James Madison University has used dedicated Assessment Days for more than 30 years to collect longitudinal data on student learning outcomes. Our model ensures all incoming students are tested twice: once before beginning classes and again after accumulating 45-70 credit hours. Although each student completes only four instruments during a 2-hour…

Summative assessments measure students' mastery of grade-level academic standards and skills in specific content areas after learning. State summative assessment systems provide students and families, school and district leaders, and state policymakers with valuable data to help understand student progress and school quality. This Policy Guide…

As superintendents steer their districts through uncharted territories, their experiences and strategies are key to transforming schools. This study employed transcendental phenomenology to explore how seven Virginia superintendents from two different regions described their experiences implementing novel cultural competency training. Data…

Students with an intellectual disability encounter challenges throughout their educational journey and as they transition to adulthood. Securing and maintaining competitive employment for individuals with an intellectual disability is harder for them than for their non-disabled peers. The problem addressed in this qualitative, phenomenological…

As centers for teaching and learning increasingly offer support and leadership for the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) at their institutions, educational developers need better tools to plan their SoTL programming. This article shares the work of a regional network of educational developers across six institutions in Virginia, who…

While most community colleges admit all students who apply for admission, the vast majority have required students to demonstrate specified levels of literacy and numeracy before they can take college-level courses. Typically, students have been assessed using a single placement test, such as the College Board's ACCUPLACER. Colleges--or sometimes…

This technical supplement to the SNAP Employment and Training (SNAP E&T) evaluation interim reports presents details of the authors' technical approach for creating analysis variables and estimating impacts of treatment group services on outcomes, including employment, earnings, and SNAP participation. It also describes the statistical…

Children with autism from underserved communities face complex system-, provider-, and family-level barriers to accessing timely diagnosis and early intervention. The current study evaluated the preliminary effects and feasibility of a new program (ECHO Autism LINKS) that integrated pediatric primary care provider (PCP) training with family…

Exploring Summer Youth Employment Programs: Increasing Access Through Career Pathways builds the case and provides actionable recommendations for state-led support in the intentional alignment of summer youth employment programs (SYEP) with career pathways and the work-based learning continuum, including through Career Technical Education (CTE).…

This paper presents the first results from draw-a-scientist tests (DASTs) over five years that were used to measure the effect of 8-10 week long astronomy clubs and week long summer camps on 3rd-5th grade elementary school students' perceptions of scientists. We facilitated these DASTs prior to these clubs or camps, which provide a baseline for a…

High-quality field-based experiences are at the core of teacher preparation programs; however, the COVID-19 pandemic severely limited access to such placements for pre-service teachers. This descriptive study examined how virtual tutoring in a summer-semester intermediate literacy course impacted both pre-service teachers and students served.…

Diabetes is one of the largest global epidemics, necessitating training for a new generation of scientists and physicians to work on the disease. Undergraduate research experiences can build an educational pipeline for talent in these professions. A NIH-sponsored summer diabetes research internship at the University of Virginia provided…

Outdoor orientation programs (OOPs) use wilderness or adventure experiences as a transition of incoming first-year students to college and university settings. We explored resilience and flourishing outcomes from two OOP trips in Virginia and North Carolina using the Brief Resilience Scale, the Mental Health Continuum Short Form, and a thematic…

We present results of an evaluation of the first year of a multi-year comprehensive middle school reading program. Four public middle schools in rural Virginia with large populations of students with limited reading proficiency participated in a study to determine the reading program's impact. We evaluated 235 students with low reading achievement…

The FNS Research Corner provides a continuing series to summarize recently completed and current research conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in the area of child nutrition. Summaries of recently completed research projects and in-progress research are provided in this article.