Although best practices in student instruction and learning have evolved dramatically over the past couple of decades, new approaches to educator professional development have lagged behind considerably. The traditional whole group, one-size-fits-all strategy universally recognized as ineffective for teaching students, has too-long remained the…

This article focuses on curriculum-based learning communities (LCs). In these LCs, manipulation of the curriculum is intentional and often innovative, with the overarching goals of developing meaningful connections among students, between students and faculty, and between students and their coursework. The variety of curriculum-based models…

The National Association of School Psychologists' (NASP) official stand on sexual education is that it should be taught in schools to help young people make healthy decisions regarding sex throughout their lives. Accordingly, school psychologists have a responsibility to use their expertise to facilitate these programs. Without a comprehensive…

This article describes the pilot of a school-based creative group-counseling program for children called ArtBreak, a choice-based studio art experience based on the restorative possibilities of art making delineated in the expressive therapies continuum (ETC; Kagin & Lusebrink, 1978). The ETC features a developmental hierarchy in relation to how…

The purpose of this case study was to expand the literature base regarding the application of high school schoolwide positive behavior support in an urban setting for practitioners and policymakers to address behavior issues. In addition, the study describes the use of the Change Point Test as a method for analyzing time series data that are…

Objective: The authors describe the implementation of Clinical Skills Verification (CSV) in their program as an in-training assessment intended primarily to provide formative feedback to trainees, strengthen the supervisory experience, identify the need for remediation of interviewing skills, and secondarily to demonstrating resident competence…

Peer influence in academic settings can have significant positive effects on student learners. Examples of peer support of academic endeavors, most notably tutoring, date back to the colonial period of U.S. higher education and persist today. However, over the years, peer education has evolved from being a marginal endeavor in which academic…

In the United States, less than half of the students who enter into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate curricula as freshmen will actually graduate with a STEM degree. There is even greater disparity in the national STEM graduation rates of students from underrepresented groups with approximately three-fourths…

The central role of family support in programs serving young children with disabilities was emphasized in Public Law 99-457. In the ensuing 25 years, much work has been done to describe the principles and practices that characterize effective family support. Less clear is whether and how programs serving infants, toddlers, and preschoolers promote…

This fifth annual "Boston Opportunity Agenda Report Card" provides the most up-to-date information available on Boston's education pipeline, from kindergarten through college graduation, including measures for school readiness, 3rd grade reading proficiency, 10th-grade academic proficiency, high school completion, dropout rates, college…

The 2016 Examples of "Excelencia" recognizes selected programs in higher education at the Associate, Baccalaureate, Graduate levels as well as at Community-Based Organizations (CBOs). The compendium contains one-page program summary of the 4 Examples of "Excelencia" and the 16 finalist programs making a positive difference in…

These are the key findings from the "From Best Practices to Breakthrough Impacts: A Science-Based Approach to Building a More Promising Future for Young Children and Families". Early childhood is a time of great promise and rapid change, when the architecture of the developing brain is most open to the influences of relationships and…

The school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SW PBIS) program is managed by the Minnesota Department of Education and is implemented in hundreds of Minnesota schools. PBIS is an evidence-based model that attempts to develop a school-wide positive behavior culture. Based on previously documented outcomes, PBIS is a potential…

Although the United States is touted as a country where anyone could be successful regardless of social class or national background, upward social mobility is hard to attain. Less than one in 10 children born into poverty will reach the top of the income distribution. For many individuals, postsecondary education has historically been a way out…

National shortages of qualified personnel in the field of early childhood special education are well documented, with shortages magnified in regions characterized by poverty and rural geography. This article provides an overview of the challenges faced and innovations implemented by an alternate-track, personnel preparation program in Appalachian…