In this longitudinal case study, we examined school well-being during the change process. We operationalized the change process as the school renewal model and viewed school well-being from the perspective of the PERMA (positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment) model. We found that all elements of the PERMA model were manifested in the school renewal process and that the school renewal process was not dominated solely by conflict and tension, as the literature typically suggests about the change process. The findings of the study suggest the possibility of reframing tension as productive rather than detrimental in the school renewal context. This study also advances the construct of school well-being as an organizational property.

Purpose There has been a strong emphasis on leadership in school renewal (SR) to promote educational improvement. The literature discerns three major aspects of leadership in SR (orientation to SR, SR principles and practices (PP) and implementation fidelity and integrity). As a methodological advancement for the field of educational administration, we introduced a general analytical framework to measure the consistency of the three major aspects of leadership in SR. Design/methodology/approach With 556 teachers from 41 elementary, middle and high schools, we developed a general multivariate, multilevel model as a primary tool to measure and evaluate the consistency of effort perceived by teachers across the three major aspects of leadership in SR. Findings We found that teachers were consistent in their ratings of the three major aspects of leadership in SR (correlation from 0.737 to 0.828), particularly between SR PP and implementation integrity and fidelity. We found that schools were highly consistent in their effort across the three major aspects of leadership in SR (correlation from 0.942 to 0.991), particularly between orientation to SR and SR PP. This consistency across the three major aspects of leadership in SR was not influenced by school characteristics. Originality/value This study extended our knowledge on SR some further by asking whether leadership in SR is consistent across its three major aspects. In addition to this conceptual advancement, we attempted methodological advancement for the field of educational administration. We introduced a general (extendable) multivariate, multi-level model as a primary analytical tool that can effectively measure and evaluate the consistency of the three major aspects of leadership in SR.

Purpose This study (a) examines the association between two school renewal instruments – High Integrity and Fidelity Implementation for School Renewal (HIFI) and School Renewal Principles and Practices (PP) – and school-level student achievement, and (b) assesses whether these instruments can serve as practical tools for guiding school improvement. Design/methodology/approach Survey data from 1,420 teachers across 83 elementary and middle schools were aggregated to the school level and combined with public school performance data from the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (M-STEP). Multiple regression and lagged-achievement models were employed to examine the associations between school renewal measures and student achievement outcomes. Findings Both HIFI and PP were positively associated with school mathematics and English language arts proficiency rates and annual gains. Schools with stronger renewal practices were associated with higher proficiency rates and greater year-to-year growth. Implementation integrity showed relatively more consistent associations with school performance across models. Originality/value This study provides additional evidence on the associations of two school renewal instruments with school-level achievement and year-to-year changes in achievement. It provides valid measures for future research on leadership and school effectiveness.

A half-year follow-up study was conducted with a sample of 539 eighth-grade students. Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) and Latent Transition Analysis (LTA) were employed to examine different profiles and transitions in adolescents' time perspective (TP). Further exploration was conducted to investigate the influencing factors of transition and their impacts on academic achievement. The findings revealed: (1) Three distinct profiles of adolescents' TP were identified: “high positivity profile”, “low future profile” and “high nihilism profile”. The “low future profile” exhibited the highest stability, while the “high nihilism profile” showed the lowest. The “high positivity profile” and “high nihilism profile” were more likely to transition toward the “low future profile”. (2) Subjective socioeconomic status significantly predicted transition between profiles of adolescents' TP. Higher subjective socioeconomic status reduced the probability of transition from the “high positivity profile” to the “high nihilism profile” and increased the likelihood of transition from the “high nihilism profile” to the “high positivity profile”. (3) Academic achievement differed among the profiles, with the “high positivity profile” maintaining the best achievement. Transition patterns also influenced academic achievement. Adolescents who transitioned from the “high positivity profile” or the “high nihilism profile” to the “low future profile”, or remained in the “low future profile”, experienced significant declines in academic achievement. Results deepen our understanding of individual differences and transition patterns in adolescents' TP. They inspire educational practitioners to devote much attention to individual differences of TP and conduct dynamic monitoring of TP, facilitating targeted cognitive and behavioral interventions to enhance adolescents' academic achievement.

