Background: A student's ability mindset is associated with their academic success, but less is known about how teachers' ability mindset and classroom practices promote student well-being. Aims and methodology: Using data from two concurrent studies with samples of 6th-12th-grade students (N = 2665; Mage = 14.73 years, 62% qualified for free/reduced-price lunch; 49% girls; 33% Black, 49% White, 18% Other ethnicity-race) and math teachers (N = 195; 59% women; 94% White, 2% Black, 4% Other ethnicity-race; 40% bachelor's degrees, 60% graduate degrees), this prospective study used multi-informant, multi-level approaches to test (a) the links between teachers' mindset and students' learning engagement, emotional wellbeing, and social connectedness and (b) the mediational role of growth-oriented instructional approaches. Results and conclusion: Within and between classrooms, student-reported teacher mindset was positively associated with all well-being outcomes. Growth-oriented classroom practices mediated the link between studentreported teacher mindset and all well-being outcomes at the individual level, but mediational pathways at the classroom level were only significant for emotional well-being. Teachers' self-reported mindset was not a significant predictor at the classroom level.

Given math-related fields are still highly racialized and gendered (NCSES, 2021), this study assessed: 1) whether there were racial differences in adolescents' perceived math cost alongside expectancies and values and 2) the extent to which perceived math cost alongside expectancies and values explained yearly changes in achievement differences by race and gender. This study assessed 2,338 Black (39.4 %) and White (60.6 %) adolescents, roughly half girls (47.8 %), in the 6th to 12th grades (M = 14.71 years old, SD = 1.93, 61.7 % qualifying for free or reduced priced lunch). The results indicated that Black adolescents perceived higher costs to learning math than their White peers but value math in similar ways. Perceived math cost was the only motivational belief to explain achievement differences between Black and White girls but not boys after adjusting for socioeconomic status and grade level. In contrast, perceptions of ability beliefs explained achievement differences between Black boys and girls. These findings point to the importance of employing intersectional approaches to understand the relationship between math motivation and achievement.

In spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic thrust nearly 56 million students in the United States into remote education. By fall 2020, states' and school districts' differing public health measures resulted in the adoption of varying COVID-adapted learning modalities (i.e., in-person, remote, and hybrid). Using daily diary data with a nationally representative sample (N = 517, Mage = 14.65 years), we investigated whether adolescents' academic engagement and connectedness to their teachers and classmates differed by COVID-adapted learning modalities. We also assessed whether adolescent connectedness mediated the link between learning modality and academic engagement. Results revealed that academic engagement and connectedness to teachers and classmates were higher for in-person learners than for students in hybrid and remote learning modalities. Moreover, students' connectedness to classmates and teachers explained the relationship between learning modality and academic engagement.

Despite numerous efforts to attenuate the Black-White discipline gap in U.S. schools, Black students are still suspended for minor infractions at a disproportionately higher rate than their White peers. Using a racially diverse sample (n = 1,515; Mage = 12.7; 50% boys; 72% Black, 28% White), this 3-year longitudinal study examined whether student perceptions of school racial socialization practices (i.e., cultural socialization, promotion of cultural competence) were linked to a lower likelihood of receiving a suspension for a minor infraction through improved school climate perceptions and whether these links differed between Black and White students. Results showed that school racial socialization was associated with a lower likelihood of receiving a suspension for a minor infraction and improved school climate perceptions for all students. Moreover, students' perceptions of school climate mediated the link between school racial socialization and suspensions among both Black and White students. Considering these results, school racial socialization is a promising means for improving students' school climate perceptions, reducing inequitable disciplinary practices, and fostering school equity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Decades of research has demonstrated the negative influence of math anxiety on academic achievement in quantitative courses. However, the relationship between math anxiety and the study strategies that students utilize in quantitative courses has not been sufficiently explored in the existing literature. Experimental research on long-term memory has found consistent benefits of spacing study sessions over time, using retrieval practice/self-testing, and interleaving material on long-term retention. Survey research has been inconclusive on the direct relationship between Self-Regulated Learning strategies (SRL; e.g. rehearsal, elaboration, self-regulation, etc.) with some evidence for an indirect relationship between SRL strategies and math achievement when student have positive academic emotions. We surveyed 321 undergraduate students in a large midwestern university who completed a quantitative course within the last year. Study strategies were assessed by the SRL strategies portion of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire as well as measures of spacing, retrieval practice, interleaving, and various other study strategies. A series of basic math skills measures and well as self-reported last quantitative course grade were collected. Math anxiety was measured using the nine item Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale. Preliminary analysis showed that math anxiety was associated with increased use of cramming, rereading notes, avoiding studying, rehearsal, and time spent organizing materials. While it was associated with reduced use of elaboration, self-monitoring, self-regulation, help seeking, lower performance on basic math skills tasks, and lower course grades. However, only self-monitoring and self-regulation was positively associated with course grade. Our final analysis will consist of a structural equation model (SEM) assessing the pathways between math anxiety, study strategies, and course grade controlling for basic math skill. This study elucidates the relationship between math anxiety and study strategy use and is the first study we know of that measures a comprehensive list of study strategies from different literatures.

