Underserved schools often have fewer resources and less capacity to rigorously implement improvement strategies. As a result, the districts and schools that most need support programs are often least likely to adopt and implement them successfully--a phenomenon that we call the "needs paradox." To address the needs paradox, we created…

Efforts to increase access for and participation of groups that are underrepresented in postsecondary education (PSE) have included encouraging members of underrepresented groups to apply to PSE programmes, revising admission requirements to reduce barriers to attendance, providing assistance in completing applications for admission, and providing…

Objective: The Bioethics Teaching in Secondary Education (Project BEST) aims to promote the teaching of bioethics in secondary schools. This paper describes the development and implementation of the programme in Portugal. Design: Programme development involved two main tasks: (1) using the learning tools previously developed by the US Northwest…

The learning requirements of diverse groups of students in higher education challenge educators to design learning interventions that meet the need of 21st century students. A model was developed to assist lecturers, especially those that are new to the profession, to use a blended approach to design meaningful learning interventions for…

While designs of professional learning have expanded exponentially beyond the required-attendance inservice day workshop model, infusing meaningful data into daily decisions and conversations has not gained as much traction. Leaders of professional learning are increasingly coming under pressure to demonstrate that evidence is not an anathema in…

The short history of massive open online courses (MOOCs) has been turbulent. Initial hype has quickly disappeared. MOOCs appear to be experiencing their first stage of maturation offering an opportunity to consider the design of established MOOCs that have been offered on a continual basis. This paper describes a MOOC designed to provide an…

Purpose: Family support programs commonly use self-sufficiency matrices (SSMs) to measure family outcomes, however, validation research on SSMs is sparse. This study examined the reliability of the Colorado Family Support Assessment 2.0 (CFSA 2.0) to measure family self-reliance across 14 domains (e.g., employment). Methods: Ten written case…

This article presents how character development practitioners, researchers, and funders might think about evaluation, how evaluation fits into their work, and what needs to happen in order to sustain evaluative practices. A broader view of evaluation is presented whereby evaluation is not just seen as something that is applied at a program level,…

Women frequently benefit from focused faculty development opportunities not because they need to be "fixed," but rather it is a means to demonstrate that success, even in chilly environments, is possible. The Stepping Stones program uses a unique design to provide participants with inspiration, time for reflection, and strategies for how…

Using a comprehensive set of quality indicators grounded in evidence-based practices, evaluation, planning, and improvement of services for students with the most significant support needs can be completed. This nine-step process is described with examples for implementation.

Higher education insiders trumpet the use of results for improvement as the most important part of the assessment cycle. Yet, at the same time, we acknowledge the rarity of improvement, especially at a program level. What are some reasons the most important phase of assessment occurs so infrequently? To seek answers, we investigated the "Use…

Extension educators today face several challenges in designing, delivering, and evaluating programs. Achieving successful program outcomes is becoming increasingly difficult. Educators must choose amongst a wide variety of technology and delivery methods, all while facing resource constraints such as cost, time, and materials. Educators require a…

Communication Centers are well positioned to support communicating science efforts across campus. This manuscript, written by faculty who designed and facilitated a potpourri of support for nanoscience during the 2017-18 academic year, provides a detailed place to start for those who will take on this work at other institutions.

Los Angeles County's experience, write Christina Altmayer and Barbara Andrade DuBransky, shows how a universal offer of assistance can establish a foundation on which public and private agencies can plan meaningful systemic reform--and spark incentives for greater, more effective investments in services directed to vulnerable families. The…

HIV continues to significantly impact the health of communities, particularly affecting racially and ethnically diverse men who have sex with men and transgender women. In response, health departments often fund a number of community organizations to provide each of these subgroups with comprehensive and culturally responsive services. To this…