Using data from 1097 teachers, we aimed to validate an instrument, developed based on a systematic review of the literature, to measure school principals’ school renewal principles and practices. The instrument was examined for construct validity via factorial (structural) validity and convergent validity within the analytical framework of structural equation modeling. Four factorial structures of the instrument were examined by seven model-data-fit indices. A four-factor structure, as a result of the systematic review of the literature, was identified as the best fitting structure to the data with the best estimate within the acceptable range across all model-data-fit indices. The convergent validity was examined by a correlation approach with a psychometrically established instrument measuring a very similar construct. The results showed sound convergent validity of the instrument. Reliability analysis using McDonald’s Omega indicated strong internal consistency of the instrument.

We designed both univariate and multivariate multilevel frameworks to examine the issue on the degree of agreement between principals and teachers in their perceptions of three leadership practices (general principal leadership, orientation for school renewal, and school renewal principles and practices). Data involved 2,243 teachers nested within 109 principals (schools) in the United States. We found that both univariate and multivariate approaches produced quite similar measurements (means) on teachers' ratings of each leadership practice. Both approaches confirmed positive and statistically significant agreement between principals and teachers across leadership practices. Analytical discrepancies occurred between univariate and multivariate approaches in the estimation of the degree of agreement between principals and teachers. Methodologically, the multivariate approach is preferred over the univariate approach because the univariate approach tends to overestimate the degree of agreement. Under a methodologically more appropriate multivariate approach, the degree of agreement is quite consistent across leadership practices.

This research explored instructional ways that engage students in college introductory statistics courses, with two pedagogical experiments. Focusing on statistics achievement, the first (N = 96) examined instructional effects of traditional versus online manipulatives; the second (N = 270) investigated instructional effects of traditional versus inverted classrooms. Study 1 indicated that after control for students’ gender, age, and high school ACT (American College Testing) mathematics scores, there were no significant differences in course average scores between students using traditional and online manipulatives (immediate pedagogical effects), and there were no significant differences in GPA (grade point average) between the two groups one year later (prolonged pedagogical effects). Study 2 indicated that after control for student individual background, high school background, and university program background, students in traditional classroom did better than students in inverted classroom in midterm grade, while the two groups did equally well in other outcomes (e.g., class final grade).

Using Myanmar national sample (5707 students from 202 schools) from 2019 Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics, this study discovered unique effects of home language on academic achievement at levels of homes and schools, after control of student and school characteristics. Against the background finding that schools were significantly responsible for academic achievement, there was a lack of interaction effects between socioeconomic status (SES) and speaking Myanmar versus non-Myanmar at home as well as interaction effects between school mean SES and within-school proportion of students speaking Myanmar at home across academic achievement in mathematics, reading, and writing. Speaking Myanmar at a home resulted in significant academic advantage at the home level across mathematics, reading, and writing. Over and above, a higher proportion of students speaking Myanmar at home within a school resulted in significant academic advantage at the school level across reading and writing.

With an educational issue that has caught the attention of many countries in the world (study load), a population of 8th graders from a typical Chinese metropolitan city (40,536 from 118 schools), and an advanced statistical strategy (multilevel piecewise regression), we examined whether there was a turning point in terms of the effects of study load on science achievement. We did identify a turning point for each and every measure of study load. For weekday learning on science achievement, we identified a turning point of 22.50 hr for the effects of in-school learning, 7.50 hr for the effects of homework, and 12 hr for the effects of after-school learning. For weekend learning on science achievement, we identified a turning point of 1.50 hr for the effects of in-school learning, 5 hr for the effects of homework, and 1 hr for the effects of after-school learning. In each case, the difference in effects before and after the turning point was statistically significant, indicating that the effects of study load on science achievement were nonlinear. All of these turning points offered important implications for science education.

Using longitudinal data across Grades 3 to 5 on students and teachers from 123 elementary schools, we developed a multivariate multilevel model incorporating changes among both students and teachers to examine the relationship among schools between change in school racial-ethnic gap in academic achievement (English language arts and mathematics) and change in school renewal effort (by school principals). Across Grades 3 to 5, we found statistically significant improvement in school renewal effort, whereas the school racial-ethnic gap in academic achievement was statistically stable. In terms of their relationship, we found that, across Grades 3 to 5, improvement in school renewal effort were weakly correlated with enlargement in school racial-ethnic gap in academic achievement concerning English language arts (correlation = .10). Meanwhile, improvement in school renewal effort were marginally correlated with reduction in school racial-ethnic gap in academic achievement concerning mathematics (correlation = -.18).

