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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.

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.)

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: 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/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.

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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 expost 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 schoollevel 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, selfregulatory climate advances a construct and measure that conceptualizes and operationalizes school-level support for psychological needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study aimed to determine whether collective student trust functions can be a resource for urban elementary students. The study is undertaken through the collection of data from 1,646 students in 56 elementary schools in an urban school district and the development of model-building process to evaluate the hypotheses raised in the study. The results of the study confirm the hypotheses raised on school identification, educational achievement, and self-regulated learning.

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]