If the RPP field is to bring our stated commitments to equity to life, it will require engagement with the political dimensions of RPP work, starting at the outset when a partnership is being established. In particular, prospective members must consider how the research process and products might (or might not) lead to more equitable systems.…

When a researcher tests an educational program, product, or policy in a randomized controlled trial and detects a significant effect on an outcome, the intervention is usually classified as something that "works." When expected effects are not found, there is seldom an orderly and transparent analysis of plausible reasons why.…

This essay examines the tension between rigor and relevance in a newly designed EdD program in School System Leadership in a Research 1 institution. After a three-year redesign of this program that prepares students to become superintendents, our faculty continue to wrestle with questions around how to make methodology coursework meaningful,…

Early childhood education programs, and particularly those designed to reduce gaps in school readiness between children in poverty and their more affluent peers, have increasingly addressed children's self-regulatory abilities -- their ability to manage behaviors, emotions, and cognitive processes. Although self-regulation is typically defined in…

Bellwether Education Partners' report, "A New Agenda," calls for a "rational" and "rigorous" research agenda for teacher education. Although the report's rationale is not fully explicated, it asserts that programs are "blindly swinging from one popular reform to the next" and that decades of input- and…

This article provides the author's comments on the studies by Tom Russell, David Dillon, Shawn Bullock, Lynn Thomas, and Andrea Martin which are reported in this issue of "Studying Teacher Education." Here Stefinee Pinnegar reflects on the intractable conundrums of teacher education and teachers educators that she felt was her…

Advances in theories of adolescent development and positive youth development have greatly increased our understanding of how programs and practices with adolescents can impede or enhance their development. In this article the authors reflect on the progress in research on youth development programs in the last two decades, since possibly the…

In spite of advances in the understanding of the effects of the immersion experience on language and cultural development in the last three decades, many questions in study abroad (SA) research remain unanswered. The present article offers a close examination of the field as it is today with an eye toward future trends and gaps in the literature.…

Both the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and recent efforts to hold schools and teachers accountable have been hotly debated among practitioners, policymakers, and the public at large. Much of the debate centers on the merits and demerits of these initiatives and the general approach they represent to reforming teaching and learning. In this…

The stated goal of current education reform is the redesign of education systems in pursuit of quality. Systems that consistently "come out on top" have excited much interest in uncovering the features that have contributed to their success; notably among these is the preparation of future teachers. Research on teacher education quality…

For over a decade, the National Science Foundation's Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program has funded researchers and educators to build an understanding of best practices, contexts, and processes contributing to K-12 students' motivation and participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics…

More than three decades of mentoring research has yet to converge on a unifying definition of mentoring; this is unsurprising given the diversity of relationships classified as mentoring. This article advances beyond a definition toward a common framework for specifying mentoring models. Sixteen design elements were identified from the literature…

Design-based implementation research offers the opportunity to rethink the relationships between intervention, research, and situation to better attune research and evaluation to the program development process. Using a heuristic called the intervention development curve, I describe the rough trajectory that programs typically follow as they…

This article calls for research on the expertise of youth development practitioners. We argue for studies focused on understanding youth practice from practitioners' points of view--as they experience and enact it--with the aim of contributing findings and frameworks that are helpful to their work and learning. To improve youth programs, first, it…

The paper informs on the characteristics of a Comenius Network of seven organizations, who are collaborating in exchanging best practice on science camps. This exchange includes evaluation results on more science camps of European organizations, which will deliver information on organization, collaboration with companies, pedagogical aspects, as…