This special issue highlights recent research on measures of early adolescents’ development and the school contexts in which they spend their time. We are particularly interested in measures with direct application—providing actionable data to teachers, principals, parents, school counselors, or the students themselves, in ways that promote social-emotional and academic learning. In this introduction, we highlight the ways in which articles in this special issue offer rigorous, relevant, and feasible approaches to this measurement work and discuss future directions for research and practice in this area.
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2.
AndersonT.ShattuckJ. (2012). Design-based research: A decade of progress in education research?Educational Researcher, 41, 16-25.
3.
CappellaE.KimH.HamreB.HenryD.FrazierS.AtkinsM.SchoenwaldS. (2012). Teacher consultation and coaching within mental health practice: Classroom and child effects in urban elementary schools. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 80, 597-610.
4.
CashA.BradshawC.LeafP. (2014, December24). Observations of student behavior in non-classroom settings: A multilevel examination of location, density, and school context. The Journal of Early Adolescence. doi:10.1177/0272431614562835
5.
CoplanR. J.OoiL. L.Rose-KrasnorL. (2014, February14). Naturalistic observations of schoolyard social participation: Marker variables for socio-emotional functioning in early adolescence. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 35(5-6) 628-650. doi:10.1177/0272431614523134
6.
DeRosierM. E.CraigA. B.SanchezR. P. (2012). Zoo U: A stealth approach to social skills assessment in schools. Advances in Human-Computer Interaction, 2012, Article 654791. doi:10.1155/2012/654791
7.
DownerJ. T.StuhlmanM.SchweigJ.MartínezJ. F.RuzekE. (2014, December25). Measuring effective teacher-student interactions from a student perspective: A multi-level analysis. The Journal of Early Adolescence. doi:10.1177/0272431614564059
8.
DukeN. K.BlockM. K. (2012). Improving reading in the primary grades. Future of Children, 22(2), 55-72.
9.
DweckC. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York, NY: Random House.
10.
EastonJ. (2012, April). How can the testing community help advance education policy and practice?Speech presented at National Council on Measurement in Education, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
11.
EcclesJ. S.RoeserR. W. (2011). Schools as developmental contexts during adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21, 225-241.
12.
FinniganK.DalyA. (2014). Using research evidence in education: From the schoolhouse door to Capitol Hill. New York, NY: Springer.
13.
FrazierS.MehtaT.AtkinsM.GlissonC.GreenP.GibbonsR.. . . OgleR. (2015, February13). The social context of urban classrooms: Measuring student psychological climate. The Journal of Early Adolescence. doi:10.1177/0272431615570056
14.
GehlbachH. (2015). Seven survey sins. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 35(5-6), 883-897.
15.
GregoryA.MikamiA. (2015). Systematic observation of early adolescents in educational settings: The good, the bad, and the ugly. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 35(5-6), 714-721.
16.
HafenC. A.HamreB. K.AllenJ. P.BellC. A.GitomerD. H.PiantaR. C. (2014, June9). Teaching through interactions in secondary school classrooms: Revisiting the factor structure and practical application of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System-Secondary. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 35(5-6) 651-680. doi:10.1177/0272431614537117
17.
HamreB. K.PiantaR. C.BurchinalM.FieldS.Locasale-CrouchJ. L.DownerJ. T.. . . Scott-LittleC. (2012). A course on effective teacher-child interactions: Effects on teacher beliefs, knowledge, and observed practice. American Education Research Journal, 49, 88-123.
18.
HartupW. W. (1999). Peer experience and its developmental significance. In BennettM. (Ed.), Developmental psychology: Achievements and prospects (pp. 106-125). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.
19.
JonesS. M.BouffardS. M. (2012). Social and emotional learning in schools: From programs to strategies (Social Policy Report) (Vol. 26, No. 4). Society for Research in Child Development.
20.
KaneT. J.McCaffreyD. F.MillerT.StaigerD. O. (2013). Have we identified effective teachers? Validating measures of effective teaching using random assignment. Seattle, WA: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
21.
KosovichJ. J.HullemanC. S.BarronK. E.GettyS. (2014, November18) A practical measure of student motivation: Establishing validity evidence for the expectancy-value-cost scale in middle school. The Journal of Early Adolescence. doi:10.1177/0272431614556890
22.
McCormickM. P.CappellaE.HughesD. L.GallagherE. K. (2014, August13). Feasible, rigorous and relevant: Validation of a measure of friendship homophily for diverse classrooms. The Journal of Early Adolescence. doi:10.1177/0272431614547051
23.
McKownC.AllenA. M.Russo-PonsaranN. M.JohnsonJ. K. (2013). Direct assessment of children’s social-emotional comprehension. Psychological Assessment, 25, 1154-1166. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0033435
24.
OhY.OsgoodD. W.SmithE. P. (2014, December22). Measuring afterschool program quality using setting-level observational approaches. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 35(5-6) 681-713. doi:10.1177/0272431614561261
25.
PiantaR. C. (in press). Classroom processes and teacher-student interaction: Integrations with a developmental psychopathology perspective. In CicchettiD. (Ed.), Developmental psychopathology (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
26.
PrinsteinM. J.DodgeK. A. (2008). Current issues in peer influence research. In PrinsteinM. J.DodgeK. A. (Eds.), Understanding peer influence in children and adolescents (pp. 3-13). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
27.
RuzekE. A.DominaT.ConleyA. M.DuncanG. J.KarabenickS. A. (2014, March12). Using value-added models to measure teacher effects on students’ motivation and achievement. The Journal of Early Adolescence. doi:10.1177/0272431614525260
28.
TooleyM.BornfreundL. (2014). Time to improve: How federal policy can promote better prepared teachers and school leaders. New America Education Policy Program. Available from http://www.newamerica.org/
29.
TsengV. (2012). The uses of research in policy and practice (Social Policy Report) (Vol. 2, No. 62, pp. 1-16). Society for Research in Child Development.
