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The intent behind this study was to understand how school principals might work through teachers to engender better trusting teacher-student relationships, particularly in high poverty, high minority schools. Three research questions were advanced for the empirical investigation: (1) What is the relationship between school social composition (e.g. FRL rate and percent students of color) and teacher trust in students? (2) Does Principal Support of Student Psychological Needs moderate the relationship between school composition and teacher trust in students? (3) Do other leadership practices, such as transformational leadership and teacher evaluation, influence teacher trust in students? [Note: The issue number (2) shown in the citation on the PDF is incorrect. The correct issue number is 1.]

In this conceptual paper, we advance Transformative Leadership Conversation as a form of dialogue that relies on shared meaning-making to activate the motivational energy within people to transform social structures that impede aspirational realities. Transformative Leadership Conversation leverages the most commonly available resource for leaders--conversation--to approach transformation as a process that begins within individuals and moves outward to the relational context where actions and interactions define social structures. There are two interdependent parts to the paper: a conceptual definition and a theory of action. The conceptual definition describes TLC and situates its components in the social and psychological processes that drive transformation. The theory of action advances a simple framework for how leaders might engage TLC across different contexts and situations.

National data on student disengagement show a pervasive trend that currently makes this phenomenon one of the biggest challenges faced by teachers worldwide. Much research on student disengagement examines the problem through an indirect framework in which deficiencies in positive social conditions or psychological states are tested as predictors of disengagement. This study uses a different lens by examining how "negative" student-teacher interactions differentially predict disengagement in adolescent students. Using self-determination theory, this study advances two hypotheses: H1, student perception of psychological need thwarting will have a stronger relationship with student disengagement than student perception of the lack of need support, and H2, the relationship between student perceived psychological need thwarting and student disengagement will be mediated by psychological need frustration. With data from 4694 students, ex post facto study findings confirmed the anticipated increased variance in disengagement when testing negative student-teacher interactions. Further, the hypothesized mediating effect of psychological need frustration was supported.

Over the years, research examining student psychological ill-being has sought to explain this phenomenon based on the influences of conditions that students bring into the school environment. This study uses a different lens by directly examining how school relational conditions might be associated with psychological ill-being in students. Using the framework of Self-Determination Theory and data from 2522 US public school students, findings from this study revealed that both faculty and peer relational conditions were significantly associated with psychological need frustration, which was used as the marker for student psychological ill-being. Further, students with free-reduced lunch status reported experiencing need frustration more than their counterparts with non-free-reduced lunch status. Need frustration at the school level was also found to be associated with differences in student perceptions of school relational conditions. Collectively, findings from this study provide potentially useful directions for school practitioners and other educational stakeholders by extracting valuable markers for managing the challenge of student psychological ill-being within the school environment.

The purpose of this study was to (1) examine the relationship between instructional program coherence (IPC) and teacher intent to leave; and (2) investigate teacher psychological need satisfaction as a mediator in this relationship. HLM was used to test the hypotheses. As predicted, school differences in teacher intent to leave their school were related to teacher perceptions of IPC. Teacher autonomy and relatedness mediated the relationship between IPC and teacher intent to leave, while teacher competence satisfaction did not. Results suggest that the way school leaders organize the instructional environment has implications for teacher well-being and retention.

This study tested the relationship between Principal Support of Teacher Psychological Needs (PSTPN) and a need-supportive instructional climate. Evidence on social contagion was used to advance three hypotheses: "PSTP is associated with school differences in student reported autonomy-support, competence-support, and relational-support; A climate of teacher psychological safety mediates the relationship between PSTPN and student reported autonomy-support, competence-support, and relational-support; A climate of organizational commitment mediates the relationship between PSTPN and student reported autonomy-support, competence-support, and relational-support." Hypotheses were tested in a sample of teachers and students from 93 urban schools in a southwestern state of the US.

Oklahoma is one of 16 states electing to use an A-F letter grade as an indicator of school quality. On the surface, letter grades are an attractive policy instrument for school improvement; they are seemingly clear, simple, and easy to interpret. Evidence, however, on the use of letter grades as an instrument to rank and improve schools is scant at best. We address the gap in the literature by using student test scores to evaluate the use of Oklahoma's A-F grades as a school quality indicator. Achievement differences between letter grades were small and in most cases not statistically significant when student and school characteristics were held constant. School grades did not reveal large achievement gaps in the highest ranked schools. Additionally, free/reduced lunch and minority students in D and F schools outperformed peers in A and B schools.

Trust effects between internal school actors (e.g., teachers, students, administrators, parents) are well established in the literature, but less evidence exists about trust in district administration, leading to the question addressed in this study: Does teacher trust in district administration operate in a similar way as other trust forms? The study begins by situating trust within district leadership literature. A definition of trust in district administration is then advanced and its nature explained. From here, evidence on trust effects and self-determination theory are used to advance a hypothesized model that is tested in the empirical analysis. Results support the theory that trust in district administration may function as a relational support for teachers.

