The increase in shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania has resulted in thousands of landowners receiving predrilling testing of their drinking water. Landowners often have difficulty understanding test reports resulting in low awareness of pre-existing problems. Extension and several partners developed a program to improve understanding of…

Unprecedented policy attention to early childhood education internationally has highlighted the crucial need for a skilled early years workforce. Consequently, professional development of early years educators has become a global policy imperative. At the same time, many maintain that professional development research has reached an impasse. In…

In Sweden and elsewhere, students permanently excluded from school are removed from their local environment, and sometimes their parental home, and moved to a rural residential care home. Thus "home" and "school" are clearly considered places where problems exist, but it is the young people themselves who are scrutinised and…

This first report in a new series by Jobs For the Future (JFF) provides the rationale for restructuring 12th grade and tying it more tightly to the first year of college through new high school and college partnerships. The paper proposes a new common benchmark of readiness that high schools and colleges can work together to meet to ensure…

Globally, at least 200 million children younger than five years old are falling short of their potential for development and growth. There is some evidence that improvements to children's health, nutrition, and development outcomes can be made through programs that provide direct learning experiences to children and families; are targeted toward…

The National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education (NMEC) is the Federal Statutory Agency set up to co-ordinate all aspects of Non-Formal Education in Nigeria whether offered by government agencies or non-governmental organisations. This study looked at the existing Capacity Building Programme, the delivery methods, impact…

Middle Appalachia--defined in this report as the Appalachian portions of Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia--is an impoverished area that has been economically dependent on the coal industry for generations. Its schools face unique challenges in ensuring the college and career readiness of students, given that…

Today's Cooperative Extension organization continues to face challenges of providing relevant, quality programming in urban communities. Challenges include the ability to build capacity in Extension's urban youth educators to assess and interpret the unique, variable needs of urban clients and to communicate effectively the identified…

In this article, the author states: "It doesn't matter how many computer-related devices we have in school, what matters is how we employ technology toward a large learning goal, toward a new vision of education." She continues, "When I suggest the cultivation and integration of digital, media, and global literacies, I do so…

This article describes the materials and training program that Extension created to assist current and potential Latino immigrant entrepreneurs in starting businesses in Arkansas. The content-based educational materials describe the process for starting a new business, government regulatory requirements, start-up costs and considerations, and how…

School and district personnel have identified common challenges in implementing individualized, intensive interventions for students with severe, persistent learning and behavioral needs. The National Center on Intensive Intervention has worked with scores of local educators--including district administrators, building principals, special and…

A huge increase in engineering graduates from the BRIC countries in recent decades potentially threatens the competitiveness of developed countries in producing high value-added products and services, while also holding great promise for substantially increasing the level of global basic and applied innovation. The key question is whether the…

This article begins by observing how education is currently appreciated primarily for its utility value, a view informed by utilitarianism and neoclassical economic theory. A critique of that framing is offered and an alternative way of valuing education informed by a Capabilities Approach is presented. In doing so, I also observe that while key…

There are two types of school leadership initiatives. One takes existing leaders and gives them increasing leadership responsibilities. The other engages in an organic process that grows leaders from a crop of teachers who, at first may not appear to be leaders at all. This article presents a story about the second type of initiative and how it…

This article looks at high-performing education systems in Asia through the lens of leadership and leadership development. It proposes that the top-performing education systems systematically build the leadership capacity for improvement and that this is part of an implementation science geared to maximizing performance. Drawing upon initial…