Interfaith America's 2023 Landscape Analysis explores the purpose, range of desired outcomes, promising models, challenges, and opportunities of bridgebuilding efforts across U.S. higher education. This article articulates the importance of bridgebuilding for the sector and summarizes key findings from the Landscape Analysis. It highlights…

This technical supplement to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment and Training (E&T) evaluation final reports presents details of the technical approach used for creating analysis variables and estimating impacts of treatment group services on outcomes, including employment, earnings, and SNAP participation. It also…

One-day chemistry camps, managed by graduate students from the Departments of Chemistry at the Universities of Virginia (UVA) and Vermont (UVM), have proven successful as an outreach initiative. The camp model engages kindergarten through fifth grade elementary school students in hands-on, inquiry-based science experiments to educate and excite…

This resource was prepared in response to a request for information about the innovations and lessons learned as the result of the investments States have made in transforming their workforce using their Race to the Top -- Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grants. These strategies and accomplishments will be helpful to other States as they…

In 1988, when a Maine test failed to measure educational accountability in Vermont, portfolios constituted the bottom-up response to needed reform. In 1990, Kentucky's Educational Reform Act mandated assessment by performance-based tasks, including portfolios. Both states feature scoring criteria (rubrics) based on four performance levels and…

Governors recognize that promoting school readiness is a key strategy for preventing school failure and subsequent costs to society in the form of remedial education services, health and social services, criminal justice services, and lost tax revenue. Supporting the readiness of young children at risk for school failure is critical to the…

This study discusses and evaluates the Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) planning model for goal setting in educational systems by examining the results of its use in five Vermont schools. The findings show a gap between educational realities and the tradition of organizational maintenance and change on which the model is based. Also discussed are studies of…

This document describes the Resource Agent Program as inaugurated by the Vermont Department of Education. A resource agent is described as a teacher who has developed a program or activity that has been successfully applied in the classroom; resource agents are available to share their ideas, experiences, and some materials with other teachers who…

The "Making Special Friends Project" of the Burlington, Vermont public school system resulted in a series of six manuals: (1) A Review of the Literature; (2) Model Overview; (3) Implementation Guidelines and Inservice Training Manual; (4) Strategies for Implementing Model Components; (5) Developing Community Resource and Accessibility…

This article describes the peer review process in Vermont. Teachers across the state learned lessons of their own in creating standards-based units based on a checklist of criteria and a scorecard. Developing and critiquing lessons helped teachers make connections, internalize, and apply the tenets of high-quality, standards-based classroom…

This collection of 43 activities represents an initial sampling of the creative efforts that Vermont teachers are currently making to improve the learning environment of their students. The resources are the outcome of a campaign initiated by the regional service teams of the Vermont Department of Education to collect information about promising…

Since 1992, Vermont has been pioneering the development of community partnerships for improving social well-being, using indicators to track success. The working definition of a community, for outcome purposes, is the area served by a school supervisory union. Vermont is divided into 60 such supervisory unions (school districts), but…

Interest is growing in planning and implementing new systems of holding child and family services accountable for results. The Results-Based Accountability (RBA) Project at the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) has supported and built upon recent state efforts to develop these new accountability systems for child and family services. The RBA…

SerVermont is a volunteer program for high school students. The program stresses public service in the community and is intended to teach students the value of personal volunteer service to their local communities. During SerVermont's first year of operation, 11 high schools were awarded minigrants to be used in developing programs in which…

Ten years ago, students at the University of Vermont (UVM) had to carry separate ID cards, meal cards, and athletic cards. Today, the single CATcard combines all of these functions, plus library privileges, an optional declining balance program called CAT$cratch, access to computer labs, use of vending machines without quarters, and even a ride on…