Purpose: Limited attention to messages transmitted between principals and teachers led to the general question for this study: is principal support of student psychological needs related to functional social conditions within the instructional core? Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to define principal support of student psychological needs and explain its leadership function through the lens of conversation theory. Without much empirical evidence to draw from, a theoretical argument for how principal support of student psychological needs might influence the features of the teaching and learning environment is advanced then tested empirically. Design/methodology/approach: Hypotheses were tested using a non-experimental, correlational research design based on "ex-post facto" data collected from teachers and students in 93 schools in a metropolitan city of the USA. Data were collected in the spring of 2017 from randomly sampled teachers and students in the 93 schools. Usable responses were received from 1,168 teachers, yielding a response rate of 66 percent. A total of 4,523 students received surveys and usable responses were received from 3,301, yielding a response rate of 73 percent. Multi-level modeling was used to analyze the data. Findings: Principal support of student psychological needs was related to school-level differences in faculty trust in students, collective teacher efficacy and student perceived autonomy support. Leadership practices surrounding professional development and instructional coherence had moderately strong, positive relationships with the outcome variables; however, the strength of these relationships diminished when principal support was included in the analysis. Originality/value: The argument in this study proposes that principal-teacher conversations enhance leadership practices and support a vibrant and engaging instructional core when intentional messages build mental representations that enable teachers to understand sources of optimal student growth. Such use of conversation extends the functionality of principal-teacher interactions beyond that of teacher control and toward an ongoing sense-making and learning process.

The purpose of this study was to explore sustainability of social conditions and achievement outcomes in six full-service community schools (FSCSs) in two districts (Tulsa and Union Public Schools) associated with the Tulsa Area Community Schools Initiative (TACSI). Three questions guided the inquiry: How has TACSI changed over the last 9 years? Have the six TACSI FSCSs in Tulsa and Union maintained strong conditions for learning compared to non-TACSI schools? Have the six TACSI FSCSs in Tulsa and Union maintained better achievement outcomes compared to non-TACSI schools? Findings suggest that FSCSs cannot be separated from the larger district context in which they are embedded. Differences in FSCS implementation and outcomes were visible as the TACSI network expanded, as district priorities shifted, and as leadership changed. Implications of these findings for educational reform, generally, and FSCSs, specifically, are discussed.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to define student learning capacity and to examine the role of the school principal in nurturing it. Method: The study used cross-sectional data from 3,175 students in 70 schools located in a metropolitan area of a Southwestern city. We tested three hypotheses by following a conventional modeling building process in HLM 7.0: "Hypothesis 1"--Principal Support for Student Psychological Needs (PSSPN) is related to school differences in student-perceived autonomy-support; "Hypothesis 2"--PSSPN is related to school differences in student-perceived competence-support; "Hypothesis 3"--Student-perceived need-support mediates the relationship between PSSPN and grit. Results: Evidence aligns with our initial theorizing about student learning capacity and principal support for student psychological needs. Student-perceived need-support, as a social characteristic of capacity, manifests itself through teacher-student interactions in the learning process. Need-supporting interactions varied significantly across schools, and principals played a critical role in developing an instructional environment that students experienced as nurturing autonomy and competence. Implications: PSSPN highlights the transformative effects that regular principal-teacher social exchanges can have on instructional practices. School principals who interacted with teachers about student psychological needs and need-supporting instructional practices contributed to a learning environment that students experienced as autonomy-supporting and competence-supporting.

This study tested the theoretical argument that psychological need-supportive conversation functions as a protective factor against teacher burnout by satisfying teacher psychological needs. The empirical test was conducted with a sample of 263 teachers from a medium sized urban school district in a Southwestern city. Need-supportive conversation had an indirect effect on teacher burnout through teacher psychological needs. Results support the role of need-supportive conversation in lessening the extent to which teachers experience emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced accomplishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite devotion of substantial resources and effort to increase parent/school partnerships, gaps remain between policy rhetoric and practice, especially in high-poverty communities. Current research focuses on parent involvement or effects of parent motivational beliefs on parent choice for behavior; however, it does not address the formation of beliefs or social factors that influence parent motivation to become involved. To gain a better understanding of factors that influence parent motivational beliefs, we examined the effects of parent social network, school outreach, and neighborhood health on parent role construction and parent efficacy in an urban school district. Method/Analysis: Survey data were collected from a random sample of 30 fifth-grade parents from 56 elementary schools in a large urban district in the Midwest. Using a partially latent structural regression model, we tested the relationships between school outreach, neighborhood health, parent social network, and parent motivational beliefs. Findings: The theoretical specification of the hypothesized model was observed in the pattern of the relationships among school outreach, neighborhood health, parent network, and parent motivational beliefs. Results: The results of the structural model confirm the association between parent social network and parent motivational beliefs. Combined parent social network and school outreach accounted for 10% of the variance in parent motivational beliefs. Implications for Research and Practice: Results from this study provide a different lens through which to view parent-school partnerships. Understanding parents as social actors whose perceptions are influenced through connections with other parents can help schools facilitate motivational beliefs that lead to effective partnerships.

