Background: Physical inactivity is a primary contributor to decreasing functional physical fitness and increasing chronic disease in older adults. Purpose: This study assessed the health-related benefits of ExerStart for Lay Leaders, a 20-week, community based, peer-led, low-impact exercise program for older adults. ExerStart focuses on aerobic…

Media literacy education teaches youth to critically examine the influence of media messages on health and substance use behavior. A small group of low-achieving middle school students at high risk for substance abuse attending an afterschool academic remediation program received a media literacy intervention intended for elementary students in a…

Care Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRISs) have advanced and matured, a number of states and localities have undertaken evaluations to validate the systems. Such efforts stem from the desire to ensure that the system is designed and operating in the ways envisioned when the system was established. Given that a central component in a QRIS…

A commonly applied term in the field of education is "educational adequacy." While often used in reference to school finance, curriculum and instruction, and in other educational functions, the phrase is also applicable to the quality of school facilities in which students learn. The Problem-Based Learning approach identified the need to…

Despite the ever-increasing number of online professional development (OPD) programs, relatively few studies have been conducted to examine the efficacy of such programs for teachers and students. This manuscript presents findings from an impact study of OPD courses in fractions, algebraic thinking, and measurement on 79 fifth grade teachers'…

The Kansas City Missouri Public Schools through Title IV, Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Program was awarded a grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation to focus on the reduction of underage drinking and driving and seatbelt compliance and distracted driving. The grant focused on educating JROTC staff and School Resource…

As part of a multiyear research study on the preparation of educators to use assessment data for instructional improvement, the present study is a pilot test of a research-based professional development intervention for career-technical teachers. Forty-eight educators at nine sites in five states participated in a 1-day workshop followed by…

Through research, data collection, and analysis, this descriptive project examined rural Missouri school board governance practices. The study focused on Missouri rural schools with a student population of 400 to 1000. Effective school board members, as questionnaire respondents, were identified as having served rural Missouri school districts…

The American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC) Plus 50 Initiative is a three-year initiative launched in June 2008 and funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies. It was created to support a pilot group of two-year institutions to develop or expand campus programs that engage plus 50 learners. The initiative focuses on three types of…

The American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC) Plus 50 Initiative is a three-year initiative launched in June 2008 and funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies. It was created to support a pilot group of two-year institutions to develop or expand campus programs that engage plus 50 learners. The initiative focuses on three types of…

A project was conducted to develop a model for evaluating local vocational education programs in Missouri. Concerns of the project were formation of evaluation criteria, development of standard statements and indicators to operationalize the system, and securement of expert consensus on the criteria and standards. A Project Advisory Committee…

This study was designed to assess the impact of "Mathematics Pathways and Pitfalls" ("MPP") on the mathematics that second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade students learn. The specific research questions that were addressed are: (a) What is the impact of "MPP" on students' knowledge of the mathematics topics addressed,…

The benefits of enrichment programs for the enhancement of students' science achievement are well established. However, little evidence is available on the value of these programs for increasing students' confidence and motivation for science. One problem in measuring changes in students' science attitudes is that students may suffer from a…

Because of the extensive and sometimes costly expansions in the educational offering of the rapidly growing secondary schools, the present need for interpretation is probably more insistent at this level of the educational ladder than at any other. It will be helpful to those in charge of secondary education to know what high schools are doing to…

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the current and projected employment and training needs for printers in Missouri, the predicted effects of automation on employment and training, and the nature and scope of the vocational printing programs in Missouri. Data were collected from the managers of 265 printing industries, 126 vocational…