Many organized out-of-school-time (OST) activities provide enriching opportunities for children to interact with peers, build cognitive skills, develop relationships with mentors, and explore a variety of talents and leisure pursuits. A growing set of findings suggests that youth participation in OST activities is associated with academic…

In recent years, a major shift in thinking has occurred among psychologists, educators, youth workers, and policymakers interested in adolescent development. The old focus on pathology, delinquency, and problem prevention has begun to be supplemented by a new interest in health, resilience, and opportunity development. In an extensive review of…

One of the author's first assessment experiences at California State University, Sacramento, began when she was assigned to teach a graduate-level program evaluation research course in the Division of Criminal Justice. The chair of the assessment committee and the division chair approached her with the idea of conducting an assessment of the…

This article discusses the value and feasibility of carrying out evaluation research on teacher development and uses as points of reference the author's experiences in two countries, Sri Lanka and Mexico. In Sri Lanka, an evaluation study was designed to understand the effectiveness and costs of teacher development at the elementary level linking…

The present study examines the effect of participation of first-year university students in a full-year peer mentoring program as well as individual differences in motivation in relation to outcome measures of retention and achievement. A sample of 983 first year students completed the Academic Motivation Inventory (Tremblay, 1998) and agreed to…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of a two-way immersion elementary school program on academic achievement at the end of the elementary school and the end of the first year of junior high school. Longitudinal high stakes test data in reading, writing, and mathematics were collected on native English speakers and native Spanish…

Contemporary research on teaching indicates that teachers are powerful contributors to students' academic achievement, though the set and interrelationships of characteristics that make for high-quality and effective teaching have yet to be satisfactorily determined. Nevertheless, on the basis of the extant research and a vision of exemplary…

One of the most significant societal changes over the past few decades has been the growing number of women in the paid work force. As a direct result of this sociological phenomenon, childcare centres have been providing long day care for vastly increasing numbers of very young children. The speed of this change has created a societal dilemma…

Objective/Method: Given the relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorders (SUD), and the prevalence of SUD among offenders, the inattention to trauma before, during, and after incarceration is troubling. This exploratory study compared those with and without co-occurring PTSD among men (n = 139) and women…

The boot camp model became a correctional panacea for juvenile offenders during the early 1990s, promising the best of both worlds--less recidivism and lower operating costs. Although there have been numerous studies of boot camp programs since that time, most have relied on nonrandomized comparison groups. The California Youth Authority's (CYA's)…

Purpose: While synchronous and asynchronous distance education options have fulfilled the promise to reduce travel costs and decrease the number of human resources necessary for training delivery, many corporations are faced with the need to produce learning even at a faster pace in order to gain and sustain competitive advantage. This means a…

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a "single session" group, early intervention, multidisciplinary, education programme (entitled the "Fun not Fuss with Food" group programme) designed to improve children's problem eating and mealtime behaviours. Design: A quasi-experimental time-series design incorporating data…

The purpose of this research was to implement and evaluate a classroom strategy to increase student engagement in sustained silent reading (SSR), a form of school-based recreational reading. Teacher modeling was selected as the primary intervention. A within-subjects ABAB withdrawal design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the…

This research investigates the perceptions of first-year Bachelor of Teaching students (primary and secondary) and Diploma of Education students (secondary) about their peer teaching experience in a postgraduate subject called Curriculum and Assessment. Peer teaching is a learner-centred approach to teaching and learning that is intended to…

In this study, the researchers examined the effectiveness of a reflective model of peer mentoring in the professional growth of early-career science teachers. The study was carried out over one academic year with three beginning secondary science teachers. The public school teachers in this study reported that participation in peer mentoring…