Her primary research interests center on marginalized students' inequitable experiences of safety, support, and belonging (i.e., school climate) in U.S. K-12 public schools. Dr. Bottiani examines the structural causes and consequences of inequitable school climate, which in turn informs the development and testing of school-based preventive intervention and promotion strategies to redress educational inequality, including racial and gender-based discipline disparities. She collaborates on multiple federally-funded research initiatives, including a school-level RCT of Double Check (an IES-funded culturally responsive practice intervention for staff to reduce the discipline gap) and a student-level RCT of Coping Power in the City (a National Institute of Justice-funded adaptation of the evidence-based intervention to promote healthy coping skills in at-risk 9th graders and improved de-escalation and cultural sensitivity skills among Baltimore City school police officers).
