Culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) is an approach to teaching and learning that values and sustains students' understanding of and engagement with their identities, cultures, and communities within broader systems of social stratification; it also expands students' understanding of local and global oppressive systems and structures. Yet, little is known about how teachers move toward transformative CSP. This qualitative study employed longitudinal reflexive thematic analysis to explore if and how 14 teachers (13 White, 1 Teacher of Color) changed in their CSP understanding, praxis, and self-efficacy across the span of 16 months during which they were trained on an ethnic-racial identity curriculum and implemented it with their students. Five profiles of CSP change were identified: Transformative Change, Progressive but Nascent Change, Surface-level but Symbolic Change, Interested and Engaged but Limited Change, and Negligible Change and Affirmed in their Practice. Additionally, mechanisms for change that either facilitated or inhibited teachers' movement toward CSP were identified at the teacher and program level. Findings highlighted the variability in how and why teachers advance in their knowledge, practice, and confidence related to CSP. Furthermore, teachers' willingness and depth of critical reflection on their ethnic-racial identity, positionalities, and power dynamics emerged as foundational to CSP change.
This study was a randomized controlled trial conducted with 82 kindergarten students who were at or below the 50th percentile in letter sound fluency. Students were randomly assigned to a control group (business as usual) or an intervention group where students engaged in letter sound fluency practice using a cloud-based personalized system of instruction for letter sounds (PSI-LS) in which letter sounds were presented via a modified incremental rehearsal (IR) practice schedule. Students participated in a total of 12 sessions across 3 to 4 weeks. Students in the PSI-LS condition did significantly better on measures of letter sound knowledge (d = 1.06), letter sound fluency (d = 1.25), and nonsense word fluency (d = 1.06) than peers in the control condition at posttest. The potential for technology to make instruction activities such as IR more efficient, effective, and individualized is discussed.
It is well-established that teachers' perceptions of their students are impacted by their students' behavior, gender, and race. Less is known as to the impact of students' more nuanced behaviors such as defending victims of bullying. Participants included 1404 4th- and 5th-graders (19.0% Black girls, 20.9% Black boys, 30.0% White girls, 31.1% White boys). Peers rated children's defending in the fall. Teachers rated children's prosocial and aggressive behavior in the fall, winter, and spring. Linear growth curve models revealed that defending was associated with being perceived by the teacher as more prosocial and, particularly for Black children, less aggressive. However, high-defending Black children were viewed as increasingly aggressive if they had many same-race classmates. Furthermore, low-defending White girls were rated as similarly, or more, prosocial than high-defending boys. Thus, defending may contribute to teachers' positive impressions of their students but may not overcome potential racial and gender biases.
Most states are experiencing a shortage of school-based mental health providers, such as school psychologists. This is coupled with an increase in the mental health needs of youth. School psychologists are well positioned to deliver mental health supports in schools. A collaborative partnership between school psychology graduate training programs and school districts to train school psychologists can improve the quality of training and confer mutual benefits. In this article, we describe a partnership between a school psychology graduate program and a school district in the training of school psychology graduate students to engage in culturally responsive school-based mental health services. Leveraging principles of implementation science, namely the Active Implementation Frameworks, we detail the implementation stages and teaming efforts that promote the uptake of this joint training endeavor and support the long-term sustainability of this partnership. Implications for developing partnerships between universities and school districts to promote the training of school-based mental health providers are discussed.
