The COVID-19 pandemic challenged educational developers, like instructors across the world, to pivot their traditionally face-to-face faculty development programs to online formats. At the Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning at George Mason University (classified as research-intensive and the largest public institution in Virginia, U.S.), we…

For various, largely unknown reasons, decision makers do not have equal interest in all Extension and outreach topics pertinent to a particular concept. This situation hampers Extension's ability to effectively deliver information and efficiently allocate limited resources. Using survey data, we identified heterogeneous preference for various…

This study characterized perceptions of agricultural leadership programs in colleges of agriculture, food, life, human, or environmental sciences at 1,862 land-grant institutions. Objectives included describing the need for programs, studying evolution within the discipline, discussing faculty recommendations for future development, and examining…

METRICS was a 5-year grant program funded by the U.S. Department of Education designed to immerse elementary school students in computer science. METRICS components included 1) creation and implementation of rigorous computer science curriculum units and assessments to support STEM coursework connected across all subjects through problem-based…

States invest heavily in education, providing funding either directly or in the form of financial aid from preschool through college, with positive outcomes from those impacting nearly every other area of public policy, particularly the workforce. To understand and assess results, states collect and analyze information about these investments at…

In 2013, VA became the first state to mandate the use of threat assessment teams in its K-12 public schools. We provide an account of the development and adaptation of threat assessment as a school safety practice and research on the Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines in VA schools. We describe the state law and the question of whether…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study is to evaluate the impact of Morrison High School's ninth grade transition program, the Freshman Academy, on student outcomes. Based on the outcomes, decisions will be made to determine if the Freshman Academy is meeting students' needs or if the program elements need to be revisited to improve student…

The Virtual Learning Model (VLM) can be the best learning modality to foster personalized learning for K-12 students. This research study aims to bring to light the expectations of an appropriate district designed VLM for a rural school district in Virginia as it pertained to creation, implementation, as measured by the Virginia Department of…

Although comprehensive school counseling programs are implemented widely across the country, school counselors face myriad barriers to implementation. As such, we conducted a multilevel, descriptive case study to examine a school counseling cohort preparing to apply for the American School Counselor Association's Recognized ASCA Model Program…

Makerspaces have continued to be a popular addition to the services offered by libraries. This article will address the creation and implementation of one at a mid-sized medical library. The writer will summarize their personal experience of the steps taken towards opening the makerspace and give insight into the process. This article will also…

Teaching and learning require a conducive environment that supports social interactions. With the mandate to include all students in the general classroom setting, challenging behaviors have been a problem in the classroom. Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) has been developed to counter the behaviors. The problem addressed in this…

This article describes the PDS partnership between George Mason University and Daniels Run Elementary School, which are located in Fairfax, Virginia. In the spring of 2020, during their fifth year together, the partnership was awarded the National Association of Professional Development Schools Exemplary PDS Award. The Mason PDS program structure…

Closing achievement gaps for students from low-socioeconomic backgrounds is a decades-long issue in public education, particularly for reading instruction (International Reading Association [IRA], 2010; National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2013). Across the United States, initiatives to further integrate technology-based instruction to…

The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused many adaptations to preservice teacher preparation, especially supporting completion of field-based internship experiences. This mixed methods research project utilized surveys to analyze the impact of virtual settings on (1) intern (n=14) and mentor teacher (n=5) experiences and relationships; and (2) the…

This paper concerns a virtual exchange project between the University of Virginia (UVa), United States, and an upper-secondary school in Pavia, Italy. Centred on the question of gender equality, the project has been designed to take place over three years (2018-2021) with a direct reference to Robert O'Dowd's transnational model of virtual…