School Transitions and Early Adolescent Development (STEAD) Project
This project is a four year study that examines students’ social and academic adjustment during early adolescence. Key aims include understanding how students’ relationships with teachers and students changes and affects their academic adjustment. Our sample includes students in k-8 schools and students in k-6/ middle schools so we can consider if the type of school structure affects patterns of development.
Funding provided by the Spencer Foundation.
Project Publications
- Brass (2021). Developmental trajectories of students’ beliefs of social success and their associations with adjustment (Dissertation, Chapter 3).
- Brass and Ryan (2021). Changes in behavioral correlates of social status during early adolescence: Does school context matter?
- Ferguson and Ryan (2019). It’s lonely at the top: Adolescent students’ peer-perceived popularity and self-perceived social contentment.
- Ferguson et al. (2022). The role of school friendship stability, instability, and network size in early adolescents’ social adjustment.
Classroom and Peer Ecologies Project (CAPE)
This project is a three year study that focuses on how social dynamics within math and science classrooms affects students’ motivation, engagement and achievement. In this project we use classroom observations, teacher reports and student reports to understand how teacher practices are related to social dynamics and student learning in elementary and middle school classrooms.
Funding provided by the Spencer Foundation.
Project Publications
- Brass et al. (2018). Early adolescents’ adjustment at school: A fresh look at grade and gender differences.
- Kilday and Ryan (2019). Personal and collective perceptions of social support: Implications for classroom engagement in early adolescence.
- Kilday and Ryan (2022). Who do students ask for help with classwork? Sources of help and changes in help-seeking from peers during early adolescence.
- Laninga-Wijnen et al. (2018). The moderating role of popular peers’ achievement goals in 5th- and 6th-graders’ achievement-related friendships: A social network analysis.
- McKellar et al. (2020). Teaching practices and student engagement in early adolescence: A longitudinal study using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System.
- McKellar et al. (2021). Teachers’ emphasis on mastery goals moderates the behavioral correlates of coolness in early adolescent classrooms.
- North and Ryan (2017). The association of peer academic reputations in math and science with achievement beliefs and behaviors during early adolescence.
- North et al. (2019). Social status and classroom behavior in math and science during early adolescence.
- Ryan et al. (2015). Managing peer relations: A dimension of teacher self-efficacy that varies between elementary and middle school teachers and is associated with observed classroom quality.
- Shin and Ryan (2017). Friend influence on early adolescent disruptive behavior in the classroom: Teacher emotional support matters.
School Connectedness Project
This is an ongoing collaboration with local school districts in Southeastern Michigan. In this project, we develop reports for participating elementary and middle schools that characterize their students’ perceptions of school connectedness. One primary aim is to understand how differences in school structures and classroom social environments inform students’ academic engagement and achievement. Students rate their perceptions of school belonging, social support, classroom interactions with teachers and peers, as well as their self-perceptions of learning and technology use at school. We are collecting these data from students in 4th – 8th grades and will be able to examine longitudinal patterns of change as the project continues.
Project Publications
- Brass (2021). Adjustment at school and the middle school transition: Exploring the top dog-bottom dog phenomenon during early adolescence (Dissertation, Chapter 4).
- Kilday et al. (2022). Teachers’ management of peer relations: Associations with fifth grade classroom peer ecologies.
