At the beginning of the 21st century, higher education began to concentrate on leveling the playing field around admission. While this work is still unfolding, in the second decade of the last century, attention also began to be paid to identifying strategies that would improve student success and completion for all students, but especially for…

Intervention fidelity is the extent to which an individual- or systems-level student intervention is delivered comprehensively in a manner aligned with the initial plan. This first installment in a three-part series on intervention fidelity highlights the importance of ensuring classroom supports are implemented as intended and introduces…

Schoolwide positive behaviour support (SWPBS) programs have proven to be largely effective at reducing problem behaviour in schools. Full implementation of SWPBS has been associated with positive behavioural and academic outcomes. However, despite their effectiveness, implementation rates of SWPBS remain low. For SWPBS to be sustained, a number of…

The 2007 Bondar Report, "Shaping Our Schools, Shaping Our Future," generated a vision for environmental curricula in Ontario. It has been the basis for the mandated framework introduced in 2009 by the Ministry of Education for environmental education (EE) in all Ontario schools. Based on our research and personal reflections, this paper…

Within the contemporary higher education landscape, maintaining student engagement and retention has become of critical concern to universities. Universities have mostly responded to this concern by implementing institutional engagement and retention initiatives by professional university staff. Thus far, however, the role that teaching academics…

Open Educational Resources (OER) have continued to gain traction in higher education, assisting with ever-rising costs of publisher textbooks and supporting pedagogical innovation. Starting in 2017, NY state legislature has allocated funds annually to be split between its two public university systems to support and incentivize the adoption of…

Higher education is challenged by workforce needs to transform its outcomes from "knowledge-based" to "competency-based" outcomes. High-impact educational practices, commonly referred to as HIPs, provide, among other benefits, efficacious development of workforce-ready specific competencies. Strategic implementation of HIPs has…

For much of the past decade, suicide has been the second leading cause of death for adolescents in the United States, and suicide rates among adolescents have been rising for the last 15 years. Suicidal thoughts and behaviors among adolescents were common before COVID-19 and have become an increasing public health priority in the pandemic's wake.…

While the demands of teaching continue to escalate, teacher development has changed relatively little over time, leaving many of today's teachers feeling underprepared, overwhelmed, or demoralized with few opportunities to make real change. Teacher leadership holds promise for both addressing challenges within schools and empowering teachers.…

When teachers and students share the responsibility for learning, students become active agents in their own learning who respond to feedback, set learning goals, track their progress, and adapt their own learning strategies when needed. Formative assessment provides a clear path forward to this kind of teaching and learning experience, and site…

For 15 years, Complete College America (CCA) has been building movements for scaled systemic change and transforming institutions. While CCA has expanded their efforts over the past 15 years, they have studied the best ideas and co-designed the most promising practices to move the needle on college completion. They have learned a lot about how to…

Physical activity (PA) policies have the potential to ensure adequate opportunities for children to develop PA behaviors for a lifetime. Examples include mandating that schools provide recess and physical education for a specified amount of time per week; ensuring that physical education teachers are licensed; providing activity breaks in academic…

This chapter explores the web presence needed for instructors, students, administrators, and staff as hybrid courses are implemented at the institutional level and discusses the physical presence (office(s) and staff) needed to effectively provide and sustain online support for hybrid education.

College health promotion departments frequently employ peer health educators to disseminate relevant education and conduct outreach to their student body. While there are certainly benefits to these programs, this approach is outdated and does little to empower students or engage them in the process of health promotion. In this viewpoint article,…

For school districts in California, just as one set of revolutionary new content standards is beginning to feel familiar, another deep change is brewing. Districts have now had more than five years to wrestle with how they implement the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSS-M) (NGA Center & CCSSO, 2010). Many have made large-scale…