Purpose: We set out in this study to establish a foundation for a line of inquiry around teacher trust in district administration by (1) describing the role of trust in capacity building, (2) conceptualizing trust in district administration, (3) developing a scale to measure teacher trust in district administration, and (4) testing the relationship between district trust and teacher commitment. Method: Teachers were the unit of analysis. Data were collected from a sample of teachers in one urban school district. Construct validity was assessed by examining content, structural, and convergent validity of the scale. A fully latent structural equation model was used to test the relationship between teacher trust in district administration and teacher commitment. Results: This study makes a strong case for developing a line of research on teacher trust in district administration. It establishes a good measure to use in future research, and it provides initial evidence showing that teacher beliefs are sensitive to the actions of district administrators. Implications: A valid and reliable measure can be used by researchers to study systematically the formation and effects of teacher trust in district administration. Accurate information on district trust also allows central office leaders to formatively assess the capacity of the school system to accomplish reform objectives at scale.

This essay is in response to the need for schools to move from crisis to adaptation. The essay is informed by the question: how might school leaders use conversation to effectively engage adaptation? Adaptation is about transforming systems. We find that with adaptation as the aim, Transformative Leadership Conversation can be used to guide schools from crisis response to adaptation. The essay lays out suggestions in a theory of action for how school leaders can use conversation to move from crisis to adaptation. These suggestions include the use of framing, questioning, and listening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study contributes to the development of a positive framework for effective public schools in 2 ways. First, it advances the construct self-regulatory climate as consisting of 3 generative school norms--collective faculty trust in students, collective student trust in teachers, and student-perceived academic emphasis. The authors argue these norms signal a school climate supportive of student psychological needs. Second, they test the predictive validity of self-regulatory climate by empirically examining its relationship with school performance. Results of structural equation modeling support the theory that collective faculty trust in students, collective student trust in teachers, and student-perceived academic emphasis combine to form a self-regulatory climate that has positive consequences for urban school performance.

Family-school partnerships are difficult to initiate and sustain in ways that actually promote student learning, especially in high-poverty communities. This quantitative study was designed to better understand how social forces shape parent responsibility in education. Based on social cognitive theory as the conceptual framework, the relationships between parent responsibility and two types of parent social networks were tested according to a partially latent structural equation model. Findings indicate limited contact among parents in schools and a positive, statistically significant relationship between both types of networks and parent responsibility.

The purpose of this study was to 1) examine the relationship between instructional program coherence (IPC) and teacher intent to leave; and 2) investigate teacher psychological need satisfaction as a mediator in this relationship. HLM was used to test the hypotheses. As predicted, school differences in teacher intent to leave their school were related to teacher perceptions of IPC. Teacher autonomy and relatedness mediated the relationship between IPC and teacher intent to leave, while teacher competence satisfaction did not. Results suggest that the way school leaders organize the instructional environment has implications for teacher well-being and retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this conceptual paper, we advance Transformative Leadership Conversation as a form of dialogue that relies on shared meaning-making to activate the motivational energy within people to transform social structures that impede aspirational realities. Transformative Leadership Conversation leverages the most commonly available resource for leaders—conversation—to approach transformation as a process that begins within individuals and moves outward to the relational context where actions and interactions define social structures. There are two interdependent parts to the paper: a conceptual definition and a theory of action. The conceptual definition describes TLC and situates its components in the social and psychological processes that drive transformation. The theory of action advances a simple framework for how leaders might engage TLC across different contexts and situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if collective student trust functions as a resource for urban elementary students. Methods: Data from 1,646 students nested in 56 elementary schools in an urban school district were used to test the hypothesized effect of collective student trust on school identification, self-regulated learning, and math and reading achievement. A model-building process in HLM 6.08 was used to test the three hypotheses. Random-intercepts means-as-outcomes models were used to assess the school-level effects on school identification and self-regulated learning, controlling for free and reduced lunch rate and prior achievement. A one-way ANCOVA with random intercepts was used for math and reading achievement. Free and reduced lunch was specified as a student- and school-level control in order to set a more conservative standard for detecting a trust effect. Results: The hypothesized effects of collective student trust on school identification, self-regulated learning, and achievement were confirmed. A culture of student trust in urban elementary schools partly contributed to identification with school, internal control over learning tasks, and math and reading achievement. Collective trust was the strongest school-level antecedent of positive student beliefs, behavior, and achievement. Implications: With policy debates centering on increased funding, accountability, and teacher and leader evaluation, trust may seem like an unlikely mechanism to ameliorate performance problems in urban schools. Results from this study suggest that policy makers and school leaders should not overlook student trust as a viable social resource for schools and students.

