Access to Cigarettes by Daily Smokers in Florida's Public Middle Schools and High Schools

This article examines how controlling statistically for baseline covariates, especially pretests, improves the precision of studies that randomize schools to measure the impacts of educational interventions on student achievement. Empirical findings from five urban school districts indicate that (1) pretests can reduce the number of randomized schools needed for a given level of precision to about half of what would be needed otherwise for elementary schools, one fifth for middle schools, and one tenth for high schools, and (2) school-level pretests are as effective in this regard as student-level pretests. Furthermore, the precision-enhancing power of pretests (3) declines only slightly as the number of years between the pretest and posttests increases; (4) improves only slightly with pretests for more than 1 baseline year; and (5) is substantial, even when the pretest differs from the posttest. The article compares these findings with past research and presents an approach for quantifying their uncertainty.

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Methods to Decrease Attrition in Longitudinal Studies with Adolescents

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.2000.87.1.139 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 87 (1) ◽

pp. 139-140 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Jennifer A. Epstein ◽

Gilbert J. Botvin

Keyword(s):

High Schools ◽

Data Collection ◽

Middle Schools ◽

Longitudinal Studies ◽

Junior High ◽

Junior High Schools ◽

School Based ◽

Contact Information

A summary of methods to decrease attrition in longitudinal school-based studies conducted with adolescents beginning junior high schools or middle schools is presented. These include collection of contact information about students, additional days to collect data from absentee students, data collection in new high schools once students graduate from junior high schools or middle schools, sending questionnaires by mail, and conducting telephone or home interviews.

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Intense Teaching Schedule in Israeli Teachers

Athens Journal of Education ◽

10.30958/aje.8-3-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 329-348

Author(s):

Yaffa Buskila ◽

Tamar Chen-Levi

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

Middle School ◽

High Schools ◽

Middle Schools ◽

Primary School ◽

Middle School Teachers ◽

Primary Schools ◽

School Teachers ◽

The Third ◽

Student Achievements

The teaching profession is highly stressful. Stress is a negative phenomenon that develops under conditions of uncontrollable, prolonged and increased pressure. In this study, our goal is (a) to investigate teachers' perception of the sources of stress in school in light of the neoliberal reforms and (b) to compare these sources of stress in primary school, middle school and high school teachers. We hypothesize that the demands and the workload to improve scores in standardized tests, increase the need of teachers to take work home. Therefore, home demands may conflict with school demands. Furthermore, the greatest pressure is on elementary and middle school teachers: Early efforts to improve student achievements in the lower grades would result in better-prepared students in high schools. Data about the sources of stress is based on a previous study of Buskila, Buskila, Giris and Ablin (2019) that investigated the connection between the effects of stress on teachers on somatic syndromes. Three hundred and twenty-one public school teachers working in the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Israel participated in the study. Findings of the mean of the entire samples revealed that the highest level of stress was caused by intense teaching schedule with insufficient breaks. The second cause was related to the composition of the students in the class, and the third was home demands conflicting with school demands. In the middle schools, the highest levels of stress are caused by school principals (M=5.98, SD=3.09) and second is in high school (M=5.00, SD=3.33). The highest level of stress caused by the superintendent is on primary school teachers (M=3.97, SD=3.33) and the second are the middle school teachers (M=3.79, SD = 2.95). The lowest stress level was in high school (M=2.68, SD=2.83). Three significance differences of stress were found among primary, middle, and high schools: The school principal is the highest source of pressure in the middle schools (P=.034), and the superintendent causes the highest level of stress in primary schools (P=.006). The third cause was in high school, related to physical school conditions (p=.002). These results are relevant to teachers, educators, and policy makers involved in planning and managing educational strategies and teachers’ schedules. Identifying and preventing the sources of stress can facilitate better teaching conditions, and a more effective and efficient atmosphere in school. Keywords: Stress at school, teachers' stress, causes of stress in school

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Interdisciplinary STEM through Engineering Design-based Reasoning

International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP) ◽

10.3991/ijep.v8i3.8026 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 60

Author(s):

Robert Mayes ◽

Bryon Gallant ◽

Emma Fettes

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

High Schools ◽

Middle Schools ◽

Engineering Design ◽

Learning Outcomes ◽

21St Century ◽

Teaching Practices ◽

The Real ◽

Reasoning Abilities ◽

Stem Programs

Interdisciplinary STEM programs are in demand for United States middle schools (ages 11 to 13 years) and high schools (ages 14 to 18). The Real STEM Project collaborated with 12 schools to develop and implement such programs. We open with a description of the project, including the 21st century STEM reasoning abilities that were proposed as learning outcomes for the STEM programs. We then focus on one of the five reasoning abilities, engineering design-based reasoning, since engineering often serves as a driver for STEM programs. An exemplar of engineering design as a driver for STEM from one of the participating teacher’s classrooms is provided, and a summary of teaching practices supporting interdisciplinary STEM is drawn from the example.

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Violence and Bullying Incidents Reported by School Counselors: The Efficacy of Counselors and Preventive and Interventional Approaches

European Scientific Journal ESJ ◽

10.19044/esj.2016.v12n28p77 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 12 (28) ◽

pp. 77

Author(s):

Zeynep Deniz Yondem

Keyword(s):

High Schools ◽

Middle Schools ◽

Family Violence ◽

School Counselors ◽

Mixed Method ◽

High Frequency ◽

School Personnel ◽

Perceived Efficacy ◽

Physical Bullying

This study aims to determine the frequency of violence and bullying reported by Turkish school counselors and examines their perceived efficacy and preventive and interventional approaches using a qualitative/quantitative mixed method. Counselors reported the high frequency of different violent incidents (occurring between students, inflicted by families and inflicted by teachers) as recorded or in particular non-recorded. The frequency of family violence is higher in middle schools than high schools. All bullying frequency sub-types were high, physical bullying especially so. The frequency of physical, verbal and sexual bullying was significantly higher in middle schools. Trained and untrained counselors do not perceive efficacy as sufficient; they applied limited preventive and interventional studies, focusing on students rather than families or school personnel.

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