Racially disparate school disciplinary practices create inequitable circumstances for minority and immigrant youth around the world. In the U.S., Black youth are more likely than their White peers to be suspended for minor, non-violent infractions. This study explores (a) whether school cultural socialization practices reported by Black students (N = 544; Mage (SD) = 12.45 (1.57); 49% boys) and teachers (N = 38; 84% female) were linked to a reduced likelihood of receiving suspensions for minor infractions and (b) the extent to which Black students' perceptions of school climate mediated this relation. Results indicated that school cultural socialization was linked to a decreased likelihood of being suspended for a minor infraction and improved school climate perceptions for Black students. Black students' perception of school climate mediated the link between school cultural socialization and suspensions for minor infractions. These results highlight school cultural socialization as a promising approach for increasing cultural responsivity and equity within schools, reducing racial bias, and expunging unjust disciplinary responses.

This study investigated how two aspects of the classroom environment (teachers' emphasis on mastery goals and descriptive norms (i.e., the average student disruptive, prosocial, and achievement-related behavior in a classroom), moderated the relationship between student behaviors and coolness. The sample included 976 students nested in 54 fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms. Students completed peer nominations of coolness and three behaviors (prosocial, disruptive, and academic achievement). Students reported on the extent to which their teacher emphasized mastery goals in the classroom. The extent to which each of these three behaviors correlated with coolness varied across classrooms. The variability between classrooms in the behavioral correlates of coolness was not related to descriptive norms but was related to classroom mastery goals. In classrooms with a high-mastery goal emphasis, good grades and prosocial behavior were more likely to be perceived as cool. Our findings also suggest the need for future studies to examine the direct effect of prosocial descriptive norms on nominations of coolness. This study adds to a growing literature on how teaching practices matter for peer relationships in the classroom.

Student engagement in schoolwork is crucial for positive academic adjustment, particularly during early adolescence. We investigated how observations of teaching practices predicted change in student behavioral and emotional engagement. In the fall, we examined teacher behavior in 54 fifth and sixth grade classrooms through external observers' reports of 11 dimensions of teachers’ practices (Classroom Assessment Scoring System, CLASS). Students reported on their behavioral and emotional engagement in the fall and spring. We found quality feedback was the strongest predictor of behavioral engagement and regard for student perspective was the strongest emotional engagement. Our findings were more nuanced for what predicts behavioral engagement, as there is evidence that other teaching practices work in conjunction with quality feedback to predict behavioral engagement.

This study examines how student perceptions of teacher practices contribute to female high school students' math beliefs and achievement. Guided by the expectancy-value framework, we hypothesized that students' motivation beliefs and achievement outcomes in mathematics are fostered by teachers' emphasis on the relevance of mathematics and constrained by gender-based differential treatment. To examine these questions, structural equation modeling was applied to a longitudinal panel of 518 female students from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study. While controlling for prior achievement and race, gendered differential treatment was negatively associated with math beliefs and achievement, whereas relevant math instruction was positively associated with these outcomes. These findings suggest inroads that may foster positive math motivational beliefs and achievement among young women.

This study examined group differences by grade (fifth graders in elementary school and sixth graders in middle school) and gender in academic (behavioral and emotional engagement, academic self-concept, and worry) and socio-emotional adjustment (self-esteem, social satisfaction, social self-concept, and worry). Self-report data were collected from 1,003 students in the fall and spring of the school year (51.2% female, 36.7% Black, 47.2% White, 7.5% Hispanic, 5.7% Asian, 3% Other). Grade differences were null or favored fifth graders for academic adjustment. Grade differences were null or favored sixth graders for socio-emotional adjustment. Gender differences were null or favored girls for academic and socio-emotional adjustment; however, girls reported more worry in both domains. Change over time generally disfavored girls leading to the emergence of, or increases in, gender gaps by spring. The discussion considers early adolescent development and the need for continued attention to middle school reform regarding academic adjustment and gender differences.

Framed by expectancy-value theory (which posits that beliefs about and the subjective valuation of a domain predict achievement and decision-making in that domain), this study examined the relationships among teacher differential treatment and relevant math instruction on African American students’ self-concept of math ability, math task value, and math achievement. These questions were examined by applying structural equation modeling to 618 African American youth (45.6 % female) followed from 7th to 11th grade in the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study. While controlling for gender and prior math achievement, relevant math instruction promoted and teacher differential treatment corroded students’ math beliefs and achievement over time. Further, teacher discrimination undermined students’ perceptions of their teachers, a mediating process under-examined in previous inquiry. These findings suggest policy and practice levers to narrow opportunity gaps, as well as foster math achievement and science, technology, engineering and math success.