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Despite the common perception of a decline over recent decades of adolescents' use of illicit drugs and alcohol, the recent exponential rise in teenage vaping has spotlighted how local and school communities must address this endemic public problem. Since use of illicit substance adversely affects adolescent development, it is imperative that educators assess the prevalence of drugs and alcohol and curtail access in secondary schools. We examined the association between drug and alcohol availability and school security measures, using data from the 2015 National Criminal Victimization Survey School Crime Supplement. Logistic regression determined whether school security measures (inclusive, exclusive, and ambiguous) reduce student-perceived drug and alcohol availability in U.S. secondary schools. Our findings indicated that students in secondary schools with school resource officers perceived greater drug and alcohol availability, while locked doors were associated with lower perceived availability. No inclusive security measures were associated with increased or decreased drug and alcohol availability. Only one exclusive measure -- locker checks -- in a single model related to perceived marijuana availability was significantly associated with perceived lower substance availability. School leaders and policy makers should consider the effectiveness of security measures to reduce substance use, while ascertaining the likelihood of detrimental effects.

As professionals charged with fostering student learning and well-being, educators--school leaders, teachers, school counselors, pre-service teachers--should demonstrate social emotional competence. In this study, we apply the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning's framework--self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision-making--to ascertain what we know from scholarship about educators' SEL competence. We conclude with guiding principles for training programs and professional learning opportunities for strengthening educators' understanding of their own SEL to improve daily pedagogical practice and ensure each school-wide initiative around SEL drives seamless strategies for attaining school improvement outcomes.

With the rapid expansion of mobile, blended, and seamless learning, researchers claim two factors, lack of self-discipline and poor time management, adversely impact learning performance. In online educational environments, reduced social interactions and low engagement levels generate high dropout rates. Self-regulated learning (SRL), the individual ability to check progress toward a goal and manage learning behavior, appears critical to adult online learning success. Clickstream data can observe, record, and evaluate patterns of users' real-time learning behavior in an online learning environment. Linking clickstream data with performance outcomes allows researchers to assess online learning behaviors and academic performance. The guiding research question was: Are students who apply SLR strategies more likely to demonstrate mastery of knowledge and skills in a self-directed e-learning context? Clickstream data and performance measures were analyzed to explore whether task and cognitive conditions influence how SLR strategies are applied in online training.

Teacher turnover is widely understood to be among the most pressing challenges facing the American public education system. Who and where are the mid-career teachers who choose to stay in the profession? Why do they stay? Researchers need to attend to these questions to inform both national dialogue and local actions regarding how to retain and sustain mid-career teachers who positively impact student learning. This quantitative study explored mid-career teachers' responses to the 2015-2016 National Teacher and Principal Survey to ascertain if certain demographic factors (e.g., race, school location) and school climate and teacher attitudinal factors (e.g., job satisfaction, career pathway and opportunities, support from administrators and/or sources beyond school leaders and colleagues, and influence over school policy) affect a mid-career teacher's decision to remain in the teaching profession. Findings indicate that mid-career teachers (5 to 20 years of teaching experience) in a secondary setting are significantly more likely to intend to stay in the profession than their peers in an elementary setting, and non-White mid-career teachers (Black/African American, Asian, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islanders, and Native American/Alaskan Native) than their White peers, respectively. Suburban mid-career teachers are more likely to express a desire to remain in the profession than their counterparts in urban, town, and rural settings. Related to the climate and attitudinal factors, mid-career teachers with more positive perceptions of school climate are more likely to remain in the profession. The most important factor in mid-career teacher retention is the teacher's level of satisfaction with workplace conditions that directly impact teaching.

