The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented challenge for state, district, and school leaders across the country. Whether states and districts mandate or choose an in-person or remote model or a hybrid model, which includes some aspect of virtual learning, ensuring that vulnerable students and teachers have a remote learning option has…

The increased demand for online courses correlates to increased workloads for faculty, staff, and leadership. Hiring, staffing, and other logistical matters often trump the emphasis on course quality. This paper introduces a strategic framework for creating and sustaining a successful distance education model. Tarrant County College Connect Campus…

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented challenge for state, district, and school leaders across the country. Whether states and districts mandate or choose an in-person or remote model or a hybrid model, which includes some aspect of virtual learning, ensuring that vulnerable students and teachers have a remote learning option has…

Designing high quality, interactive online courses in a technologically rich environment can be a daunting task even for experienced faculty. This process becomes more difficult when faculty are teaching multiple classes while juggling service responsibilities and research/creative scholarships. In order to help faculty focus on key aspects of…

High-impact practices, such as learning communities, capstones, undergraduate research, and community-based experiences, are effective pedagogies. Most of these practices have been around for decades. By clustering the effective elements of these activities through the term "high-impact practices," we bring together elements which we…

This article first makes a case for the need to establish evaluation reporting standards, support for which is rooted in the growing demand for professionalization, in the growing meta evaluation literature, and in growing efforts to develop reporting standards for inquiry efforts. Then, a case is made for a particular set of such standards…

Despite much progress in improving the quality of preschool programs, there is still an uneven quality of instruction in early childhood settings. Providing support and professional development (PD) for teachers that is practical, systematic and sustainable is one potential avenue to increase classroom quality in preschool, including quality of…

Curriculum is the core of the classroom experience, but what makes a quality curriculum? What lessons, learning experiences, and assessments are most effective, and how should they be embedded within the curriculum? The answers to these and other questions appear in this definitive, step-by-step guide. Drawing from her work with teachers and…

High-quality, evidence-based professional development is essential to ensure that teachers obtain the knowledge, strategies and skills necessary to positively impact student learning. While the primary form of professional development, training has rarely been evaluated for quality beyond the satisfaction of those being trained. The Observation…

Five teacher educators discuss children's literature addressing Earth's changing climate. They present tools for evaluating the quality of resources likely to help teachers and students stimulate conceptual and emotional development rather than anxiety or oversimplification. An annotated selection of current books along with a checklist to…

Teachers must provide high-quality instruction based on evidence-based practices to provide students meaningful opportunities to learn and to improve school outcomes. Although teachers have access to a variety of resources on evidence-based practices, poor implementation may limit the effectiveness of teacher practices, as indicated by low levels…

AppleTree Institute for Education Innovation, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., is working to close the achievement gap before children enter kindergarten by providing 3- and 4-year-olds with the social, emotional, and academic foundations that enable them to thrive in school--and increasing educator effectiveness is a critical…

This article presents a checklist as a guide for Extension professionals to use in research and evaluation studies they carry out. A total of 40 statements grouped under eight data quality components--relevance, objectivity, validity, reliability, integrity, generalizability, completeness, and utility--are identified to ensure that research…

The mission of national colleges of technology (NCT's) in Japan and the universities of technology (UT's) in Taiwan is to pragmatically prepare quality engineers and technologists. In recent years, the partnership among NCT's and UT's is extended and expanded. This paper introduces the pragmatic and successful partnership between National United…

To help all students reach their potential, district leaders must ensure that every student has consistent access to excellent teaching. Opportunity Culture compensation and career path structures help make that possible, and this guide shows how. "Teacher Pay and Career Paths in an Opportunity Culture: A Practical Policy Guide" shows…