Mental health challenges for youth continue to be a growing concern. Youth-serving organizations have the potential to play a significant role in recognizing the signs and symptoms of mental health challenges in youth. The Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) training course is widely used to equip adults working with youth with skills to support…

Beginning in 2009, the United States (US) federal government spearheaded a nationwide teacher evaluation reform effort, encouraging states to change their process of evaluating teachers. School principals, the primary evaluators of teacher performance, act as middle leaders in the sense they must attempt to balance messages from federal, state,…

The recent Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to identify and turn around their lowest performing schools, but it breaks somewhat from prior policies by granting states significant autonomy over how they identify and turn around these schools. This mixed-methods study, which draws on administrative, qualitative, and survey data,…

This article employs the comparative case study (CCS) approach to examine how four public pre-kindergarten (pre-K) teachers in Michigan enacted a state-mandated parent involvement policy. Using CCS, we trace policy enactment from the policy text, through mid-level administrators, and into the classroom context. We demonstrate how teachers used…

Policy analysts often concern themselves with understanding the messiness of implementation. Scholar Milbrey McLaughlin urged scholars to follow the "policy footprint" approach, and this article introduces this concept's application in studying arts education policy implementation. Specifically, I explore several important questions.…

States are coordinating with two-year institutions on workforce programming for unemployed or underemployed residents. Reskilling residents is especially vital for states that endured historic unemployment rates as a result of COVID-19-related layoffs. Nationally, the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) is making…

Monitoring Advising Analytics to Promote Success (MAAPS)is a multi-institutional project of the University Innovation Alliance (UIA) initially funded and supported by a US Department of Education First in the World Grant to Georgia State, the lead UIA member on this project. MAAPS is a large-scale randomized-controlled trial designed to validate…

This paper used data from a multi-institutional study of community colleges developing and implementing degree reclamation strategies (adult reengagement and reverse credit transfer) to understand and unpack the factors that influence implementation and capacity development. The data come from seven colleges that are implementing equity-focused…

This paper explores enabling conditions for scaling high-quality project-based learning (PBL) to understand factors that influence how PBL spreads, whether and how it can be sustained and the extent to which it informs meaningful change in schools. We report on a year-long collaboration across three research projects. Each project team analyzed…

Effective teaching practice focused on encouraging deep engagement helps all students learn and succeed. Considerable work by researchers and change agents, encouraged by national organizations such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Research Council, has promoted greater use of evidence-based educational practices, such as…

Over the last several years, the guided pathways approach to whole-college redesign has become a national movement in community colleges. Approximately 300 colleges are implementing guided pathways reforms as part of formal state or national initiatives, and many more are doing so on their own. Some of the earliest colleges to implement guided…

This study reports the results of a single-arm, noncontrolled, Type 3 hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial evaluating virtual reality job interview training (VR-JIT) delivered in five preemployment transition programs comprising 15 schools, 10 administrators, 23 teachers, and 279 youth ages 16-21 years receiving special education…

More than 8.3 million young people under 18 struggle with anxiety or depression--13 percent of the youth population. Despite the need, more than one third of the U.S. population lives in Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas, creating urgent dual crises of rising mental health needs and insufficient behavioral workforce capacity. Launched in…

The Families Forward Demonstration (FFD) examined new strategies to increase the earnings of parents who owe child support but are unable to fully meet their obligations due to low earnings. It also focused on "responsive" child support services that helped parents understand their support obligations, and even suspended certain…

The state of Michigan is increasing its commitment to deeper learning strategies to transform classroom instruction and learning through a competency-based approach to education. Competency-based education (CBE) is a school-based shift in teaching and learning designed to give students individualized support and opportunities to advance based on…