Quality partnerships are imperative for successful project implementation. The partnership between project personnel and independent evaluators is often overlooked. In effective partnerships, both the evaluators and the education project management team collectively ensure that educational initiatives are well‐planned, executed, and assessed. This collaborative approach fosters a culture of continuous improvement and accountability, ultimately leading to better educational outcomes for English learner students, educators, and the community. This conceptual article highlights eight elements of an effective project management and evaluator partnership: (1) clear communication and collaboration, (2) goal alignment, (3) early planning for evaluation, (4) multi‐purpose evaluation activities, (5) shared responsibility, (6) feedback loops, (7) transparency, and (8) evaluation capacity building. The authors present these elements through the design, deployment, analysis, and use of the Better English Learners Instruction and Education in Varied Environments (BELIEVE) classroom observation tool. The tool was collaboratively created and deployed across two National Professional Development grants in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic, addressing the need for a tool that could be used in varying learning modes and capture how effectively classroom teachers were teaching academic content and literacy to English learners in elementary and middle schools. The article illustrates how this tool has been used by program personnel to inform the teacher–coach relationship and educate teachers and administrators about best practices, and by the evaluation team to assess the progress of teachers' use of research‐based practices to teach English learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of targeted professional development activities on teachers' perceptions of self-efficacy with mobile learning remains understudied. Power (2015a) used the Mobile Teacher's Sense of Efficacy Scale (mTSES) survey instrument to measure the effects of a mobile learning themed professional development course on teachers' confidence with and interest in mobile learning. The current study looks at changes in perceptions of self-efficacy amongst participants in another open course about mobile learning called "Instructional Design for Mobile Learning" (ID4ML), which took place from May 4-June 6, 2015 (Power, Bartoletti & Kilgore, 2015). The purpose of this study is to verify the reliability and construct validity of the mTSES instrument developed by Power (2015a, 2015b) and Power, Cristol and Gimbert (2014), and to explore trends in self-efficacy changes amongst a more diversified participant population. This paper reports on the findings from the analysis of data collected using the mTSES tool. The findings provide useful feedback on the impacts of participating in the ID4ML course. They also provide further support for the utility of the mTSES instrument as a measure of perceptions of self-efficacy with mobile learning. These findings point to the potential utility of the mTSES as a tool for both planning and evaluating mLearning professional development training for teachers.

This policy analysis examines recent debates on teacher quality in light of the "Renee v. Duncan" (2010) decision, the Congressional response to the ruling through the Continuing Resolution bill, H.R. 3082 §163, and President Obama's "Blueprint for Reform." Using equity as a framework for the teacher quality debate, the authors explore policy configurations of teacher quality with particular emphasis on inspecting the teaching certificate as a valid and reliable indicator of teacher quality. Additionally, the authors review educational research highlighting the strengths of alternative certification programs and consider how these strengths might be used to leverage policymaking that targets teacher quality reform.

A study was conducted to examine the relationship between first-year teachers' self-efficacy and their participation in e-Coaching designed to positively influence development of mathematics content knowledge, development of pedagogical content knowledge, and teacher retention. Teachers who most frequently participated in e-Coaching, on average, reported lower levels of self-efficacy at the start of the school year and a greater annual gain in self-efficacy than teachers who participated in e-Coaching less frequently. Study findings suggest that with careful planning and collaboration, e-Coaching can be used as a virtual and distributed context for supporting beginning teachers' self-efficacy development.

Research has affirmed the importance of principals and mentors in supporting novice teachers; however, little is known about how teacher leaders contribute to this work. We employed a mixed methods design to examine teacher leaders' contributions to induction by surveying principals, teachers, and other staff (n = 246) and interviewing teacher leaders (n = 8). We analyzed data using rank-order and constant comparative analyses. Teacher induction tasks were distributed across teacher leaders, principals, mentor teachers, and other positions. Teacher leaders primarily contributed to professional development and promoting collaboration. They mediated support from colleagues by advancing principal-initiated structures for collaboration, referring novice teachers to experienced teachers, requesting principal support, and recommending induction program improvements. Findings have implications for how leader preparation programs and central office supervisors prepare and support principals and teacher leaders with communicating responsibilities, monitoring workloads, and coordinating distributed leadership for school improvement, particularly in the context of supporting novice teachers.

