Background: Children living in urban areas often have limited opportunities to experience informal science environments. As a result, some do not have a deep understanding of the environment, natural resources, ecosystems, and the ways human activities affect nature. Purpose: This article examines how experiential science education supported urban…

The Summer Research Enhancement Program (SREP) at Diné College provides students with a solid foundation of public health research methods and includes a hands-on internship in their home community to test their newly acquired skills while enhancing the communities' health. Focusing on health issues prioritized by Navajo health leaders, from…

Over a decade ago, Borko (2004) raised the awareness of the education research community to the critical need for studies of teacher professional development (PD) programs. She states on page 13: "My challenge to the educational research community is this: We have much work to do and many questions to answer in order to provide high-quality…

The math achievement of students is low in a small rural district in Colorado. The purpose of this study was to explore the efficacy of a summer third through fifth grade math program in improving math scores. Piaget's theory of cognitive development was used as the theoretical foundation for the math instructional resource delivered to the…

The recipe for success of Strive Preparatory Charter School (formerly West Denver Preparatory Charter School) is not a secret. This summer program, turned four-campus, middle level phenomenon, is proving to satisfy the appetite of parents hungry for a change in their children's educational opportunities. The intent of this article is to share a…

This study looks deeply inside 17 schools that stand at the vanguard of the current revolution in teaching. This new National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL) report reveals the substantive ways in which these schools are providing their teachers with more time to reflect on, develop, and hone their craft, by very explicitly leveraging an…

The events of September 11, 2001, shocked the nation and forced the United States government to acknowledge its tremendously inadequate capability in foreign language proficiency and global cultural awareness. Post 9/11 military operations reinforced the reality that the Department of Defense (DoD) needs a significantly improved capability in…

Despite increases in postsecondary enrollment at American universities and colleges, there are still significant gaps in who matriculates to college and persists through graduation. Low-income students and students of color continue to be underrepresented in institutions of higher education; for many of these students, a lack of awareness of…

The authors prepared this report after exploring programs using a 90-day cycle process borrowed from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). The IHI 90-day cycle scans activity in the field as a "quick way to research innovative ideas and assess their potential for advancing quality improvement". The goal was to "get under…

These "Stories From the Field" describe five Wallace-funded programs working to expand learning and enrichment for disadvantaged children, so they can benefit from the types of opportunities their wealthier counterparts have access to, from homework help to swimming classes. The report details each program's approach, successes and…

Based on the findings of a recent three-year study by Dominican University's Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, the authors can confirm what many librarians have long suspected: students who take part in their local library's summer reading program significantly improve their reading skills. This article describes the results of…

Launched last year, the SciTech Summer Camp is a joint project being led by the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Corp. (HENAAC). SciTech was created to get more Hispanic students into the so-called STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. SciTech…

"Letras y Arte: Literacy and Art" is a 3-week summer course at Regis University in Denver, Colorado, offering a social justice approach to art education. In this article, the authors outline the background of "Letras y Arte," contextualize the program in art education, and explain three strategies for engaging students: (1)…

Graduates of the six regional 2007 "We the People: Project Citizen" professional development summer institutes were surveyed to determine how useful they found their institute experience, and to the extent to which their participation at the Center-sponsored institutes influenced their teaching of civics and government. The study was…

The severe youth health crisis involving overweight and obesity requires a complex policy response involving multiple domains: education, agriculture, health services, and community planning. This research examines gardening's affective benefits for adolescents and the potential school and youth gardens have to support healthy communities.…