As we work to educate our children in effective ways, supporting their efforts to make a positive difference reaps benefits for both students and society.

The papers making up this Special Section reveal important findings and begin to fill gaps in existing literature about children's and young people's understanding and developing beliefs about socio-economic inequality and poverty. We draw on our research experience with children growing up in poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam (Young…

The Small Island Developing State of Jamaica, in the Caribbean region, is facing significant environmental, economic, and social challenges. Violence has become a serious challenge for Jamaica and several other countries in the region; the level of violence against and among children is particularly disturbing. Perhaps even more troubling is the…

Although bullying continues to be a growing public health concern in schools across the United States, there are considerable gaps in the American understanding of effective prevention approaches for addressing this seemingly intractable issue. This article applies a public health approach to addressing bullying through the multitiered Positive…

A school health promotion project was carried out in an elementary school in Sweden where active participation, gender equality, and empowerment were leading principles. The objective of the study was to understand challenges and to identify social processes of importance for such a project. Focus group interviews were conducted with 6 single-sex…

There is widespread agreement that many school shootings could be prevented if authorities were informed that a student was planning or preparing to carry out an attack. A universal problem is that young people are highly reluctant to report on their peers. This code of silence represents a major barrier to prevention efforts. In response to the…

We examine the effects of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District's (CMSD) districtwide efforts to improve school safety, order, and conditions for learning. These approaches include implementing (1) a social and emotional learning program for elementary students (PATHS); (2) a planning model for students exhibiting academic or nonacademic…

Though American life in 1923 was significantly different than the present day, authors John Dewey and Diana Brannon share similar concerns about character. Historically, educators as far back as the 1800s have felt an obligation to the community to transcend the primary purpose for schooling by including character education in their curricula.…

We believe the problems of school violence are linked to competition and bullying in school culture. We also believe that by fostering more cooperation and more compassion in school culture, we can reduce school violence. One of the ways to develop school culture is to implement conflict resolution training. In the current study, we introduced…

This report summarizes evaluation results for AISD's federally-funded Title IV safe and drug-free schools program activities for the 2007-2008 school year.

Describes the Washington Education Association's work on school safety in two school districts in Seattle. Efforts to date make it clear that schools can only be changed one at a time after appropriate identification of the existing problems. Bullying is a fundamental issue in school safety. (SLD)

This publication presents a collection of resources on violence prevention and safe schools. This document contains the following parts: (1) Introduction; (2) A Few Resource Aids; (3) Public Policy and Funding Opportunities; (4) More Resource Aids on Violence Prevention and Safe Schools; and (5) Concluding Comment. Individual sections contain…

The five diverse programs in this booklet met the American Federation of Teachers' criteria for effectiveness and replicability (criteria and search process are listed at the end of the booklet). While two of the five programs in the booklet can be used at either the elementary or secondary level, three are only for the elementary level. Before…

Bullying is by far the biggest violence problem on many school campuses in many countries. As with other forms of violence, the conditions at school seem to play a role in minimizing or exacerbating bullying. Schools need to create caring, supportive, and safe environments and a sense of community in order to reduce violence and promote…

To help educators deal with "bullying" problems, intervention strategies are presented in this handbook. It focuses on the insidious day-to-day teasing and harassment typical of bullying and serves as a resource for addressing "bully/victim" problems during the pre-adolescent and adolescent years. Research has shown that the middle-school years…