Career-connected learning is an educational strategy that combines high-quality academic instruction, skill-based learning, and real-world experiences to prepare students with the knowledge and skills that they need to pursue their career goals. Career-connected learning is especially important for an often-overlooked group of students including…

This commentary outlines the potential benefits of applying advances in the science of learning and development to special education service delivery and research. Building from a dynamic ecological systems perspective of development, it is argued that special education should focus on the whole child in context to leverage the correlated…

Shared reading is a powerful literacy intervention for the development of early communication and literacy skills. For students with extensive support needs who are beginning communicators, shared reading has the potential to support the development of initiation and expressive symbolic communication skills. This descriptive, multicase, mixed…

Evidence in psychology and economics has converged on an understanding of what matters for students' learning and what influences their life trajectories. While earlier work focused on the role of large scale assessment test scores, more recent research emphasizes the importance of socioemotional skills, experiences, and mindsets--such as conflict…

The move toward assessments that measure student growth, rather than just proficiency, has been perceived as an improvement in state accountability systems. However, Michael Watson explains that, for many students, these measures present an incomplete picture. Because they are based on grade-level assessments, any growth achieved by students who…

This supplementary document supports the Council for Exceptional Children's (CEC) Secondary Transition Position Statement by providing definitions of terms for students and youth with disabilities, as well as definitions related to: (1) Career Development; (2) Employment; (3) Collaborative Systems; (4) Student Skills; and (5) Policy. [For…

In U.S. deaf education, disablement results from a normative interpretation of disability in the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. However, Vygotsky's "Fundamentals of Defectology" (1993) allows educators to view current deaf education pedagogical practices through a sociocultural-constructivist lens and reject the current…

In 1998, Angela Jerabek, a guidance counselor at a high school outside Minneapolis, grew frustrated watching too many ninth-graders fail courses year after year. Her principal encouraged her to come up with a new strategy to address the problem, knowing that failed classes too often lead students to drop out of high school. By the next school…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify effective teaching strategies used with students with autism to enhance social skill development. With the growing need for teachers to address students with autism, viable strategies are needed to be implemented effectively to ensure social outcome success for students. The Individuals with…

The purpose of "Theory of College Student Development" is to provide readers with new theoretical knowledge or a reminder of the foundational and evolving theories that professionals can utilize for understanding and making sense of students' behavior. Its primary focus is on the integration of knowledge, skills, and application of such…

To obtain a better understanding of country-specific policies, a country-specific literature review was undertaken. The search entailed key-terms focusing on relevance and the three higher education relevance dimensions. The main outcomes of the country-specific literature review are discussed in this chapter. We do so by analysing the typically…

Campus sexual misconduct has been a growing concern in recent years. The researchers of this qualitative study analyzed the perceived adequacy of current sexual misconduct training and delivery practices from Title IX coordinators representing 11 higher education institutions across the United States. Results point to the importance of…

For much of the last two decades, the narrowed focus on raising test scores under No Child Left Behind left important aspects of education untended. Since 2016, when the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) enabled a more comprehensive look at accountability, state leaders have heard growing demands for a whole-child approach that emphasizes…

The country case studies are part of the empirical data collected for the "Promoting the Relevance of Higher Education" project. Before presenting the case studies, this introductory chapter describes how the 8 case studies were selected, the case study methodology, and provides an overview of the interviewed organisations and experts.…

Given that work-based learning (WBL) can -- and should be -- a key driver of student career readiness in these efforts, it is essential that all states have a robust work-based learning continuum of experiences and exposure that spans K-16. WBL is an essential element of career and technical education (CTE), and ExcelinEd's CTE Playbook series…