This research evaluated South Carolina's Program of Alternative Certification for Educators (PACE). Specifically, the study analyzed this nontraditional teacher preparation pathway's outcomes: to recruit, train, and retain effective beginning teachers who fill the growing teacher vacancies in rural South Carolina. From an in-depth review of the literature that has addressed alternative certification pathways since mid-1980, criteria were developed to identify effective characteristics of successful programs. Survey instruments were researched and applied to assess the pedagogical content knowledge by participants and K-12 administrators. Post-employment performance-based evaluation scores of PACE participants were compared to the survey results. Five recommendations were proposed to assist the PACE program to prepare effective teachers for the classroom. One major recommendation included the need to add more depth and frequency to targeted areas of the PACE curriculum such as classroom management, long-range planning, and development of assessments.

With degree in hand, and ink nearly dry on their first contract, new teachers enter the educational field ready to change students' lives. Filled with hopes, ideas, and excitement, they file into classrooms and begin classroom preparations for their first year. More often than not, novice educators appear to be easily and quickly overwhelmed by the tasks of teaching and often frustrated by unsuccessful attempts to understand the workings of a school's formal and informal culture. And their attempts to build relationships with key school leaders are often thwarted (Angelle, 2006; Brock & Grady, 1998, 2007; McCann, Johannessen & Ricca, 2005; Melton, 2007). Recent scholarship has pinpointed the influence of school leaders' instructional supervision for beginning teachers' growth and development (Alexander, 2007; Jackson, 2008; Peltier-Glaze, 2005; Protheroe, 2006; Tillman, 2005; Wood, 2005). Without adequate professional support, many new teachers look to other P-12 schools or differing careers for employment at the end of their first year of teaching, thus leaving school systems with vacancies to fill (Cheng & Cheung, 2004; Fedricks, 2001; Johnson & Birkeland, 2003). The pace at which novice teachers adapt and develop and the choice either to stay or leave the profession appear to be related to a principal's involvement with beginning teachers (Colley, 2002; Peltier-Glaze, 2005). School leaders are the curators of education and the stewards of the learning environment. Principals are responsible for facilitating the transition of individuals from a university program or a business career into the educational setting. Throughout this process, principals are expected to identify novice teachers' strengths and areas for improvement and provide a plethora of support to address those needs (Melton, 2007; Peltier-Glaze, 2005; Protheroe, 2006). While simultaneously managing a school community and meeting the demands and concerns of novice teachers, principals are called to embody and exude the characteristics and attributes of effective leadership. What characteristics of a school leader define "quality" for a new teacher? What leadership knowledge and skills can most effectively facilitate beginning teachers' professional growth and development? The purpose of this study was to explore school leaders' interactions that were identified in the existing scholarship as influences for facilitating, or hindering, beginning teacher success. The research questions driving this study were, How do novice teachers experience interactions with principals? and How do these reported interactions appear to influence beginning teachers' success from the lived experience of the new teacher?

Background: Victimization in schools is not limited to students. Teachers increasingly face threats and attacks from their students. An authoritative school environment, characterized by high structure and support, has been associated with lower rates of victimization. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between authoritative school environments and teacher victimization rates. Methods: Researchers examined public school teacher responses (N = 37,497) from the Schools and Staffing Survey regarding rules and issues facing the school community. Descriptive statistics were gathered, and a hierarchical regression technique was employed to assess the impact of a structured, supportive school environment on teacher victimization. Results: Results indicate an authoritative school environment helped reduce rates of teacher victimization. White, female teachers are among the teachers most likely to experience violence from students. Enforcing school rules, by both teachers and administrators, is the most effective way to diminish episodes of teacher victimization. Conclusions: P-12 school personnel should emphasize the importance of enforcing school rules and reducing negative issues, such as student truancy and apathy within each school. As high levels of structure and support reduce instances of violence, these findings have important implications for school environments and teacher health.