For this paper, we developed and validated the Orientation to School Renewal instrument,a 21-item instrument, based on seven factors, which allows schools to measure their school renewal efforts. The research is based on Goodlad's notion of school renewal. Through an extensive literature review and our work over an eight-year period engaged in discussions with over 110 principals and 300 teachers, we gradually developed dimensions of the construct of school renewal. We then obtained survey data from a sample of 1,195 teachers in 83 schools, and validated the instrument using confirmatory factor analysis and other procedures. The seven factors identified from the literature and discussions with K-12 educators and confirmed via the validation process included: (a) focus on students and their achievements, (b) continuous school improvement, (c) balance between the internal and external influences, (d) the dialogue, decision, action and evaluation (DDAE) process, (e) implementation integrity, (f) implementers as active developers, and (g) internal responsibility and professionalism. Researchers and practitioners can use the instrument to collect valid and reliable data to measure, evaluate, and understand school renewal.

Data collected from an educational experiment were analyzed to investigate the effectiveness of an instructional reform referred to as the inverted classroom (learning activities traditionally taking place inside the classroom now take place outside the classroom and vice versa) in undergraduate statistics education. Students were taught the same statistics course in the inverted classroom (135 students) and the traditional classroom (135 students) over one semester. A small sample HLM (hierarchical linear modeling) approach was used to account for the data structure of students nested within 12 sections of the course and small sample sizes at both student and section levels. The treatment effects were adjusted for individual background characteristics and high school performances. There were positive treatment effects of the inverted classroom across all three outcome measures of coursework, attendance, and final grade. After adjustment, the inverted classroom would increase scores in coursework, attendance, and final grade by 3.47, 2.14, and 1.18 percentage points respectively, representing a limited success of the inverted classroom.

We aimed to identify individual (family) and school protective factors that are critical to academic success among African American students, using Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. A total of 2020 African American students in 463 schools from the Educational Longitudinal Study provided data. We developed a multilevel logistic model (students nested within schools) to predict the probability of academic success based on variables at the student and school levels. The probability was 11% for the nationally typical African American student. At the student level, the effects of socioeconomic status on academic success were stronger for students with lower peer academic commitment, and we identified school involvement, teacher expectation, and time spent on homework as protective factors that increased the probability of academic success. At the school level, we identified one protective factor of academic climate and found that strong school remediation effort tended to signal schools where academic success was lacking.

In this study, we designed an educational experiment to evaluate the High Impact Leadership for School Renewal project’s impact on principal leadership, school leadership, and student achievement. Principals in the experimental group reported statistically significantly greater improvement in principal leadership than their counterparts in the control group (Hedge’s g of 0.73), but teachers in the experimental and control groups showed no difference in their ratings of principal leadership. Teachers in the experimental group reported statistically significantly more improvement in school leadership than their counterparts in the control group (Hedge’s g of 0.53 on the scale of Orientation to School Renewal and 0.58 on the scale of Learning-Centered School Leadership), but principals in the two groups reported no difference in the growth in school leadership. Schools in the experimental group showed statistically significantly larger annual growth in English language arts proficiency rate (2.05 percentage points more annually). The implications of the findings were discussed in the context of leadership development programs for school improvement.

Background: Although there is an increasing recognition of the importance of critical thinking in science education across the world, the relevant research literature is extremely thin. There is an urgent need to generate more empirical evidence. Purpose: We examined two essential issues concerning critical thinking (the relationship between students' and teachers' critical thinking as well as the relationship between critical thinking and science achievement) in the context of physics education. Sample: We utilized data from the 2017 (Chinese) Program for Regional Assessment of Basic Education Quality with 46,820 students under 547 teachers from 128 schools. Design and methods: We developed multiple membership multilevel models to account for students from different schools and under multiple teachers (in each school). Results: After control over student, teacher, and school characteristics, although Chinese eighth graders demonstrated statistically significant critical thinking, there was not any statistically significant relationship between students' and teachers' critical thinking. With the same control, there was a statistically significant relationship between students' critical thinking and students' physics achievement among Chinese eighth graders. Meanwhile, there was not any statistically significant relationship between teachers' critical thinking and students' physics achievement (over and above the relationship between students' critical thinking and students' physics achievement). Conclusion: We suggest that critical thinking may need to become an essential and explicit outcome of science education to help establish a relationship between students' and teachers' critical thinking and promote the correlation between critical thinking of students and teachers and students' science achievement.

