Browsing by Subject "School climate"

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Demographic-related school climate and educational expectations : the roles of academic preparation, race, and SES
(2020-12-09) Fernandez, Celeste Cleo; Benner, Aprile D.; Kim, Su Yeong; Varner, Fatima
Students’ expectations for their own educational attainment are strongly associated with actual educational attainment (Beal & Crockett, 2010), and thus, understanding factors that may be associated with students’ educational expectations can aid in increasing educational attainment among youth. One factor that may impact students’ educational expectations is their school’s climate. Dimensions of school climate such as student-teacher relationships and their impacts on academics have been extensively studied (Thapa et al., 2013); however, given the increasing diversity of the U.S. population (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019), demographic-related aspects of school climate (such as school misfit for under-represented demographic groups and interracial climate) are crucial to consider because these reflect a school’s respect or devaluation of demographically underrepresented students. Feeling devalued in school, in turn, may lead students to feel discouraged from engaging in academic preparation, resulting in lower educational expectations. Therefore, demographic-related school climate may be indirectly related to educational expectations through academic preparation. There were three aims in the proposed study. The first aim was to examine the longitudinal associations between various dimensions of school climate and educational expectations using regression analyses. Second, I assessed whether academic preparation mediated the relationship between school climate and educational expectations by using path analysis in a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework and testing indirect effects. The third aim was to assess whether the central pathways of interest varied by students’ race and SES using multiple group analysis in an SEM framework. Results from the current study indicate that none of the measured dimensions of school climate (i.e., global perceptions of student-school misfit, subjective social status, interracial climate, student-teacher relationships) were significantly associated with students’ educational expectations nor does academic preparation mediate the relationship between school climate and educational expectations. However, results do find main effects for the link between school climate and academic preparation, such that more positive student-teacher relationships, better interracial climate, and higher global perceptions of student misfit are related to higher levels of high school and college planning. In addition, multiple group analysis revealed that student-teacher relationships have a stronger association with college educational planning for Latinx compared to White students. Multiple group analysis by students’ SES generated errors that could not be resolved, and thus these results are not presented. The current study brings awareness to the struggles marginalized students face in school and how the school context can shape students’ academic preparation behaviors.
Exploring teachers’ perceptions of positive and negative attitudes toward teachers and the teaching profession
(2018-05-02) Gaines, Rachel Elizabeth; Schallert, Diane L.; McCarthy, Christopher J; Awad, Germine; Wetzel, Melissa M
According to the OECD (2014), only one-third of U.S. teachers reported that teaching was “valued” or “highly valued” by U.S. society. Still others have argued that teachers’ perceptions of negative attitudes may be exaggerated (Hargreaves et al., 2007). However, given widespread teacher turnover, along with decreasing enrollments in teacher preparation programs, examining teachers’ perceptions of attitudes toward their occupation likely would provide useful insight into these and related problems facing American schools. Guiding questions for this study addressed teachers’ perceptions of attitudes, contexts in which attitudes were perceived, teachers’ interpretations or responses to perceived attitudes, and differences in perceived attitudes between bioecological (Bronfenbrenner, 1999) and sociocultural contexts. Qualitative methodologies that drew on principles and procedures from grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) were used. In all, 18 public school teachers (nine who taught in Massachusetts and nine who taught in Texas) were interviewed about attitudes they perceived in their interactions with various groups of individuals (e.g., friends, students, administrators), and attitudes embedded in more distal contexts (e.g., media, policy, culture). Based on analyses of these interviews, I found that teachers reported perceiving four types of positive (i.e., appreciative, respectful, trusting/supportive, occupational) and negative (i.e., adversarial, demeaning, unprofessional, stereotypes) attitudes toward teaching. These attitudes were perceived in interactions across eight bioecological contexts that ranged from the interpersonal (e.g., adversarial attitudes in interactions with students’ parents; positive occupational attitudes in interactions with friends and family) to the societal (e.g., stereotypes of teachers in the media, demeaning attitudes imbedded in U.S. culture). I also found that teachers perceived different attitudes despite having similar experiences. For example, a number of teachers described experiences in which non-teachers expressed that they “could never be a teacher.” A number of participants interpreted such statements as respectful, yet others perceived them as demeaning or expressed ambivalence about the attitudes perceived in such statements. Finally, I identified bioecological and sociocultural differences between teachers that appeared to correspond with variation in perceptions of attitudes toward teaching. These findings have implications for improving school climate and for supporting preservice teachers, as they reflect on their expectations of themselves as future teachers.
