Using a randomized controlled trial, we tested the efficacy of a fall prevention intervention to reduce falls among adults in a community-based health promotion program. Adults aged 65 and older within two counties were recruited (control n = 257; intervention n = 286). After 12 months, there was a significant decrease in the number of falls in…

This article reviews literature describing truancy and its correlates, and it analyzes the current research on truancy prevention programs. Few truancy prevention programs exist in elementary school settings. This article describes Truancy Assessment and Service Centers, a theory-driven program providing case management services to children in 85…

My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant or "MEERA" is a web-site designed to support environmental educators' program evaluation activities. MEERA has several characteristics that set it apart from other self-directed learning evaluation resources. Readers are encouraged to explore the site and to reflect on the role that…

This discussion foregrounds four key issues engaged by the articles presented in this special issue: the unique challenges and opportunities of environmental education evaluation, how to think well about the evaluation approaches and purposes that best match this domain, evaluation capacity building in environmental education and action, and…

Attention to preparing social workers for our aging society has increased with concern that there may be insufficient professionals to meet the need. Interest in training gerontologically-savvy social work students had led to the development of models to achieve this end. This article reports on a collaboration among a university's school of…

This article reports on the student achievement outcomes for third graders in Reading First (RF) schools in Pennsylvania over the five years of implementation for the group as a whole, for disaggregated groups of third graders, and for third graders who received reading instruction in RF schools for one, two, and three years. We also present a…

This project tracked the mid-term evaluation processes, practices, and products of a multinational program to reduce at-risk behaviors for HIV/AIDS among children in Kenya, Tanzania, and Haiti. It focused on participant and community perceptions; program effectiveness in promoting abstinence and monogamy decisions; and factors supporting ongoing…

In the author's position as director of institutional effectiveness and currently as a department assessment chair, he relates that he has found it useful to use an analogy between flossing one's teeth and instituting assessment. There are more similarities between flossing and assessment than one might imagine. In this article, the author…

In many parts of the world, the state education system is accompanied by a shadow system that mirrors the school curriculum. In England, most provision in the shadow system is through private, one-to-one tutoring, offered by those working independently and through local, regional and national agencies. International surveys indicate that shadow…

To provide greater support for students as they transition to ninth grade, the Texas Legislature funded the Texas Ninth Grade Transition and Intervention (TNGTI) grant program. TNGTI grantees implemented a variety of supports to at-risk students transitioning to ninth grade, including a summer transition program, an early warning data system, and…

The main objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to examine the effects of intervention programs on school attendance behaviors of elementary and secondary school students to inform policy and practice. The specific questions guiding this study were: (1) Do indicated programs with a goal of increasing student attendance affect…

This book is about the threats to education quality in the developing world that cannot be explained by lack of resources. It reviews the observed phenomenon of service delivery failures in public education: cases where programs and policies increase the inputs to education but do not produce effective services where it counts--in schools and…

Response to Intervention (RTI) is gaining ground. However, using RTI to assess the needs of students with behavioral problems is in its early stages. Teachers have limited tools at their disposal to use as Tier 1 strategies, such as classroom management strategies, or maybe a social skills curriculum taught once a week for 30 minutes. Research on…

New Leaders for New Schools created the Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) initiative in 2006 to learn from educators driving achievement gains in high-need urban schools. EPIC identifies school leaders and teachers whose students are making significant achievement gains and financially rewards these educators in exchange for sharing…

This study seeks to describe how elementary principals in a large Washington school district perceived the district office administration's implementation of Response to Intervention over a four-year period. RTI is a widely used intervention system that requires schools to assess whether each of their students is learning, adapting instruction for…