Background: Children residing in households with very low food sufficiency (VLFS), where there is "often" not enough to eat, are more likely to experience academic, health, and psychological challenges. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a temporary universal free school meals (UFSM) policy was implemented, improving food access for children…

Extension has a role to play in workforce development by preparing the next generation to be successful communicators. While Extension 4-H youth programs have contributed to public speaking development since their inception, there has not been a validated instrument to assess young people's public speaking self-efficacy. We utilized an…

The objective of our project was to develop a smartphone app for administering shorter ("modular") surveys. Given the paucity of research on this topic, we decided to use "co-design" techniques to generate design solutions. To implement these techniques, we recruited respondents in the survey target population to work in small…

This study explored the alignment between the self-reported needs of the religious workforce and the ways theological schools are addressing these needs. Analyses of the 2022 ATS Alum/Mapping the Workforce Survey, MDiv curricula, and teaching areas of theological school faculty suggest there are significant gaps and even larger misalignments based…

During summer, children's activities are dependent on their families' and communities' resources, raising concerns about inequalities in access to summer enrichment experiences. In this research brief, we use nationally representative data from the 1999 and 2011 ECLS-K cohorts to examine trends in kindergarten children's summer enrichment…

This study investigated the predictive effect of in-service and pre-service science teachers' perceptions of the learning environment on their self-efficacy beliefs on science teaching. The same self-report questionnaires were used to collect data from in-service and pre-service science teachers. Of the participants, 142 in-service science…