This book offers a roadmap for developing, growing, and sustaining living-learning communities (LLCs) that promote student success and enhance the undergraduate experience. Drawing on the Best Practices Model presented in "Living-Learning Communities That Work," as well as updated research and rich, real-life examples from LLC…

Whole-school or whole-class programs designed to promote positive behavior can enhance the likelihood that effective teaching and learning occur for all students. This practice guide is intended to help elementary education educators, as well as school and district administrators and parents, implement and support effective prevention-focused…

Background: Youth programs often rely on self-reported data without clear evidence as to the accuracy of these reports. Although the validity of self-reporting has been confirmed among some high school and college age students, one area that is absent from extant literature is a serious investigation among younger children. Moreover, there is…

Evaluation is an important program component of RALLY and helps to document the gains that stem from this program. This article describes the quality of RALLY implementation and selected student outcomes of an exemplary RALLY program at an urban middle school. The findings showed effects on students' resiliency as well as academic success, as…

This Guide is intended to share the insights of SEDL's National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning (the National Partnership) as well as information about both the academic and the organizational and management practices that successful afterschool programs use. The authors have organized these practices into the following four focus…

This article offers strategies and resources to help educators assess the impact of inclusion programs on the academic performance and social and behavioral development of students with and without disabilities. Suggested guidelines are intended to identify program strengths and aspects in need of revision. (Contains extensive references.)…

This guide examines claims for 24 schoolwide programs-- programs that promise to improve student learning by changing the entire school. Focusing on quantitative achievement measures such as test scores, grades, and graduation rates, the report was prepared for educators and others to assist them in their investigation of different approaches to…

"Transformational Professional Learning" is a periodically published e-newsletter designed to influence what educational leaders think, say, and do to improve teaching and learning by promoting deep understanding of important issues, the transformation of beliefs and assumptions, and a stream of powerful goal-focused actions. There are two…

Outdoor adventure training resulted in increased sensitivity, self-confidence, carry-over into intellectual activities, and pro-social change in a variety of university, juvenile, and penal institutional settings. Modifications for urban adventure training opportunities have also been developed but not yet evaluated. (MJB)

This book is a synthesis of work done and expansion of the handouts, reports, graphs, charts, and communiques related to the work in approximately 130 school districts developing standards-based accountability systems for compensatory education. It serves as a guide to evaluating compensatory education programs and using multiple measures to…

This article presents an overview of living/learning centers (academic programs based in residence halls) at large universities and presents a case study evaluating a living/learning center academic program at the University of Illinois. Program evaluation confirmed the academic credibility of the program and student satisfaction, in that 94…

Research studies on class size date back to 1900. Common sense has suggested that small classes lead to greater academic achievement, but most research on the effects of class size on achievement have been inconclusive. Furthermore, the financial costs and political consequences of reducing class size have generally prohibited the adoption of…

Reports findings on the continued positive effect of remedial/developmental programs on both retention and academic performance of skills deficient students who entered both public and private higher education institutions in New Jersey. (Author/DMM)

This guide is the result of a 2-year initiative, Results-Based Staff Development for the Middle Grades. It provides information and resources for selecting, designing, and evaluating staff development to improve student achievement. It targets school staff development committees, principals, staff development leaders, and curriculum coordinators.…

The study of academics and athletics presents several methodological problems. Athletics research requires knowledge of numerous definitions and an understanding of the political environment in which sports operate, as revealed by an analysis of several models for calculating graduation rates, because these issues shape research outcomes.…