As the number of older Americans double in the next forty years, it will be important to delay the decline in cognition. The aim of this paper is to describe the feasibility and acceptability of a six-week cognitively stimulating program focusing on visual arts (Picasso, Andrew Wyeth, and Carl Warner), music (Bach and Franklin), and travel…

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…

Although varying among and within the states, the percentage of students with 504 plans is steadily and significantly increasing as a national average. Although the professional literature addresses the legal standards for eligibility for 504 plans, it has not provided up-to-date information to practitioners as to the legal standard for the…

This research examines how public school principals in eight U.S. states perceive their teacher evaluation systems, which are based on Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching (FfT). States were selected to represent high, middle, and low scorers in the annual "Education Week" "Quality Counts" report (Education Week, 2016).…

Kindergarten has become increasingly academically oriented, and U.S. kindergarten teachers are increasingly called upon to implement policies that require assessment and promote accountability. However, little recent research has focused on kindergarten teachers' beliefs about kindergarten readiness. The authors examined teachers' beliefs related…

Improving low-achieving schools is a critical challenge facing urban education. Recent national policy shifts have pressed states to take an expanded role in school improvement efforts. In 2009, a federal grant competition called Race to the Top (RttT) compelled states to improve their capacity to implement ambitious education reform agendas.…

Church-related small private liberal arts baccalaureate minority-serving institutions like Wesley College have modest endowments, are heavily tuition-dependent, and have large numbers of financially-challenged students. In order to sustain the level of academic excellence and to continue to build student demographic diversity in its accessible…

This article describes findings from a survey completed by 250 K-12th grade teachers from eight states (i.e., Kentucky, Minnesota, Michigan, Maine, Delaware, North Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi) that had fully implemented the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) by spring 2013. The survey was designed to examine teachers' perceptions about…

The Buffering Toxic Stress Consortium was created by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation within the Administration for Children and Families to test preventive interventions for Early Head Start families facing toxic stress, as conceptualized by Shonkoff, Boyce, and McEwen in their influential 2009 article. Because relationships…

The purpose of this article is to identify how principals shape the adoption and implementation of professional learning communities. The study employed a sequential mixed-methods approach in which interviews, observations, and document analysis informed survey design. Teachers were surveyed in four elementary schools about the practices and…

The purpose of this report is to provide insight into how state departments are implementing legislative requirements for educator evaluation, particularly the specific circumstances states encounter around arts education. Spotlights on Delaware, a first-round recipient of Race to the Top funding, and Colorado and Arizona, third-round recipients,…

The "Race to the Top" competitive grant program initiated a wave of teacher evaluation reform, which scholars and policymakers have long identified as critical to improving teacher quality and student performance. State boards of education (SBEs) and state education agencies (SEAs) took different approaches to these reforms, and as a…

The use of therapy-dog teams in programs for children with disabilities is becoming increasingly popular in school and therapeutic settings and has been shown to provide physical, social, and emotional benefits for the children. This article describes the basic steps for implementing therapy dog-assisted activities in physical activity programs…

Updates the implementation of the court ordered metropolitan school desegregation plan in Wilmington, Delaware. Proposes that problems being experienced in the school district can be traced not only to pupil reassignment and busing issues but also to governmental and administrative difficulties tied to district reorganization. (Author/MK)

Founded in 1821, Widener University is a two-state (Pennsylvania and Delaware), four-campus, eight-college private institution serving approximately 6,700 students. Following arrival of the new senior vice president and provost in 2004 and subsequent reorganization of vice presidential responsibilities, Student Affairs is now led by a dean of…