The Untapped Power of Schools to Improve the Health of Teens

Measuring School Connectedness*School connectedness was measured based on responses tofive questions:“How strongly do you agree or disagree with each ofthe following statements:■ I feel close to people at this school.■ I am happy to be at this school.■ I feel like I am part of this school.■ The teachers at this school treat students fairly?■ I feel safe in my school.”Students resonded on a 5-point scale from “strongly agree.”*The first three questions were used for the Moody and Bearman analysis of friendshipgroups. This scale is called “school attachment.” All five questions were used for theMcNeely, Nonnemaker and Blum analysis. This scale is called “school connectedness.”A PROFILE OF AMERICANMIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOLSThe Add Health Study includes samplesof just about every type of middleschool and high school across the country.Taken together, the schools in Add Healthare representative of all schools in theUnited States, including public, private andparochial schools.Add health data show that:■ Most schools (83%) are public schools.■ The average school size is around 650students; however, there is a big range insize, from 25 students to over 5,000.■ The average class size is just under 23students, with a range from 10 to 39students in a class.■ More than two-fifths (42%) of teachershave their Master’s degree.■ The average school has about one ineleven teachers who are in their firstyear of teaching at the school.■■■Most students (83%) participate in atleast one extracurricular school activity– either during the school day or afterschool – but the range is huge, from100% participation to 41%.Nearly 38% of schools give out-ofschoolsuspension the first time astudent is caught smoking.Four percent of schools give out-ofschoolsuspension the first time astudent is caught cheating.9

Well-managed classrooms are mostlikely to exist when:■ The school sets clear expectationsfor individual responsibilityand conflict resolution amongstudents;■ Teachers consistentlyacknowledge all students;■ Students participate in themanagement of the classroom— they do regular jobs, haveinput on classroom rules andhelp set grading criteria.School CompositionStudents feel more connected toschool when friendship groups areracially integrated. However, theresearchers found that when a school isracially integrated, friendship groupswithin a school tend to be raciallysegregated.Apparently, students prefer to formfriendships with young people of theirown race. When there are enoughstudents of each racial group to formfriendships with peers of one’s own race,racial groups tend to isolate themselvesfrom one another along racial boundaries.When this occurs, overall connectednessdeclines (see sidebar Mapping FriendshipGroups).This finding was not true for allschools. There were a few schools withlarge numbers of both African Americanand White students and integrated friendshipgroups. But these were the exception.Clearly, there is a need to go beyondour current integration practices, whichfocus on numeric integration of theschool as a whole and neglect integrationwithin a school. For example, to theextent that minority students aredisproportionately assigned to lowertrackclasses, school policies can unintentionallyexacerbate the segregationof friendship groups.10

School SizeStudents in smaller schools feel moreconnected to school, on average, thanstudents in larger schools. This findingcontributes to the mounting evidencethat very large schools are not good forengaging kids in school.The effect of school size onconnectedness is not the same as theeffect of school size on academicachievement. The optimal school size forincreasing school connectedness is under600 students. In small schools, teachersand school leaders can personallyconnect with most students, animpossible feat in a large school.On the other hand, studies onlearning report that the optimal highschool size for high academic achievementis between 600 and 1,200 students.Schools of this size have the capacity tooffer a wide variety of courses andcurricula. Nonetheless, the findingssupport the growing evidence that verylarge schools, those over 1,200, are notgood environments for adolescents eithereducationally or socially.Percent of students who are Latino.Percent of students from two-parent families.Teacher QualificationsPercent of teachers in their first year of teaching at the school.Percent of teachers with a Master’s degree.Discipline PoliciesMeasuring School EnvironmentDemographic CompositionStudents receive out-of-school suspension or expulsion the firsttime they are caught cheating (yes/no). A scale was createdbased on administrator responses to ten questions. “In yourschool, what happens to a student who is caught:Possessing alcohol?Drinking alcohol?Possessing an illegal drug?Using an illegal drug?Destroying school property?The responses ranges from “1” (no policy) to “7” (expulsion).Harsh discipline policies were defined as 6.5 or higher.Structural School CharacteristicsVerbally abusing a teacher?Fighting?Injuring another student?Carrying a weapon?Injury to a teacher?”School size measured in 100s; class size; public school(yes/no); urban, rural or suburban.Extracurricular Activities/Classroom ManagementPercent of students who do not participate in extracurricularactivities, based on a list of activities including sports, academicclubs, music, newspaper, and yearbook.Classroom management is the school average of students’responses to four questions. “Since you started school thisyear, how often have you had trouble:Getting along with teachers? Paying attention in school?Getting your homework done? Getting along with other students?”Responses ranged from “never” (0) to “everyday” (4).11

