Setting up a STEM club can be the most daunting item that one faces on a department's development plan. Coupled with all the other demands that exist within teaching and learning, teachers can be easily forgiven for pushing this task further and further into the school year until it eventually becomes one of next year's "to-do" items.…

Sex education is not only a necessary component of public school curriculum, but it is also an important opportunity for students with and without disabilities to learn about their own development as emerging adults. Although comprehensive sex education is not federally mandated, many states and districts choose to offer some form of sex education…

Despite the clear negative impact of high textbook costs on students, limits--including space, funding, and policies--prevent many academic libraries from fully supporting textbook collections. Partnering with other campus units on textbook lending requires creative thinking but can provide students access to other services in addition to the…

Physical activity declines among children in their tweens and teens. To address physical inactivity as a health risk, national organizations are endorsing the implementation of comprehensive school physical activity programs (CSPAPs). The purpose of this article is to describe the history of school-coordinated approaches to addressing health…

University housing has the capacity to offer more than comfortable living spaces, and campuses across the U.S., including our own, are exploring models of residential learning communities that provide both academic and social support students while cultivating a strong sense of community. In this article, we describe our campus foray into offering…

While game-based assessment offers new potential for understanding the processes students use to solve problems, it also presents new challenges in uncovering which player actions provide evidence that contributes to understanding about students' knowledge, skill, and attributes that we are interested in assessing. A development process that…

This report summarizes Austin Independent School District elementary principals' comments from a December 2017 discussion about the process for choosing bilingual and English as a second language programs for their schools in the 2018-2019 school year.

Land-grant Extension institutions face increasing expectations to use data to communicate value and drive program and organizational development. In this article, we introduce the University of Wisconsin--Extension Data Jam Initiative, an integrated qualitative software, methods, and data analysis curriculum. The Data Jam Initiative is an…

The passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) marked the beginning of a new development cycle for accountability systems. State leaders once again have an opportunity to redesign their accountability systems based on the provisions included in ESSA and to ensure that systems improve outcomes for all students. The correct identification of…

A collaborative study abroad program (between one New Zealand and one U.S. university) on the theme of global health has been offered three times in Australia with 59 students registered to date. The course was developed because it is believed that higher education can play a role in improving global health through the fostering of global…

Since the enactment of Public Law 94-142, school districts have struggled to hire and retain required special education personnel (i.e., special education teachers, school psychologists, and related service providers). Data show that shortages of these qualified personnel are even more magnified in rural school districts. Distance education can…

Online programs are often viewed as a cost-efficient strategy for increasing revenue for shrinking university budgets but this may not be an accurate assessment. Responsibility Centered Management (RCM) is a budgeting model that is purported to increase efficient delivery of academic programs. As RCM budgeting models have been embraced, many…

The introduction of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model has challenged professionals working in school health to inspire school districts to embrace WSCC's philosophical and practical components. Adopting the WSCC model to foster wellness priorities in school districts encourages healthy people and healthy environments to…

In this article, Gustafson and Kiltz reflect on why they got involved in the very first master's level Professional Administrative Leadership Academy developed at Kansas State University (KSU). The authors had the opportunity to observe school leaders and noted that the most effective leaders shared their power and knowledge freely with others.…

Telehealth clinical applications, which allow medical professionals to use telecommunications technologies to provide services to individuals remotely, continue to expand in areas such as low vision rehabilitation, where evaluations are provided to patients who live in rural areas. As with face-to-face low vision rehabilitation, the goal of…