American high school educators have developed and adopted various disciplinary practices to discourage misconduct among students. Amongst the popular practices are zero-tolerance policies and restorative procedures. Zero-tolerance policies are those whereby student punishment occurs when they violate the code of conduct. Usually, it results in their suspension. Thus, they miss school for a period, which may negatively impact their academic performance. Restorative practices involve using strategies that seek to improve and repair relationships between students or students and staff. They avoid punitive measures that may include suspension, allowing the student not to miss school time. However, studies conducted by education researchers have shown a disparity in the instilling of discipline in schools; African-American students’ punishment is more intense than that of their peers. Examination of the genders of both races separately shows that disparity is even more significant. The punishment of African-American male students, when compared to their peers, is more intense for similar misconduct. These disparities affect academic achievement, the likelihood of graduation, and performance on standardized tests that measure readiness for college and career.
Therefore, this study sought to find the impact of restorative practices and zero-tolerance policies on absenteeism, suspensions, and academic performance on African-American male students in a predominantly black high school. The predominantly black high schools in New Jersey have high racial disciplinary gaps compared to other states in the country. Hence, the study analyzed absenteeism, number of suspensions, and academic performance in a high school that had implemented traditional zero-tolerance policies and compared it to a high school that had implemented restorative practices as a disciplinary measure. The schools’ records for the 2018-19 year were the source of data; it included information on students’ standardized test scores, suspensions, absences, and the school’s makeup by gender and race. To keep up with research ethics, the researcher redacted the students’ personal information and obtained permission from the school administration before using the data for the study. The study is quantitative and involved the statistical analysis of the quantifiable data. The researcher also used positivism philosophy in this study to calculate the impact of disciplinary actions.
Overall, the data examined was of 456 African-American male students. The school that implemented restorative practices saw marginal signs of improvement in the number of chronically absent students. The restorative practice school also had a higher percentage of students with no suspensions and fewer students with one or more suspensions. Students at the school with traditional zero-tolerance policies had marginal gains with a higher rate of students meeting or exceeding expectations in English Language Arts and Math standardized tests.
The study adds to the research on disciplinary actions in American high schools, but researchers can further study the topic to determine if the findings are similar in other states. Researchers can also examine other disciplinary actions such as PBIS to determine if their implementation leads to better academic performance, reduced suspensions, and lower absenteeism rates among African-American male students when compared to peers.
This study focused on the extent to which the time of year and/or the inclusion of funds for school safety and/or security had an effect on the outcome of school funding referenda in New
Jersey. This study also explored school funding controversies and legislation in New Jersey since 1875. The researcher conducted a quantitative study designed in two phases. First, the researcher analyzed public data on school funding referenda from 2008 through 2018. Subsequently, the researcher conducted a survey of 31 New Jersey school superintendents who passed a referendum in the years 2016, 2017 or 2018 that included funds for school safety and/or security to measure their perspectives on the same. The results of these research steps suggest that certain months do have higher passage rates than others and that the inclusion of funds for school safety and/or security does have a positive effect of passage rates as compared to the overall passage rates for school funding referenda in New Jersey. The researcher also concluded that a majority of the superintendents surveyed in this study believed that the time of year and the inclusion of funds for school safety and/or security had a positive effect on the outcome of their school funding referendum. The results of this study can be used by school district leaders as they develop a strategy for getting their stakeholders to support the additional funds requested in a school funding referendum.
This quantitative study investigated the relationship between a principal’s grit and the school culture in their building. The research focused on one district in New Jersey with participants from elementary, middle, and high schools. First, principals in each school were surveyed using Duckworth’s Short Grit Survey to determine their self-perceived level of grit. Then educators in each school were surveyed using Gruenert and Valentine’s School Culture Survey to describe the school culture. This study identified factors that contribute to successful leadership, including leadership styles and characteristics such as grit. The study also explored current research about school culture and best practices in supporting professional learning communities, unity of purpose, and promoting learning partnerships.
This study aimed to understand the relationship between a school principal’s grit and school culture and provide further recommendations for increasing school culture. The results of this study successfully established that there was a relationship between the two variables, principal’s grit, and school culture. In addition, the study concluded that there were high mean scores for principal grit and school culture for each building. However, the data showed a statistically significant negative correlation between overall principal grit scores and school culture scores, r = –.161, p ≤ .001. Specifically, the school settings would benefit from collaborating with school administrators and colleagues to improve perceptions of collaborative leadership, teacher collaboration, unity of purpose, and collegial support.
With the recent implementation of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in New Jersey for students in grades 6–12 in 2016, consideration of proper implementation and assessment of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math curricula are of utmost importance (NJDOE, 2016). This study's objective was to determine the effects of a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math integrated program initiative on high stakes assessment scores. This quantitative research provided statistical analyses of New Jersey Student Learning Assessment (NJSLA) scores of grades 3–8 students (n = 328) who participated in the STEM program initiative and their control counterparts (n = 571). The study explored the Constructivist Learning Theory's role in STEM delivery and implementation while considering other variables that affected student test scores, such as gender, race, and socioeconomic status.
The study employed a quantitative factorial design to address the interactions and relationships among gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status and NJSLA Math and Science scores for student who participated in the STEM program initiative. Results showed the effectiveness of the STEM program initiative for raising NJSLA Math and NJSLA Science scores. States that have adopted the new K–12 Science Framework and NGSS may consider implementing the constructivist learning approach for STEM.
In this quantitative study, public charter schools were compared to traditional public schools in New Jersey in their academic achievement on the statewide standardized tests. These schools’ academic achievements are assessed based on their students’ proficiency and growth scores in English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics in grades 4–7.
Paired samples t-tests were used to compare the differences, and the results were analyzed in the context of the Market Theory Model. The statistical analysis indicated significant differences in favor of charter schools in student proficiency in English Language Arts and Mathematics across the 4–7 grade levels, but there was no significant difference in yearly student growth in either subject at any grade level except for grade 7 Mathematics. Grade 7 students attending New Jersey charter school demonstrated significantly higher growth than the grade 7 students in New Jersey traditional public schools in Mathematics.