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Existing measures of belonging in schools do not explicitly elevate the contextual and cultural insights of the educators and students they were designed to assess. Our study addresses this shortcoming through the co-creation of an Opportunities to Belong survey measure for urban middle schoolers. The tool was developed in partnership with practicing educators and normed around Black and Latinx students ( N = 225). Results of a multilevel confirmatory factor analysis revealed strong evidence for single factor structure. A within-persons multilevel model revealed that shifts in opportunities to belong predicted fluctuations in student engagement across different academic courses. Implications are discussed.

This study investigated developmental trajectories of novice elementary teachers’ efficacy beliefs (i.e., personal teaching efficacy and outcome expectancy) and their mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT). Overall, study findings indicated growth in participants’ personal efficacy beliefs and in various assessments for dimensions of MKT. Additional relationships between participants’ MKT trajectories and their mathematics efficacy beliefs trajectories were found. Findings from our study can help teacher educators, researchers, and school leaders in better understanding how novice teachers develop their MKT and their teaching efficacy beliefs during the teacher education program and in their first years of teaching.

This article discusses factors contributing to the belonging vulnerability of Black adolescents as well as educational policy considerations for providing Black adolescents with opportunities to belong at school. Scholarship at the intersection of educational psychology and teacher education provides cultural interpretations for why and how Black adolescents are vulnerable to issues of belonging when educators are not in their corner, and when curricula do not reflect their cultures. Policy recommendations include (a) strategic investments in principal preparation, (b) information and human resources to develop culturally relevant learning opportunities, and (c) substantive roles for students as school and community leaders who can help address structural causes of belonging vulnerability among this population.