Almost 70 years after Abraham Harold Maslow suggested in his 1943 work, "A Theory of Human Emotion", a child's need to feel safe in order to thrive (Maslow, 1943), educational communities, still embracing his insight, find themselves continuing to grapple with how to keep children safe-from one another. The bulk of educational research focused on…

Results of the 2009 "Monitoring the Future" (MTF) study document the disturbing prevalence among teens of abuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs. The data show, for example, that seven of the substances most commonly abused by high school seniors are pharmaceuticals. Many parents believe they are powerless to influence their teens.…

There is a need for more effective assessment and primary prevention programs aimed at accurately measuring and reducing alcohol consumption among women before conception in underserved, high-risk populations. Health Information Technology (HIT) may serve this purpose; however, the effectiveness of such tools is not known. We conducted a…

"Fundations"[R] is a prevention and early-intervention program designed to help reduce reading and spelling failure. The program is aimed at students in grades K-3 and involves daily 30-minute lessons which focus on carefully-sequenced skills that include print knowledge, alphabet awareness, phonological awareness, phonemic awareness,…

The purpose of this article is to review the literature exploring various definitions of civility, along with reasons why civility is vital to children and adolescents in any community. The authors examine definitions and components of civility in both historical and current contexts. The need for increased civility in modern society is described.…

A 2010 report from Campus Pride called "State of Higher Education for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender People" is the most comprehensive national research study of its kind to date. It documents experiences of more than 5,000 students, faculty members, staff members, and administrators who identify as LGBTQQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual,…

Recent studies indicate that school districts are facing increasing rates of principal turnover. Frequent principal changes deprive schools of the leadership stability they need to succeed, disrupt long-term school reform efforts, and may even be linked to increased teacher turnover and lower levels of student achievement. This Information Capsule…

Austin Independent School District (AISD) provided summer programs in 2010 for students to accelerate academic learning, maintain academic skills between school years, recover course credits, retake state achievement tests, or experience school-level transition activities. This is a research brief, and a separate full report also was published.…

This article describes the results of a research project designed to assess the efficacy of a secondary transition model, RENEW (Rehabilitation, Empowerment, Natural supports, Education and Work), on the social and emotional functioning of 20 youth at risk of dropping out of high school using the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale…

There has been limited research on the protective factors that help Latinas delay childbearing until adulthood. In-depth interviews were conducted with 65 pregnant Latina teenage and adult women in California who were about to have their first child. Lack of or inconsistent birth control use as teens was attributed to wanting or ambivalence toward…

Background: The involvement of school-age children in participatory research is described in the context of a school district-university partnership to prevent obesity in children. The purpose of this study was to elicit, from children in kindergarten (K) through sixth grade, perceptions of foods and activities that would inform the design of…

Background: Competitive foods and beverages are available on most US school campuses. States and school districts are adopting nutrition standards to regulate these products, but few studies have reported on the extent to which schools are able to adhere to competitive regulations. The purpose of this study was to describe the extent to which…

Despite recent research suggesting that relationally aggressive behaviors occur frequently and may lead to physically aggressive actions within urban school settings, there has been little prior research to develop and evaluate relational aggression prevention efforts within the urban schools. The current article describes the development and…

Setting-level norms are typically measured by using the mean of individual reports. Investigating norms for nonviolent problem solving, this study assessed the added value of two additional characteristics: the range of acceptable behaviors and the degree of consensus among individuals in each setting. Using data from 5,386 participants in a…

Although basic math skill deficits are commonly encountered across elementary and secondary school students, few empirically validated, group-administered interventions are available for educators attempting to prevent or remedy such problems. This study compared the effectiveness of two theoretically distinct interventions for improving the…