This study examines for whom and how Organizational Skills Training-Tier 2 (OST-T2, Nissley-Tsiopinis et al., 2024) works for students in grades 3 to 5 with organization, time management, and planning (OTMP) difficulties. The study: (1) investigates subgroup differences for the effect of OST-T2 on student homework and academic performance at post-intervention (about 14 weeks), short-term (about 22 weeks) and long-term follow-up (about 55 weeks); and (2) examines whether improvements in student OTMP skills at 14 weeks mediate the effect of OST-T2 on academic and homework performance at 22 weeks. The study used a cluster-randomized design with 22 schools; 182 students in moderation analyses and 133 in mediation analyses. Subgroup-defining variables were: (a) likely diagnosis of ADHD, (b) caregiver-reported child anxiety, (c) severity of baseline OTMP and homework problems, and (d) family socioeconomic level. Findings suggested that OST-T2 is more effective among children with higher anxiety levels as reported by caregivers. The difference in change scores between the high and low anxiety groups on the caregiver-rated metric of OTMP and homework problems was -0.76 (Cohen's d) at post-treatment (95% CI = -0.12, -1.21, p = .021), -0.66 at 22 weeks (95% CI = -0.08, -1.09, p = .017), and - 0.55 at 55 weeks (95% CI = -0.07, -1.03, p = .026). The analyses generally did not detect subgroup effects based on ADHD diagnostic status and families differing in socioeconomic levels. Results also suggested improvements in OTMP skills in response to OST-T2 are likely to signal downstream impact on student homework performance; estimated average causal mediation effect was -0.66 (95% CI = -1.27, -0.19, p < .001), whereas the average direct effect was only -0.07. Additional longitudinal research with larger samples on predefined subgroups is needed.
There continues to be great interest in efficient and valid methods for assessing school climate for both research and practice purposes. Consistent with this special issue on pragmatic measurement, this paper distills a previously validated 30-item measure (Bradshaw et al., 2014; Bradshaw, Waasdorp, Debnam, & Lindstrom Johnson, 2014; Lindstrom Johnson, Reichenberg, Shukla, Waasdorp, & Bradshaw, 2019) into a simplified version of the three core domains of Safety, Engagement, and Environment, consistent with the U.S. Department of Education model. Data come from a sample of 69,513 students within 114 middle and high schools. We used machine learning (ML) and item response theory (IRT) approaches to derive a set of two pragmatic measures based on the longer Maryland School Climate Survey, resulting in a 9-item (i.e., 3 items per domain), and an even briefer 3-item measure (1 item per domain). Results indicated that the 9-item measure maintained high concurrent validity with the full scale (latent trait range: 0.83-0.93) and the combined IRT-ML approach yielded superior model fit and content coverage compared to IRT alone. The 3-item indicators also showed strong correlations with original domain scores (ρ range: 0.75-0.83). Together, the results suggest that the 9-item measure may be most useful for research and school-district assessment, whereas the 3-item measure may be potentially more useful as a collection of single-item indicators of Safety, Engagement, and the School Environment.
This longitudinal study examined the extent to which students' outcome expectations (i.e., beliefs about the consequences of behaviors) and outcome values (i.e., the importance placed on these consequences) regarding defending behavior, as well as their individually and collectively perceived expectations from teachers and peers, and teachers' social management strategies, relate to students' behaviors in bullying situations. Participants included 605 South Korean elementary school students (Mage = 10.49; 50.41% male) and their teachers, assessed at the start and end of a five-month academic semester. Controlling for baseline behaviors, students who reported stronger outcome values and perceived greater expectations to defend at Wave 1 demonstrated lower levels of bullying, victimization, and bystanding, and higher levels of defending at Wave 2. Moreover, individual and collective perceived expectations, along with teachers' social management strategies, moderated these associations. Specifically, negative associations between outcome expectations and bullying or victimization emerged only when students perceived strong expectations from teachers and peers that they should defend. The positive association between outcome values and defending was evident only in classrooms where collective expectations for defending were high. In classrooms with high levels of teacher social management, bullying remained low regardless of students’ outcome values, whereas associations between outcome values and bullying were evident primarily in classrooms with lower levels of teacher social management. These findings underscore the importance of perceived social norms and proactive teacher strategies in shaping students' behavioral responses to bullying.
The definition and identification of specific learning disability (SLD) remain highly contested, with divergent interpretations shaping research, policy, and practice. This study employed the Delphi Method to engage a panel of experts in synthesizing perspectives on how SLD should be defined and what forms of evidence are necessary to support valid identification methods. Key points of agreement included the centrality of academic deficits, unexpected underachievement, environmental considerations, and exclusionary criteria. Most panelists referenced a neurobiological basis for SLD, though perspectives varied, with some questioning its empirical grounding. Panelists prioritized diagnostic accuracy, measurement accuracy, logic, treatment utility, and group comparisons as the most critical forms of evidence, while expressing lower support for correlational data and clinical expertise. Persistent disagreements centered on how to operationalize unexpectedness, the use of discrepancy methods, and implications for identifying twice-exceptional learners. Findings underscored the need to reconceptualize SLD as a heterogeneous construct and to adopt operational definitions anchored in empirically supported evidence. Implications for policy, professional preparation, practice, and research are considered, with the goal of fostering more consistent, evidence-based, and equitable identification frameworks.
