The current study used thematic analysis to examine school staff perspectives on the impact of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) on school climate in terms of the quality of student-student and student-teacher relationships in two low-income, urban middle schools in the United States. Data were collected using focus groups and…

Discovery City Schools, located in the southern United States, served approximately 8,168 public school students in 15 individual schools during the 2022--2023 school year. After a districtwide consolidation in 2019, Triumph Middle School (TMS) was established as the only middle school in the district and served 1,121 seventh- and eighth-grade…

Whole-school reforms have received widespread attention, but a critical limitation of the current literature is the lack of evidence around whether these extensive and costly interventions improve students' long-term outcomes after they leave reform schools. Leveraging Tennessee's statewide turnaround reforms, we use difference-in-differences…

Teacher retention in high-poverty middle schools is a topic of concern. Teachers make the decision to leave the profession for a variety of reasons. Induction programs are put in place to for support with the goal of helping new teachers remain in the profession. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to identify critical components of…

Youth suicide is a critical public health issue. School-based suicide prevention programs are one strategy to address youth suicide. This research study explores students' (N = 2,806) perspectives on the SOS Signs of Suicide program, a school-based suicide prevention program for youth in grades six through twelve that includes education and…

Customary practice in schools is that educators work in silos, often neglecting the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues to truly meet all students' needs. As students transition from middle school to high school, a clear bridging process is vital to set students up for success. Conventional parameters will need to be dismantled, and…

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of school-wide positive behavior interventions and supports (SWPBIS) on student academic performance. The participants in the study are eight middle schools from an urban Southern California school district where the implementation of SWPBIS was mandated. Using archival data collected by the…

In this systematic review, we evaluated the quality and rigor of the current evidence base for the Second Step social-emotional learning program in middle schools. Eleven studies were coded using the "Council for Exceptional Children Standards for Evidence-Based Practices in Special Education" with an 80% weighted criterion. We…

We examined the effectiveness of the "Say Something Anonymous Reporting System" (SS-ARS) program in improving school safety in a cluster randomized control trial among over 700 students in 19 middle schools in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The SS-ARS is a program that emphasizes youth engagement and trains youth to recognize…

This demonstration brief provides teaching and learning stories from districts and schools implementing PBIS with an integrated systems focus and is organized across the following areas: (a) the context of the school/district, (b) the changes made in the systems, (c) the impact of the changes made in the systems, and (d) next steps to improve the…

Formal collaborative structures for teacher teams as professional learning communities (PLC) have long been a supported practice aimed at changing instructional practice and increasing student outcomes in a cycle of continuous improvement. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of PLC teams at the middle school level in a…

Teen dating violence (TDV) is a significant public health problem that can have lifelong consequences. Using a longitudinal, cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT), this study examines whether the "Dating Matters" comprehensive prevention model, implemented in middle school, prevented TDV and negative relationship behaviors and…

The Generalization of Information and Communication Technologies in Education program (GENIE) has made way for computers, video projectors, interactive whiteboards and multimedia rooms into many public schools in Morocco, and has worked to add the communicative dimension to the process of technology-assisted teaching. The program also worked on…

Our country has a digital equity crisis, with many socioeconomically disadvantaged students disproportionately experiencing significant negative consequences from the digital divide. This program evaluation sought to investigate whether the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools (VILS) grant program decreases the consequences of the digital divide…

Public charter schools lack research that determines what makes them successful. Charter schools are relatively new, existing for around 30 years in the United States. The depth and breadth of research focusing on public education rarely includes charter schools. The research focusing on charter schools specifically is quite limited. Like…