Although social and emotional learning (SEL) benefits children and youth worldwide, classifying a program as SEL is insufficient to capture its variability of content. There is currently little to aid in identifying specific program content so that foci may be identified (e.g., self-management skills vs. social skills). This gap poses a difficulty…

Today's educators are buried under old practices, new ideas, and recommended initiatives. The problem? With such an abundance of strategies, it's hard to recognize what, if anything, is working. Before you're tempted to add just one more idea to the pile, take a step back--and an objective look--so that you, central office leaders, building…

Closing the gap between research and practice requires that organizations can consistently incorporate new ideas and best practices. The Department of the Air Force (DAF) Integrated Resilience Directorate is leading a coordinated effort to increase the adoption of evidence-based violence prevention and resilience promotion programs across the…

The concept of evidence, the demand for evidence-based practice and decision-making has for years dominated educational research. Concomitantly, the randomized controlled trials (RCT) that originally gained ground within the field of medicine have become the gold standard for empirical research and political reform within educational sciences, at…

In this study, we estimated the cost of implementing the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction (SDLMI), an evidence-based practice in secondary transition, at scale in 17 U.S. school districts to enhance self-determination and transition goal attainment outcomes among 340 transition-age adolescents with intellectual disability. An…

Innovative learning practices are highly student-centric and student-responsive. Yet, while many educators talk about wanting their classrooms to emphasize student-centered learning, few schools actually walk the walk in terms of creating a school culture that supports the sustainable implementation of concepts, such as individualizing learning to…

Social and emotional learning has gained much leverage in special education discussion, but limited research has been conducted on the effectiveness of social and emotional programs addressing low engagement in self-contained classroom settings. This qualitative action research study examines the implementation of an evidence-based social and…

Efficient use of resources depends upon many factors, but one key variable is the extent to which we design and implement activities which require funding in a way that is informed by relevant evidence. The application of insights about 'what works', derived from robust research, combined with evidence about context and real-time system data have,…

The Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) administers and operates a state-funded preschool program called the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP). To inform systemwide improvements in the program, the department contracted with Education Northwest to conduct a qualitative study of nine sites…

Educational practices that prove effective often involve a substantial investment of training and support time. Unfortunately, that is the very characteristic that makes it difficult and costly to expand the programs on a large scale. A key challenge when scaling up is to maintain high levels of effectiveness at an affordable cost.…

From fall 2021 to summer 2022, the College Completion Network conducted virtual focus groups with administrators at 47 2-year and broad-access 4-year colleges with the goal of better understanding the advising policies, practices, and programs (hereafter referred to as "strategies") that colleges use to support student success.…

What works to improve the success of Latino college students? Examples of "Excelencia" is the only national effort to identify and promote evidence-based programs accelerating Latino student success in higher education. Since 2005, "Excelencia" in Education has recognized over 350 programs making a positive difference in the…

An exploratory case study was conducted to understand if leveraging school-university partnerships to improve school-wide professional development by using teacher input resulted in teachers implementing evidence-based practices in their inclusive classrooms. We sought to understand the extent to which a school-wide PD grounded in research and…

Education has moved higher up on the policy agenda and serving the public good has acquired new meanings. This entails demands to provide policy and market with instruments to enable evidence-based or at least evidence-informed choices in a so-called competitive global knowledge economy. This has, not surprisingly, led to a struggle about…

To prevent and address students' problem behaviors and support their learning, the Department of Education and many states have promoted the use of multi-tiered systems of support for behavior (MTSS-B). This study evaluated one promising, intensive program of MTSS-B training and technical assistance. The MTSS-B approach seeks to change the school…