Research suggests that art programs have positive therapeutic effects on children, including improved self-concept. This pretest/posttest intervention study examined changes in self-concept in children (N = 176) who participated in an art program at the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Results indicated significant, positive increases in…

This paper describes the creation of a comprehensive First-Year Experience program for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and ally (LGBTQA) students. Background information on First-Year Experience programs, LGBTQA populations, and the benefits of providing this program are described. The authors discuss how to plan and implement this…

States and technical assistance centers have asked the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) for guidance on establishing and maintaining a peer learning community (PLC). This document is designed to delineate the steps to establish and sustain a Peer Learning Community (PLC). It begins with a definition of a PLC and then presents…

This guide is addressed to policy officials, program providers, and researchers who are seeking to: (1) identify and implement social programs backed by valid evidence of effectiveness; or (2) sponsor or conduct an evaluation to determine whether a program is effective. The guide provides a brief overview of which studies can produce valid…

With support from The Wallace Foundation, the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) has been coordinating a number of learning experiences for cities aimed at increasing opportunities to share best practices and providing access to best practices and national trends. Initially, 57 cities convened in Baltimore, Maryland in February 2013 for the…

Residential learning communities in postsecondary education, also known as living-learning programs, aim to improve student learning and success by integrating students' academic and daily living environments. Students participating in these programs live together (usually in a residential dormitory), take certain classes together, and engage in…

Youth transitioning out of foster care and into adulthood need many supports to navigate the challenges they face. Over the past three decades, federal child welfare policy has significantly increased the availability of those supports. In 1999, the Foster Care Independence Act amended Title IV-E of the Social Security Act to create the Chafee…

The purpose of this article is to describe a multicomponent intervention developed and implemented by a consortium of districts in the Pacific Northwest through a researcher-practitioner partnership and the process used for collaboration. The intervention was designed to increase reading proficiency and school engagement for struggling readers in…

We investigated teacher leadership in 18 middle schools in one district engaged in an initiative to scale up Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR). This mixed-methods analysis found variability in CSR teacher leadership, including the number of hours allotted for release time to support the initiative, the activities teacher leaders enacted, and…

As eXtension unveils its new membership model, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach must determine how best to support professionals and clientele using the technology. This article reports on a study that used the diffusion of innovations and disruptive innovation theories to assess Iowa Extension professionals' adoption and perceptions…

The purpose of this article is to discuss major substantive errors that school personnel may make when developing students' Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). School IEP team members need to understand the importance of the procedural and substantive requirements of the IEP, have an awareness of the five serious substantive errors that IEP…

Objective: This study examines whether the psychometric properties of the short version of the Evidence-Based Practice Process Assessment Scale (EBPPAS) remain satisfactory when translated and transferred to the context of Swedish welfare services. Method: The Swedish version of EBPPAS was tested on a sample of community-based professionals in…

The widely publicized opposition to the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is in marked contrast to its relatively uncontroversial development and adoption--a contrast that points to the importance of understanding how the politics of enactment differs from the politics of implementation. In this article, we draw on the…

This article focuses on the design of a critical realist review that deployed Bhaskar's resolution, redescribing, retroduction, eliminating, identifying, and correcting schema and Pawson and Tilley's Context-Mechanism-Outcome configuration underpinned by realist social theory. Methodologically, the review examined the relationship between…

In this article, I present insights from a discourse analytic study in which I examined publications that emerged from a teacher development program in Bangladesh. The program, known as English in Action, utilizes information and communication technologies to deliver professional development activities to English-language teachers. Now in its 8th…