Despite our best efforts as evaluators, program implementation failures abound. A wide variety of valuable methodologies have been adopted to explain and evaluate the "why" of these failures. Yet, typically these methodologies have been employed concurrently (e.g., project monitoring) or to the post-hoc assessment of program activities.…

In the past years, the number of mindfulness-based intervention and prevention programs has increased steadily. In order to achieve the intended program outcomes, program implementers need to understand the essential and indispensable components that define a program's success. This chapter describes the complex process of identifying the core…

During adolescence, young people are traversing exciting and also challenging stages in their development. Mindfulness, if taught in a developmentally appropriate way, has the potential to be an asset in adolescents' lives. Developmentally appropriate approaches of mindfulness intervention during adolescence need to consider adolescents'…

As a result of the remarkable speed of the recent technology advancement, major innovations should be proposed for the engineering laboratory contents and delivery methods. Since telecommunications are science centered, it is essential that the telecom engineering laboratory takes as its main goal the development of skills requisite to the…

As one of Canada's 13 distinct jurisdictions, Ontario is a national leader in developing a competency-based postsecondary education system. Hindered by challenges of a disaggregated system of policy actors in system design, quality assurance and credit transfer, sweeping change has not occurred. Instead, various bodies with operational powers over…

The purpose of this exploratory study is to determine Higher Education Institutions' (HEIs) level of implementation, expectations and effects from voluntarily implementing National Association of College and University Business Officers' (NACUBO)-recommended Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002 whistleblowing Best Practices (BP) provisions…

Credit by Exam is a mechanism employed in the California community colleges as a means of granting credit for student learning outside of the traditional classroom. In some instances, credit by exam is the means used to award college credit for structured learning experiences in a secondary educational setting, while in other instances knowledge…

Americans are increasingly divided over education policy. But education debates overlook one very important and basic fact: even good policies fail if they are poorly implemented, and it is hard to evaluate a policy's merit if it is not implemented well. That may seem obvious, but time and again policies fail because of a lack of attention to the…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS)--adopted in 2010--are similar to California's current K-12 standards, but their emphasis on conceptual understanding and problem solving will require changes in classroom instruction. California's transition to the CCSS has gotten off to a slow start. Survey data suggest that many teachers will deliver the…

This report summarizes findings from AIR's 2013 report analyzing the effectiveness of AISD's implementation of SEL. Five major findings of the 2013 AIR report are presented, along with additional considerations.

In 2007, I was contracted to evaluate the implementation of a 3-year federally funded training program in Mind Body Medicine and Spirituality program at a family medicine residency in the United States. The residency accepted from 10 to 12 residents each June to prepare for careers in family medicine. Working with several national experts in…

This article examines the impact of a service-learning program based on positive youth development and social and emotional learning principles in two high-poverty urban middle schools. A longitudinal mixed-methods design was implemented, and qualitative data analysis yielded unexpected results associated with the professional development of…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) gives state boards of education a tremendous opportunity to revamp education policy. The federal government will have dramatically reduced influence over issues related to standards and accountability systems. States will have increased freedom to revise state standards and assessment systems, change the…

In the wake of a White Paper on Education Reform, published in 2014 by the Icelandic Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, the minister launched a national initiative to improve literacy education in Icelandic compulsory schools. The White Paper and the national initiative came as a reaction to the disappointing performance of 15-year-olds…

The implementation of evidence-based psychological programming to meet the needs of a global population has been impeded by the translation of theories and research findings across populations and settings without due consideration of cultural factors. The purpose of this article is to discuss the rationale for use of partnership-based methods in…