Public health involves the organized efforts of society to prevent disease, prolong life, and promote health. These efforts are exemplified through partnerships across various public and private sectors, including academia, which are crucial in addressing complex public health challenges. An academic health department (AHD) is a formal partnership…

Hope is an important component that helps engage people in solving problems. Environmental educational resources addressing climate change effectively should ideally nurture hope as well as increase understanding about the issue. However, hopefulness about resolving climate change challenges is a relatively new construct in the literature and…

As localized assessments confirm national findings that undergraduates struggle to integrate resources into research-based compositions effectively, data at one comprehensive public university indicate library sessions improve students' ability to locate and evaluate information, but students continue to struggle with the "use" component…

This research examines how public school principals in eight U.S. states perceive their teacher evaluation systems, which are based on Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching (FfT). States were selected to represent high, middle, and low scorers in the annual "Education Week" "Quality Counts" report (Education Week, 2016).…

The "Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practices" (TEIP) scale is designed to measure teacher-self efficacy to teach in inclusive classrooms. The original study identified three scale factors: "efficacy in using inclusive instruction" ("EII"), "efficacy in collaboration" ("EC"), and "efficacy in…

The recent passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA) is an historic opportunity for education leaders and funders to think broadly about innovation in terms of goals and accountability. This case examines two examples of states where responsible innovation regarding goals and accountability is long underway, with the support of…

The purpose of this study was to develop a way to measure students' abilities to think critically about concepts covered during academic support sessions. Tutors trained in a College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA)-certified program at the University of Louisville used a rubric based on the Paul-Elder Critical Thinking Model in order to…

Response to intervention (RTI) was included in the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), specifically as part of an assessment process to determine if a child has a disability. Although IDEA's focus is on students with disabilities, 10 states have developed policies that attend to students with gifts and…

This article explores a two-year professional development initiative with four state geographic alliances. Professional development planners, whether planning for a large- or small-scale initiative or one with unlimited or limited funding, will benefit from learning about this successful professional development activity and how the impact in the…

The manual highlights the components of the parent involvement of the Project for Early Education of Exceptional Children (PEEEC), a demonstration project serving 3 to 8 year old children in Kentucky with multiple handicaps. Following an introduction on the philosophical/theoretical foundations of the PEEEC parent services model is a section on…

This booklet contains suggestions and procedures for identifying, profiling, recruiting, and serving the disadvantaged persons in a given geographic area in Kentucky through vocational education. The five steps/tasks in the model are described in chronological order, namely (1) defining the population (disadvantaged) which will be served, (2)…

While the majority of adults who take the General Educational Development (GED) test do so in order to continue their education, few go on to enter postsecondary education. Yet, these same adults stand to make substantial economic and personal gains when they use their adult secondary credential to move from the ranks of high school dropout to…

This report describes and compares the inclusive assessment and accountability systems of Maryland and Kentucky, with a focus on components, scoring methods, reporting practices, data use, participation of students with disabilities, testing accommodations, and implementation considerations (including cost and training issues). Maryland and…

This manual provides guidelines for early childhood programs and public school systems wishing to establish or formalize a transition process to meet the needs of preschool children moving into the public school system, based on the STEPS (Sequenced Transition to Education in the Public Schools) model developed in Kentucky. The manual begins with…

The Pennyrile Education Services Model Plan was developed to meet the literacy and basic skills needs of undereducated adults living in a predominantly rural, 10-county region of Kentucky known as Pennyrile. The model plan includes the establishment of eight education services centers, beginning with a center in Madisonville that serves…