Formal mentoring has been an effective approach to mitigate challenges facing underserved youth and contributes to observable improvements in behavior, relationships, and emotional well-being. In recent years, virtual mentoring has emerged as a promising way to expand the provision of mentoring. By engaging virtually, mentorship programs can…

Cross-national studies consistently reveal that bullying is a pervasive problem in schools and associated with a multitude of deleterious outcomes. The present dissertation conducted two studies to further provide insight into this complex phenomenon and facilitate the development of effective bullying prevention programs. Youth involved in…

aimswebPlus® is an assessment, data management, and reporting system that provides national and local performance and growth norms for the screening and progress monitoring of math and reading skills for all students in kindergarten through 8th grade. aimswebPlus uses two types of measures: (1) "curriculum-based measures" (CBMs)--brief,…

The transition from middle school to high school is an important developmental period to investigate because of the negative impact it has on youths' academics. The purpose of this study was to investigate Latino youths' academic achievement prior to, during, and after the transition to high school, and gender differences in youths' achievement…

A dating violence and sexual assault prevention program was presented to 396, predominately African American, middle schoolers in two inner city schools in the United States. In one school the program was offered with a same-gender group composition; in the other school, the same program was offered with mixed-gender group composition. A…

Independently learning from informative texts becomes increasingly important from the age of 11. Little information is available, however, on (a) how and to what extent late elementary education students already apply specific text-learning strategies, and (b) whether different learner profiles can already be distinguished. In this study, a…

This study examined how group composition influences students' level of satisfaction with a dating violence and sexual assault prevention program. A 10- to 12-session program was presented to 396 urban African American middle school students in mixed- and same-gender groups. Both males and females were significantly more satisfied with the…

Multiple initiatives have been launched to try to widen the pipeline for women to enter engineering careers, including reviews of gender differences in enrollment in technology and pre-engineering courses from middle school through doctoral degrees. National agencies have also studied some of the social and cultural forces at play with regard to…

This article discusses the development, implementation, and effects of a middle school empathy building program that was designed to reduce bullying behavior. Results show that participants in the intervention group reported engaging in significantly less bullying behavior as compared to the control group, and the program was particularly…