As states consider non-academic measures of school quality for their accountability plans under the Every Student Succeeds Act, few are choosing to focus on the school climate in which students learn. That's not a surprise, given concerns about the validity and usefulness of existing climate surveys. However, the authors argue, a recent study…

We describe how a practical instructional development process helped a first-year assistant professor rapidly develop, implement, and assess the impact on her Analytical Chemistry course caused by three changes: (a) moving the lab into the same semester as the lecture, (b) developing a more collaborative classroom environment, and (c) increasing…

This brief summarizes the findings of a recent study that examined whether adding results from teacher and student feedback surveys to one district's principal evaluation system strengthened the link between principals' evaluation ratings and their schools' achievement gains in math and reading. The study also examined whether certain subscales…

It is important to recognise and capture the rich and complex knowledge, understanding and experience that comes with the day-to-day interactions of those immersed in the school and science classroom environment, so that policy-makers do not overlook those who practice in the classroom and theorists do not assign incorrect meaning to the actions…

In this article, the authors discuss how merging mixed-methods and intersectional analyses can generate deeper and more authentic understandings of students' experiences within the campus climate and its relation to sense of belonging in college. They discuss overemphasis on one-dimensional analyses of campus climates and sense of belonging,…

Twelve years ago Blatchford and Mortimore's authoritative review of class size research appeared in this journal. They concluded that a major problem with class size research was the lack of detailed studies of complex classroom processes that might mediate class size effects on pupils' learning. This article reviews two UK class size reviews and…

This chapter is concerned with how assessments of students' work in classrooms, although primarily intended to promote learning, can also become an important source of information for evaluating a school's effectiveness within an accountability system. The authors begin their discussion by considering issues of fairness, to schools and to their…

Explores the impact of classroom environment on curriculum implementation. Provides historical background for this area of study, describes instruments for assessing prosocial behavior, and examines studies of teacher and student perception of classroom environment. Reports on two studies that combine qualitative and quantitative methods, and…

Maintains that there is an inconsistency in the regression analysis of the data presented in Maureen J. Lage and Michael Treglia's 1996 article, "The Impact of Integrating Scholarship on Women into Introductory Economics." The authors admit the error, correct it, and report no difference in their original conclusions. (MJP)