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The purpose of this study is to examine the relative impact of achievement press on student success in elementary schools in the Southwestern USA.

Data from individual teacher assessments and student achievement tests are collected and aggregated at the campus level. Hierarchical linear modeling is utilized to calculate the Intra Class Correlation (ICC), then campus level scores for achievement press (along with control variables) are regressed on school success indicators in order to determine the relative impact of achievement press on various levels of school attainment.

The results of these analyses demonstrate that achievement press made a statistically significant independent contribution to school success, both near term (one year) and longitudinally (over three years).

Via the use of a reliable and valid diagnostic tool, this investigation adds to the extant literature on school climate, achievement, and school effectiveness.

This study provides important information for educational leaders interested in improving both school climate and student achievement. Practical concerns about socioeconomic status and administrator longevity are also addressed.

This research validates the usefulness of achievement press as a concise multi‐level school climate measure. To that end, this study both demonstrates that achievement press makes an impact on school level success and adds to a growing body of literature connecting specific campus climate variables directly to student achievement.

This research aims to add to the literature on Academic Optimism, a composite measure composed of teacher perceptions of trust in students, academic press, and collective efficacy by exploring a similar set of constructs from the student perceptive. The relationships between student trust in teachers, student perceptions of academic press, and student identification with school were examined as well as how they were individually and collectively related to student achievement in the schools in an urban school district.

This study assessed the perceptions of students in 49 elementary, middle, and high schools in one urban district. The measures used included the Student Trust in Teachers Survey (Adams and Forsyth), the Identification with School Questionnaire (Voelkl), and an adaptation of Academic Press (Hoy, Hannum and Tschannen‐Moran). Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to explore whether these three observed variables would form a latent variable called Student Academic Optimism. Finally, the relationship of Academic Optimism to student achievement, controlling for SES, was examined using SEM.

Strong and significant relationships were found between all three of the observed variables. A CFA analysis confirmed that they formed a latent variable the authors called Student Academic Optimism. Student Academic Optimism had a significant direct effect on student achievement (b=0.73, p<0.01) while SES (percent of students eligible for the free and reduced lunch program) had a significant negative effect on student achievement (b=−0.37, p<0.01). Together student academic optimism and SES explained 67 percent of the variance in student achievement with student academic optimism making the largest contribution to the explanation.

The findings that Student Academic Optimism was unrelated to SES and that Student Academic Optimism has a significant effect on achievement over and above the effects of SES and student demographic characteristics leads the authors to consider the possibility that SES may not be as influential as once thought when other conditions of the school environment are taken into consideration.

This study makes a unique contribution to the literature by focusing on the perspectives of students and by linking the measures of three important dynamics within schools to form a new construct: Student Academic Optimism.

The aim of this study was two‐fold: to demonstrate a general construct of schools called academic optimism and to show it was related to student achievement in urban elementary schools, even controlling for socioeconomic factors, and school size.

Data were collected from 99 urban elementary schools in Texas and multiple regression and factor analyses were used to test a series of hypotheses guiding the inquiry.

The major hypotheses of the study were supported; academic optimism was a second‐order construct comprised of collective efficacy, faculty trust, and academic optimism. Moreover, academic optimism is a school characteristic that predicts student achievement even controlling for socioeconomic status.

The results support Bandura's social cognitive theory, Coleman's social capital theory, Hoy and Tarter's work on organizational climate, and demonstrate the existence of a cultural property of schools called academic optimism. Further, the findings have practical implications for developing strategies to improve the academic performance of urban schools.

The findings demonstrate the existence of a new collective construct, academic optimism, which has the potential to help improve the effectiveness of schools.

Are the effects of school size transmitted in measurable quantities to the personalities of pupils? Having argued that the learning environments of small and large schools could differ in predictable ways, the authors examined the effects of these differences on the personality development of pupils. Multiple regression analysis revealed the effects of school size to be reflected in only two of eight personality outcomes — sense of cohesion and concern for persons. Two variables — attitude towards school and fear of failure — are regarded as “not proven” and four variables — functional identity, sense of internal control over events, breadth of role constructs, and cognitive complexity showed no evidence of the effects of school size.

Inclusive organizations believe in integrating all toward synergistic outcomes. However, the extent to which inclusive education plays their role toward inclusive organizations requires more explorations. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical model exploring authentic leadership (AL) as a predictor of inclusive organization in an Indian school context.

The paper theoretically develops a model to explore and establish inclusive classroom (IC) settings in emerging nations.

