In many school systems, classrooms are filled with students who are performing well, but among these are students who are failing due to an array of barriers to learning. These barriers stem from external factors such as homelessness, abuse, and others, or internal factors such as mental disorders and learning behaviors. Addressing these barriers…

Southeast Pennsylvania 4-H Extension educators identified a need for professional development in order to further develop current urban 4-H programs. The expectation was that increased awareness and knowledge would lead to increased skills competency in planning, implementing, and evaluating urban 4-H youth development programs. An interstate…

Implementation of college- and career-readiness standards is some of the most important work currently underway in states to improve student achievement and public education overall. SREB examined the efforts of 14 states--including 11 SREB states--to support implementation of new college- and career-readiness standards. The goal of the research…

Implementation of college- and career-readiness standards is some of the most important work currently underway in states to improve public education and student achievement. This report provides a summary of findings from SREB's research into the efforts of 15 states--12 in the Southern Educational Research Board (SREB) region--to support…

This report builds on and extends Public Agenda's ongoing research on the attitudes of various stakeholder groups toward higher education reform. It explores the purpose and promise of more effective engagement of those stakeholders who--at first blush, at least--appear to express the deepest resistance to the productivity agenda: faculty. The…

Every year 1.3 million U.S. high school students drop out of school with one quarter of female students failing to graduate on time. Female dropouts are more likely to be unemployed, to earn less when they are employed, to become pregnant before the age of 20, to become obese, to smoke, and to drink more heavily than their male counterparts. This…

Telephone-survey data were gathered from parents and youth in five of America's largest and most distressed cities to estimate unmet demand for after-school programs. Unmet demand was conceptualized as a function of low utilization and dissatisfaction with one's current arrangement; furthermore, the authors argue that dissatisfaction must stem…

Exit interviews of university graduating seniors have been used to a very limited extent when evaluating academic programs. It is our belief that developing and implementing an exit interview plan stimulates faculty dialog and improves ongoing feedback for department program assessment. From 2001 to 2007, the Accounting Department at Towson…

An evaluation of Chesapeake Bay Foundation's environmental education programs provides context for this study exploring the role of student self-determination in service-learning. Research questions include (1) How do self-determination-related characteristics of service-learning programs affect students' attitudes toward service-learning (ASL),…