A dramatic shift in the past fifteen years in teacher education has been the move toward people beginning their teacher preparation later in life and in their academic careers. In response, the number of alternative certification programs has increased to reduce teacher shortages in critical content areas such as mathematics, science, bilingual education, and special education, as well as teacher shortages in rural and urban schools. This research report explores the independent and interdependent processes of teacher screening and selection and, explicitly, identifies existing literature that has addressed the relationship between pre-employment decisions and post-employment outcomes for predicting alternatively certified teacher success. In addition, recent scholarship is analyzed that pertains to the use of interviews in the teacher screening process, particularly in alternative teacher preparation programs, often described as alternative routes or pathways to teacher certification. Specifically, the report affords the reader an assessment of the relative importance of three interview protocols in the selection process as the mechanism of merit that transcends the usual qualifications of degree, grade point average and test scores to discern those life experiences and intrinsic beliefs that predispose an alternative certification candidate to be an effective teacher.

This study was designed to compare teachers certified in South Carolina that were trained in two different methods: through traditional college preparation programs and through the Program of Alternative Certification for Educators (PACE). This study explored three research questions. The first question addressed differences in pedagogical knowledge based on the Principles of Learning and Teaching (PLT) examination. There was a significant difference between the mean scores of the traditionally trained teachers and the alternatively trained teachers. The second question addressed differences in the evaluation of teaching performance based on the Assisting, Developing, and Evaluation of Professional Teaching (ADEPT) school district level evaluator's perception of teachers' performance on the individual performance dimension and the sum of rating on the performance dimensions. There was not a significant difference between any of the mean scores for the individual performance dimensions, nor the sum of the mean scores for the individual performance dimensions. And, the third question addressed differences in performance by teachers certified by the two methods based on demographic variables. There were no significant differences in mean scores based on age, gender, or race at the 0.05 level. The analysis of the demographic variable highest degree earned revealed there was a significant difference in the performance between teachers who had a master's degree and teachers who had a master's with additional graduate hours or a doctorate. And, this difference was true for both alternatively and traditionally certified teachers.

Job satisfaction is an essential component of teacher motivation, performance, and retention. Teacher job satisfaction is primarily affected by workplace conditions. This paper analyzes data from over 37,000 public school teachers from the 2011--2012 Schools and Staffing Survey. Hierarchical ordinal logistic regression was utilized to analyze effects of school rule enforcement and teacher victimization on job satisfaction. Findings indicated that teachers who perceived higher enforcement of school rules had higher job satisfaction. In particular, consistent enforcement of rules by school administrators had a significantly greater effect on satisfaction than collegial enforcement of rules. Findings also indicated that teacher victimization has a significantly negative effect on job satisfaction. Consistent enforcement of school rules may reduce instances of student misbehavior and teacher victimization, helping reduce teacher stress and anxiety, leading to greater job satisfaction. Implications for policy and practice are explored, examining what administrators can do to protect teachers and improve satisfaction.

Background: There is much interest in assessing growth in student learning. Assessments of growth have important implications and affect many policy decisions at many levels. Aims: In the present article, we review some of the different approaches to measuring growth and examine the implications of their usage. Sample: Samples used in research on growth models typically include students enrolled in public schools that primarily serve kindergarten through the 12th grade. Method: Definitions of growth and gain are reviewed, and five types of growth models are examined: (1) Student Gain Score Model, (2) The Covariate Adjustment Model, (3) The Student Percentile Gain Model--referred to as single-wave value-added models, (4) Univariate Value-Added Response Models, and (5) Multivariate Value-Added Response Models. Results: Modelling approaches are vastly different, whereas Student Gain Models are mathematically and conceptually simple, Multivariate Models are highly complex. Conclusion: Educators assessing growth must make critical decisions about measurement. The type of instrument that is selected and the type of analytic techniques selected are of great importance. Growth must be considered from technical, pedagogical, and policy perspectives.

