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…

In 2000, the California State Legislature passed the Schiff-Cardenas Crime Prevention Act, which authorized funding for county juvenile-justice programs and designated the Corrections Standards Authority (CSA) (formerly named the Board of Corrections) the administrator of funding. A 2001 California Senate bill extended the funding and changed the…

This handbook provides information about an innovative model, Partners for Valued Youth (PVY), that encourages "at-risk" students to stay in school and to set broader goals for themselves through a cross-age tutoring experience in which at-risk middle school students tutor younger, elementary school students. After a preface, the…