The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) offers students a wide variety of real-world opportunities to develop skills and talent critical for students to gain the essential professional and personal skills that lead to success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. One of the key avenues available…

The Afterschool Alliance, in partnership with Dollar General Literacy Foundation, is proud to present this issue brief examining the vital role afterschool programs play in building students' literacy skills. This issue brief will focus on the year-round support needed to help students with their reading, writing and critical thinking skills. This…

This report summarizes feedback from Austin Independent School District (AISD) elementary dual language teachers who participated in focus group discussions in January and February 2016. Teachers gave their opinions about the program components and suggestions for how to improve the program implementation.

The TAP System stands out because of its more than two-decade-long track record of growth and success in improving educator effectiveness and raising student achievement in high-need schools. This summary includes a recap of some of the most important results that have emerged from the research to date and highlights newer studies documenting…

With the growing and diverse use of the term "evidence-based practice" it can be difficult for policymakers, funders, program officers, and other professionals to separate the good evidence from the flawed. Furthermore, once good evidence has been identified, it can be difficult to know how to use it. This article discusses key issues to consider…

Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) for early care and education and school age care programs are designed to collect information about quality and to use that information to produce program-level ratings, which are the foundation of a QRIS. The ratings are intended to make program quality transparent for parents and other stakeholders…

The Michigan Center for Student Success commissioned this study to determine whether strategies employed to improve adult students' success at 41 Breaking Through colleges nationwide have taken root at Michigan's original colleges and spread beyond them. A statewide survey revisited four of the colleges profiled in previous publications, and the…

An estimated three million American youth are in formal, one-to-one mentoring relationships, and countless more have meaningful, natural mentoring relationships with extended family members, teachers, neighbors, coaches and other caring, non-parental adults. The empirical literature generally indicates that close and enduring mentoring…

The "BodyWorks" program was designed to help parents improve family eating and activity behaviors. "BodyWorks" was associated with significant gains in parents' knowledge about nutrition and activity, and greater self-efficacy to set family nutrition goals, plan physical activities, and change eating habits. (Contains 1 table.)

When it comes to having a traveling outreach activity for a museum, a craft can seem like the perfect solution. It can seemingly be all things at once--educational, quick and fun. But, if poorly constructed, crafts can also have serious fallbacks. Using the Chicago History Museum and the Millennium Park Family Fun Festival as a case study, this…

The Utah State University Sound Beginnings program originated in 2007 as a laboratory school to serve children with hearing loss from birth to age 6 years old living in Northern Utah. Sound Beginnings offers an interdisciplinary listening and spoken language educational option for families through the following services: toddler and preschool…

This article describes a program for excellent students that views research as an inseparable part of its development, and utilizes research findings as a means to aid formulation and implementation of policy changes. Eight nationwide graduate follow-up studies have been conducted on the program. Their findings were studied comprehensively, and…

Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting legislation permits states to fund "promising practices"--with the understanding that these models will have a rigorous evaluation component. This article describes an innovative, low cost paraprofessional home visiting model developed in Pennsylvania by the Maternity Care Coalition. In…

Home visiting (HV) programs serve women at high risk for developing postpartum depression because of factors such as poverty and low social support. Depression poses serious threats not only to mother-child attachment and healthy infant development but also to women's ability to engage with HV services and supports. The Mothers and Babies (MB)…

The paper describes the preparation of school psychologists in Greece. It discusses the social and cultural contexts that have influenced the evolution of the discipline of psychology, the beginning of training programs in school psychology, and the current status of school psychological services. The structure of the Graduate Program of School…