How parents support social learning at the preverbal level for toddlers with autism is rarely reported, limiting the field's understanding of factors that may influence early development of social competency. As a central challenge in autism that is resistant to intervention, preverbal social initiating is an important indicator of social…

This paper discusses how for 15 years mandated high-stakes testing took precedence as the prominent measure of student success. An unintentional consequence of this time was that social-emotional competencies were overlooked. Most recently, the Kansas Department of Education (KSDE) has developed and implemented an accreditation model that is based…

The 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic created a crisis that tested teacher leaders, building leaders, and school culture in ways that will take years to analyze. In this qualitative focus group study, teachers working in Kansas throughout the pandemic shared their perspectives on leadership development. The teachers reported taking on roles and…

A number of states have taken steps toward promoting student wellness, with many of their state boards of education in the middle of the action. This article contains some examples of states leading on student wellness by addressing physical fitness, social and emotional learning (SEL), and mental health supports. The Every Student Succeeds Act…

To help state boards of education and other policymakers learn how to communicate most effectively on policies related to social and emotional learning (SEL), the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) commissioned Edge Research to conduct a survey of community influ­encers in Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, and…

The national education system, similar to the Kansas education system, has seen little change since the 1800s(Throckmorton, 1967). In fact, over 50 years later, there have been few changes. Children come to school around the age of five to enter kindergarten and then move through the current system by age and grade level. These children sit in…

Objective: This study tested the effectiveness of Parent Management Training, Oregon (PMTO) model on child social-emotional well-being. Methods: Using a randomized controlled design and three measures of social-emotional well-being, the study investigated effectiveness of PMTO with families of children in foster care with serious emotional…

By tracking longitudinally a sample of American children (n = 1,097), this study examined the extent to which enrollment in private schools between kindergarten and ninth grade was related to students' academic, social, psychological, and attainment outcomes at age 15. Results from this investigation revealed that in unadjusted models, children…