Over the last several years the financial aid community has voiced concern about disruptions, inconsistencies, and lack of quality servicing on federal student loans. It has been difficult to fully grasp the extent to which servicing issues exist and to understand the disparate servicing practices between various servicers. The joint Servicing…

This report presents the findings from the third wave of a longitudinal study to investigate perceptions of administrative burden among providers of children's education and care services. The study reveals a number of positive findings including consistently high levels of support for the National Quality Framework (NQF) and a significant decline…

When well-considered and grounded in current knowledge, program evaluations of services to gifted learners can be a powerful tool for increasing practitioners' knowledge and self-efficacy, and for effecting positive programmatic changes. The Arkansas Evaluation Initiative (AEI) in Gifted Education, a Jacob K. Javits-funded project, was implemented…

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the Technical Assistance and Dissemination (TA&D) Program is the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) primary vehicle for providing technical assistance (TA) to individuals and organizations responsible for serving children with disabilities and their families. The evaluation is part…

The Foreign Language Learning (FLL) programme aimed to improve the English language attainment of Year 3 and 4 pupils through a detailed curriculum of weekly French classes with linked activity in English lessons. The programme, created by the Education Development Trust (formerly CfBT), lasted for three half-terms. French classes were 45 minutes…

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable assessment tool to measure music educators' participation in and perceptions of their high-quality professional development (PD) experiences. A sample of 450 in-service music educators across the United States completed a 78-item rating scale embedded within 10 domains reflecting…

In 2020, video conferencing went from a novelty to a necessity, and its usage skyrocketed due to shelter-in-place throughout the world. However, there is a scarcity of academic research on the psychological effects and mechanisms of video conferencing, and scholars need tools to understand this drastically scaled usage. Therefore, the purpose of…

For three weeks each June, the authors' PDS hosts a summer program called the Academy for Future Teachers (AFT), serving high school students interested in a teaching career. Partners across the PDS convene to support high-school AFT participants, including master teachers (P-12 teachers from local school districts and university faculty) and PDS…

This report presents the findings from an independent evaluation conducted by WestEd on the Expository Reading and Writing Curriculum (ERWC). Funded by an Investing in Innovation (i3) Validation grant, the ERWC is a grade 11 and grade 12 English language arts (ELA) curriculum developed by the California State University. The independent evaluation…

Special education, for students ages 3 to 21, is guided by federal and state requirements. The federal requirements are referred to as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The state requirements are referred to as the Ohio Operating Standards for the Education of Children with Disabilities (Ohio Operating Standards). IDEA…

This research aimed to describe the chemical literacy of teaching candidates studying the integrated food chemistry ethnosciences course. The research sample comprised teaching candidates studying chemistry in a teachers' education program in Central Java, Indonesia. In this descriptive research method, data was collected by using a chemical…

Applied learning projects and programs are serving as a driver for advancing sustainability in communities around the world. The challenge, however, is that many of the projects and programs are only reaching a small portion of their full potential to influence change. This guide was developed to respond to that challenge, and to help scale the…

Universities worldwide engage students through online learning. One challenge is the ability to promote a community of learners in an online classroom. Faculty teaching online courses can include student video discussion posts to promote engagement and the development of an online student community. Faculty integrate student video posts into…

This study investigates novice non-native English teachers' opinions about the effectiveness of their teacher education programme and the challenges during their initial years of teaching. The results of a survey administered to fifty-five novice teachers and follow-up interviews identify strengths and weaknesses in their teacher education…

This study examines how elementary teachers (grades three through five) in dual-language, bilingual programs (Spanish/English) view informal reading inventories (IRIs) to support their students' reading growth. The research, conducted in an urban district in the Northeastern United States, draws on interviews with 20 teachers in these programs.…