School counselors are vital to school reform and improvement efforts, as such, school districts are always searching for ways to actively involve school counselors in their own professional development. Due to the increased mental health and behavioral needs of students, there is an increased demand for more intentional and appropriate…

The General Educational Development (GED) is a high school equivalency credential sought after by millions of Americans who do not hold a traditional high school diploma. This program evaluation offers insight to a local adult GED program as it seeks to increase the retention and GED completion rates of the students in their program. The…

Although the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Framework has been effective in designing tools and lessons, implementation of the Framework to design entire learning environments possesses its own limitations in research. This paper describes a quasi-experimental study of the effects of a professional development program on teachers'…

Objective: This study investigated the efficacy of a two-component professional development approach to improving school wellness in Pennsylvania secondary schools. Design: Circle of Wellness (CoW), a year-long, two-phase programme, involved providing Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) workshops to Pennsylvania school staff and…

Since professional learning is about shifting adult mindsets and behavior, it is work that frequently challenges assumptions, expectations, beliefs, instructional practices, and long-standing habits. To have meaningful and productive conversations about evaluation and data, educators must be equipped with effective practices and tools that allow…

In many applied youth development settings, including out-of-school time (OST) programs, volunteers play essential roles (Brennan, 2005). In some, volunteers are integral to service delivery -- for example, serving as mentors. In others, volunteers help link youth-serving organizations or their participants with needed resources, assets, or…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a program evaluation of an online mental health literacy curriculum for K-12. In addition, the study established the next steps for professional development concerning mental health literacy for staff based on the findings. This study was guided by research questions: 1. How much knowledge has been gained…

This article reports on Year 2 of a three-year project to assess historic site-based teacher professional development programs. The intended focus was assessing pre-post Q-sorts and interviews of 29 teachers regarding how they see their work at historic sites affecting their professional development. However, data analysis revealed exceptionally…

Assessing implementation of comprehensive treatment programs is a multifaceted process that should extend beyond measuring solely treatment fidelity. The purpose of this article is to describe and demonstrate a thorough process for assessing implementation and receipt of a comprehensive treatment program for students with autism spectrum disorders…

While there has been an increased focus on inquiry-based learning in teacher preparation programs, little is known about the influences of these programs on teacher development over time. Using activity theory as its theoretical framework, the researcher employed a longitudinal interpretative case study design to examine the development of three…

This qualitative study investigates the development of science teacher leaders during and after professional development. It examines the impactful experiences during a teacher leadership program that allowed them to explore their leadership identity and how this identity manifests in their schools' post-program. The participants are 14 chemistry…

The importance of reducing the gender gap in engineering programs by recruiting and retaining female students is well recognized. Although women hold roughly half of all jobs in the United States, only 24% of STEM jobs are occupied by women. The problem is even more pronounced for engineering, where women held about 12% of jobs as of 2013 (Corbett…

There is growing enthusiasm for STEAM education in preparing students for an increasingly complex world. However, implementing STEAM in the classroom can be challenging for educators, as it may require collaboration across disciplines, increased workload, and understanding the nature of STEAM integration. This paper details a mixed-methods…

Online professional development (PD) can support broader accessibility than traditional face-to-face PD. However online delivery presents challenges for characteristics of high-quality PD, such as collaborative knowledge building and community development, that have proven positive outcomes in face-to-face modes. A few comparative studies have…

As new efforts seek to expand computer science education across the globe, there has been a widespread effort to prepare school teachers for teaching computer science to culturally and racially diverse students. This effort to center diversity and equity is notable as computer science courses are typically homogenous in terms of race and gender,…