Little is known about the implementation of assistive technology (AT) services for students in rural areas. This study investigated the AT service delivery in 10 rural districts across six states. The results indicated that students use AT across functional areas, but considerably fewer number of devices than do those not living in rural areas. AT…

In December 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced No Child Left Behind (NCLB), as the nation's major law governing public schools. ESSA retains the requirement that states test all students in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school, as well as the requirement that…

Healthier, happier teachers promote healthier, happier, and more effective learning environments. Yet, many teachers experience considerable stress. Studies have found that between one fifth and one fourth of teachers frequently experience a great deal of stress (Kyriacou, 1998). Stress in teaching appears to be universal across nations and…

Many low-performing schools across the nation have increased learning time in response to federal requirements for the School Improvement Grant (SIG) program. The conditions governing federal waivers of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) also require certain schools to redesign the school day, week, or year to include additional…

In 2010, the Alexandria City Council of Virginia created the Children, Youth and Families Collaborative Commission (CYFCC, or the Commission) with the support of the Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS). Establishing the Commission was a groundbreaking step toward addressing the needs of Alexandria's children in a more holistic manner. The…

A trio of researchers presents a case study from a practical, participatory action research project to demonstrate how one school district implemented a school-wide bullying prevention initiative for all elementary schools based on Bully Prevention in Positive Behavior Support (BP-PBS). The purpose of this manuscript is to discuss the process of…

On July 24 and 25, 2012, members of the Task Force on Admissions in the 21st Century gathered in Reston, Virginia, to discuss the progress made by the implementation team in addressing action items from the Task Force's Preserving the Dream of America 2008 report; the current environment for admission; and actions to be taken to further the task…

This randomized controlled study examined disciplinary outcomes for 201 students who made threats of violence at school. The students attended 40 schools randomly assigned to use the Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines or follow a business-as-usual disciplinary approach in a control group. Logistic regression analyses found, after…

Community colleges are an increasingly important component of the higher education systems in the United States. Community college as a pathway toward a better educated workforce has been emphasized at a national and state level. Virginia's policy makers set an ambitious goal of producing 100,000 new baccalaureate degrees in the Commonwealth by…

"The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965" (ESEA) has directed federal resources to schools for more than four decades to help ensure all children have equal access to a quality education. The most recent reauthorization--or congressional update to the law--occurred with the passage of the "No Child Left Behind Act of…

The presence of challenging and violent behaviors that pose risks to the overall safety and the educational learning experience in the public education setting have been on the rise in recent years. Traditional reactive, coercive, and punitive measures to address these behaviors have been futile. Congress responded to the national increase in…

The School Improvement Grant (SIG) program funds reforms in low performing schools. Congress provided $3.5 billion for SIG in fiscal year 2009, and a total of about $1.6 billion was appropriated in fiscal years 2010-2012. SIG requirements changed significantly in 2010. Many schools receiving SIG funds must now use the funding for specific…

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) published a series of case studies from 28 states to showcase examples of how ARRA EETT ("American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Enhancing Education Through Technology") grant funds have impacted teaching and learning. SETDA collected data for the case studies through…

The authors investigated the design and implementation of the capstone courses that are part of Virginia's College and Career Readiness Initiative. Based on a set of performance expectations for college readiness, two capstone courses--one in English and one in mathematics--were developed to help support high school juniors and seniors who intend…

The author is a Foreign Language in the Elementary School (FLES) Spanish teacher and works with students from K-6 at Little Run Elementary School in Fairfax, Virginia. FLES is a program that had been implemented in her school district six years ago. Finding ways to motivate students to use and practice the foreign language outside the classroom is…