Every year, an increasing number of autistic youth enter a complex and underfunded adult service system after graduating from high school. Executive function (EF) challenges commonly co-occur with autism, especially related to flexible problem-solving and planning, and are linked to poor outcomes in post-secondary education and employment. The…

Decades of research have produced profound insights into how student learning and motivation can be unleashed--and it's not through technology or even the best of lectures. In "Super Courses," education expert and bestselling author Ken Bain tells the fascinating story of enterprising college, graduate school, and high school teachers…

Background: We developed the Tobacco Prevention Toolkit (Toolkit) to enhance the impact of school-based tobacco education. This study describes the process of developing the Toolkit, its contents, and reach. Methods: Qualitative community-based participatory research (CBPR), including focus group discussions (N = 152) and working groups with…

Evidence-based social/emotional learning (SEL) programs have been shown to have many benefits and are considered best practice in helping students apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions. One school district undertook a multiyear process to move to a common school counseling core curriculum in the…

Too many students still experience the factory model evident in most U.S. high schools, which were designed to put young people on a conveyor belt and move them from one overloaded teacher to the next, in 45-minute increments, to be stamped with separate, disconnected lessons 7 or 8 times a day. While these factory-model designs may have worked…

Widespread adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) has created a need to carefully consider how chemistry curricula should support students in understanding the world in terms of atomic/molecular behavior. We argue that Standards-aligned coursework should be "core-ideas centered" due to evidence that curricula embedded…

Background: In this case study, multiple participants in a large urban school district used the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model to guide development of a district wellness policy. The model's health education component is highlighted, focusing on concerns for special needs students and ones speaking English as a New…

Connecting the behavior of invisible (to the naked eye) particles governed by the principles of quantum mechanics to the world we can see and touch requires a host of inferences, almost none of which can be extrapolated from experience. Molecular-level sensemaking thus relies upon intellectual resources that must be developed in large part by…

As they prepared for the 2016-2017 school year, administrators and teachers at Design Tech High School ("d.tech"), a public charter school in Northern California, decided they needed a deeper understanding of how students learn. According to Nicole Cerra, Director of Learning, "Obviously you need to get to know students…

The Center on Innovations in Learning (CIL) is a national content center established to work with regional comprehensive centers and state education agencies (SEA) to build SEAs' capacity to stimulate, select, implement, and scale up innovation in learning. This report is a collection of evidence ratings and practice briefs. The categories for…

To meet the constantly changing needs of schools and diverse learners, educators must frequently monitor student learning, revise curricula, and improve instruction. Consequently, it is critical that careful analyses of student performance data are ongoing components of curriculum decision-making processes. The primary purpose of this study is to…

This report contains the findings of the Oregon Applied Academics research and development project which spanned three academic years from 2010 through 2013. The overall purpose of the project was to develop and implement a technical math course that would meet graduation requirements and improve student performance. The State of Oregon has been…