Abstract Langford, EL, Bergstrom, HC, Lanham, S, Eastman, AQ, Best, S, Ma, X, Mason, MR, and Abel, MG. Evaluation of work efficiency in structural firefighters. J Strength Cond Res 37(12): 2457–2466, 2023—To perform occupational tasks safely and effectively, firefighters (FF) must work quickly and consume air provided by the self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) efficiently. However, most literature only factors work rate into performance, neglecting the inherent time limitation imposed by the SCBA. The purpose of this article was to (a) evaluate the reliability and variability in a “work efficiency” (WE) performance metric reflective of both work rate and air consumption; (b) explore the relationship between WE and established measures of metabolic strain; and (c) identify fitness, anthropometric, and demographic correlates of WE. About 79 structural FF completed an air consumption drill while breathing through an SCBA. Self-paced work duration and air consumption were entered into the WE equation. A subsample of FF (n = 44) completed another randomized trial while breathing through a portable gas analyzer. Anthropometric and fitness data were collected separately. Correlations were performed between WE vs. fitness, anthropometric, demographic, and metabolic outcomes. Multiple linear regression was used to identify the strongest predictors of WE. WE was reliable (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.71) and yielded inter-FF variability {0.79 ± 0.25 ([lb·in−2·min]−1) × 104; coefficient of variation = 31.6%}. WE was positively correlated to oxygen consumption (V̇O2) (L·minute−1, mL·kg−1·minute−1) and tidal volume and negatively correlated to V̇E/V̇O2 and respiratory frequency. Height, upper-body endurance, and aerobic endurance were identified as the strongest predictors of WE (adjusted R 2 = 0.59, RMSE = 0.16). WE is a reliable and occupationally relevant method to assess FF performance because it accounts for work rate and air consumption. Firefighters may enhance WE through a training intervention focused on improving metabolic tolerance, upper-body endurance, and aerobic endurance.

Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) is often used to estimate the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on academic achievement at different levels of an educational system. However, if a prior academic achievement measure is missing in a HLM model, biased estimates may occur on the effects of student SES and school SES. Phantom effects describe the phenomenon in which the effects of student SES and school SES disappear once prior academic achievement is added to the model. In the present analysis, partial simulation (i.e., simulated data are used together with real-world data) was employed to examine the phantom effects of student SES and school SES on science achievement, using the national sample of the United States from the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment. The results showed that the phantom effects of student SES and school SES are rather real. The stronger the correlation between prior science achievement and (present) science achievement, the greater the chance that the phantom effects occur.

Teacher leadership has been found to be positively associated with student achievement, and the dimensions of teacher leadership positively associated with teacher leadership have been identified. However, mechanisms to improve teacher leadership and the effects of these mechanisms are rarely studied. In this article, we report the efforts to develop teacher leadership in a multi-year, large-scale project titled, “High- Impact Leadership for School Renewal”, and the effects of these efforts. Repeated measure analysis was conducted to assess the project’s effect on teacher leadership using validated and published instruments. The results indicated that the project had large effects on enhancing teacher leadership, with Cohen’s d effect size ranging from 0.85 to 1.16 for scales of Orientation to School Renewal and from 0.87 to 1.13 for scales of Learning-Centered School Leadership. Implications for school renewal are discussed.

In this study, we attempted to explore with instrumentation that could provide a good means to measure integrity and fidelity of program implementation. The instrument, High Integrity and Fidelity Implementation for School Renewal, was created using a comprehensive review of the literature to provide insights into the implementation integrity and fidelity when principals renew a school. Data from 1097 teachers were used to examine the instrument for construct validity by means of factorial validity and convergent validity. We used confirmatory factor analysis to compared five factorial structures of the instrument, resulting in the identification of a four-factor structure (coming from the comprehensive review of the literature) as the best fitting structure to the data. Strong convergent validity of the instrument was confirmed by correlating the instrument with a psychometrically established instrument measuring a similar construct. Finally, McDonald’s Omega indicated strong internal consistency of the instrument in our reliability analysis.