A study was conducted to examine the self-efficacy of first-year teachers trained in an alternative certification program. Teachers were provided access to professional development through blended learning, yet had varying levels of attendance in the online component (e-coaching). Teachers who attended six or more e-coaching sessions began the school year with lower levels of self-efficacy than those who attended five or fewer e-coaching sessions. Furthermore, teachers who attended six or more e-coaching sessions reported significant gains in self-efficacy over their first year of teaching, whereas teachers who attended five or fewer sessions did not report significant gain in self-efficacy. Findings suggest that programmatic efforts to use blended learning to support teacher professional development should be accompanied with policies and incentives that encourage use, along with scheduling adjustments that reserve time for teachers' frequent and meaningful use of the online component of blended learning.

New teachers don't last long in urban schools. From 30% to 50% of them leave these schools within their first five years, and teacher education institutions are trying a number of strategies to change this. To combat the high attrition rate among new teachers in urban schools, the authors suggest that teacher education programs should take a social justice approach that combines six interrelated factors--knowledge base for teaching, knowledge of students as learners, culturally relevant teaching, learning cohorts within learning communities, mentors/teaching models, and school-university-community partnerships--to develop teachers who are focused on the communities they serve and supported by a partnership with the community and their teacher education program.

Urban schools reflect their surroundings. Urban areas are becoming characterized by great diversity in race and class as the racial and ethnic makeup of the United States changes. In most urban schools, where the majority of students are minorities and large numbers live in poverty, the teacher attrition rate ranges from 30% to 50% within the first 5 years. One way that teacher education programs can respond is by recruiting "better" teacher candidates dedicated to urban teaching. Anderson and Stillman (2010) urged equity-minded urban teacher education programs to cultivate a knowledge base specifically applicable to teaching in urban high-needs schools. The goal is to develop teachers who can draw on the professional, theoretical, and historical knowledge base and expand it through critical reflection on their experiences and understanding of the urban context. A community engagement approach to teacher education includes partnerships between schools of education and community organizations and the preparation of teachers to be community advocates.

This study evaluated the predictive validity of two preemployment screening devices--the Urban Teacher Perceiver Interview and the Academic Skills Assessment portion of the Praxis Series test--as used by an urban high-need and hard-to-staff school district. Specifically, we compared predictor scores with subsequent teacher assessment scores generated through the Teacher Performance Assessment process. Three research questions directed this study: Is the Urban Teacher Perceiver Interview an effective predictor of teacher performance as measured by the Teacher Performance Assessment? Is the Praxis Series an effective predictor of teacher performance as measured by the Teacher Performance Assessment? Is the combination of the Urban Teacher Perceiver Interview and the Praxis Series an effective predictor of teacher performance as measured by the Teacher Performance Assessment? When each predictor was factored separately, the results indicated a statistically significant relationship between a prospective teacher's score on the Urban Teacher Perceiver Interview score and the subsequent Teacher Performance Assessment score. No statistically significant relationship between a teacher candidate's Praxis Series score and subsequent Teacher Performance Assessment was determined. The results indicated increased predictability of subsequent teacher performance when based on both predictors (R[superscript 2] = 0.117). (Contains 2 figures and 5 tables.)

This case study explored a process of team-based curriculum deliberation, design, and delivery, used to teach a classroom management course in the context of a school university partnership. A team of university and school-based teacher educators negotiated how best to prepare preservice teachers with effective classroom management knowledge and skills during a yearlong student teaching internship. The research questions driving this study were as follows: How does a team-based approach toward the design and implementation of a classroom management curriculum evolve in a school-university partnership? What are the outcomes of this process for preservice teachers, mentor teachers, students, and teacher educators? In the first section, a review of the existing scholarship highlights a sustained research agenda that has drawn attention to effectual classroom management and its relationship to environments for teaching and learning. The next section portrays the context of a school-university partnership and offers a description of a classroom management course as taught by a team of mentor teachers and university faculty members. The following section describes the process that emerged as the partnership's teacher educators designed, cotaught, and assessed the classroom management curriculum. Then, the article describes the themes that emerged from the study. The last section draws a set of assertions from the study's overarching finding--namely, a course that was designed, taught, and evaluated during a yearlong practicum in a school-university partnership enhanced elementary preservice teachers' understanding about how to establish, maintain, and sustain effective classroom management.

