Changing Times Require a Changing Middle Grades Research Agenda

Recommending Reform: A Critical Race and Critical Policy Analysis of Research Recommendations About School Resource Officers

“…Although most majoritarian recommendations addressed role definition and/or training, there were other types of majoritarian recommendations, including recommendations to increase transparency of the work of SROs and school police (Anfara & Theriot, 2011;Coon & Travis, 2012;Daniels et al, 2011;Eklund et al, 2018;Ghavami et al, 2021;Sullivan & Hausman, 2017); to address criteria by which officers are selected to work in schools (Fisher & Devlin, 2020;Granot et al, 2021;May et al, 2012;Zirkel, 2019); and to change the way SRO job performance, satisfaction, and evaluations are measured Kelly & Swezey, 2015;Stinson & Watkins, 2014). As with role definitions and training, these recommendations for transparency, hiring, and evaluation were usually made in response to identified negative impacts of SROs and demonstrated crafting recommendations for improving shortcomings of officers rather than ending their use altogether.…”

The Impact of Superintendent Support for Curriculum Mapping on Principals’ Efficacious Use of Maps

“…The focus of analysis involved building principals with responsibility for students in seventh grade, primarily addressing middle school buildings. a focus on seventh grade was a determining factor because of the call for secondary school research on leadership and teaching (Anfara, 2009;. A middle school population was also chosen, for two reasons: first, it represented school leaders who are responsible for a diverse, transitional student population where subject area curricula are more focused than in elementary settings, in which learning to read and reading to learn are priorities at the primary and upper elementary levels, respectively.…”