More than a decade after Goddard, Tschannen-Moran, and Hoy (2001) found that collective faculty trust in clients predicts student achievement in urban elementary schools, we sought to identify a plausible link for this relationship. Our purpose in revisiting the trust effect was twofold: (1) to test the main effect of collective faculty trust on student achievement after controlling for free and reduced-price lunch and prior achievement, and (2) to determine if self-regulated learning mediates the collective trust-achievement relationship. Data were collected from 1,039 teachers and 1,648 students in 56 urban elementary schools. Results confirmed the hypothesized main effect of collective faculty trust and the hypothesized mediating effect of self-regulated learning. Mean math and reading achievement were higher in schools with a stronger culture of collective faculty trust. Schools with a stronger culture of trust also had students with more self-regulated learning. (Contains 3 figures and 5 tables.)

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to test the validity of using collective trust as a social indicator of instructional capacity. Design/methodology/approach: A hypothesized model was advanced for the empirical investigation. Collective trust was specified as a latent construct with observable indicators being principal trust in faculty (PTF), faculty trust in principal (FTP), faculty trust in colleagues (FTC), and faculty trust in students (FTS). It was hypothesized that enabling school structure is directly related to the latent collective trust construct and collective trust is directly related to school performance. Data were collected in the spring of 2010/11 from teachers and students in 85 schools in an urban school district in a southwestern state. A partially latent structural regression model was tested in AMOS 7.0. Findings: Results of the measurement model support the theoretical relationship among faculty trust in principal, faculty trust in colleagues, faculty trust in students, and principal trust in faculty. Both directional hypotheses were supported: enabling school structure had a strong, direct effect on a culture collective trust and collective trust had a strong, direct effect on school performance. Research limitations/implications: The sample consisted of schools in one urban district in the southwestern part of the USA, and collective trust only operationalized the social dimension of instructional capacity. Practical implications: Regular and consistent measures of collective trust have the potential to improve how administrators at site and district levels manage the implementation of improvement strategies designed to build capacity. Originality/value: Many theoretical discussions treat trust as a constitutive property of capacity building, but few studies have empirically tested a "priori" models that specify relationships among structures and processes aligned with instructional capacity, collective trust, and school performance. (Contains 5 tables and 5 figures.)

This study tested the relationship between Principal Support of Teacher Psychological Needs (PSTPN) and a need-supportive instructional climate. Evidence on social contagion was used to advance three hypotheses: PSTP is associated with school differences in student reported autonomy-support, competence-support, and relational-support; A climate of teacher psychological safety mediates the relationship between PSTPN and student reported autonomy-support, competence-support, and relational-support; A climate of organizational commitment mediates the relationship between PSTPN and student reported autonomy-support, competence-support, and relational-support. Hypotheses were tested in a sample of teachers and students from 93 urban schools in a southwestern state of the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intent behind this study was to understand how school principals might work through teachers to engender better trusting teacher-student relationships, particularly in high poverty, high minority schools. Three research questions were advanced for the empirical investigation: (1) What is the relationship between school social composition (e.g. FRL rate and percent students of color) and teacher trust in students? (2) Does Principal Support of Student Psychological Needs moderate the relationship between school composition and teacher trust in students? (3) Do other leadership practices, such as transformational leadership and teacher evaluation, influence teacher trust in students? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to draw on elements of diffusion theory to understand leadership reform. Many diffusion studies examine the spread of an innovation across social units but the objective is to examine diffusion of a collective leadership model within school units. Specifically, the strength of reform diffusion is tested to account for differences in instructional capacity and to explain the spread of leadership reform within Title I elementary schools. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed method design was used to understand how social factors facilitated the diffusion of leadership reform, and to test for a diffusion effect. Qualitative data were derived from interviews, field notes, observations, and documents using a grounded theory approach. Open and axial coding techniques were used to develop coherent categories of major and minor themes. Quantitative data were hierarchical, with teachers and students nested in schools. A random-intercepts, means-as-outcomes model was used to test for a diffusion effect on instructional capacity. Findings: Strong principal leadership, a commitment to collective responsibility and shared influence, frequent and open communication, and time to build capacity were conditions that supported diffusion of the leadership model. Diffusion of the leadership model mattered for instructional capacity. Each indicator of instructional capacity was more prevalent in schools that had diffused the leadership model to the mentoring and sustaining stages. Research limitations/implications: The study is limited to one type of reform and 36 Title I elementary schools from an urban and urban fringe district in a Southwestern state. Further, the study does not delve deeply into facilitative factors within various stages of the diffusion processes. It focuses on social factors that enable schools to bring the leadership reform to scale. Practical implications: Framing reform as an intervention to be implemented in schools, rather than a social process that institutionalizes planned change, trivializes the actual complexity of transforming practice. Regular interactions among school members around the school's vision, coupled with leadership and time, contributed to reform diffusion and improved instructional capacity in this study. Reform diffusion, a process that takes time, strong leadership, and regular social interactions, needs to be given more consideration as a valuable process to improve school performance. Social implications: The findings suggest that facilitative factors of diffusion can advance reform and improve capacity simultaneously. Successful reforms, defined as ones that disrupt traditional cultures and achieve goals, evolve through developmental stages that eventually lead to a changed culture. The rate of this evolution may vary, but the temporal process of establishing a shared understanding; designing, experimenting, and developing new tools; fostering expertise; and forming strong social networks are foundational supports for authentic and sustainable reform. Originality/value: Reform diffusion offers an alternative framework to better understand the institutionalization of planned change in schools. The findings, while limited to elementary schools engaged in leadership reform, provide support for studying reform as an holistic social process that encompasses the design, adoption, implementation, and institutionalization of planned change. (Contains 4 tables and 5 figures.)

