The implementation of Common Core State Standards raises challenges for teachers, particularly those in urban settings and those who work with students with unique learning challenges, particularly students with disabilities. This article provides the results of a study that surveyed special education teachers' perspectives related to the…

In the unfolding Maltese education scenario of decentralization and school networking, I explore distributed leadership as it occurs at the college level through the leaders' narrative and performance in an investigation of the power relations among the different-tiered leaders. This article uses data from the case study of a Maltese college…

This paper describes an ethnographic case study of eleven First Nations adult learners in a Northern Ontario community attempting to earn secondary school equivalency through the General Education Development (GED) program. The paper maintains a focus on the power differentials at work in both the learners' prior educational endeavours and their…

Schools have become the main provider of services to children with mental health needs. Although there is substantial literature on barriers to implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in under-resourced school districts, less has been written on how to overcome those barriers. Providing mental health services in the school setting…

Extension programs based on identified needs, relevant theory, and solid research too often fail to realize their objectives. Program implementation is acknowledged to contribute to program effectiveness, yet systematic attention has not been paid to the array of implementation issues that can complicate achieving program goals. We developed the…

Rural school districts across the nation, with their limited resources, face daunting challenges posed by the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. This article presents a recent study of 13 rural school districts in the Central Valley of California and how these districts are responding to those challenges. A total of 352 teachers…

The purpose of this special issue is to provide readers with a greater awareness of the processes involved in dissemination, as well as existing supports that help disseminate and sustain evidence-based interventions. Although dissemination research is limited in most disciplines, it is particularly lacking in the social science field. Many…

The purpose of this paper is to report findings from an exploratory study of the early implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards in New York City by a sample of charter management organizations (CMOs) and Children First Networks (CFNs). Using the existing literature on policy implementation--specifically the concepts of boundary…

Management by Objective through Open Performance Review and Appraisal System (OPRAS) was introduced in Tanzania for evaluation of public servants work performance in 2004. The aim of this study was to investigate how teachers perceive the implementation of OPRAS as a mechanism of assessing their work performance and making them accountable for…

The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes and level of readiness, and possible barriers to implementing Mobile Learning as a part of ubiquitous learning. In addition, the study attempted to find out to what extent students are interested in mobile learning. It also aimed to answer the question regarding the readiness of college…

This mixed-method study examined the implementation and the challenges to implementation for participants in randomized controlled trials of two school-based programs for early adolescents: the Tier One Word Generation (WG) program, and the Tier Two Strategic Adolescent Reading Intervention (STARI). Levels of implementation for WG and STARI varied…

Background: After-school programs (ASPs) play a crucial role in supplementing the present school day. However, implementing ASPs in the urban environment and among adolescents (grades 6-12) poses unique challenges. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic literature review to identify evidence-based barriers and facilitators to…

Cultural competence (CC) has been identified as an important skill for all healthcare and public health professionals, and it must be integrated into all aspects of health practice. However, few university and college health education programs in North America have included CC education in their curriculums. This article describes an…

Secondary students are often challenged to make sense of conceptually complex content area texts. Text-based discussion has the potential to facilitate comprehension by engaging students in collaboratively constructing their understanding of important ideas and relationships among ideas while interacting with a demanding text. However, teachers…

School districts have spent millions of dollars implementing student information systems that offer family portals with web-based access to parents and students. One of the main purposes of these systems is to improve school-to-home communication. Research has shown that when school-to-home communication is implemented effectively, parent…