Economic strains play an important factor in students not only dropping out of school but also for not being able to attend college. As the cost of college tuition increases, many youths may perceive that the possibility of attending college may be out of their reach for financial reasons. Using data drawn from the savings for education,…

Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors (AP/OD) is a comprehensive, 10-session parenting skills and advocacy program developed by and for low-income Latino parents with children ages 0 to 5. Drawing from the real-life experiences of Latino parents and local data about their schools and communities, sessions are filled with interactive activities that aim…

New "autonomy initiatives" aim to increase schools' decision-making authority as a strategy to leverage school improvement. These policies build on lessons of previous reforms such as site-based management in ways that bode well for their success. However, how are these policies actually faring in implementation? The authors addressed that…

The purpose of this program evaluation was to determine the impact of a school-based, job-embedded professional development program on elementary and middle school teacher efficacy for technology integration. Participant bi-weekly journal postings were analyzed using Grappling's "Technology and Learning Spectrum" (Porter, 2001) to…

More than a decade has passed since the National Research Council described the common elements of effective educational programs for young children with autism. Since that time, few studies have attempted to understand the mechanisms of change and factors affecting the effectiveness of research supported interventions implemented in community…

The Race to the Top Assessment program was authorized as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). In September 2010, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) awarded competitive, four-year grants to two consortia of states, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the Smarter…

The Michigan Center for Student Success commissioned this study to determine whether strategies employed to improve adult students' success at 41 Breaking Through colleges nationwide have taken root at Michigan's original colleges and spread beyond them. A statewide survey revisited four of the colleges profiled in previous publications, and the…

This study is a comparative analysis of the impact of traditional face-to-face training contrasted with a blended learning approach, as it relates to improving skills, knowledge and attitudes for enhancing practices for achieving improved employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. The study included two intervention groups: one…

The 2007-2008 Positive Behavior Support (PBS) report provides a progress summary of PBS at AISD for the previous 4 years and summarizes the current district efforts to bring PBS to full-scale implementation.

Motivational interviewing (MI), a humanistic counseling style used to help activate clients' motivation to change, was integrated into a basic counseling skills course. Nineteen graduate-level counseling students completed the Counselor Estimate of Self-Efficacy at the start and conclusion of the course. Significant differences were found between…

Decades of research show that high school dropouts are more likely than graduates to commit crimes, abuse drugs and alcohol, have children out of wedlock, earn low wages, be unemployed, and suffer from poor health. The ChalleNGe program, currently operating in 27 states, is a residential program coupled with post-residential mentoring that seeks…

The College of Education Technology Group is a pilot program that supports teacher candidates in developing an understanding of the integration of technology. By engaging teacher candidates with local schools the program is enhancing technology-based learning in the classroom for high school students, especially those from First Nations and other…

One of the major challenges facing Africa today is ensuring that extension practitioners are well trained to enable them function effectively as facilitators of change at the farmers' level. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a mid-career B. Sc. Agricultural Extension Curriculum in meeting the educational needs of…

The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to examine the effectiveness of a professional development approach in increasing the knowledge and use of instructional technology in the classrooms of elementary teachers. The participants were comprised of 14 elementary teachers in a rural public education school district in the southeastern…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of an institution-wide leadership development model on students at a private Christian university. The university being studied in this research made a significant commitment to the principles of servant-leadership as well as Kouzes and Posner's (2002) Leadership Challenge development…