Close student–teacher relations correlate positively with students’ academic, behavioral, and social competences. This study examined student and teacher predictors of student–teacher closeness in a sample of 754 teachers (2% Asian, 10% Black, 2% Hispanic, 85% White, <1% Native American; 92% female) and 16,084 students (8% Asian, 22% Black, 26% Hispanic, 45% White; 49% female). This large sample size allows this study to extend previous research by including a focus on Asian American individuals and by examining teacher beliefs about students in a multilevel analysis. Results indicated that students’ race, gender, in-class behaviors, and academic achievement affected how close teachers felt to them. Asian students were rated as the least close to teachers after controlling for the other covariates. Teachers’ race, grade taught, and beliefs about Asian students explained additional variance in closeness. Although Asian student–teacher match did not influence teacher-perceived closeness, Black student–teacher match and gender match were found to influence closeness. Furthermore, teacher beliefs about students moderated the association between race and closeness in expected ways. Findings showed that teachers displayed reliable individual differences in closeness, and race and beliefs were important in predicting student–teacher closeness.
Schools that require the most help are often those that have difficulty staffing qualified teachers. Data suggest that many teachers who leave their schools or the profession cite student misbehavior and an unsafe work environment as reasons. Although public attention is not at present focused on problems of gang delinquency in schools-focusing instead on educational funding, teacher quality, and achievement levels-there is every reason to anticipate that gangs, school disorder, and teaching quality are closely linked. This research involves a large probability sample of secondary schools surveyed in 1998 merged with U.S. census data on community characteristics. Multilevel models imply that community demographic influences on individual gang involvement (GI) are largely mediated by school and personal variables. School safety and students' personal sense of safety emerged as important variables that predicted GI.
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