Our purpose was to advance and test a theoretical model of the nature and function of trust in schools. Unlike other studies, ours specified school trust as a latent construct manifested through parent and teacher trust perceptions. We hypothesized that trust would have a larger direct effect on collective teacher efficacy and achievement motivation than on school performance. Furthermore, we predicted that the total effects of trust on school performance would be stronger than the total effect of poverty. We used structural equation modeling to test our hypotheses. Results support the prediction that trust provides a lubricant for effective school performance by having more direct influence on social conditions than on actual performance. We also found that trust attenuates the negative relationship between poverty and school achievement. (Contains 2 figures and 5 tables.)

Purpose: The authors' focus was on understanding antecedents of parent trust toward schools. Two questions guided the inquiry: Is there a systematic difference in parent-school trust across schools? If so, what organizational conditions predict between-school variability in parent-school trust? Research Methods/Approach: Using multilevel modeling, this study examined school-level determinants of individual parent-school trust from a sample of 79 schools and 578 parents drawn randomly from a Midwestern state. Findings: Intraclass coefficients were first examined on the school-level attitudinal variables to determine their collective disposition. Estimates indicated that these conditions were collective properties of schools. Results from the Level 1 Means-As-Outcomes analysis showed that 16% of the variance in parent trust was explained by school membership. Level 2 predictors were entered individually with significant variables retained and entered into a combined model. Affective norms of parent perceived influence on school decisions ([beta]5j = 5.0, p less than 0.01) and school identification ([beta]4j = 2.7, p less than 0.01) had larger individual effects on parent-school trust than contextual conditions. Conclusion: Findings support the conceptualization of school trust as a collective property of school role groups that forms through affective, cognitive, and behavioral norms. Parent trust is not inherently deficient in schools plagued by social and contextual challenges. Regardless of poverty status, school size, diverse ethnic composition, and school level, school leaders can build and sustain parent trust by aligning policies and practices to address the affective needs of parents. Doing so reduces parents' perceived vulnerabilities and risks within the parent-school relationship. (Contains 2 figures and 6 tables.)

This study investigated the effects of formalized and centralized school structures on 2 emergent concepts in the study of school reform, trust, and collaboration. Trust and collaboration were examined from the perspective of parents, as opposed to internal school agents such as teachers or students. Three hierarchical multiple regressions identified the effects of an enabling school structure on parent-school trust, parent-principal trust, and parent collaboration. The results suggest that rules and formal control structures can be applied in ways that foster a culture supportive of parent trust and collaboration. Further, such structures mitigate the negative influence of nonmanipulable contextual conditions. (Contains 6 tables.)

Purpose: Recent scholarship has augmented Bandura's theory underlying efficacy formation by pointing to more proximate sources of efficacy information involved in forming collective teacher efficacy. These proximate sources of efficacy information theoretically shape a teacher's perception of the teaching context, operationalizing the difficulty of the teaching task that faces the school and the faculty's collective competence to be successful under specific conditions. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of three contextual variables: socioeconomic status, school level, and school structure on teacher perceptions of collective efficacy. Design/methodology/approach: School level data were collected from a cross-section of 79 schools in a Midwestern state. Data were analyzed at the school level using hierarchical multiple regression to determine the incremental variance in collective teacher efficacy beliefs attributed to contextual variables after accounting for the effect of prior academic performance. Findings: Results support the premise that contextual variables do add power to explanations of collective teacher efficacy over and above the effects of prior academic performance. Further, of the three contextual variables school structure independently accounted for the most variability in perceptions of collective teacher efficacy. Research limitations/implications: A sample of 79 schools was considered small to accurately test a hypothesized model of collective teacher efficacy formation using structural equation modeling. That approach would have had the advantage of permitting the researchers to identify the relationships among the predictor variables and between the predictors and the criterion. Additionally, there was a concern of possible aggregation bias associated with aggregating collective teacher efficacy scores to the school level. Despite these limitations, the findings hold theoretical and practical implications in that they defend the theoretical importance of contextual factors as efficacy sources. Furthermore, formalized and centralized conditions conducive to promoting perceptions of collective efficacy in teachers are identified. Originality/value: Extant collective efficacy studies have generally not operationalized Bandura's efficacy sources to include the effects of current context. This study does. (Contains 2 figures and 4 tables.)

