The purpose of this study is to examine how recent incidents of planned mass violence in high schools within the United States were successfully averted. Using the Averted School Violence database, ...this study utilizes a mixed‐methods content analysis approach to analyze 82 incidents of averted mass violence in high schools that occurred post‐Columbine era. The following three themes were identified: attack motives and logistics, plot discovery, and attack aversion. Implications for professional school counselors in preventing similar mass violence attacks in the future are discussed, including fostering trusting relationships between students and adults, providing education to parents about social media platforms and proper firearms storage, establishing threat assessment teams, and educating parents, students, and school personnel about warning signs for violence.
Key points
School counselors play key roles in preventing mass violence as a part of their comprehensive school counseling programs.
Based on a mixed‐methods content analysis, implications for school counselors in preventing mass violence attacks are discussed.
This article presents findings from a meta-analysis of 213 school-based, universal social and emotional learning (SEL) programs involving 270,034 kindergarten through high school students. Compared ...to controls, SEL participants demonstrated significantly improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, behavior, and academic performance that reflected an 11-percentile-point gain in achievement. School teaching staff successfully conducted SEL programs. The use of 4 recommended practices for developing skills and the presence of implementation problems moderated program outcomes. The findings add to the growing empirical evidence regarding the positive impact of SEL programs. Policy makers, educators, and the public can contribute to healthy development of children by supporting the incorporation of evidence-based SEL programming into standard educational practice.
Previous studies suggest that small rural schools experience a range of challenges relating to their size, financial difficulties and geographical isolation, as well as potential opportunities ...relating to their position within their communities. In Northern Ireland, these schools are situated within the comparatively rare context of a religiously divided school system. However, research on these schools in this jurisdiction is scarce. The notion of consociationalism is highlighted as central to an understanding of the prevailing schooling system and the peace process in Northern Ireland as a post-conflict society. Set against this backdrop, the paper reports on a survey of principals of small rural schools in Northern Ireland; the challenges they face and their engagement with the communities they serve. The findings reveal how these small rural primary schools, while encountering many similar challenges to such schools globally, continue to play a central consociational role in serving their respective divided communities. Their relationship with the Church is seen as particularly important. The findings raise important broader questions as to the extent to which the current system of schooling is able to contribute to the building of a more integrated society.
Background:
The mental health od school-age children is of growing concern in many countries. School professionals require the competences and methods to intervene effectively to promote mental ...health in schools.
Objective:
The objective of this study was to describe school professionals’ perceptions of the competences needed and effective methods to promote mental health in primary schools.
Design and setting:
Qualitative study conducted in five European countries.
Method:
Multidisciplinary focus group interviews were conducted with teachers, school nurses, psychologists and social workers in Greece (n = 2), Lithuania (n = 3), Slovenia (n = 2), Bulgaria (n = 2) and Finland (n = 2). Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis.
Results:
Competences perceived as required for mental health promotion in primary schools were related to (1) knowledge of child development and mental health among primary school age children, (2) skills such as communication and empathy and (3) teachers’ self perception as health promoters. Insufficient attention is currently given to the development of these competences in basic teacher education and ongoing professional development. Providing a safe and inclusive school environment for children and families, early intervention and the use of structured models of support were viewed as effective approaches to use. Digital tools, online materials, and online support were seen as having a valuable role to play in children’s mental health promotion.
Conclusion:
School professionals require multiple competences to undertake mental health promotion in primary schools. The development of these competences is best supported by basic and ongoing education. Teachers, school nurses, psychologists and social workers see mixed methods as likely to be most effective in promoting mental health in primary schools.
Spurring parental involvement has been a core objective of charter school reform. This study compares for-profit-managed and nonprofit-managed charter schools and their public school peers in Detroit ...on two indicators of parental involvement. Nonprofit-managed charter schools generated higher rates of general parental involvement, net of demographic, school, and self-selection controls. Public schools, however, elicited greater parent participation in school decision making, using the same controls. Although differences in school strategies may be underlying these results, self-selection mechanisms also appear to be salient, underscoring variation in school choice participation among demographically similar families in high choice deindustrialized cities.
