For many students, conforming to the traditional K-12 education system is not always compatible with their life circumstances. Map Academy in Plymouth, Massachusetts, now in its second year of operation, aims to provide an education that adapts to the needs and interests of its students while maintaining high expectations. This profile of Map…

Conducted in an urban alternative education program for adolescents ages 17-21, this study provides an overview of a professional development program that sought to support teachers in developing unit plans that incorporated backwards design principles and culturally relevant and sustaining instruction. The authors offer a qualitative thematic…

Family Rewards was an innovative approach to poverty reduction in the United States that was modelled on the conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs common in lower- and middle-income countries. The program offered cash assistance to poor families to reduce immediate hardship, provided they met certain criteria related to family health care,…

The Developmental Studies Program described in this report has provided the Community College of the Finger Lakes since 1974 with a variety of services for academically deficient students. After noting that the establishment of the Department of Developmental Studies in Fall 1980 was a culmination of this long history of commitment to support…

The Even Start program represents an innovative combination of programs for adult basic education, parenting education, and early childhood education. Focusing on parents and children as a unit, Even Start projects have three interrelated goals: (1) to help parents become full partners in the education of their children; (2) to assist children in…

The Even Start Literacy Program, established in 1989, aims to simultaneously improve the literacy of children and their parents through (1) early childhood education; (2) parenting education; (3) adult education; and (4) parent-child joint literacy activities. The report details findings from the third national Even Start evaluation. The…