This report responds to the requirement of PL 110-246 to assess the effectiveness of state and local efforts to directly certify children for free school meals. Direct certification is a process conducted by the states and by local educational agencies (LEAs) to certify eligible children for free meals without the need for household applications.…

School-based character education (CE) programs provide an opportunity to increase the moral fortitude of adolescents. This study is a preliminary evaluation of Inspire Aspire, a CE program that was implemented with 13- to 14-year-olds in Scotland. A relational developmental systems meta-theoretical approach and person-centered analyses were…

Aims: The growing influence of implementation science has resulted in educational researchers exploring what occurs within schools to support intervention effectiveness. This paper provides an overview of existing research so that practitioners can understand the extent to which measures of implementation are associated with the outcomes of…

University of Idaho Extension 4-H professionals have learned to work with volunteers in new ways to expand capacity and continue to build the quality of the 4-H program in Idaho. This article identifies how defining new position descriptions for volunteer facilitation coaches addressed two program needs, expanded capacity, and provided a higher…

For decades, businesses and post-secondary educational institutions have complained that students are leaving high school unprepared for their next step. In addition to elevating the rigor and relevance of the school experience, high school internships have been seen by many as a key method to preparing young people for success and allowing…

This action research describes the influence of the research-based program, "Reading Workshop," based on student reading achievement, specifically, in one third-grade South Carolina summer reading camp classroom. Guiding the research, the problem of practice arose from the passing of South Carolina's Act 284, which states that school…

In this study, physiological and psychological outcomes of an 8-week moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise program (Zumba®) for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) were examined. Forty-six participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group ( n = 24) or control group (n = 22). The experimental group participated…

This design case will discuss how design strategies evolved through the development and implementation of two e-service-learning project cohorts. The article provides a detailed account for how Designers for Learning launched its first e-service-learning instructional design project to address adult basic education needs. Information and design…

Background: The benefits of youth engagement are well documented. In this paper, we examine youth engagement in America's Promise Alliance's Every School Healthy initiative, a part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's "Together for Healthy and Successful Schools Initiative (THSS)." Methods: Six community acceleration sites were…

This chapter describes the University of Minnesota Preparing Future Faculty program, focusing on pedagogical approaches and assignments that have made the program relevant for over 20 years. It concludes with a look at the future facing graduate student professional development.

Using Michel Foucault's writing on discipline and training, the author suggests that processes like certification ultimately serve as covert normalizing activities that run counter to the spirit and practice of honors education. The author argues for an open, fluid, generative approach to honors program review.

This article presents an unofficial case study of effective mentoring. It tells the story of Patricia Cranton as a mentor for the author, describing specific characteristics and activities that were particularly beneficial for his development as a scholar.

This chapter builds upon past research on community colleges and four-year baccalaureate degree-granting institutions' efforts to improve transfer. We present a framework that describes multiple types of collaborative relationships between institutions and share strategies for practitioners to develop partnerships.

This article describes a modified importance-performance framework for use in evaluation of recreation-based experiential learning programs. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) provides an effective and readily applicable means of evaluating many programs, but the near universal satisfaction associated with recreation inhibits the use of IPA in…

This chapter discusses the role of mentoring in facilitating leadership development for students throughout the educational pipeline. Related literature is summarized and practical guidance is provided for designing, implementing, and evaluating programs with a focus toward developing students as leaders.