The environment shapes the foundation of healthy development and learning. The aim of this colloquium is to share the authors' recent research efforts to center children as necessary codesign partners in their built learning environments. To do this, the authors believe that it is important to reposition preschool inclusion as a bottom-up, or…

Communication theory can be challenging to teach in an engaging manner. The following original teaching activity suggests a way to incorporate the phenomenon of escape rooms into your theory classroom. Courses: Communication Theory, Introduction to Communication. Objectives: In this activity, students will apply the basic tenets of several…

Background: An emphasis on meaningfulness may facilitate the types of experiences that are more likely to lead children towards a commitment to physical activity participation in ways that enrich the quality of their lives. While several authors have highlighted the importance of prioritising meaningfulness, direction is lacking on how teachers…

Schools are communities of learning, where learning goes beyond academic work and includes a clear focus on communication, collaboration, and empowerment.

How our schools are structured plays an important role in facilitating innovation. Transforming the field to best benefit students depends upon an organizational evolution.

Award-winning educator Tina M. Owen-Moore details the beliefs and practices that made the Alliance School of Milwaukee the focus of national attention as the first school to open with the mission of being bully-free. "The Alliance Way" illustrates how creating a safe, inclusive, and academically challenging environment goes beyond a…

Community-university partnerships create opportunities for researchers and practitioners to collaborate on the implementation and measurement of innovative consultation frameworks, and to explore the role of consultant competencies in working with school leadership teams. The purpose of this article is to introduce an empirically based approach,…

School autonomy is popular but also complex and sometimes contentious. Many education systems have increased schools' autonomy in the hope of achieving greater efficiency and closer adaptation to local needs. In some countries, however, increased autonomy has led to greater pressure on schools and local stakeholders. To be successful, school…

A sense of belonging and wellbeing at school influences educational and health outcomes. Here we widen the traditional focus of Assessment News to focus on the use of student wellbeing data in schools. We discuss the Wellbeing@ School (W@S) toolkit that is freely available to support schools to self-review as they examine and monitor student…

Improving school climate takes time and commitment from a variety of people in a variety of roles. This document outlines key action steps to engage students in the school climate improvement process. Key action steps are provided for the following strategies: (1) Participate in planning for school climate improvements; (2) Engage stakeholders in…

Too many students still experience the factory model evident in most U.S. high schools, which were designed to put young people on a conveyor belt and move them from one overloaded teacher to the next, in 45-minute increments, to be stamped with separate, disconnected lessons 7 or 8 times a day. While these factory-model designs may have worked…

Supporting students who are trans and nonbinary is essential work. Students in this population are at high risk for mental health and academic problems. Until trans and nonbinary students can express their individuality on their terms, school psychologists must continue to advocate for their rights and seek to support school staff in providing a…

Traditionally, schools have often made decisions about instruction, discipline, and other schoolwide policies without youth involvement. And yet, research suggests that when students have choice, control, and leadership opportunities, their motivation and engagement increase, which in turn is linked with better educational outcomes. This new guide…

Community schools have gained attention as mechanisms to bring about equitable access to high-quality educational resources, extended learning time and opportunities, integrated student supports, and collaborative engaging relationships with parents and communities. In order to effectively create conditions that provide equitable access to such…

School climate research is clearly evolving. The field demands rigorous and empirically sound research that focuses on relating specific aspects and activities of interventions to changes in specific components of school climate. We also need empirical evidence based on sound research techniques on how both interventions and climate affect…