Administrators' qualifications often differ across sectors of the early childhood field--school-based pre-K programs, centerbased child care, and Head Start. School principals overseeing school-based programs typically have a minimum of a master's degree in educational leadership with administrative certification. Currently, Head Start Performance…

Founded in person-centered theory, the Consistency Management & Cooperative Discipline (CMCD) program moves beyond the traditionally behavioristic discipline programs to include preventative and pro-social strategies. Three key management components (BIO management) have evolved to form the core of the program: (1) behavior management, where…

This descriptive study investigated the challenges related to implementing gifted education services in preschool centers. Participants completed a researcher-created survey to examine the perceived challenges of providing preschool gifted education services. Ninety-five percent of the centers had no formal policies or practices, and eighty-six…

Engineering virtual internships are simulations where students role play as interns at fictional companies, working to create engineering designs. To improve the scalability of these virtual internships, a reliable automated assessment system for tasks submitted by students is necessary. Therefore, we propose a machine learning approach to…

Grief is widely defined and covers a plethora of losses that involves a range of sometimes easily discernible emotions. While grief can be the result of loss in general, it can be either prolonged or temporary and indiscriminate of age or gender. Children are no exception. When considering the loss of a significant individual such as a parent…

This chapter introduces four mechanisms of change to explain how school inspections may lead to improvement of school quality and higher student outcomes, schools accepting and using inspection feedback, the setting of expectations around inspections standards and methods, voice, choice and exit of stakeholders to motivate school improvement, and…

The School-Wide Positive Behavior Support Program is being implemented in many schools in Pennsylvania and across the county. The primary focus of this program is to provide schools with the tools necessary to deal with students and the increasing number of behavior problems. Although there is plethora of information on the School-Wide Positive…

This study integrated multiple survey instruments to test the effectiveness of the mitigating factors of supervisory working alliance, history of previous trauma, levels of resilience, personal counseling, and mindfulness against Secondary Traumatic Stress. The sample size consisted of 50 counselors-in-training enrolled in masters counselor…

Recent innovations in teacher evaluation include the development of standards-based frameworks for observational evaluations of teacher practice and development of test-based measures of teacher effectiveness. These tools raise questions about how best to identify good teaching, about the roles of both evaluations and principals in improving…

The Adult Transitions Longitudinal Study was a 5-year study tracking the educational outcomes of adult students participating in an adult basic education-to-college transition program. This case describes three key principles for guiding this longitudinal study and the strategies the research team used to enact each of these principles. These…

A museum partnership with Native tribes blossomed from a film festival to an ongoing regional, multigenerational series of programs, workshops, and a wide array of events. When partners practice respect for what each brings to the table, the result can be powerful, meaningful programs that honor cultural knowledge and link unique communities…

The SpringBoard Bursary Foundation (SpringBoard) commissioned the National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) to undertake an evaluation of its activities and impacts between 2013 and 2018. This interim and summary report presents the findings of the first year of the evaluation. SpringBoard was established in 2012 to transform the lives of…

Assessing program impact can provide useful program evaluation data. It also provides a basis for program development, marketing, and justification. This article discusses recent impact evaluation efforts and findings of a long-time Extension program; referred to as Business Retention and Expansion (BR&E). How such information can be…

We provide an overview of research in sustainability education. We argue that the interconnectedness of environmental sustainability programs at K-12 schools is one metric by which sustainability education can be conceptualized. We present a new measure of whole-school sustainability, or "interconnectedness," and then use it to compare…

The number of middle level schools adopting 1:1 laptop programs has increased considerably during the past decade (e.g., Lowther, Strahl, Inan, & Bates, 2007; Storz & Hoffman, 2013; Texas Center for Educational Research, 2009). The cornerstone practices of the middle school concept (National Middle School Association, 2010), therefore,…