The study further provides academic optimism (AO), a latent term comprising collective efficacy, faculty trust and academic emphasis as its dimensions to intervene the linkage between AL and IC. Since teaching pedagogies help teachers to express their real intentions, this study also posits art-based innovation pedagogy as a future-oriented art pedagogy to strengthen the effect of teachers’ AO on IC.

This study will benefit the practitioners and academicians to re-design their policies and practices in developing nation education system.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships among faculty trust in the principal, principal leadership behaviors, school climate, and student achievement.

Data from 64 elementary, middle, and high schools in two school districts formed the basis of the study (n=3,215 teachers), allowing for correlational and regression analyses of the variables.

The authors found that faculty trust in the principal was related to perceptions of both collegial and instructional leadership, as well as to factors of school climate such as teacher professionalism, academic press, and community engagement. Student achievement was also correlated with trust, principal leadership behaviors, and school climate. The authors found that both of the composite variables, principal behaviors and school climate, made significant independent contributions to explaining variance in student achievement and that together they explained 75 percent of the variance in achievement.

Limitations of the study include the use of a single form to collect participants’ responses that may have elevated the degree of correlations, as well as the exclusion of rural schools from the sample.

The findings of this study suggest that principals must foster and maintain trust in order to lead schools effectively. Importantly, trust has both interpersonal and task-oriented dimensions. Thus, principals must be prepared to engage collegially with teachers in ways that are consistently honest, open, and benevolent, while also dependably demonstrating sound knowledge and competent decision making associated with administering academic programs.

Situated in a conceptual framework of systems theory, this study explored the interplay of faculty trust in the principal, principal behavior, school climate, and student achievement. The findings suggest that it is necessary for principals to evidence both interpersonal and task-oriented behaviors in order to be trusted by teachers. Furthermore, the strength of the relationships suggests that schools will not be successful in fostering student learning without trustworthy school leaders who are skillful in cultivating academic press, teacher professionalism, and community engagement in their schools.

A growing body of research connecting the quality of school facilities to student performance accompanies recent efforts to improve the state of the educational infrastructure in the USA. Less is known about the mechanisms of these relationships. This paper seeks to examine the proposition that part of the explanation may be the mediating influence of school climate.

Teachers from 80 Virginia middle schools were surveyed employing measures including the School Climate Index, a seven‐item quality of school facilities scale, as well as three resource support items. Data on student SES and achievement were also gathered. Bivariate correlational analysis was used to explore the relationships between the quality of facilities, resource support, school climate, student SES, and student achievement. In addition, multiple regression was used to test school climate as a mediating variable between the quality of facilities and student achievement.

Results confirmed a link between the quality of school facilities and student achievement in English and mathematics. As well, quality facilities were significantly positively related to three school climate variables. Finally, results confirmed the hypothesis that school climate plays a mediating role in the relationship between facility quality and student achievement.

As we face fundamental issues of equity across schools and districts, leaders struggle to convince taxpayers of the need to invest in replacing and/or renovating inadequate facilities. Deeper understandings of the complicated interplay between the physical and social environments of school, and how these dynamics influence student outcomes, may help educators build a compelling case.

This paper presents the findings of a nation‐wide survey in the USA of the organizational environment, or climate, of UCEA affiliated preparation programs in educational administration. A factor structure extracted from the responses of 202 professors is described along with a data analysis of the forty‐two institutions they represent. Implications to program development are also made based on an analysis of variance among the participating institutions. This research was supported in part by the School of Education, New York University, and the Staff Affiliate Program of UCEA.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between high school students' curricular positions, their perceptions of the quality of their teachers, and school academic process variables on students' growth rates and ending achievement in mathematics and science.

Multilevel latent curve modeling is used to examine students' growth trajectories using the National Longitudinal Educational Study data.

Within schools, both student curricular positions and perceptions of teacher quality affect growth and achievement. More positive student perceptions of their teachers ascending across course profiles are found. The effects of perceived teacher quality on growth rates and ending achievement, however, are more consequential for students in weaker academic profiles than in stronger profiles. Between schools, academic process variables also influence outcomes. For example, individuals in schools where students collectively pursue more math and science have significantly higher growth rates than individuals in schools where lower percentages of students take these courses.

The paper's measures of teacher quality and curricular differentiation only serve as proxy measures for more thorough information that can be collected about within‐school teacher and curricular processes.

The results imply that efforts to increase student achievement will have to attack individual (e.g. poverty; early educational experiences; and course taking) and organizational (i.e. school structural redesign, curricular, and instructional processes) fronts simultaneously.

This paper extends the discussion of how internal curricular differentiation and student perceptions about teacher quality may intersect to influence student growth trajectories within and between schools.