Dating violence is a form of student-on-student victimization and is a serious school safety issue. Research indicates that at a minimum, 10 percent of high school students are victims of dating violence in one form or another. Among female high school students that date, some data indicate that as many as 30 percent may be victims of dating…

School leaders must be fully prepared to respond to all types of threats that occur. In order to respond to threats most appropriately, the school needs to have a systematic approach that combines education, prevention, intervention, discipline, security, and crisis preparedness measures. All threats must be assessed carefully and swiftly,…

An integral part of the school experience for many students is involvement in extracurricular activities such as athletics, cheerleading, band, and others. Likewise, cocurricular activities, such as field trips, provide a chance for students to connect off-campus experiences to the material learned in the classroom. These types of activities,…

The school resource officer (SRO) program began in the United States in the early to mid-1950s, however, the program did not gain prominence until the 1990s in response to various school shootings. According to national data, SROs can be found in 35 percent of school across America, regardless of level (elementary, middle, or high school),…

In response to questions related to school safety, in the 1990s the school resource officer (SRO) program gained prominence as an effective intervention strategy. Despite the widespread utilization of SROs in America's public schools, there exists a lack of meaningful research related to practices and effectiveness of SRO programs. A school…

Sexual minority students (most often gay, lesbian, or bisexual, but including anyone who does not or is perceived to not fit the common heterosexual stereotype) often face ongoing bullying and harassment in schools that goes unstopped by faculty or administration. These students suffer academically, emotionally, and physically as a direct result…

English language learners (ELLs) are the most rapidly growing student population in U.S. elementary and secondary schools, and this growth rate will continue throughout the next few decades. Indirect evidence has suggested that the youth population that grows the fastest has the highest risk of dropping out of school. This article reviews the…

Many students experience a personally significant loss of some nature during the school year. While some losses may appear trivial to adults, other losses are life-changing, such as the death of a loved one, and, compounded by normative developmental changes and transitions, may negatively impact students' emotional well-being, behavior, and…

Academic self-efficacy contributes to students' motivation and persistence for learning. However, motivation for reading and learning, and students' self-efficacy in school often declines in adolescence. This manuscript presents research-based strategies for facilitating students' motivations within the context of language arts classes.

In this article the authors make a case for videoconferencing as a way to diversify middle and secondary classrooms. Through a description of the setup of a videoconference between American pre-service teachers and Moroccan undergraduates, the authors attempt to demystify the use of videoconferencing in middle and secondary education. The authors…

A challenge that language teachers face is meeting state and national standards while implementing sound methods and techniques. The authors addressed this challenge in a qualitative study of an eighth-grade exploratory French class where students were engaged in a variety of projects to enhance the learning of francophone language and culture.…

If teacher educators are to be effective, they must be sure that their own professional house is in order. To that end, effective teacher educators must be absolutely clear about their professional mission. In addition, they must also have the appropriate background and training to be effective in their mission. Further, they must bridge the chasm…

The purpose of this study was to document and compare rates of reported and perceived crime and violence within schools. With highly publicized acts of school violence prevalent in the minds of the American public, there is a perception that schools are unsafe. Reports of school crime and violence from teachers, administrators, and students differ…

In this article we draw parallels between defined critical features of response-to-intervention (RTI) and the mastery learning approach described in the general education literature by Benjamin S. Bloom. We posit that these two processes include many common elements but that each incorporates unique elements that could potentially complement and…

Identifying English language learners (ELLs) with learning disabilities has become very important in education settings so that appropriate educational services can be provided to this group of students. Linguistic diversity may increase the measurement error and reduce the reliability of assessments. This article discusses the issues with…