Purpose: To investigate the consequences of relational trust, especially parent measured trust, for desirable school outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: Using a US Midwestern state sample of 79 schools, parent and teacher trust data are used to derive a trust-effectiveness typology. Trust was conceptualized as one party's willingness to be vulnerable to another party based on the confidence that the latter party is benevolent, reliable, competent, honest, and open. Findings: Findings derived from the extraction of canonical correlation variates support the prediction that a complex and extensive trust environment is predictive of internal school conditions and consequences, even after accounting for socioeconomic status of the school community. Four theoretical trust-effectiveness patterns emerge from the interpretation. Research limitations/implications: The research design was planned as a school level study. Perceptual data collected at the individual level were intended for aggregation thus, nested analyses were not possible. Other evidence is offered for justification of aggregations. Practical implications: Researchers and school leaders need to consider a broad trust environment as having relevance for predicting and enacting school success, not just those trust levels that can be measured as teacher perceptions. Originality/value: Previous school trust research, when it has considered parent trust, measured it as a teacher perception. This study measures parent trust directly and hence more credibly. The empirically derived trust-effectiveness school types introduce the possibility that "high teacher trust" can sometimes be part of a menacing school pattern. (Contains 5 tables and 2 notes.)

Background: Education has much in common with professions that are using positive psychology and positive organizational scholarship to transform practice, yet the science behind peak human and group functioning has been slow to displace deficit-based framing of reform policies and improvement strategies in education. Purpose of the Study: This study used self-determination theory to identify a general type of instructional environment that has positive consequences for learning outcomes. We hypothesized that a self-regulatory climate is related to school-level differences in student reading growth and that student perceptions of autonomy-supportive instruction are related to student differences in reading growth. Setting: Data were collected during the 2013-2014 school year from a city school system, located in a metropolitan area of about 900,000 residents, that serves approximately 42,000 students in 88 school sites. During the 2013-2014 school year, 80% of the students qualified for free or reduced-priced lunch (FRL); 26% were Black, 27% White, 30% Hispanic, 6% Native American, 9% multiracial, and 1% Asian. For this study, data come from students and teachers at all 51 elementary schools in the school system that have a 5th grade. Data Analysis: Hypotheses were tested using a three-level linear growth analysis in HLM 7.0. The first step was to estimate the average reading growth for fifth-grade students using an unconditional growth model. The second step was to test a controlled-effects growth model, with FRL and racial/ethnic minority status included as student controls and FRL rate and percentage of White students enrolled in the school as school-level controls; self-regulatory climate was entered as a school-level predictor in this model. The final step was to add student-perceived autonomy-supportive instruction as a student-level explanatory variable. Findings: Results showed that students in schools with self-regulatory climates achieved a higher reading growth rate than other students. Similar results were found with autonomy-supportive instruction: Students who experienced classroom instruction as autonomy-supportive had higher average reading growth than other students. Conclusions: The aim of positive education is to develop a body of scientific evidence capable of explaining sources of exceptional teaching and learning. Self-regulatory climate and autonomy-supportive instruction appear to be two positive school conditions that enable students to flourish.

Background/Context: Despite problems with accountability systems under No Child Left Behind, the policy has been widely commended for exposing the depth and breadth of educational inequality in the United States. As states implement new accountability systems, there is growing concern that attention to achievement gaps and the performance of marginalized children has faded. Many approved accountability plans no longer report achievement by student subgroups or include subgroup performance in the calculation of accountability indicators. Research Purpose: This study examined the informational significance of Oklahoma's A-F accountability grades relative to the policy objective of achievement equity. Informational significance as explained in self-determination theory provided a framework to explore the usefulness of an A-F grade for understanding achievement differences within and between schools. Research Design: We evaluated the informational significance of Oklahoma A-F school grades by analyzing reading and math test scores from over 25,000 students in 81 elementary and middle schools. The study was designed to address two questions: Do students in "A" and "B" schools have high average achievement and small achievement gaps compared to students in "D" and "F" schools? What is the difference in average achievement and achievement gaps between school grades when holding constant contextual school conditions? Results: We found test score gaps attributed to Free and Reduced Lunch qualification and minority status. Free and Reduced Lunch and minority students average about one standard deviation lower in math and reading than their peers. Test score gaps varied across A-F school grades with the largest gaps existing in "A" and "B" schools. HLM results showed that A-F grades do not differentiate schools by effectiveness levels. For reading, we did not find statistically significant main effects attributed to letter grades. For math, the only statistically significance difference was between students in "A" and "B" schools and students in "F" schools. This difference had a small effect size. School grades did moderate achievement gaps, but gaps moved in a direction opposite from what would be desired of an accountability system that measured achievement equity. Conclusions: Progress made under NCLB in exposing achievement inequity in the U.S. has taken a step back with Oklahoma's A-F school grades. Our evidence suggests that a composite letter grade provides very little meaningful information about achievement differences.

