The National Association for Gifted Children's Whole Gifted Child (WGC) Task Force was the Presidential initiative of Dr. George Betts (NAGC President 2015-2017). The WGC Task Force reflects a collective of expertise related to gifted children, gifted education, counseling the gifted, and talent development. Dr. Betts charged the Task Force…

Based on a survey of California principals and interviews with superintendents, this study examines professional learning experiences for the state's school leaders. We find that California's education leaders experience elements of high-quality preparation, with significantly better initial training reported by the state's new principals.…

Schools across the country are changing how they discipline students by implementing research- and evidence-based disciplinary practices that have yielded positive results for schools and students. These disciplinary practices--known as Restorative Justice, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, and social and emotional learning--largely…

We used pupil-level data from the National Pupil Database in England to conduct a longitudinal analysis of the identification of moderate learning difficulties (MLD) and social, emotional, and mental health difficulties (SEMH) among 550,000 pupils ages 5 to 11 years. Survival analysis was used to determine the hazard ratios (HRs) for time to first…

This paper presents a set of strategies and options that California can use to leverage Medi-Cal, the State's Medicaid program, to move toward an equitable, advanced health delivery system for its children. Close to five million children are enrolled in Medi-Cal, more than two-thirds of whom are Black and Brown children. California's program alone…

The full financial impact of COVID-19 is now unfolding for school districts, and it is a story of much more than PPE, hand sanitizer, and laptops. Looking ahead at the bigger picture, we see that the magnitude of cost pressures to come will far outweigh even the costs that districts have incurred to date. Particularly for large, urban school…

To learn about the pandemic's impacts on young children's learning and development the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) developed a parent survey regarding children's home learning activities and preschool participation during the pandemic. This report presents key lessons from the spring 2021 preschool learning activities…

If school closures and social-distancing experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic impeded children's skill development, they may leave a lasting legacy in human capital. To understand the pandemic's effects on school children, this paper combines a review of the emerging international literature with new evidence from German longitudinal time-use…

Second Substitute Senate Bill 5903 (2019) directed the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) to contract with an organization providing coaching services to early achievers program participants, i.e., Child Care Aware of Washington (CCA WA), to provide statewide Infant-Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMH-C) to Early…

The inclusion of activities to develop sensory awareness, spatial thinking, and physical dexterity, operationalized through hands-on science lessons such as water play, have long been part of early childhood education. This practical article addresses Next Generation Science Standards K-2 ETS1-3 and K-2 ETS1-2 by having four-year-old…

This paper considers a person's endogenous and emotional relationships to outdoor childhood or adolescent (trans)formative places. By revisiting the (trans)formative places of four citizens and filming the experiences, I gained an understanding of how these places engage emotional learning. The emotional data were explored through phenomenology…

This study examined a long-term afterschool leadership program situated in a Midwestern university town in the US. The activity-based program for boys considered to be disengaged with school and at risk for dropping out of education, was based on the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) model. The program curriculum was strongly…

This is a pilot study to explore the classroom implementation of the Lions Quest Program in Turkey. Teachers of first through eighth grades at two elementary schools who applied the program were interviewed about the program and their classroom practices while they were also observed and their classrooms were also observed. Considerable program…

Early adolescence is a developmental stage characterized by changes in reasoning, social cognition, and desire for autonomy in youth aged 11-14 (or grades 6-8). This period is also associated with heightened impulsivity and risk-taking that has been linked to school-related challenges such as antisocial behaviors and declining grades. Character…

This study explores the lived experiences of 10 students entering college from rural Oregon communities. Using narrative inquiry, the author examines students' transition, common experiences, and enrollment barriers. Resulting themes include: (a) unexpected emotional and social transition, (b) motivations for enrolling, (c) lack of social and…