In recent years, teachers' job satisfaction has received increasing attention, with extensive research conducted to explore its influencing factors in order to reduce turnover rates and enhance teacher well-being. The job demands-resources (JD-R) model offers a comprehensive framework for understanding occupational well-being and is the theoretical basis for investigating teacher job satisfaction. Using a longitudinal cross-lagged model with 337 secondary school teachers, this study examines the dynamic relationships over time among school-family conflict, teacher emotional exhaustion, leadership support, and job satisfaction. The results reveal reciprocal relationships between school-family conflict and teacher emotional exhaustion and between leadership support and teacher job satisfaction. Thus, this research validates and extends the JD-R model by uncovering reciprocal interactions among teachers' job resources, demands, and outcomes. Furthermore, in the context of China's increasing emphasis on school-family-community cooperation in education, this study is the first to incorporate school-family conflict as a job demand in teacher well-being research, providing a new direction for theoretical research on teacher well-being and practical efforts to enhance teacher welfare.
Sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) face elevated mental health risks compared to their cisgender and heterosexual peers. However, insights from Minority Stress Theory (MST) and prevention science suggest that school-level factors may serve as buffers against the elevated mental health risks faced by SGMY. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review to examine school-level factors that mitigate risks or promote mental health among SGMY. Following the PRISMA protocol, we searched the literature published from 2000 to 2024 using PsycINFO, ERIC, CINAHL, PubMed, and Scopus. Thirty-six quantitative studies and one qualitative study met the inclusion criteria. Guided by MST and the social-ecological framework, we delineated 10 categories of school-level general and SGM-specific factors. Results highlight the important roles of SGM-inclusive resources, policies, GSA effectiveness, SGM-affirming climate, school connectedness, and social support in schools. This study provides actionable insights for educators, policymakers, and researchers to promote better school environments and develop and implement prevention and intervention strategies to reduce mental health risks and promote well-being among SGMY.
Research highlights the role of interpersonal relationships in adolescent non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), yet longitudinal studies on their dynamic trajectories are scarce. This study examined the developmental trajectories of parent-child, teacher-student, and peer relationships among 474 Chinese adolescents (Mage = 13.93 years; 44.1% girls) across three waves spanning 17 months. Results revealed that (a) parent-child relationships remained stable, while teacher-student and peer relationships declined over time, with all three demonstrating stable individual differences; (b) initial levels of parent-child and peer relationships predicted NSSI risk through an additive model, where poorer early relationships increased NSSI likelihood as stress accumulated. In contrast, the interaction between the initial level and growth rate of teacher-student relationships predicted NSSI via a stress sensitization model, indicating that adolescents with initially high-quality relationships who experienced subsequent rapid declines were most vulnerable to NSSI. These findings underscore the distinct mechanisms by which interpersonal relationships influence NSSI risk and suggest developing tailored interventions targeting specific relational contexts to mitigate adolescent NSSI.
Traditional approaches to middle-grades education have failed to adequately meet the unique developmental needs of young adolescents. Schools can implement developmentally responsive practices that promote thriving by honoring young adolescents' enhanced desires for autonomy, relatedness, and respect. However, translating research-based strategies to real-life settings is a complex process that requires special attention to the unique needs of distinct school contexts. This one-year, small-scale study examined the potential of an innovative research-practice partnership - the Remaking Middle School (RMS) Design Lab - aimed at improving middle grades (e.g., 6th-8th) education by harnessing design thinking and developmental science to promote school structures that both align with students' developmental needs and build on their assets to promote thriving. Using a program development and evaluation mixed methods study design, we explored participant reactions to, as well as preliminary outcomes associated with, the 2021-2022 implementation of the RMS initiative. Implementation results revealed that participants (i.e., teachers, administrators, and support staff; N = 24) perceived the Design Lab to be acceptable, feasible, and appropriate for their school context. Preliminary outcome results demonstrated that the Design Lab facilitated positive changes across systems, including improvements in educators' perspectives of school-wide collaboration, teaching practices and mindsets, student-teacher interactions, and student voice initiatives. Findings provide preliminary evidence that the innovative Design Lab model - characterized by a developmentally responsive and equitable design thinking approach - can be used to create and implement culturally responsive school structures that facilitate positive developmental trajectories in the middle grades.