Since 1998, more than 6,000 public schools have closed in rural U.S. counties. Very little research considers how these school closures impact the future growth (or decline) of rural communities. ...Given rural schools' importance to parents, local labor markets, and civic life, closures could trigger or reinforce population loss. On the other hand, the configuration of schools may simply be a consequence of population loss and not a cause. This paper tests these hypotheses using records from the Common Core of Data (CCD) and U.S. Census. Employing an instrumental variable analysis that exploits exogenous variation in school district boundaries and a difference‐in‐difference design that groups counties by propensity scores, I find that school closures induce population loss in many—but not all—cases. Specifically, counties with the lowest propensities to close schools experience the largest negative effects on population. This finding suggests that policymakers often overlook potentially important unintended consequences of school consolidation in rural communities.
Research on teacher development reports significant early-career increases in teacher effectiveness, but the extent to which this is attributable to the development of teachers who persist or to the ...attrition of less effective teachers is unclear. In this study of novice teachers in North Carolina public schools, the authors investigated the development of teachers' effectiveness during their first five years in the classroom and contrasted the effectiveness of teachers who stayed with that of those who left. Across grade levels, teachers' effectiveness increased significantly in their second year of teaching but flattened after three years. The teachers who left the profession were less effective, on average, than those who stayed at least five years, but this finding is somewhat less consistent than the findings of an initial jump in effectiveness and diminishing returns to on-the-job development.
By using evidence from interviews with primary headteachers, this book highlights the most serious problems experienced by primary heads. The management of school finance and premises and ...relationships with a range of other people involved in the life and work of the school are shown to be recurring historical issues in primary headship.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND
State laws and farm‐to‐school programs (FTSPs) have the potential to increase fruit and vegetable (FV) availability in school meals. This study examined whether FV were more ...available in public elementary school lunches in states with a law requiring/encouraging FTSPs or with a locally grown‐related law, and whether the relationship between state laws and FV availability could be explained by schools opting for FTSPs.
METHODS
A pooled, cross‐sectional analysis linked a nationally representative sample of public elementary schools with state laws. A series of multivariate logistic regressions, controlling for school‐level demographics were performed according to mediation analysis procedures for dichotomous outcomes.
RESULTS
Roughly 50% of schools reported FV availability in school lunches on most days of the week. Schools with the highest FV availability (70.6%) were in states with laws and schools with FTSPs. State laws requiring/encouraging FTSPs were significantly associated with increased FV availability in schools and a significant percentage (13%) of this relationship was mediated by schools having FTSPs.
CONCLUSIONS
Because state farm‐to‐school laws are associated with significantly higher FV availability in schools—through FTSPs, as well as independently—enacting more state legislation may facilitate increased FTSP participation by schools and increased FV availability in school meals.
Background
Schools are increasingly recognized as key facilitators of child and youth well‐being. Much attention has been directed to the school social environment and the areas of school climate or ...school connectedness/identification. Drawing on the social identity approach and related work, it has been argued that school social identification may be the mechanism or process through which school climate comes to impact individual student functioning (Applied Psychology, 28, 2009, 171). Much of the previous research on social identity and well‐being, though, is limited because it is cross‐sectional.
Aims, Sample & Methods
This current study aims to advance understanding of the relationships between school climate, school identification and positive and negative well‐being. It adopts a three‐wave longitudinal sample of Australian students (N = 6537 wave 3, grades 7–10) and incorporates a range of control variables. Multilevel modelling (MLM) is used to test relationships of interest.
Results and Conclusions
In line with predictions, school identification was a significant mediator of the relationship between school climate and the well‐being dimensions of positive affect and depression (but not anxiety). The substantial theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed, including the role of the school social environment in helping young people successfully transition to adulthood.
