Friendship Quality and School Achievement: A Longitudinal Analysis During Primary School

This study examined the longitudinal relationship between friendship quality (positive and negative) and school achievement among 228 school-age children (51% girls, M = 8.09, SD = 0.41). A three-wave cross-lagged analysis was used to determine the direction of influence between these domains across school years. Findings revealed that: (a) school achievement in second grade decreased negative friendship quality in third grade; (b) school achievement in second grade predicted positive friendship quality in third grade; (c) positive friendship quality in third grade predicted school achievement in fourth grade. The protective role of school achievement against peer relationship impairment and the reciprocal relationship between positive friendship quality and school achievement were underlined. Implications for educational practices for Italian primary schools are discussed.     

Educational Reforms in the Former Soviet Union

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, there have been movements toward a range of education reforms. In this article, an historical account is presented of education from communist roots to current times.     

Engaging contexts: Drawing the link between student and teacher experiences of the hidden curriculum

This article examines how academic disengagement (being off task, unenthusiastic and uncurious about learning) is facilitated by the hidden curriculum (the values, norms and beliefs transmitted via the structure of schooling), and mediated by race, ethnicity and gender for students in a working class elementary school. Additionally, we contextualize how a teacher was challenged by the hidden curriculum in her attempt to make her classroom environment engaging for all students. Participants included a young white female teacher and 21 second grade, low‐income students, of whom approximately 50% were white and 50% were Black or Latino/a. A teacher interview and fieldnotes covering 8 hours a week over 3 months comprised the data. Results indicated that students were required to show their engagement in particular ways that related to control and conformity. When they did not, they were reprimanded, which led to academic disengagement and the transmission of the hidden curriculum's message that school was not a place for them. This process was especially salient for Black and Latino boys, which indicated that the hidden curriculum was institutionalized. Results also showed that the hidden curriculum was a structural limitation for the teacher, as she was often thwarted in her attempts to create an academically engaging learning environment. Implications include strategies for school change and reform, including making the hidden curriculum more visible. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A large scale study of the assessment of the social environment of middle and secondary schools: The validity and utility of teachers' ratings of school climate, cultural pluralism, and safety problems for understanding school effects and school improvement

Due to changes in state and federal policies, as well as logistical and fiscal limitations, researchers must increasingly rely on teachers' reports of school climate dimensions in order to investigate the developmental impact of these dimensions, and to evaluate efforts to enhance the impact of school environments on the development of young adolescents. Teachers' climate ratings exhibited a robust dimensional structure, high levels of internal consistency, and moderate levels of stability over 1-and 2-year time spans. Teachers' climate ratings were also found to be related consistently with students' ratings. In three large-scale samples of schools, teachers' climate ratings were associated significantly and consistently with students' performance on standardized tests of academic achievement, and with indexes of their academic, behavioral, and socio-emotional adjustment.     

Reading First kindergarten classroom instruction and students' growth in phonological awareness and letter naming–decoding fluency

This study investigated the role of the amount, content, and implementation of reading instruction provided by 17 kindergarten teachers in eight Reading First elementary schools as it related to students' progress (n = 286 students) on early reading assessments of phonological awareness and letter naming–decoding fluency. Children's phonological awareness and letter naming–decoding fluency grew significantly from fall to spring. On average, across the three 60 min observations, teachers provided over 30 min a day of phonological awareness and phonics instruction and 15 min a day of vocabulary and comprehension instruction. Global ratings of instructional quality revealed two implementation factors: explicit and individualized implementation and meaningful interactions around text. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that the amounts of specific instructional content, as well as how this instruction was implemented, was related to students' letter knowledge and phonological awareness skill growth.     

Faith schooling: implications for teacher educators. A perspective from Northern Ireland

The separate and parallel systems of schooling in Northern Ireland that largely reflect Protestant/Catholic divisions have been much criticised on the grounds that they have failed to promote social cohesion. These divisions are also evident in teacher education provision and attempts to offset the negative effects of this separation have made only a limited impact. By means of a brief survey of the relationship between two de facto religiously separated teacher education institutions, from the early twentieth century to the present day, this article considers the issues for teacher educators and argues that separateness at this level has been disadvantageous in relation to the challenges of preparing student teachers to work in a diverse, plural society.     

The Mental Health Needs of Youth with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities Placed in Special Education Programs in Urban Schools

We describe the psychosocial characteristics of youth with an average age of 11.8 years served in special education due to emotional disturbances in urban communities (N = 158). Data were also collected describing service utilization, academic functioning, and family characteristics. Ten schools in three mid-size urban cities participated. Results from the administration of standardized assessments revealed that the majority of students scored in the clinical range on the parent version of the Child Behavior Checklist and the Columbia Impairment Scale, indicating significant levels of emotional and behavioral impairment. Further, behavior problems began at an early age with 80% of the youth using outpatient services beginning at the average age of 7.5 years and 29% of the youth using inpatient services beginning at an average age of 8.4 years of age. Most of the youths' school careers (67%) have been in a special education setting. The most common services currently being supplied by school personnel was individual counseling and this was provided for 63% of the students while child-serving agency personnel were providing individual counseling for 17% of the youth. Implications for the development of multi-agency collaborative services are presented.     

Training school personnel to implement a universal school-based prevention of depression program under real-world conditions

The present study evaluated the impact of a universal prevention of depression program [the Resourceful Adolescent Program (RAP)] when implemented under real-world conditions in a school setting. Prior research has found the RAP program to be beneficial for high-school students when the program was implemented by university staff selected, trained, and supervised by a research team. The present study evaluated the RAP program when implemented by existing school personnel. Separately, we measured the impact of a training program for facilitators, the quality of subsequent program implementation, and the student's response to the RAP Program. Results showed that, in response to the training program, facilitators believed they had acquired the knowledge and confidence to implement the program and that the quality of program implementation was acceptable. The study did not demonstrate a beneficial impact of the RAP program for the students. The results raise important questions regarding the extent of training and ongoing supervision facilitators require if the beneficial outcomes for students are to be maintained when interventions are implemented under real-world conditions in school settings.     

Effects of the good behavior game across classroom contexts

The Good Behavior Game (GBG), a well‐researched classroom group contingency, is typically played for brief periods of time, which raises questions about the effects on subsequent contexts. This study used a multiple baseline design and showed that when the GBG was implemented in one context, behavior improved in only that context. Behavior improved in the subsequent activity only when the GBG was implemented.