This interim evaluation report presents descriptive, process and outcome findings regarding the Oakland Department of Violence Prevention's (DVP's) school violence intervention and prevention (VIP) teams. School VIP teams consist of three individuals--one life coach, one violence interrupter, and one gender-based-violence specialist--and operate…

"Pathways to Implementation" highlights innovative strategies and effective models in career pathways policy, implementation, and programming, as well as challenges states encounter in this work. This seven-part series addresses the key elements of Bellwether's framework for career pathways policy implementation. Each brief defines the…

This solutions book seeks to inform policymakers, programme developers, international development partners and funders to support the development and implementation of policies and programmes that promote green skills development for youth on the move, thereby accelerating progress towards a just, green transition. Through an illustrative sample…

This paper offers a critical review of the adopted academic advising strategies at the Durban University of Technology. It is worth acknowledging that academic advising as a scholarly practice is in its developmental stage at South African tertiary institutions. The paper draws on the experiences of the authors as academic advisors to reflect on…

Connecting assessment with teaching through faculty capacity building can be a design principle in any assessment project aimed at improving student learning. This design principle is supported by the evaluation capacity-building literature, backward design curriculum approach, research on learning, and inquiry-driven assessment-for-learning…

Higher education reform efforts in Ecuador during the last decade have been described as a process that has radically shaped local institutions. With the government at the forefront of mandating this reform, we examined the perspectives of stakeholders in the country who have been charged with enacting policies seeking to improve higher education.…

Research in cognitive development has highlighted that early numeracy skills are associated with later math achievement, suggesting that these skills should be targeted in early math education. Here we tested whether tools used by researchers to assess mathematical thinking could be useful in the classroom. This paper describes a collaborative…

Empirical research investigating the association between teacher pay incentives and student test scores has grown rapidly over the past decade. To integrate the findings from these studies and help inform the debate over teacher merit pay, this meta-analysis synthesizes effect sizes across 37 primary studies, 26 of which were conducted in the…

Vocational education and training (VET) reform is increasingly common, but there is more evidence on designing VET reforms than implementing them. This literature review searches the existing literature on VET reform implementation for key determinants, trends, and gaps using a determinant framework. We review 1,835 sources, coding 177 for 1,538…

Small-group interventions are often used in schools to support the development of children's social skills. One such intervention, Lego®-Based Therapy (LBT), is increasingly popular internationally in schools. Although LBT has an emerging evidence-base, there is limited research exploring effective LBT implementation. An in-depth, exploratory…

Head Start programs engage in multiple practices to support children and families during the transition to kindergarten. Children moving from Head Start to kindergarten often encounter discontinuities between the program and services they were receiving and the new elementary school environment. This paper uses multiple datasets and methods to…

The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical stance on integrating implementation and research. Implementation should be made integral to research because viewing research and implementation as an integrated whole is a more useful perspective for educational research and practice. A consequence of this position is a marked blurring of the…

The purpose of this study is to present the need for stakeholders to share an agreed-on Theory of Change (ToC) during the various phases of an implementation process. To this end, we draw on the Swedish Boost for Mathematics (BM), a large-scale national educational initiative, and its intrinsic 'algebra' instructional module. More precisely, we…

Many students in the United States suffer from mental health issues resulting from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Often, students exhibit negative behavior as a result of these issues and many schools continue to implement punitive approaches to discipline, such as suspensions or expulsions, which serve to further isolate and disconnect…

Research suggests that students are more invested in behavior interventions when they are involved in the development process. Tier 2 behavior interventions in a positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) framework can be tailored to embed student involvement and meet individual student needs. The purpose of this article is threefold.…