Background/Context: Schools have differential effects on student learning and development, but research has not generated much explanatory evidence of the social-psychological pathway to better achievement outcomes. Explanatory evidence of how normative conditions enable students to thrive is particularly relevant in the urban context where attention disproportionately centers on the pathology of these environments rather than social attributes that contribute to student growth. Research Purpose: Our purpose in this study was to determine if a self-regulatory climate works through student self-regulation to influence academic achievement. We hypothesized that (1) self-regulatory climate explains school-level differences in self-regulated learning, and (2) self-regulated learning mediates the relationship between self-regulatory climate and math achievement. Research Design: We used ex post facto survey data from students and teachers in 80 elementary and secondary schools from a large, southwestern urban school district. A multilevel modeling building process in HLM 7.0 was used to test our hypotheses. Results: Both hypotheses were supported. Self-regulatory climate explained significant school-level variance in self-regulated learning. Additionally, student self-regulated learning mediated the relationship between self-regulatory climate and math achievement. Conclusions: Our results suggest that schools, like teachers, have differential effects on the motivational resources of students, with self-regulatory climate being an essential social condition for self-regulation and achievement. We believe self-regulatory climate has value for educators seeking to provide equitable learning opportunities for all students and for researchers seeking to account for achievement differences attributed to schools. In both cases, self-regulatory climate advances a construct and measure that conceptualizes and operationalizes school-level support for psychological needs.

