This report describes the final evaluation of a condensed work schedule, the Summer 2009 4-Day Work Week (S4-DWW), adopted by The School Board of Broward County, Florida. The goal for the program was to close the entire district for 1 day each week to reduce utility costs. Except for a few cases, district schools and offices were closed on Fridays…

This article examines what occurred within schools successfully implementing and sustaining Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports through the lens of leadership capacity. Leadership capacity, a broad-based, skillful participation in leadership, promotes the capabilities of many organizational members to lead. Researchers used quantitative analysis…

While there is a wide body of research to support the effectiveness of schoolwide positive behavior support (PBS), there are significant challenges to facilitating sustainable implementation. The present study begins to address these challenges by exploring PBS implementation in a diverse, regionally isolated elementary school that previously…

An assessment of a brief, but intensive modified Bully Busters universal prevention program on measures of teacher efficacy, teacher self-efficacy, teacher skills and knowledge about peer victimization, and teacher-reports of students' peer victimization was conducted with 30 elementary school teachers. Paired-samples "t" tests revealed…

The Accelerated Reader program from Renaissance Learning Inc. is a popular program implemented in elementary and middle schools across the country that encourages students to read and monitors their progress in the program. Despite its widespread use and popularity, there have been some questions about the program's effectiveness at increasing…

Following a model for an extended-day kindergarten program that had been in operation in select schools for nearly 20 years, a southeastern Virginia school division expanded the Extended-Day Kindergarten (EDK) Program with an additional 40 classes in 39 schools during the 2006-2007 school year. The EDK Program supplemented the traditional half-day…

Recruiting quality teachers is a top priority for school districts across the country. However, recent research demonstrates that an even greater challenge facing schools is retaining newly recruited teachers, particularly in urban school settings. This article analyzes the effects of two key components of many formal induction programs--mentoring…

The purpose of this study was to determine how elementary school administrators in a large U.S. state perceived the overall effects of testing on education in general and, more specifically, on their instructional leadership responsibilities. We surveyed 325 Florida principals and assistant principals, many of whom viewed the testing program…

In this article, we share outcomes from the implementation of a ninth-grade academy in a large, comprehensive, Northern Plains, United States, school district. The article discusses the effectiveness of this reform in terms of the academic and social preparedness for students during the ninth-grade year and transition to high school. Findings…

The School-Based Mental Health Program's goals are to identify at-risk children, reduce ineffective functioning of at-risk children, provide social service interventions, increase effective parenting skills, help families access community resources, and support mental health education. The program was designed to develop a comprehensive,…

The purpose of this study was to determine teacher perceptions of the impact on instructional practice when using a complex, standards-based performance evaluation system. The study used expectancy theory to investigate teacher expectancy (did they believe they could enhance their practice to the identified program standards?), instrumentality…

Urban schools serving low-income minority children face a variety of challenges related to teacher quality, resources and school infrastructure. Programs such as the GK-12 Fellows Program, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), try to mitigate some of these issues by supporting partnerships between local school districts and institutions…

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (BPP) is an internationally recognized school-based bullying prevention program. This project sought to evaluate pilot implementation of the program in one urban district using fidelity of implementation, bullying incident density (BID), student surveys, and serious incident reports as process and outcome…

This article explains how individual academic case manager intervention programs were implemented in three urban middle schools. Academic case managers helped students integrate their personal lives with academic expectations by helping students learn to cope with their own personal challenges with the goal of improving their academic performance.…

The Urban Academies of Broward County (UABC) was conceived and implemented as a collaborative teacher preparation model designed to develop, hire, and retain high-performing and motivated educators in predominantly poor minority schools. The program targets high school students, college students majoring in education, and practicing teachers.…