Class Size and School TypeWhile smaller class size has beenshown to improve academic success,class size is not related to the likelihoodof students feeling connected to school.Similarly, the type of school—public,private, or parochial—is not associatedwith school connectedness. Whether aschool is urban, rural or suburban alsodoes not predict the level ofconnectedness in the school.Discipline PoliciesWhen schools have harsh or punitivediscipline policies, students feel lessconnected to school. The disciplinepolicy for any particular infraction doesnot influence connectedness; rather,harsh discipline climate in general iswhat seems to be associated with lowerschool connectedness.It is unclear which is the cause andwhich is the effect. Are more restrictiveschool policies the response to a highprevalence of disconnected students andtheir behavioral problems, or dopunitive discipline policies serve toalienate students from school?The analysis presented here cannotanswer that question.Extracurricular ActivitiesWhen more students participate inextracurricular activities during or afterschool, the overall level of schoolconnectedness is higher. But, again, itis unclear whether the association iscausal. Do extracurricular activitiespromote school connectedness or is itsimply more likely that kids who arealready connected to school willparticipate in more school activities?12

Teacher QualificationsAlthough it is logical to assume thatteachers’ education level and years ofexperience would improve the likelihoodof students feeling connected to school,Add Health data show that neither is animportant factor. Neither the percent ofteachers with a Master’s degree nor thepercent of teachers in their first year ofteaching at the school is associated withschool connectedness.Adolescents on the margins of theadolescent social structure face greaterhealth risks, independent of their socialbackground or performance in school.Nationally, four percent of studentsreported that they had no friends. Therewere socially isolated students in everyschool studied.Friendship GroupsSocial relations with other studentsin school are crucial to school connectedness.Specifically, the teens most connectedto school are the students who:■ have the most friends;■ have friends from lots ofdifferent social groups.Conversely, the teens least connectedto school are the students who:■ identify more friends fromoutside the school thanfrom inside;■ are socially isolated—thosewith few, if any friends inthe school.13

Students were asked to identify, by name, their five closest malefriends and their five closest female friends. These weretabulated and analyzed by the criteria listed below.School Network DensityThe ratio of the number of nominations observed to thenumber of possible nominations in the school.School CentralizationMeasuring Friendship GroupsAre cliques separated or overlapping? If two people are friends,their friendship distance is one. A friend of a friend is two stepsaway, and a friend’s friend’s friend is three. The average distancebetween all reachable pairs in the school was measured.Highly centralized school social structures are those inwhich cliques are separate (not overlapping).Lesser centralized school social structures have a looselytied web of interconnecting relationships.School Network SegregationRegardless of any one student’ssocial position in school, she or he willbe affected by the overall pattern offriendship groups in the school. Schoolconnectedness is higher for all studentswhen:■ Social cliques in the school areoverlapping and students havesocial ties to multiple cliques.■ There are multiple, reciprocatedfriendships (e.g., two studentseach identify the other asfriend).■ The most popular students ina school are academicallymotivated and get good grades.■ Friendship groups are integratedby race and gender.Gender — The extent to which the friendships include boysand girls.Race/Ethnicity — The extent to which the friendship groupsin the school include Blacks and Whites.Individual Friends Nominated from Outside of SchoolStudents were allowed to nominate friends both inside and outsidethe school. This variable measures the extent to which thefriendship choices of students are oriented outside the school.Indiviudal Measure of Popularity and IsolationStudents who are among the top 10% most often nominatedstudents in the school.Students who neither nominated any friends, nor receivednominations from others in the school.14

