Over the last four decades, community colleges have played an increasingly important role in higher education. Today, community colleges enroll more than one in every three undergraduates nationally. Unfortunately, among students who enroll in community colleges with the intent to earn a credential or transfer to a four-year institution, only 51…

As I began my career as a teacher, I assumed leadership education would naturally be integrated into the elementary classroom curriculum because I was intrigued by this topic. However, as I spent more time in the classroom I quickly realized leadership skills were not part of regular classroom learning or practice for elementary age students. I…

Developed for an NIH training institute, this volume is organized around the most frequently asked questions by researchers starting their careers in applied research in child and adolescent development. With contributions from the leading scholars in the field, actual research experiences highlight the challenges one faces in conducting such…

Community college leaders are using many strategies to improve their students' ability to complete their studies, particularly their academically underprepared students. In recent years, these strategies have included adaptations of an approach long used in four-year colleges known as "learning communities," in which groups of students…

This dissertation studies the short-term effects of attending an after-school program (i.e., LA's BEST) on student mathematic achievement. The effects of one, two and three years of participation are studied, as well as the extent to which the magnitude of these effects varies across grades in which participation occurs, and the extent to which…

NovaNET is a technology-based teacher-facilitated educational approach used at schools to support students at risk of not meeting graduation requirements to accrue credits in a variety of subjects. NovaNET contributes to the WCPSS goal of closing achievement gaps and creating opportunities for all students to graduate on time. In 2008-09, 38…

The Louisiana Board of Regents is currently outpacing the nation in its ability to inform the public about the effectiveness of redesigned teacher preparation programs in preparing new teachers to teach grades 4-9 students in the areas of mathematics, science, social studies, reading, and language arts. Through the use of Louisiana's Value-Added…

Optional Extended-Day Kindergarten benefits students above and beyond non-Optional Extended-Day kindergarten. While OEK students began the 2009-10 school year with significantly lower scores than non-OEK students, by the end of the year OEK students had closed this achievement gap and scored similarly to non-OEK students. In some cases OEK…

In a spring 2010 survey, Austin Independent School District prekindergarten teachers with more than 18 students reported a greater frequency of students' disruptive behaviors than did similar teachers with fewer students. Most teachers gave positive ratings to their support team, central office staff, and the curriculum.

Response-to-intervention (RTI) frameworks have become increasingly prevalent in schools as an academic and behavioral prevention and intervention organizational approach that emphasizes students' responsiveness and nonresponsiveness as indicators of appropriate curricular and instructional decisions. Theoretical as well as practical descriptions…

In this article I critically evaluate whether or not learning skills acquired in the university access programme enhance participation in academic practice. University access programmes have been developed with a view to preparing and empowering under-prepared students who did not meet the university criteria. The article claims that even though…

By presenting a brief general history of educators' efforts and struggles to influence the intellectual and social growth of young children, it will help the reader understand why the Exemplary Center for Reading Instruction (ECRI), a research and consulting group concerned with instructional practices, sought for and obtained funds from the U.S.…

Research Findings: Parental engagement with children has been linked to a number of adaptive characteristics in preschool children, and relationships between families and professionals are an important contributor to school readiness. Furthermore, social-emotional competence is a key component of young children's school readiness. This study…

This paper introduces the background to the JISC work within the e-portfolio domain in the UK and presents an overview of past and current activities and the drivers for these developments. This is followed by a review of JISC's approach to drawing out the learning and implications for e-portfolio practice from this extensive collection of work…

"Wellness for African Americans Through Churches" was a randomized trial that tested the effectiveness of tailored print and video (TPV) and/or lay health advisors (LHA) at increasing recreational physical activity (RPA), fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption, and colorectal cancer (CRC) screening in African American churches.…