"Optimal best practice" is a central feat of human agency. It emphasizes a state of flourishing and reflects, in this case, the paradigm of positive psychology. One research inquiry that is of interest relates to an explanatory account of how a person reaches a state of optimal best. Recent research development has considered an…

Design-based learning (DBL) offers opportunities to support students' content understanding. Previous DBL studies reported different effect sizes by using the data from one participant group. The goal of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis that would give a comprehensive picture of how DBL is connected to student achievement in different…

Evidence-based teaching practices (EBPs) foster college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students' engagement and performance, yet our knowledge of what contributes to the effectiveness of these practices is less established. We propose a framework that links four social-cognitive variables--students' trust in their…

This brief study reports on health center visits for psychotropic medication prescriptions and academic success. We analyzed records for students with mental health needs from 2000 to 2008. Building on previous research, we found two significant variables predicting post-treatment 6-year graduation among health center mental-health clients:…

Examining why a student leaves a nursing program, voluntarily or involuntarily, after successfully meeting competitive admission criteria is an important area of research. The ability to persist in higher education, and in particular for student nurses, is a critical determinant of academic success. Attrition rates among nursing programs range on…

New analyses by researchers across the ideological spectrum have found that increasing overall funding for schools can improve student achievement, particularly for low-income students. However, the growing consensus is that strategic state policies are needed to substantially increase the size of the impact of additional funding. These policies…

Background: Special education services are individualized supports provided to students with disabilities (SWD) that should help them make appropriate educational progress given their abilities, educational needs, and goals (Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District, 2017). Concerns about the benefits of these services have emerged given the…

Although active learning improves student outcomes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs, it may provoke anxiety in some students. We examined whether two psychological variables, social anxiety (psychological distress relating to the fear of negative evaluation by others) and academic self-efficacy (confidence in…

There has been much discussion in educational policy on the apparent educational benefits for disadvantaged young people of engaging in schools' extra-curricular activities (ECAs). The evidence suggests strong associations between ECAs and improved educational attainments. Arguments made about the causal processes and underpinning associations…

This article presents the Multi-tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) as a framework Catholic schools can utilize to provide a more equitable and inclusive learning environment for all students. In an effort to advocate for the effectiveness of this framework in the Catholic school setting, the authors define the framework, its key features, and the…

Background: Value-added modeling (VAM) has been used to rank teachers and assess teacher and school quality. The apparent relationship between value-added teacher rankings and gains in student performance provide a foundation for the view that the contribution of teachers to student performance is the largest factor influencing student…

Improving the school building may well be the most overlooked means of improving student health, safety, and academic performance. Yet in conversations about factors that lead students to academic success, only rarely does the role of the physical environment come to the fore. By downplaying the importance of the building, policymakers and parents…

Results from a sample of 1,013 Georgia principals who rated 12,617 teachers are used to compare holistic and analytic principal judgments with indicators of student growth central to the state's teacher evaluation system. Holistic principal judgments were compared to mean student growth percentiles (MGPs) and analytic judgments from a formal…

In this study, we investigated the factor structure underlying the TAP System for Teacher and Student Advancement used across the nation for increased teacher-level accountability purposes. We found evidence of poor fit based on the factor structure posited and found large correlations among dimensions, suggesting one-to-two factors with one…

This book has two major portions. The majority of the book is my perspective of the life that I have lived as a child raised in poverty. The other portion of this book provides educators and others who work with children some research-based practices that are linked to particular behaviors or actions. These are provided from a dual perspective,…