California has embarked on a major new wave of curriculum reform with the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the new English Language Development (ELD) standards, and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The adoption of the CCSS builds a legacy of standards-based education reform in California that began with the…

Functional behavior assessment (FBA), although mandated by federal law in situations involving students with emotional and behavioral disorders, is not well defined in the literature in terms of how it should best be undertaken in widespread practice in schools. Functional behavior assessment can be defined as a process for determining the reason…

This methodological brief is designed to provide both program operators and researchers with practical advice about how to assess a program's implementation and impact. Adapted from an article that first appeared in "The Handbook of Youth Mentoring" (DuBois and Karcher, ed. 2005), the brief focuses on the evaluation of mentoring programs, but the…

The replication of proven social programs is a cost-effective and efficient way to achieve large-scale, positive social change. Yet there has been little guidance available about how to approach program replication and limited development of systems--at local, state or federal levels--to support replication efforts. "Laying a Solid Foundation:…

Animated pedagogical agents (APAs) have the potential to provide one-on-one, just-in-time instruction, guidance or mentoring in classrooms where such individualized human interactions may be infeasible. Much current APA research focuses on a wide range of design variables tested with small samples or in laboratory settings, while overlooking…

Communities across the country are grappling with different approaches to improving their schools. Introducing or expanding charter schools is one of the approaches that states and school districts have considered or implemented. Charter schools serve more than 5 percent of public school students nationwide and make up close to 7 percent of all…

As evidence-based practice is increasingly accepted in social work, the challenges associated with its actual implementation become more apparent and pressing. This article identifies implementation as a critical issue for research; implementation itself must be better understood if evidence-based practices are to be used and resultant…

Planning, developing, implementing, and sustaining organizational change, such as Response to Intervention (RTI), is a complex endeavor. This brief is designed to give practitioners guidance based on the implementation activities of middle school practitioners across the country. The authors recognize that secondary schools must consider many…

More than 10,000 schools in the United States have adopted the multi-tiered model of behavioral and academic supports known as school-wide positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS). Schools and districts adopting, implementing, and sustaining PBIS are charged with collecting and disseminating data generated by and related to students,…

This issue brief is part of a larger study of California continuation high schools begun in 2007. While the first phase of the study examined various alternative education options throughout the state, this second phase focused on 23 higher performing continuation high schools in California selected based on multiple student outcome measures. This…

The federal government and private foundations for education have established postsecondary credential completion as a national imperative. Washington State's Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) model was developed to increase the rate at which basic skills students advance to and succeed in college-level occupational programs,…

Children classified as emotionally disturbed constitute a most challenging and expensive population in the public schools. This article presents a tri-part model of barriers to program design, implementation, and evaluation for children classified as emotionally disturbed in public school settings. An examination of the available school-based…

School-based response to intervention (RTI) teams must gather, organize, chart, and interpret essential instructional information to make effective adjustments to meet the academic needs of struggling learners. Quantified data such as student proficiency scores, rate of progress trends, and achievement gap results provide the foundation for making…

This policy profile on education in the Netherlands is part of the new Education Policy Outlook series, which presents comparative analysis of education policies and reforms across The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Building on the substantial comparative and sectorial policy knowledge base available…

This brief describes different types of evaluations and sets forth five steps for selecting an evaluator that can benefit a program in the long run. It also provides some tips on the cost of evaluations. Evaluation refers to "the process of acquiring and assessing information to provide useful feedback about a program or program activity."…