As superintendents steer their districts through uncharted territories, their experiences and strategies are key to transforming schools. This study employed transcendental phenomenology to explore how seven Virginia superintendents from two different regions described their experiences implementing novel cultural competency training. Data…

Great Expectations is a Virginia Community College System program for youth who were in foster care after the age of 13. Foster youth enter college with multiple disadvantages, including being less academically prepared compared to their peers and often lacking social support for their education. A program evaluation was conducted at a specific…

In response to urgent student mental health needs across Virginia's college campuses, the 2022 Virginia General Assembly appropriated funds to support a two-year mental health workforce pilot program at public institutions of higher education. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), in consultation with the Virginia Health Care…

The purpose of this project was to evaluate the Virginia Cooperative Extension internship program from the perspective of student participants and their supervisors. Three focus groups were conducted with internship supervisors from the summer of 2019. Student survey data was used to identify concerns from the student perspective to inform the…

Effective instructional coaching won't happen across a district without a well-specified coaching program and a reliable way to guide coaches. Fortunately, there are innovations from research and development efforts that can help districts put into practice the best ideas about instructional coaching. Andrew Wayne and Jane Coggshall describe how…

Evidence-based programs (EBPs) delivered in elementary schools show great promise in reducing risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBDs). However, efforts to sustain EBPs in school face barriers. Improving EBP sustainment thus represents a priority, but little research exists to inform the development of sustainment strategies. To address…

Federal second chance Pell grants were recently made widely available to incarcerated students in the United States to fund undergraduate education. Piedmont Virginia Community College was a pilot site for this expansion and began full scale implementation of transfer-oriented associate degrees at three correctional centers in its service area.…

Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) require supports and services designed to meet their unique needs. Research has identified 27 evidence-based practices (EBPs) for children ages birth to 5 years. However, there is a paucity of research that examines whether early childhood providers are implementing EBPs with children with ASD. In…

More than half of states have implemented tuition-free college policies aimed at reducing attendance costs and incentivizing enrollment. We review the academic literature on the design features and impacts of these tuition-free policies, and we analyze an initiative Virginia implemented in 2021 called Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead (G3), which…

Getting a head start on college coursework in high school has become an even more important goal for high school students in recent years, due in part to the rising costs of obtaining traditional four-year college degrees coupled with the disruptions in learning for high school and college students due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now more than ever,…

Although phonics knowledge and decoding skill are important for academic and life success, there is little research that examines the effects of home-based, family-implemented instruction on the development of these early literacy skills. The purpose of this multiple baseline across participants single case experimental design study was to…

Although comprehensive school counseling programs are implemented widely across the country, school counselors face myriad barriers to implementation. As such, we conducted a multilevel, descriptive case study to examine a school counseling cohort preparing to apply for the American School Counselor Association's Recognized ASCA Model Program…

The implementation of gifted programmes in the 1970s provided a way for school divisions to circumvent many of the aims of desegregated schooling as called for in "Brown v. Board of Education." This study examines the implementation of one such system in a Southern school district that saw schools close rather than integrate in the years…

To promote school safety across K-12 settings, one preventative approach to school violence is school-based threat assessment. The current study utilizes a systematic review of empirical threat assessment investigations to inform evidence-based practices for school threat assessment. Twenty-three articles met inclusion criteria for the review. The…

To counter tuition and textbook costs for degree-seeking students, a specific pathway to a bachelor's degree in Leadership was developed. The pathway, comprised of partnerships with the high school Leadership Academy at a public high school, community college, and Old Dominion University (ODU), reduced tuition and textbook costs, allowing the…