The influence of traditional and alternative teacher preparation programs on student achievement and instruction in high-need urban secondary schools was investigated through a mixed-method comparative design. Three research questions were addressed: (a) Does the type of teacher training influence the academic achievement of students in mathematics? (b) Does teacher preparation influence the implementation of the process standards set forth by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics? (c) Does the frequency with which teachers use process and content standards influence student achievement? Data from the standardized state test and district level quarterly assessments revealed a significant difference favoring the alternative preparation teachers on two measures of student achievement as well as the use of standard-driven instructional strategies. The findings suggest that alternative teacher preparation programs are a viable avenue to explore in meeting the needs of public schools for providing qualified teachers in mathematics classrooms at the middle and high school levels. (Contains 10 tables.) [This publication is supported by the Transition to Teaching federal grant funded through the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.]

Debate about teacher supply, demand, retention, and attrition has been renewed in recent years by an increased concern about the reduced numbers of prospective teachers entering teacher education programs, the high attrition rate of beginning teachers, and the resulting teacher shortages. U.S. schools are experiencing teacher shortages, especially in low-income urban areas, because of increased school enrollment, teacher retirement, reduction in class size, teacher attrition, and turnover related to low salaries, job dissatisfaction, and lack of administrative support and influence over decision-making. Recently, the increased interest in teacher quality has been the topic of debate for policy-makers, the public, and the educational community. The purpose of this study was to determine if a nontraditional teacher preparation program, the Transition To Teaching program, was a viable way to ease the teacher shortages in a high poverty, urban U.S. school district, and at the same time, to evaluate the impact of teacher training on students' academic achievement. The results of this study afford evidence that the students taught by 1st-year, alternatively prepared teachers achieved as well as or better than their peers taught by traditionally certified 1st-year teachers, according to student achievement in mathematics, specifically Algebra I. (Contains 5 tables, 1 figure and 3 notes.)

Nationwide, the increased interest in teacher quality has been "the" topic of debate for educational policymakers, leading to a research focus on teacher certification. With the proliferation of alternative routes to teacher licensure, there is growing controversy surrounding the manner in which teachers are trained to obtain the level of quality required by state mandates and NCLB guidelines. A continuing debate addresses an essential question: Which teacher preparation programs best prepare future educators for the challenges of instructing students in their core subject classes--those grounded in the conceptual framework of traditional college teacher preparation and/or those guided by the premises of alternative teacher preparation programs? In response, an alternative route to teacher licensure program, a particular Transition to Teaching partnership, was reviewed. A descriptive portrayal, this report unfolds in five sections: first, scholarship that has previously addressed and assessed teacher preparation work through alternative routes to teacher licensure in K-12 settings; second, a description of the Newport News Public Schools and Old Dominion University partnership; third, the case study method; fourth, programmatic features that depict a competency-driven program for newly hired teachers on an alternative route to teacher licensure; and last, assertions that predict both the viability and sustainability of alternate routes to teacher licensure nurtured within urban school-university partnerships.

This article explores the question of how engaging in teacher inquiry within the context of a school-university partnership influences teachers' use of technology to enhance student learning. While striving to meet the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) and performance indicators for teachers (Information Society for Technology in Education, 2000b) and students (Information Society for Technology in Education, 2000a), classroom teachers need to be supported in their efforts to infuse technology into curricula and classroom practice. Such a mammoth undertaking demands a process of job-embedded staff development.

Examines the phenomenon of supervision in the professional development school context from the perspective of six student interns and one university supervisor using interviews, field notes, and document analysis. (Contains 32 references.) (PKP)

Describes an urban school-university partnership that explored how teams of teacher educators and inservice and preservice teachers developed curriculum supporting their own and their students' work-based learning experiences, presenting: study methodology, scholarship that previously addressed school- university work in urban partnerships, principles supporting contextual teaching and learning framework, and development of one partnership.(SM)