Effects of a Developmentally Based Intervention With Teachers on Native American and White Early Adolescents’ Schooling Adjustment in Rural Settings

Abstract

Abstract This study reports the effectiveness of a developmentally based, teacher professional development intervention aimed at improving early adolescent school adjustment. Teachers in rural schools in a Northern Plains state took part in professional development activities across a year. Following a randomized control trial design, Native American and White students' (N = 165) social, behavioral, and academic adjustment was assessed in intervention compared with control schools. Regression analyses, controlling for baseline and demographic variables, indicated that students in intervention schools improved in achievement, and improved or sustained beginning-of-year schooling dispositions, and perceptions of the school social/affective context, in comparison with evident declines for students in control schools. Native American students more so than White students evidenced particular gains in achievement and perceptions of the school social/affective context. Keywords: early adolescenceschool adjustmentNative Americanruralachievement Acknowledgments This work was supported by grant No. R305A04056 from the Institute of Education Sciences. The views expressed in this article are that of the authors', and do not represent the granting agency. Notes The intervention was implemented at the school level. In both intervention and control schools, students were exposed to multiple teachers. Assessments of students were measured at the school level as well. Thus, it is not conceptually or analytically meaningful to isolate classroom effects of the intervention on students.