Educators commonly use school climate survey scores to inform and evaluate interventions for equitably improving learning and reducing educational disparities. Unfortunately, validity evidence to support these (and other) score uses often falls short. In response, Whitehouse et al. proposed a collaborative, two-part validity testing framework for…

This study examines disruptions to postsecondary education plans in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using nationally representative data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey from August 2020 through March 2021, we investigate the prevalence, forms, reasons, and disparities of education disruption across different…

Support from parents and school staff are important for adolescent well-being. However, few studies have examined the role of parental involvement and adult social support at school on high school students' mental health, specifically, suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs). Data were collected from 362,980 high school students (51.85% female)…

This study examined the influences of teacher support and school environment on 10th graders' mathematics achievements, controlling for socioeconomic status, gender, and mathematics self-efficacy, and the differential influences of these factors for White and Black students in the USA. A sample of 8,682 White and 2,020 Black students who…

The Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to identify schools with low-performing student subgroups for Targeted Support and Improvement or Additional Targeted Support and Improvement. Random differences between students' true abilities and their test scores, also called measurement error, reduce the statistical reliability of the performance…

This Snapshot highlights key findings from a study that used Bayesian stabilization to improve the reliability (long-term stability) of subgroup proficiency measures that the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) uses to identify schools for Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) or Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI). The…

The "Stabilizing Subgroup Proficiency Results to Improve the Identification of Low-Performing Schools" study used Bayesian stabilization to improve the reliability (long-term stability) of subgroup proficiency measures that the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) uses to identify schools for Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI)…

Leveraging achievement data measured in the fall and spring of kindergarten through eighth grade for 840,000 students attending 8,800 public schools, we report novel evidence on how achievement and growth patterns differ between rural and nonrural schools. Rural students start kindergarten slightly ahead of nonrural students but fall behind by…

This study aims to understand the role that reading motivation plays in middle school reading achievement (including achievement gaps) by analyzing the 2015 grade 8 NAEP reading data. The study focuses on identifying the unique effects of student-level reading motivation and aggregated school-level mean reading motivation on reading achievement.…

The focus of this study is to investigate school bonding among adolescents in immigrant families using a segmented assimilation theoretical framework. Data are drawn from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, a nationally representative sample of 10th graders. We focus on a subsample consisting of 9,870 first- (N = 1,170, 12 %), second- (N =…

Racial minority youth are disproportionally removed from their learning environment due to school discipline and placed in special education for emotional disturbance. These disparities continue to trouble families, educators, and policy makers, particularly within urban schools. Yet there is a paucity of research on how behavioral outcome…

Despite a nationwide trend to increase security measures in schools, their effectiveness in reducing or preventing student misbehavior remains largely unexamined. In addition, there is concern that increased security may have unintended negative side effects and is applied inequitably across students of disparate racial/ethnic backgrounds. The…

This study examines concurrent and short-term longitudinal (i.e., academic year) relations between peer network racial/ethnic diversity and indicators of social and academic competence in a sample of African American, Latino, Native American, and White sixth-grade students attending rural schools (N = 481; 50% female). Results from two-level…

Over the past three decades, the United States has experienced a significant increase in the use of security measures in public and private secondary schools. Measures including police officers, metal detectors, and security cameras are becoming more common in the hallways of American schools. Following this surge, a number of academics have…

This study explored the relative importance of participation in high school career and technical education (CTE) programs in predicting community college outcomes. A hierarchical generalized linear model (HGLM) was used to predict community college outcome attainment among a random sample of direct community college entrants. Results show that…