and African American youth adjustment: The role of parenting profiles based on racial socialization and involved-vigilant parenting.

The purpose of this study was to test whether parenting profiles based on racial socialization and involved-vigilant parenting would compensate for or moderate associations between racial discrimination experiences and academic outcomes and psychological well-being among African American adolescents. Participants were 1,363 African American adolescents (Mage = 14.19; 52.3% female) from 3 Midwestern suburban school districts. Latent profile analysis was used to examine whether there were distinct combinations of parenting. The relationships among racial discrimination experiences, parenting profiles, and adjustment were examined using structural equation modeling (SEM). Three distinct parenting profiles were found: moderate positive (n = 767; moderately high involved-vigilant parenting and racial barrier, racial pride, behavioral, and egalitarian messages, and low negative messages), unengaged (n = 351; low racial socialization messages and moderately low involved-vigilant parenting), and high negative parenting (n = 242; high negative messages, moderate other racial socialization messages, and moderately low involved-vigilant parenting). Racial discrimination experiences were negatively associated with youth adjustment. Moderate positive parenting was related to the best academic outcomes and unengaged parenting was associated with more positive academic outcomes than high negative parenting. Moderate positive parenting was associated with better psychological well-being than unengaged or high negative parenting although the benefits were greater for adolescents with fewer racial discrimination experiences. Distinct patterns of racial socialization messages and involved-vigilant parenting contribute to differences in African American youth adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record

Food allergy management and anaphylaxis preparedness in a suburban school district varies by school level

Food allergy management and anaphylaxis preparedness in a suburban school district varies by school level