Since the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), there has been a growing focus on improving the quality of programs for children with disabilities and measuring the results/outcomes of those programs. Across the country, IDEA Part C Programs for Infants and Toddlers and IDEA Part B, Section 619 Preschool…

Every school is confronted with many concerns about improving students' achievement and well-being and enhancing school climate. While the emphasis shifts, there is constant pressure to do more about learning problems; bullying, harassment, and other forms of violence and acting out behavior at school; substance abuse; disconnected students;…

Training and technical assistance programs for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have emerged in many states as educators, administrators, and institutions of higher education attempt to address the increasing needs for enhancing the knowledge and skills of educators and disseminating the ever-growing knowledge of educational practices. This report…

This brief studies California's introduction of the Early Assessment Program to bridge the gap between K-12 educational standards and postsecondary education requirements, similar to the Common Core State Standards movement.

Background: Strength training (ST) is an important health behavior for aging women; it helps maintain strength and function and reduces risk for chronic diseases. This study assessed change in physical fitness following participation in a ST program implemented and evaluated by community leaders. Method: The StrongWomen Program is a nationally…

This article explores whether presenting conservation issues in a manner that makes connections with intertwined issues of violence, economics, social issues, and politics elicits more engagement than does presenting the conservation issues in isolation. Survey data were collected concerning African elephant poaching for ivory and the effect of…

Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE) provided a commentary on the manuscripts in the first part of this special issue, which highlighted the benefits of edTPA and the necessity for such assessment programs to improve teacher education and strengthen teaching practices. In turn, the authors responded to the SCALE commentary.…

This report presents findings from the 2023-2024 MacPhail Online School Partnerships (OSP) evaluation, focusing on outcomes and satisfaction for participating students and schools. The key findings include: (1) In terms of school engagement, student survey data suggests some positive impact. About half of students surveyed report that…

Both state and local school systems, recognizing the strong and growing evidence of pre-kindergarten's effectiveness in closing achievement gaps, are implementing early learning programs as part of their education reform efforts. In low-performing districts, pre-k has emerged as a promising turnaround strategy, reaching children before they become…

Many counties of Western North Carolina have high levels of food insecurity that may be addressed by training communities to grow, prepare, and preserve their own food. A curriculum was developed and tested in 2016 at a Section 8 housing development in Polk County, NC. Research investigated successful community agriculture projects and assessed…

The quest for school improvement is old. The demand for dramatic, immediate school improvement is new. Even as President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan commit $4.3 billion to making 5,000 of the nation's worst-performing schools better now, few people know what that really looks like--or how it actually works. How do school…

This article aims to share experience from a Swedish project on the introduction and implementation of Open Educational Resources (OER) in higher education with both national and international perspectives. The project, "OER--resources for learning", was part of the National Library of Sweden Open Access initiative and aimed at exploring, raising…

Student retention is an ongoing concern of many postsecondary institutions (Kuh, 2008). Student engagement might be a key to addressing retention issues in terms of building relationships between students and their college. One technical college has found that attrition in learning support math courses contributes greatly to the overall college…

This article reports the results of a quantitative matching study investigating the impact on first-year students of a two-semester learning community. Results indicate a statistically significant association between LEAP participation and academic performance measured by retention, GPA, and time to graduation. Participation was associated with…

The aim of this paper is to assess the impact the Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) in-service technology training program has on technology teachers' knowledge and understanding of technology. The training of technology teachers is an initiative toward teachers' professional development within the mathematics, science, and technology sphere…