Panel AWhiteel B.BlackMixed/OPanel APanel B●●●WhiteBlackMixed/OtherMAPPING FRIENDSHIP GROUPSThe integration of friendship groups across lines of race, gender and social status enhances students feeling ofconnectedness to school.The figures above show how social scientists map social networks. Each circle on the maps above represents a student,and each line depicts a friendship selection made. Clusters of connected circles are friendship groups; circles on theperimeter with no connecting lines reveal socially isolated students.Panel A is a map of a large school with relatively equal numbers of White students and Black students.There are twolarge friendship groups made up predominantly of Black students.There are also two predominantly White friendshipgroups. Other minority students are well represented throughout the school’s social network. In this racially integratedschool, Black and White students have formed segregated friendship groups.To a lesser extent friendship groups tend to segregate themselves by socioeconomic status and gender as well.Theresult is a lower level of connectedness among most students.Panel B depicts a school that is predominantly White. Students of color are equally represented in each of the fivefriendship groups. When friendship groups are integrated in this way, school connectedness tends to be higher.In both schools there are students with no friends. Not surprisingly, these students feel the least connected to school.Many schools have implemented strategies to identify these young people and help link them into the school’s socialfabric.15

ConclusionFeeling connected to school is a significant advantage for adolescents asthey transition to adulthood.School connectedness protectsadolescents against many healthrisks, including smoking,alcohol, drug use, and earlysexual initiation. School connectednessis also good for academic achievement:whatever curriculum is in place will bemore effective when students feelconnected to school.The findings presented in thismonograph demonstrate that a fewschool attributes — classroommanagement, school size, andintegration of friendship groups acrosslines of race, gender, and social status —help explain why kids in some schoolsfeel more connected to school than kidsin other schools. Not only are thesefactors amenable to change, but there isevidence that schools have successfullychanged them.Improving academic achievementand test scores is the top priority formost schools. Squeezing yet one morething — school connectedness — ontothe plate might feel like too big of aburden. However, many schooladministrators and teachers are alreadyproviding the kind of leadership neededto improve school connectedness. Theevidence provided here indicates thatthese efforts are worth the investmentand may have broader value thanpreviously expected.16

EpilogueThis is the third in a series of monographsfundedby the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.This series presents newresearch findings from theNational Longitudinal Studyof Adolescent Health thathave immediate applicability. Thepurpose of these monographs is tocommunicate these new findings to thepeople who can use this information toimprove the health and well-being ofadolescents.For School AdministatorsTen Strategies That FosterConnection to School*1. Brainstorm with students, faculty, staff and parentssimple changes that could make school a more pleasantplace to be.2. Create policies that are based on student, family andneighborhood srengths and assets.3. Turn mistakes into learning opportunities rather thanfailures meriting punishment.4. Acknowledge and honor accomplishments and all typesof competencies (such as helpfulness, good citizenship,most improved performance, volunteerism, participationin decision making, and cessation of negative behavior).5. Set high standards and challenge students to meet them.6. Reinforce explicit expectations for positive behavior andacademic success.7. Encourage highly interactive teaching strategies.8. Create a welcoming environment for all who come tothe school.9. Invite family and community members to take activeand regular roles in the daily operation of the school.10. Create a common vision of success and keep it visible.* Based on material published in “Protective Schools: Linking Drug Abuse Preventionwith Student Success,” by Kris Bosworth, PhD. Smith Initiatives for Prevention andEducation, College of Education, The University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210069,Tucson, AZ 85721-006917

