This study investigated the impact the Achieve3000 program had on reading growth and reading proficiency of 1,531 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students from four Title 1 middle schools in Florida who were enrolled in remedial reading classes. Archival data from the Florida Standards Assessment English language arts provided pre-and-post data…

School discipline continues to be a challenge for schools, resulting in loss of instructional time for both teachers and students. With respect to discipline actions, school suspension is one of the most widely used, yet research continues to demonstrate an empirical link between receipt of suspension and poor student outcomes, including increased…

Pioneer Valley Books (PVB) contracted McREL International to investigate the effects of the third grade Literacy Footprints (LFP) guided reading system on English language arts (ELA) performance on state assessments. LFP is a research-based, comprehensive, small-group literacy tool that facilitates explicit and systematic guided reading…

Billions of dollars are spent every year on teacher professional development (PD) programs (Fermanich, 2002; Odden et al., 2002; TNTP, 2015; U.S. Department of Education, 2014). The few rigorous evaluations of PD programs that have been done usually report a null effect on student achievement, leading many scholars to conclude that teacher PD…

Research suggests that art programs have positive therapeutic effects on children, including improved self-concept. This pretest/posttest intervention study examined changes in self-concept in children (N = 176) who participated in an art program at the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Results indicated significant, positive increases in…

This study involved fifth-grade students (N = 336) from one Florida school district and examined prosocial behaviors, bullying behaviors, engagement in school success skills and perceptions of classroom climate between the treatment group who received the school counselor-led Student Success Skills classroom guidance program, and their peer…

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the preliminary efficacy of a dating violence (DV) prevention program for Cuban American adolescents ("JOVEN"/YOUTH: "Juntos Opuestos a la Violence Entre Novios"/Together Against Dating Violence). A randomized-controlled experimental design with a delayed condition was used to evaluate…

The focus of this study is to add to the outcome research on effective school counseling interventions and to specifically evaluate the effectiveness of the Student Success Skills (SSS) small group intervention with students identified as having drop out potential in the 9th grade. This study analyzed two years of pre-existing, non-identifiable…

The study reported in this paper examined the effects of "First Step to Success (First Step)," a school- and home-based program intended to improve outcomes for students with moderate to severe behavior problems who may be at risk for academic failure. The study took place in six locations across five states: San Jose, California; Tampa,…

This report describes the findings for an analysis of data provided by the Re-Inventing Schools Coalition (RISC). A comparison was made between schools at seven districts that employ the RISC model and eight non-RISC districts (hereinafter referred to as RISC and non-RISC schools) on the percentages of students who scored proficient or above on…

Aiming to improve on existing research on after-school programs, RAND researchers evaluated the effect of the SFK program on a wide variety of behavioral outcomes. They found that SFK had positive effects on nearly every domain tested, and many of these effects persisted at 12-week follow-up. Notably, the effect sizes exceeded the average effect…

In this article, the author reports on what he found impressive in the evaluation results of the program Reading First (RF) in four states: Utah, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Florida. The author states that responding to these four exemplary state-level studies of Reading First evoked mixed feelings. He noticed three things: (1) the RF effect…

"Positive Action," a K-12 program, aims to promote a positive self-concept, character development, healthy behavior, and social-emotional skills and to reduce disruptive and problem behavior. The curricula for elementary and middle school students each have seven units per kit, with nine kits per grade level. The high school curriculum…