The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program is a residential, quasi-military program that serves young people ages 16 to 18 who are struggling to complete their high school credential. This is the ninth report in an annual series that RAND researchers have issued. The prior annual reports cover 2015 through 2022. Each annual report documents the…

The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program is a residential, quasi-military program for youth ages 16 to 18 who are experiencing difficulty in traditional high school. This report covers the program years 2018-2019 and is the fourth in a series of annual reports that RAND Corporation researchers have issued over the course of a research project…

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders served in alternative educational settings (e.g., residential treatment facilities) have been exposed to traumatic events at higher rates compared to their peers. Due to the significance of the need for connection with safe, healthy adults, in healing from past traumatic experiences and developing…

Outdoor environmental education programs frequently aim to influence participants' environmental values and behaviors. Published studies have frequently documented their success in doing so. However, few studies have examined the characteristics of programs in relation to accomplishing those goals. Using characteristics identified as important in…

Youth with or at-risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) within residential treatment facilities have a variety of needs (e.g., academic, behavioral, social-emotional). A concerted effort is required to address these areas of need so that youth can develop their skills to be successful within their present and future settings. In chapter…

Do preparation and perceived support from guardians and teachers influence student attendance to a residential environmental education (EE) field trip program? To explore this question, pre-visit surveys were administered to racially diverse sixth-grade students at seven schools invited to attend a residential EE program at no cost, namely…

In this study, we evaluate the feasibility of increasing the number of graduates from the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program (ChalleNGe) who could be employable in one of the four military services. Because of the Department of Defense's (DOD's) and the services' quality goals, this requires that a significant portion of ChalleNGe graduates…

While multiple valid measures exist for assessing outcomes of environmental education (EE) programs, the field lacks a comprehensive and logistically feasible common instrument that can apply across diverse programs. We describe a participatory effort for identifying and developing crosscutting outcomes for Environmental Education in the…

The ways in which residential outdoor environmental education programs are perceived by the teachers accompanying their elementary school students have rarely been investigated. In this study, interviews were conducted with 17 elementary school teachers who had participated in one of five selected residential programs in the Czech Republic in…

Understanding the development of pro-environmental behavioral intentions and behaviors remains one of the greatest challenges for environmental educators worldwide. Using the Elaboration Likelihood Model as a theoretical foundation, we developed surveys to evaluate the influence of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Junior Ranger program on…

In this article I examined the professional identity development of five mentor teachers in a year-long, clinically rich teacher residency partnered between a university-based teacher education program and schools in a southern state of the United States. Qualitative data were collected through classroom observation and individual semi-structured…

This paper reports the performance of 30 rising seventh-grade girls on a task in which they were asked to order four fractions from least to greatest. Less than three-fifths attained correct answers. The performance gap was widest between students who attended Title I schools and those who did not, the latter being much more likely to attain…

Given global threats to the continued functioning of ecosystem services that sustain us all, educators would be wise to embrace the task of redefining our individual and collective orientations to the natural world. Since the inception of the modern environmental education movement in the 1970's, outdoor education at residential camps has…

The Peterson Proactive Developmental Attention (PPDA) model offers a framework for affective curriculum for gifted children and adolescents and for both formal or informal interaction with individuals. The model was developed in authentic clinical and educational settings in response to perceived needs but was also informed by considerable…

Over the last decade, a plethora of research has been undertaken into learning outside the classroom and its resultant benefits on pupils [Dillon, J., M. Rickinson, K. Teamey, M. Morris, M. Y. Choi, D. Sanders, and P. Benefield. 2006. "The Value of Outdoor Learning: Evidence from Research in the UK and Elsewhere." "School Science…