This article describes the creation of a First Year Experience learning community in a teacher education program. The First Year Experience model was adopted by the university because of declining enrollment, retention, and graduation rates and has been generally successful in the education department. With little information available for teacher…

In 2010, the Institute of Education Sciences commissioned a much-needed national evaluation of response to intervention (RTI). The evaluators defined their task very narrowly, asking "Does the use of universal screening, including a cut-point for designating students for more intensive Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions, increase children's…

Guided pathways reforms require colleges to rethink how they teach and support students. The case studies in Part 2 of this practitioner packet examine how colleges at the forefront of these reforms are transforming their programs and support services by implementing three key guided pathways practices: (1) meta-majors (clusters of programs in…

This chapter addresses strengths and difficulties encountered in implementing transfer learning community models and how efficacy is supported through transfer learning community programming. Transfer programming best practices and recommendations for program improvements are presented.

Building on an expanded concept of mutual adaptation, this chapter explores a distinctive and successful aspect of International Baccalaureate's effort to scale up, as they moved to expand their programs and support services in Title I schools. Based on a three-year, mixed-methods study, it offers a case where we see not only local adaptations…

The University of Minnesota Extension Center for Youth Development made an organizational decision in 2011 to invest in a system-wide approach to implement youth program quality into the 4-H program using the Youth Program Quality Assessment (YPQA) tool. This article describes the four key components to the Minnesota Youth Program Quality…

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…

Over the last decade, higher education has come under intense scrutiny from the government; accrediting agencies in particular have come under fire for a lack of accountability and transparency. Reports from the Commission on the Future of Higher Education and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee served as a driving force for…

The paper presents the approach to complex training of managers and faculty staff for system modernisation of Russian engineering education. As a methodological basis of design and implementation of the faculty development programme, the CDIO (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate) Approach was chosen due to compliance of its concept to the purposes…

In April 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) hosted a Forum, Emphasizing Evidence-Based Programs for Children and Youth, to convene the nation's leading practitioners and researchers with experience using and evaluating an array of evidence-based…

Physical education classes at the authors' high school expose students to a variety of activities that are specifically geared toward their interests. The teachers and students also assess learning with the goal of attaining physical education standards including skills, strategies, rules, and personal/social responsibility. Seven years ago…

To remain internationally competitive, states needed clearer, higher, and comparable K-12 learning standards aligned with college and career expectations, and as ambitious as those of the countries that lead the world in education. Idaho's old academic standards were not preparing students for postsecondary education, which contributed to the…

This Information Brief is designed to assist educators in working with parents and family members to facilitate students' career development through the use of individualized college and career planning tools. This brief discusses families' perceptions of whether and how they were engaged in schools' implementation of Individualized Learning Plans…

Schools are learning organisations. They continuously strive to do better for the children and young people in their charge. In doing so, they try new things, seek to learn from those experiences, and work to adopt and embed the practices that work best. Implementation is a key aspect of what schools do to improve, and yet it is a domain of school…

Elementary charter schools increasingly serve students who are at-risk for reading challenges, giving them a critical role in establishing literacy for young children. This article examines the complexities of starting early childhood literacy programs in charter schools. Specifically, the first year of K-3 literacy programs in a new and a…