Physical education is critical to addressing childhood obesity, yet many school-based programs do not meet established quality standards and teachers are called upon to change. Little is known about how change is initiated and its associated internal and external factors. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate physical education…

Program satisfaction, self-efficacy to change, and willingness to change, are dispositions that influence physical education teacher change. The study purpose was to validate an instrument measuring program satisfaction, self-efficacy to change, and willingness to change relative to teachers' likelihood to change. A 15-item Teacher Change…

Grandparents University ® (GPU) is a 2-day campus-based nutrition education program for grandparents and grandchildren based on constructs from Social Cognitive Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior. This article describes how program theory was used to develop a working model, design activities, and select outcome measures of a 2-day…

Purpose/Objectives: This study investigated the use of electronic and paper-based point-of-service (POS) systems in school nutrition programs (SNPs), including associated challenges and the desired skills and existing training practices for personnel handling such systems. Methods: A questionnaire was developed based on interviews with 25 SNP…

Care Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRISs) have advanced and matured, a number of states and localities have undertaken evaluations to validate the systems. Such efforts stem from the desire to ensure that the system is designed and operating in the ways envisioned when the system was established. Given that a central component in a QRIS…

Reigeluth et al. ("Educ Technol" 48(6):32-39, 2008) proposed major and secondary functions for educational technology systems for the learner-centered paradigm of education. However, the functions proposed should be formatively evaluated and revised using a variety of cases to develop a better understanding of how technology can support…

Environmental Field Days (EFD) are held throughout the country and provide a unique opportunity to involve students in real world science. A study to assess the validity of an observation tool for EFD programs was conducted at the Metro Water Festival with fifth grade students. Items from the observation tool were mapped to students' evaluation…

More than half of all school-age children in the United States read below grade level (NCES, 2012a). Seventy-five percent of all special education referrals are due to poor reading skills (NCES, 2012b). The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services reports that 50% or more of students with disabilities score at or below the 20th…

This article details a strategic planning model and concurrent 3-year research study focusing on the benefits of preK-16 professional development school learning communities for the participating preK-16 educational leaders in a midwestern school-university partnership network. Results of the study, along with the strategic plan's success at…

The American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC) Plus 50 Initiative is a three-year initiative launched in June 2008 and funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies. It was created to support a pilot group of two-year institutions to develop or expand campus programs that engage plus 50 learners. The initiative focuses on three types of…

Raising evaluation capacity is not an easy task unless the evaluation competence of Extension professionals in each program area is identified. The study reported here identified whether level of knowledge and skills and needs for further training in program evaluation vary for Extension educators based on their program area. A total of 752…

The American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC) Plus 50 Initiative is a three-year initiative launched in June 2008 and funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies. It was created to support a pilot group of two-year institutions to develop or expand campus programs that engage plus 50 learners. The initiative focuses on three types of…

This paper examines the complexities of working with student researchers in a virtual lab setting, logistics, and methods to resolve issues. To demonstrate the feasibility of a virtual lab, a mixed-methods study consisting of quantitative surveys and qualitative data examined changes in doctoral students' confidence as measured by research outcome…

Do "out" lesbian and gay faculty influence the inclusion of sexual orientation as a form of diversity in their teacher preparation programmes? Data gathered from 142 teacher preparation programmes across the USA (representing the preparation of 23,000-30,000 new teachers annually) suggest they do not. Likewise, the priority placed upon…

Ten demonstration grants were awarded to public school systems throughout the state of Minnesota to develop expanded early childhood family education (ECFE) programs that integrate the roles of families, teachers, and social services in serving children in kindergarten through third grade and their families. This report provides an overview of the…