How do empathy, effortful control, and middle school students’ perceptions and feelings about school affect their aggression? Examining moderation and mediation models of social-emotional learning and behavior
(2014-08) Batanova, Milena Dentcheva; Loukas, Alexandra; Bartholomew, John; Cance, Jessica D; Crosnoe, Robert; Pasch, Keryn E
According to the social and emotional learning (SEL) prevention framework, individual core competencies, the school environment, and students’ attachment or connectedness to the school play various roles in reducing their risky or problem behaviors, such as aggression. The current dissertation involved two studies testing various components of the SEL framework. Specific constructs of interest included individual competencies of social awareness (empathic concern and perspective taking) and self-management (effortful control), four mostly interpersonal aspects of school climate (perceived friction, cohesion, competition, and satisfaction with classes), school connectedness, and both overt and relational forms of aggression. Data were drawn from an existing prospective study of early adolescents, comprised of two waves with one year between each wave. Total participants were 500 10- to 14-year old students (54% female; 78% European American) who completed the first wave of a self-report survey in 6th and 7th grades. The first study examined the unique and interrelated effects of the individual competencies and perceptions of school climate on both subsequent forms of aggression across the one-year period. Study findings indicated that across gender, empathic concern was the only competency to reduce both overt and relational aggression one year later. None of the school climate perceptions made a unique contribution to subsequent aggression, nor did they show protective functions. Rather, several instances of cumulative advantage were observed, whereby positive school climate perceptions only reduced aggression for students who already had high levels of empathic concern. Unexpectedly, high levels of perceived cohesion among students contributed to higher levels of overt aggression for boys already high in effortful control. The second study then sought to examine school connectedness as a mediator that could further explain how students’ competencies and perceptions of school climate contribute to both forms of aggression. Although there were no mediation effects across gender, post-hoc analyses confirmed some hypotheses but raised questions regarding the direction and temporality of associations for others. Overall, the findings of both studies provide general support for some of the proposed relationships by the SEL framework and highlight the need for nuanced investigations when seeking to reduce different forms of aggression during middle school.
Kindergarten transition services, school climate, and parental involvement : effects on children’s developmental outcomes in third grade
(2016-09-19) Boyle, Alaina Elizabeth; Benner, Aprile D.; Gershoff, Elizabeth T.; Hazen-Swann, Nancy
Transition into kindergarten is a critical educational transition for children that has enduring academic and social consequences. Academic, socioemotional, and behavioral challenges following the transition to K-12 schooling can initiate turning points characterized by negative academic trajectories across young people’s educational careers. The current study examines the effects of kindergarten school processes (i.e., transition services and school climate) on children’s academic and socioemotional outcomes in third grade and to what extent these relations are mediated by children’s early adjustment and parental educational involvement. Family socioeconomic status (SES) was also tested as a possible moderator of study relations. Data were drawn from 10,540 kindergarten students (50% females; 63% White, 11% African American, 16% Latino, 6% Asian American, and 4% other race/ethnicity) participating in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort 1998. Results indicated that both kindergarten transition services and school climate were related to children’s academic abilities, but not socioemotional adjustment, in third grade. The link between kindergarten school processes and children’s distal outcomes was mediated by children’s greater early academic skills mastery in the spring of kindergarten, which in turn elicited greater parental educational involvement behaviors. Moderation analyses revealed that greater early academic skills elicited more school-based involvement strategies for high SES children, whereas lower levels of early academic skills elicited more home-based involvement strategies for middle and low SES children. These findings suggest that academic interventions and supports could be carefully targeted to better support young children’s early educational success.
School characteristics associated with the educational resilience of low-income and ethnic minority youth
(2010-12) Brooks, Jean Evelyn; Streeter, Calvin L.; Franklin, Cynthia; Greene, Roberta R.; Richardson, Frank C.; Springer, David W.
