School can serve as a protective factor, or a risk factor, for a child or adolescent receiving a public education. Risk factors are individual, family, community or environmental elements (behaviors, attributes) that increase the likelihood of negative life outcomes, i.e. school dropout, unemployment and incarceration. Protective factors can be characteristics/conditions that increase positive life outcomes, or characteristics/conditions that help protect against existing risk factors. For example, living in a high-poverty urban environment may be a risk factor for dropping out of school for adolescents attending an underfunded local high school. Living in an affluent suburb may be a protective factor for adolescents who attend a local public high school. Regardless of economic resources, school size, or family dynamics, school connections can be a protective factor for students (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). When children feel that teachers care about their learning and are invested in their success, they are more likely to achieve positive outcomes in their lives, such as academic success or employment. So how can educators increase school connectivity? How can we ensure that secondary school students feel cared for and valued by their teachers? Hirsch et al. highlighted one of the underlying factors that influence teacher caring (and school connection) in the title of their report, Teacher Working Conditions Are Student Learning Conditions. More specifically, Hirsch et al. found that working conditions “have a direct impact on teacher retention” (p. 14) and student achievement (p. 51). Poor working conditions harm teachers' commitment to their current job and therefore in the long term in primary schools. American Secondary Education, 31(2), 49-70. Rhodes, JE, Camic, P.M., Milburn, M., & Lowe, SR (2009). Improving middle school climate through teacher-centered change. Journal of Community Psychology, 37, 711-724. Hirsch, E., Emerick, S., Church, K., & Fuller, E. (2007). Teacher working conditions are student learning conditions: Report on the 2006 North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey. Center for Teaching Quality: Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICSServlet?accno=ED498770.Singh, K. and Billingsley, B.S. (1998). Professional support and its effects on teacher commitment. The Journal of Educational Research, 91, 229-239. Smith, PA, Hoy, WK, & Sweetland, SR (2001). Secondary school organizational health and dimensions of teacher trust. Journal of School Leadership, 11, 135-151.