My interest in school safety and bullying prevention has led me to study what I believe is the solution: student school engagement. My school safety work linked the emphasis on high-stakes tests with a decline in the attention to students’ affective needs and a resultant increase in bullying. Subsequent work found that pedagogically-driven schools create safety for their members through intentional creation of community. All of this work informed my development of the Student School Engagement Measure (SSEM). The SSEM measures a student's Aspirations, Belonging, and Productivity.

• Aspirations: the student's appraisal of how well the school environment supports what she wants to do with her life
• Belong: the student's perception that he is a member of the school community and endorses the school's social expectations
• Productivity: the student's ability to access supports and commitment to academic success

The SSEM has been validated and utilized in middle and high schools. Due to the importance of engagement, researchers in various parts of the United States, as well as Australia, Turkey, and Poland, have utilized the SSEM to understand student engagement.

US fourth grade girl's drawing of safe and unsafe school environments.