The special issue addresses the urgent need for the development and use of pragmatic measures in school-based research and practice. In this overview article, we introduce key characteristics of pragmatic measures in school contexts and provide a historical and conceptual background of their use. Single-item measures are described in detail to illustrate the challenges and opportunities of pragmatic measurement in educational settings. The special issue features pragmatic measures of student stress and coping, school climate and student mental health, and observed teacher sentiment in classroom interactions. Collectively, these contributions highlight emerging trends, current gaps, and future directions for the development, evaluation, and contextual fit of pragmatic measures in school-based research and practice.
Many states require schools to use behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM), which is intended to prevent violence by assessing student threats of violence and managing risk through appropriate interventions or services. Although many studies have examined disciplinary responses following a school threat assessment, few studies have examined the nature and prevalence of services provided to these students. This study examined services delivered to a Florida statewide sample of 23,134 students who received a threat assessment during the 2021-2022 school year. Approximately three-quarters of students received at least one service, most commonly parent consultation (45%), mental health (MH) services (33%), restorative practices (24%), and increased monitoring (20%). There were variations in services associated with threat seriousness, student race, and disability status. Overall, these results provide guidance to school psychologists on how schools can use the developing practice of BTAM to provide support services to students at risk for violence.
Guided by the social-ecological model, we employed growth mixture models in this study to examine (a) the trajectories of student perceived schoolwide bullying perpetration, and the prevalence of traditional bullying victimization and cyberbullying victimization aggregated at school level and (b) the longitudinal impact of four domains of social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies, school level, ethnic diversity index, and school size, on these trajectories. Through results of the latent class growth modeling on four years (2017-2020) of longitudinal data collected from 142 schools with an average of 36,403 students in the state of Delaware, United States, we found that schoolwide bullying perpetration followed four growth trajectories: highstart-high-growth, moderate-start-high-growth, moderate-start-low-growth, and low-start-lowgrowth. Schoolwide cyberbullying victimization showed two growth trajectories, including high-start-low-growth, and low-start-high-growth. Schoolwide traditional bullying victimization followed a linear growth over four years. In terms of the longitudinal impact of SEL competencies, only social awareness negatively contributed to the growth of schoolwide bullying perpetration. School levels and ethnic diversity index were also associated with some growth trajectories for schoolwide bullying and cyberbullying victimization. Practical implications for schoolwide efforts in bullying interventions and programming are discussed.
This study examined how self- and teacher-rated executive functioning (EF), measured with the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function - Second Edition, differed between adolescents with and without self-reported neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs; e.g., autism), across levels of internalizing symptoms, and how EF, NDDs, and internalizing symptoms related to academic achievement. Analyses included gender as a factor or were conducted separately for boys and girls. Participants were two Swedish cohorts: a younger group (N = 393, Mage = 14; 45.8% girls) and an older group (N = 359, Mage = 17; 66.6% girls). Adolescents with self-reported NDDs showed greater EF difficulties-particularly in the younger cohort-based on both self (p ≤ .003, ηp2 = 0.03-0.16) and teacher ratings (p ≤ .001, R2sp = 0.06-0.30). Self-reported EF difficulties were strongly associated with internalizing symptoms (p ≤ .006, ηp2 = 0.04-0.25), whereas teacher ratings showed minimal associations. Teacher-rated EF was the strongest predictor of academic achievement (β ≈ -0.50, p < .001 for both genders) and remained robust after controlling for NDD status and internalizing symptoms. Self-rated EF showed weaker associations, but these strengthened when internalizing symptoms were controlled. Among girls, this revealed a suppression effect, in which the EF-achievement relationship increased (β = -0.23 to -0.43, both p < .001), and internalizing symptoms also significantly predicted achievement, suggesting that emotional factors may partly mask EF-related academic challenges. These findings underscore the importance of multi-informant assessment and the consideration of emotional factors in educational contexts.
