Program quality is an important topic for improving out-of-school time youth development programs. High levels of program quality may contribute to enhanced positive youth development outcomes. This paper explores aspects of program quality in the California 4-H Youth Development Program and its relationship to positive youth development outcomes.…

Purpose: Our primary purpose is to examine the degree to which state equity plans identify the distribution of principals and principal turnover as factors influencing three leadership mechanisms that affect student access to effective teachers--namely, hiring of teachers, building instructional capacity of teachers, and managing teacher turnover.…

Service-learning is an experiential pedagogy which integrates curriculum and volunteer service through ongoing reflection. Research suggests that service-learning offers notable benefits for post-secondary English-as-an-additional-language (EAL) students. However, most of the researchers have studied EAL students within the United States; far…

In the state of New Jersey and nationally, teacher evaluation is a current focus of education reform efforts (Hallinger et al., 2014; Schulman, 2014). A well-executed teacher evaluation system produces data regarding educator effectiveness. It is the intention of the 2012 AchieveNJ teacher evaluation reform law that teacher evaluation data be used…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a two-hour professional development workshop g focused on content knowledge (CK) utilizing an upper elementary knowledge packet on the task selection and instruction (PCK) of a teacher delivering a three-day tennis unit to 4th and 5 th grade students. A secondary purpose was to examine student…

This article is part of a Bridgespan Group research project that focuses on a new wave of district-led "innovation zones" that holds promise to overcome the challenges of turning around failing schools and deliver significant improvements in student outcomes. This new wave provides a subset of district schools with control over staffing,…

In this article, we present the anticipation guide as a tool for preparing Extension audiences to learn the main points of Extension materials. Anticipation guides improve learner comprehension by appealing to an individual's natural curiosity and helping the individual focus on key ideas. Anticipation guides can be used with all types of…

Instructional coaching has emerged as a prevalent and much-lauded instrument for capacity building. This essay argues that coaching can be aligned with teacher evaluation systems to work toward the effective implementation of instructional reforms, including Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. Within the current…

For many US citizens, the election of Donald Trump was an event that will be etched into our collective psyche. As educational researchers, the challenge is how to prevent it from becoming an Event with a capital E. That almost 63 million US voters, many of whom have attended or graduated from public schools, supported Donald Trump makes the…

The cognitive load that a teacher experiences is mind-numbing. To improve, a teacher must begin by reflecting on his or her work, but with the mountain of decisions, where does a teacher find time or have the capacity to notice the way in which students are interacting with lessons? In 2014, the St. Vrain Valley School District Office of…

This paper presents a collection of case stories from five Educator Preparation Programs (EPPs) within colleges of education, four from institutions in Texas and one from California, to present a micro cross-sectional narrative interpretation of what constitutes excellence in educator preparation. The broad framework utilized in this…

"How to Create the Conditions for Learning" shows how the conditions for continuously improving instruction can be created at every level--from the classroom to the school to the central office. More Ann Jaquith presents a framework for understanding and building instructional capacity, based on her original research in schools and…

America has learned from No Child Left Behind that focusing on equity demands that we look and more than test scores alone or they quickly become all that matters. That approach overlooks other aspects of a child's life that are critical. The new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) recognizes this lesson and encourages states and districts to…

States can--and must--create report cards that meet the needs of parents, communities, and taxpayers. Getting people the data they need is essential because when families and communities have the right information to make decisions, students excel. Every state is required by federal law, and sometimes state law, to produce report cards detailing…

In this book, educators learn what they need to know about the action research cycle and get practical help for working through each step of the cycle--from choosing a topic and generating research questions to analyzing data and reporting results and conclusions. In a clear, concise, user-friendly approach, the author helps readers through the…