Educators interact with more than 4 million infants and toddlers each week in the United States and can provide positive, nurturing experiences that enhance development. Tragically, the infant-toddler workforce in the United States often lacks the support and resources necessary to support their work. These urgent needs require comprehensive…

High-quality family childcare (FCC) can positively influence all areas of a child's growth and development. Thus, it is important to invest in efforts to increase quality, including providing professional development to enhance the skills of those caring for children in their homes. This study explores the characteristics of FCC providers who…

As one of only six states receiving a federal Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy grant, Pennsylvania has designed and implemented an innovative program that focuses on improved instruction and interventions to ensure every student is literate and graduates from high school ready for college and a career. This report describes Pennsylvania's…

"Healthy Relationships & Autism" is a developmentally sequenced, manualized intervention intended for children and adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The curriculum is designed to facilitate healthy interpersonal relationships; three modules cover personal hygiene, sexual knowledge, and a variety of productive…

As of the writing of this report, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are being implemented in 45 states and the District of Columbia. Approaches to implementing the standards, however, are highly varied. For the past 3 years, Research For Action (RFA) has been tracking how one approach to implementing the literacy standards--the Literacy…

We present a new method for analyzing a student's learning over time for a specific skill: analysis of the graph of the student's moment-by-moment learning over time. Moment-by-moment learning is calculated using a data-mined model that assesses the probability that a student learned a skill or concept at a specific time during learning (Baker,…

The study investigated the impact of podcasts and vodcasts accessed through an iPod on fourth-and sixth-grade students' vocabulary acquisition. Students were randomly assigned to either a podcast group or a vodcast group. Regardless of group assignment, each student completed three six-minute podcasts or vodcasts a day for three days. On average,…

This newsletter of best practices in implementing the High Schools That Work (HSTW), Making Middle Grades Work (MMGW) and Technology Centers That Work (TCTW) school improvement models is based on presentations at the 27th Annual HSTW Staff Development Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the summer of 2013. The newsletter is divided up into…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a student-centered faculty development model on the conceptions of teaching of participating US Arts and Sciences faculty members. "Student-centered learning models are widely accepted as catalysts for improved learning and psychosocial outcomes, and their use is especially important…

A curriculum development project was conducted to generate additional competency-based modules to be used within the articulation model for Pennsylvania dental assisting programs, established in 1988. Project activities included reviewing, modifying, and providing parallel competency-based structure for the courses at the A.W. Beattie Technical…

These proceedings contain the texts of 20 reports presented at a conference organized to review and assess the status of the following types of performance/competency-based approaches to the professional development of vocational teachers and administrators: performance-based teacher education (PBTE), competency-based teacher education (CBTE),…

A project was conducted to determine the need for and to create a distance learning-based staff development program for adult literacy instructors throughout Pennsylvania. Each of Pennsylvania's 306 adult literacy programs was sent a survey regarding their staff members' access to and knowledge about distance learning technology. Of the 100…

This project continued a 2-year project that had focused on development and implementation of training in content areas needed by staff from ABLE (Adult Basic and Literacy Education)-funded agencies in Pennsylvania. The project continued to coordinate the review and selection of training materials for professional development in designated content…

To increase the supply of modularized instructional materials to meet the need for preservice and/or inservice education of professional vocational educators, the National Center for Research in Vocational Education and seven interested states organized in 1978 a Consortium for the Development of Professional Materials for Vocational Education. To…

The purpose of a curriculum project was to identify selected areas in which modules needed to be c developed for Pennsylvania's vocational programs for the occupation of home-health assistant, and to develop a minimum of three modules for field testing. By reviewing current literature and information, the area of need for curriculum materials for…