The findings presented in thismonograph contribute to a growingbody of research on how to fosterpositive school climate. The sidebars TenStrategies That Foster Connection withSchool came from the Smith Initiativesfor Prevention and Education at theUniversity of Arizona. These strategiestypify the recommendations of manyprofessional organizations of educators.Ten Strategies That FosterConnection to School*For Parents1. Be a model of respectful, cooperative, positivebehavior in your everyday interactions.2. Participate in school events.3. Show interest. Be involved in your child’s academicactivities.4. Maintain regular contact with your child’s teacher.5. Monitor you child’s homework completion and workwith him or her on homework assignments thatinvolve family participation.6. Be present when things go wrong.7. Meet your child’s friend, and their parents.8. Ask school leaders what you can do to support them.9. Volunteer at school.10. Nominate effective school leaders for local awards.All monographs in this series canbe downloaded from the website ofthe Division of General Pediatricsand Adolescent Health located at. Thefirst monograph, Reducing the Risk:Connections That Make a Difference inthe Lives of Youth, presents the firstresearch findings from Add Health. Itshows, among other things, thatschool connectedness is associatedwith emotional well-being and lowerparticipation in health risk behaviors.18

The second monograph, ProtectingTeens: Beyond Race, Ethnicity and FamilyStructure, presents research which showsthat race, family income and living in asingle-parent family cannot predict whetheran individual teen is likely to participate inrisky health behaviors.For TeachersTen Strategies That FosterConnection to School*1. Help students get to know each other’s (and your)strengths.2. Involve students in planning, problem solving, identifyingissues and assessing curriculum in the classroom.3. Promote cooperation over competition. Post everyone’sbest work. Offer opportunities for the class to worktogether to help everyone achieve their level of excellence.4. Build a strong relationship with each student.5. Convey attentiveness to students and excitement aboutlearning through nonverbal gestures.6. Involve all students in chores and responsibilities in theclassroom.7. Integrate concepts of discipline and respect for classmatesthroughout instruction.8. Give students more say in what they will learn.9. Involve student in developing the criteria by which theirwork will be assessed and provide guidelines so they clearlyunderstand what’s expected of them.10. Use first person plural (we, us, let’s) when presentingclassroom activities.* Based on material published in “ProtectiveSchools: Linking Drug Abuse Prevention withStudent Success,” by Kris Bosworth, PhD. SmithInitiatives for Prevention and Education, College ofEducation, The University of Arizona, P.O. Box210069, Tucson, AZ 85721-006919

This monograph was prepared by Robert William Blum, MD, PhD, Clea McNeely, DrPHand Peggy Mann Rinehart of the Center for Adolescent Health and Development,University of Minnesota. It is based on an analysis of Add Health data and reported in theJournal of School Health, April 2002: McNeely, C.A., Nonnemaker, J.M., Blum, R.W.(2002) Promoting Student Attachment to School: Evidence from the NationalLongitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Journal of School Health. Vol 72(4).All analyses of friendship networks were provided by James Moody, Department ofSociology, Ohio State University, and Peter S. Bearman, Department of Sociology,Columbia University, in their unpublished paper, “Shaping School Climate: SchoolContext, Adolescent Social Networks, and Attachment to School.”Copies (up to 3) of this monograph can be obtained by contacting:Center for Adolescent Health and DevelopmentDivision of General Pediatrics and Adolescent HealthUniversity of Minnesota Gateway200 Oak St. SE, Suite 260Minneapolis, MN 55455-2002E-mail: ahp@umn.eduCitation Information:Blum, R.W., McNeely, C.A., Rinehart, P.M., (2002).Improving the odds: The untapped power of schools to improve the health of teens,Center for Adolescent Health and Development, University of Minnesota,200 Oak St. SE, Suite 260, Minneapolis, MN.Preparation of this report was assisted by a grant fromThe Robert Wood Johnson FoundationPrinceton, New JerseyPartial support for the research was provided by The American Association of SchoolAdministrators through a grant from the Division of Adolescent and School Health,Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and by grant 448-CCU513331 from theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention to the National Teen Pregnancy PreventionResearch Center.Print Production Assistance: Liz Latts, David McNeely, Katherine Puntillo, Glynis SheaPrinted by University of Minnesota Printing Services.20