This study empirically tested Benard’s (1991, 2004) theory of resilience and youth development by examining the influence of caring relationships, high expectations and opportunities for participation and contribution within the schools on the mathematics achievement and timely graduation of public high school students. Additional analyses focused on subsamples of students who were at risk of academic failure and school dropout—students from the lowest socioeconomic quartile, African American and Hispanic students, and a generic at-risk sample that includes students from these three groups plus students who had nontraditional families, had a disability, or were retained a grade in school. The study used data from the Educational Longitudinal Study: 2002, which was designed to monitor young people as they transition from tenth grade to postsecondary education and/or employment. Hierarchical Linear Models and Hierarchical Generalized Linear Models were used for the analyses. Experiences within the schools that conveyed caring relationships, high expectations, and opportunities for participation and contribution were associated with higher senior year mathematics achievement scores and increased odds of timely graduation for the overall public school sample and for the at-risk groups. Suggestions are made for increasing caring relationships, high expectations, and opportunities for participation and contribution within the schools. The limitations of this study and directions for further research are also discussed.
School social work practice in Texas : utilization of intervention tasks to enhance school climate
(2011-08) Gerlach, Bethany Eylan; Franklin, Cynthia; Allen-Meares, Paula; Springer, David; Streeter, Calvin; Fong, Rowena; Aguilar, Jemel
School social work practice that targets students and schools for change is the most effective approach in removing barriers to learning for all students. However, research on the profession has found that school social workers tend to focus on traditional clinical work with individual students and families, often to the exclusion of broader system level interventions. Working to create a positive school climate is an avenue for social workers to facilitate school-wide change. This research explores how school social workers employ a practice approach that embraces a broad clinical framework specifically including skills associated with building a positive school climate. The study also analyzes how specific school social worker characteristics are associated with the performance of practice tasks related to enhancing school climate. The project examines data collected from social workers practicing in Texas public schools as part of an exploratory, mixed method survey. The analysis utilized descriptive statistics and a hierarchical cluster analysis to group the school social workers with similar response patterns for the practice task variables. Descriptive statistics revealed that 93% of the school social workers participated in at least one of eight general practice tasks related to school climate dimensions and 77% participated in at least four of the eight. The cluster analysis yielded a solution that grouped the participants into four clusters. Once the clusters were profiled, three school social worker characteristics were found to significantly relate to the completion of tasks associated with school climate: perception of autonomy, job structure and years of experience. The results show widespread use of practice skills that target multiple dimensions of school climate. The findings lend support to the feasibility of participating in the school climate related tasks across school settings and school social worker characteristics. The research findings place school social worker expertise in a school reform framework and captures how they can contribute to school-wide change within their routine practice duties.
Turnaround principals : perceptions of effective district supports that lead to successful and sustainable change
(2018-05) Hernández, Susan Yarbrough; Olivárez, Rubén; Bukoski, Beth; Cantú, Norma; Sharpe, Edwin R.; Pringle, Pat
Educators and politicians have grappled to discover and implement strategies to improve student achievement results. Districts’ efforts to recruit and retain effective principals and teachers are crucial because of the positive influence these educators have on student achievement. However, highly qualified teachers and principals are hard to come by, especially in areas where low-performing schools are nestled. The main purpose of the study was to understand the district supports turnaround school principals perceive as necessary to achieve sustainable success and to describe the experiences of the principals during at least their first year in the turnaround school setting. An interpretive research approach within phenomenological methodology allowed for understanding how each principal lived the turnaround school experience and how the supports they had and strategies they employed impacted school turnaround. The questions for turnaround leaders receiving campus SIG funds were as follows: 1. What do the turnaround principals perceive as successful strategies for school turnaround? 2. To what extent do turnaround principals perceive their districts helped or impeded their turnaround efforts? 3. How do participants make sense of being a principal at a turnaround school? Turnaround for this study was defined as a school for 2 years or more not meeting state standards, and effective school turnaround was defined as a school reaching the met standard status after 1 year of leadership. Five participants were recruited who had been the lead campus administrator for at least two years, and during their tenure, had led their campus out of improvement required (IR) status. Interview transcripts were coded using elaborative methods. The major themes were the following: (a) Successful Turnaround Strategies that was supported by seven subthemes, (b) Effective District Supports that was supported by two subthemes; (c) Lack of District Support that was supported by two subthemes, and (d) Making Meaning of the Turnaround Principalship that was supported by eight subthemes. Chapter 5 contains the adapted theoretical framework, implications, and recommendations.