In 2010, the National Association of School Psychologists approved the "Model for Comprehensive and Integrated School Psychological Services" (or the NASP Practice Model), codifying what an expanded role encompasses in the delivery of school-based psychological services. This study examined the role and function of school psychology…

Environmental issues can serve as a marvelous framework for high-level student analysis of critical scientific and social concerns. We describe a series of activities and discussions that motivate students to explore environmentalism, sustainable development, carbon offsets, and related ideas with an engaged learning format that helps students to…

The Social Development Model (SDM) is a life course theory that integrates several extant criminological theories to specify the interactive social processes that lead to prosocial and antisocial behavior. Relatively little research has attempted to cross-validate this and other developmental theories of delinquency. The current study assesses the…

Including gesture in instruction facilitates learning. Why? One possibility is that gesture points out objects in the immediate context and thus helps ground the words learners hear in the world they see. Previous work on gesture's role in instruction has used gestures that either point to or trace paths on objects, thus providing support for this…

This study is a secondary analysis of surveys collected from school social workers in Illinois. Workers were originally surveyed about the most important student problems they confront in their schools and their preferred targets of intervention (individual, small group, family) to address those problems. Drawing on related conceptual work, the…

Since 2002, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills has been the leading advocacy organization in the United States focused on infusing 21st century skills into education. Its "Framework for 21st Century Learning," the result of a consensus among hundreds of stakeholders, describes the skills, knowledge, and expertise students need to…

Presents a model developed from seven interrelated social factors to help diagnose various kinds of community conflicts. To verify the model and illustrate its utility, the standoff over the Berm Highway routing in Alton, Illinois, is analyzed. Findings suggest the importance of broadening the participants' definition of the situation through more…

Extensive education research on the contribution of teachers to student achievement produces two generally accepted results. First, teacher quality varies substantially as measured by the value added to student achievement or future academic attainment or earnings. Second, variables often used to determine entry into the profession and…

Opponents of school choice argue that private schools are not "accountable" because they are not subject to detailed oversight by a regulatory bureaucracy. They claim private school employees can be expected to engage in abusive and criminal behavior more frequently. School choice supporters respond that parents hold private schools…

This study undertook to develop an improved conceptual system for explaining effective behavior; to build reliable measures of the components of that behavior; to develop and apply the measures internationally; and to validate the measures and concepts against objective criteria of achievement. An eight-nation team defined three sets of components…

This paper lists guidelines approved by the Illinois State Board of Education for improving alcohol and drug education in the schools. Statistics point out the seriousness of alcohol and drug abuse in terms of human costs to the victim, his/her family, and associates, and the economic costs of health care, accident losses, crime, social programs,…

This project presented a conceptual model for adapting with change and the strategies and procedures for introducing change skills instruction into vocational programs to groups of vocational educators and administrators at sites throughout Illinois. Following the presentations, the project directors solicited feedback from the persons who…

This report presents the results of a pilot study designed to test the feasibility and desirability of establishing a statewide human resources inventory and information system to support the community service role of Illinois community colleges and upper division universities. The information system would provide a centralized source of data on…

A project was conducted to develop a model, strategies, and procedures for introducing change skills instruction into vocational programs. During the course of the year-long project, the following were to be accomplished: development and presentation of a conceptual model that provided a rationale for introducing change skills instruction into…

This extrapolation paper is intended: (1) to present a model of a pretechnical curriculum that has as its focus the self-empowerment of the individual and (2) to describe how the curriculum could be implemented in the schools. The first part of the paper discusses the need for a pretechnical curriculum in terms of a model for self-empowerment.…