Sixth-grade science students at Gauger-Cobbs Middle School in Newark, DE, had misconceptions about how heat energy moves in the hydrosphere through conduction, convection, and radiation. As a result, students struggled to develop and connect ideas that correctly and completely explained heat transfer in the hydrosphere at the end of the lesson…

This article describes how the authors, determined to actualize their dedication to student learning, looked to American College Personnel Association (ACPA)'s seminal work from 1994, "The Student Learning Imperative," which redirected those who work in student affairs, where student services and development had traditionally been the…

This paper examines the feasibility of developing a new Master Volunteer training program to help communities adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Traditional models of volunteer training programs, such as the Cooperative Extension Master Volunteer peer-to-peer learning model, are based in part on Diffusion Theory. The existing…

My research study titled, "Connecting Universal Design for Learning with Gallery Tours in Art Museum Education," establishes a relationship between gallery tours in art museum education and the principles of UDL, (CAST, 2011). Through this study I will address contemporary theories on art museum education, volunteer guide training, and…

Early childhood teachers are rightly concerned with implementing a system that was, at least in the initial stages, designed with a different set of teachers in mind--teachers of older students who have standardized achievement data. In most states, policy, practices, and guidance for early childhood teachers are just now being developed or…

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) has had several tangible effects on education and the monitoring of education. There have been both intended and unintended consequences. ESEA's newer generation of federal programs, such as Race to the Top, and the recent ESEA flexibility guidelines, have continued to push development of methods…

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is working to respond to increased interest in the use of growth models for school accountability. Growth models are based on tracking change in individual student achievement scores over multiple years. While growth models have been used for decades in academic research and program evaluation, a…

In this paper, we describe a model for systematically improving the mathematics preparation of elementary teachers, one lesson at a time. We begin by identifying a serious obstacle for teacher educators: the absence of mechanisms for developing a shareable knowledge base for teacher preparation. We propose our model as a way to address this…

The "6+1" model of writing assessment identifies the traits of good writing as ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation. Examples of the model's nationwide spread include Arizona preservice teachers who tutor middle school students to familiarize themselves with the model, and a former…

The Evaluation of Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services (WPRS) systems was designed to provide the U.S. Department of Labor information on how states are designing, implementing, and operating their worker profiling and reemployment services systems for dislocated workers and to compare the effectiveness of different state approaches to…

This evaluation report of special education in the State of Delaware consists of three parts: (1) a position paper that summarizes the conceptual and philosophical basis for the evaluation system; (2) a profile of first year evaluation findings; and (3) a draft of the Long Range Implementation Plan. The evaluation model considers process,…

This document is one of a series of reports which describe the experiences of six state agencies that are developing systems to affect the development and implementation of policy in the federal/state program for vocational rehabilitation. The state programs are developing model program evaluation/management information support units. This second…