What does it mean for students to be in a gifted program? While about 7% of students nationally participate in gifted programs, relatively little is known about the experiences of students in these programs or how they vary across districts. Combining administrative and survey data, we describe the structure of gifted programs across nearly 300…

The Wallace Foundation's Partnerships for Social and Emotional Learning Initiative (PSELI) is a six-year initiative that The Wallace Foundation launched in 2017 to explore whether and how children benefit when schools and their out-of-school-time programs partner to improve social and emotional learning (SEL), as well as what it takes to do this…

The state of Washington is home to more than 566,000 children under the age of six (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017). About 306,000 of these children have all available parents in the workforce and, thus, potentially need child care (Child Care Aware of America, 2017). Like many states in recent years, Washington has committed public and private…

The Afterschool Alliance and MetLife Foundation are proud to celebrate a fifth round of the MetLife Foundation Afterschool Innovator Awards. For the past five years, we have collaborated to highlight the work of quality afterschool programs that support children, families and communities across the nation. This compendium is a compilation of four…

This guide contains examples of volunteer projects related to solid waste management. Volunteering provides the opportunity to enjoy new experiences, meet new people, learn new skills, and put ideas and talents to work. The stories included in this guide are: (1) Raucous Revelry and Recycling: Penn State Beaver Stadium Post-Game Recycling…

The reauthorization of the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" ("ESEA") as amended by the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" ("NCLB") relied on two notable policy instruments to improve education: accountability and flexibility. "NCLB" complements accountability with several new flexibility…

To describe how Partnership for Rural Improvement (PRI) field program associates perceive themselves performing their role functions, three associates and two assistants responded to questions about: their tasks, responsibilities, and roles; how they got started; what skills they needed; and what materials or technical assistance could benefit…

Summaries of the design, planning, and implementation of performance funding programs in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington reveal the challenges and opportunities of this reform approach. Performance measures and objectives and the history of the program in each…

Title IV-B of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act provides funds to local school districts to develop programs improving the quality of education. This document analyzes the distribution of Title IV-B funds to local districts in Washington State and provides examples of decision-making structures used in the needs assessment processes of…

Evergreen State College is an unprecedented flexible, sophisticated educational instrument designed to avoid depersonalization. Students are treated as responsible adults and are expected to work closely, as colleagues, with their teachers. Curriculum planning reflects the belief that graduates would change their career pattern and life styles at…

The most common configuration for the middle level is for grades 6-8 to be housed together. Although not a common configuration, there are some ninth grade only campuses sprinkled throughout the United States. Many of these schools were designed to address overcrowding issues either at the middle or high school while some were designed to help…

Through its Public Involvement and Education (PIE) Model Projects Fund, the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority has helped local organizations provide education and public involvement programs that help solve local environmental problems. This catalog describes 96 projects successful in addressing the issue of water quality. The projects are…

This booklet is intended both to upgrade the image of the skilled nonprofessional worker and to furnish a guide to vocational education opportunities in Spokane, Washington. An extensive rationale for career education and vocational education is presented, citing the problems of unemployment, poverty, and the failure of our educational systems to…

This guide was prepared to assist new health occupations teachers in the state of Washington to conduct their courses on the secondary level. The guide helps health care practitioners to answer such questions as: (1) What are health occupations and what kinds of programs are found in secondary education? (2) What kinds of regulations affect health…