The transition into secondary/middle school can diverge adolescents into positive and negative developmental trajectories. Social emotional learning (SEL) programs can improve social-emotional skills and psychological well-being (PWB). However, there has been little examination of the potential utility of SEL programs across secondary school transition, and whether their effectiveness varies by the socioeconomic status of the school (SES), COVID-19 school closures, gender, baseline well-being scores, and implementation fidelity. This study examined these patterns in the Motus SEL pilot program: An Irish program designed to develop primary school students' social-emotional competencies before transitioning into secondary school. This study aimed to (a) longitudinally investigate the effect of the Motus SEL program on emotion regulation, social support, self-esteem, and PWB across secondary school transition and (b) examine the moderating role of school SES, COVID-19 school closures, gender, baseline PWB, and implementation fidelity. At baseline (T1), 568 primary school students aged 11-13 years completed measures of emotion regulation, self-esteem, social support, and PWB before the transition. One week later, 335 students received the Motus SEL program, and 233 students acted as a classroom-comparison group. At one-month follow-up (T2) one week after the program, and at six-month follow-up (T3) post-secondary school transition, both groups completed the same measures to examine program effects. Multi-level models found that the program positively predicted cognitive reappraisal use and PWB. When examining moderators, there was variation across genders. The program significantly reduced emotional suppression use for girls but not boys across the transition. These findings demonstrate that SEL can improve emotion regulation and PWB and there may be differential effects across genders.
Supporting teachers to cope with occupational stress is an important area of research. Many studies have examined the initial efficacy of teacher stress interventions; however, none have tested potential causal mechanisms. A previous study of a bibliotherapy teacher stress intervention based in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) revealed positive effects on stress, coping, depression, and anxiety (n = 52, Eddy et al., 2022). The purpose of the present study was to examine the use of coping strategies as a mediator of treatment effects in the previously reported randomized control trial study. Growth modeling analyses revealed that reported use of coping strategies increased throughout the course of the intervention with the slope favoring the treatment group (moderate growth treatment d = 0.43; and overall treatment effect of d = 0.88). Reported use of coping strategies mediated the intervention effects on stress (31% of the total treatment effect) and coping (69% of the total direct effect) but did not mediate the intervention effects on depression or anxiety. These findings suggest that participants' reported use of coping strategies led to immediate benefits of stress reduction and improved coping but were not associated with distal effects on depression and anxiety. Future teacher stress studies should consider including repeated measures of theory driven mechanisms to examine changes over time and hypothesized causal pathways to intervention effects.
Bullying is a complex social phenomenon and prevalent form of violence in school environments that encompasses various overlapping participant roles, including bullies, victims, and bystanders. The elementary school years are a critical period for the development of bullying involvement. Numerous studies have documented the adverse effects of bullying involvement on students' well-being. However, they have primarily focused on Western populations or adolescent samples, with limited attention given to Chinese elementary school students. Furthermore, due to a predominant reliance on cross-sectional designs, the relations between different profiles and transitions of bullying involvement and key antecedents and outcomes have not been explored fully. By combining person-centered and variable-centered approaches, this study examined the heterogeneous profiles and transitions of bullying involvement, including perpetration, victimization and three types of bystander behaviors (i.e., pro-bullying, passive bystanding, and defending) among Chinese elementary school students, along with their school-level predictors and well-being outcomes. A total of 2510 Chinese elementary school students (54.7% boys, Mage = 9.47) participated in self-report assessments on four occasions employing six-month intervals. Five distinct profiles were identified: non-involved; moderate victimization; moderate pro-bullying and passive bystanding; low perpetration, victimization and bystanding; and high perpetration-moderate victimization and bystanding. The non-involved profile revealed the highest stability over time. Students experiencing more psychological maltreatment by teachers and peer relationship problems were at higher risk of bullying involvement. In addition, students who were not involved in bullying reported the highest levels of well-being. These findings underscore the complex and dynamic nature of bullying involvement, highlighting the need for school professionals to provide targeted prevention and intervention strategies in schools taking into account group differences as well as developmental and cultural considerations.