Trust effects between internal school actors (e.g., teachers, students, administrators, parents) are well established in the literature, but less evidence exists about trust in district administration, leading to the question addressed in this study: Does teacher trust in district administration operate in a similar way as other trust forms? The study begins by situating trust within district leadership literature. A definition of trust in district administration is then advanced and its nature explained. From here, evidence on trust effects and self-determination theory are used to advance a hypothesized model that is tested in the empirical analysis. Results support the theory that trust in district administration may function as a relational support for teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to explore sustainability of social conditions and achievement outcomes in six full-service community schools (FSCSs) in two districts (Tulsa and Union Public Schools) associated with the Tulsa Area Community Schools Initiative (TACSI). Three questions guided the inquiry: How has TACSI changed over the last 9 years? Have the six TACSI FSCSs in Tulsa and Union maintained strong conditions for learning compared to non-TACSI schools? Have the six TACSI FSCSs in Tulsa and Union maintained better achievement outcomes compared to non-TACSI schools? Findings suggest that FSCSs cannot be separated from the larger district context in which they are embedded. Differences in FSCS implementation and outcomes were visible as the TACSI network expanded, as district priorities shifted, and as leadership changed. Implications of these findings for educational reform, generally, and FSCSs, specifically, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Limited attention to messages transmitted between principals and teachers led to the general question for this study: is principal support of student psychological needs related to functional social conditions within the instructional core? Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to define principal support of student psychological needs and explain its leadership function through the lens of conversation theory. Without much empirical evidence to draw from, a theoretical argument for how principal support of student psychological needs might influence the features of the teaching and learning environment is advanced then tested empirically. Design/methodology/approach: Hypotheses were tested using a non-experimental, correlational research design based on ex-post facto data collected from teachers and students in 93 schools in a metropolitan city of the USA. Data were collected in the spring of 2017 from randomly sampled teachers and students in the 93 schools. Usable responses were received from 1,168 teachers, yielding a response rate of 66 percent. A total of 4,523 students received surveys and usable responses were received from 3,301, yielding a response rate of 73 percent. Multi-level modeling was used to analyze the data. Findings: Principal support of student psychological needs was related to school-level differences in faculty trust in students, collective teacher efficacy and student perceived autonomy support. Leadership practices surrounding professional development and instructional coherence had moderately strong, positive relationships with the outcome variables; however, the strength of these relationships diminished when principal support was included in the analysis. Originality/value: The argument in this study proposes that principal–teacher conversations enhance leadership practices and support a vibrant and engaging instructional core when intentional messages build mental representations that enable teachers to understand sources of optimal student growth. Such use of conversation extends the functionality of principal–teacher interactions beyond that of teacher control and toward an ongoing sense-making and learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to define student learning capacity and to examine the role of the school principal in nurturing it. Method: The study used cross-sectional data from 3,175 students in 70 schools located in a metropolitan area of a Southwestern city. We tested three hypotheses by following a conventional modeling building process in HLM 7.0: Hypothesis 1--Principal Support for Student Psychological Needs (PSSPN) is related to school differences in student-perceived autonomysupport; Hypothesis 2--PSSPN is related to school differences in studentperceived competence-support; Hypothesis 3--Student-perceived needsupport mediates the relationship between PSSPN and grit. Results: Evidence aligns with our initial theorizing about student learning capacity and principal support for student psychological needs. Student-perceived need-support, as a social characteristic of capacity, manifests itself through teacher-student interactions in the learning process. Need-supporting interactions varied significantly across schools, and principals played a critical role in developing an instructional environment that students experienced as nurturing autonomy and competence. Implications: PSSPN highlights the transformative effects that regular principal-teacher social exchanges can have on instructional practices. School principals who interacted with teachers about student psychological needs and need-supporting instructional practices contributed to a learning environment that students experienced as autonomy-supporting and competence-supporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Education has much in common with professions that are using positive psychology and positive organizational scholarship to transform practice, yet the science behind peak human and group functioning has been slow to displace deficit-based framing of reform policies and improvement strategies in education. Purpose of the Study: This study used self-determination theory to identify a general type of instructional environment that has positive consequences for learning outcomes. We hypothesized that a self-regulatory climate is related to school-level differences in student reading growth and that student perceptions of autonomy-supportive instruction are related to student differences in reading growth. Setting: Data were collected during the 2013-2014 school year from a city school system, located in a metropolitan area of about 900,000 residents that serves approximately 42,000 students in 88 school sites. During the 2013-2014 school year, 80% of the students qualified for free or reduced-priced lunch (FRL); 26% were Black, 27% White, 30% Hispanic, 6% Native American, 9% multiracial, and 1% Asian. For this study, data come from students and teachers at all 51 elementary schools in the school system that have a 5th grade. Data Analysis: Hypotheses were tested using a three-level linear growth analysis in HLM 7.0. The first step was to estimate the average reading growth for fifth-grade students using an unconditional growth model. The second step was to test a controlled-effects growth model, with FRL and racial/ethnic minority status included as student controls and FRL rate and percentage of White students enrolled in the school as school-level controls; self-regulatory climate was entered as a school-level predictor in this model. The final step was to add studentperceived autonomy-supportive instruction as a student-level explanatory variable. Findings: Results showed that students in schools with self-regulatory climates achieved a higher reading growth rate than other students. Similar results were found with autonomysupportive instruction: Students who experienced classroom instruction as autonomy-supportive had higher average reading growth than other students. Conclusions: The aim of positive education is to develop a body of scientific evidence capable of explaining sources of exceptional teaching and learning. Self-regulatory climate and autonomy-supportive instruction appear to be two positive school conditions that enable students to flourish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite devotion of substantial resources and effort to increase parent/school partnerships, gaps remain between policy rhetoric and practice, especially in high-poverty communities. Current research focuses on parent involvement or effects of parent motivational beliefs on parent choice for behavior; however, it does not address the formation of beliefs or social factors that influence parent motivation to become involved. To gain a better understanding of factors that influence parent motivational beliefs, we examined the effects of parent social network, school outreach, and neighborhood health on parent role construction and parent efficacy in an urban school district. Method/Analysis: Survey data were collected from a random sample of 30 fifth-grade parents from 56 elementary schools in a large urban district in the Midwest. Using a partially latent structural regression model, we tested the relationships between school outreach, neighborhood health, parent social network, and parent motivational beliefs. Findings: The theoretical specification of the hypothesized model was observed in the pattern of the relationships among school outreach, neighborhood health, parent network, and parent motivational beliefs. Results: The results of the structural model confirm the association between parent social network and parent motivational beliefs. Combined parent social network and school outreach accounted for 10% of the variance in parent motivational beliefs. Implications for Research and Practice: Results from this study provide a different lens through which to view parent–school partnerships. Understanding parents as social actors whose perceptions are influenced through connections with other parents can help schools facilitate motivational beliefs that lead to effective partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: We set out in this study to establish a foundation for a line of inquiry around teacher trust in district administration by (1) describing the role of trust in capacity building, (2) conceptualizing trust in district administration, (3) developing a scale to measure teacher trust in district administration, and (4) testing the relationship between district trust and teacher commitment. Method: Teachers were the unit of analysis. Data were collected from a sample of teachers in one urban school district. Construct validity was assessed by examining content, structural, and convergent validity of the scale. A fully latent structural equation model was used to test the relationship between teacher trust in district administration and teacher commitment. Results: This study makes a strong case for developing a line of research on teacher trust in district administration. It establishes a good measure to use in future research, and it provides initial evidence showing that teacher beliefs are sensitive to the actions of district administrators. Implications: A valid and reliable measure can be used by researchers to study systematically the formation and effects of teacher trust in district administration. Accurate information on district trust also allows central office leaders to formatively assess the capacity of the school system to accomplish reform objectives at scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]