Many students in the United States suffer from mental health issues resulting from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Often, students exhibit negative behavior as a result of these issues and many schools continue to implement punitive approaches to discipline, such as suspensions or expulsions, which serve to further isolate and disconnect…

This qualitative phenomenological study examines special education teachers' perspectives to understand how virtual learning environments can support, through social-emotional interactions, the cognitive development of students with low-incident disabilities in a homebound setting. For this study, which was based on Vygotsky's sociocultural theory…

Widespread efforts to curb exclusionary and discriminatory discipline in schools have led to a growing focus on restorative approaches, a set of practices aimed at building strong in-school relationships and attachments, rather than pushing students out of school. This brief reviews research illustrating the benefits of these practices for…

This study investigated whether a restorative practice initiative improved school climate. The study presents findings from a cluster randomized, controlled trial conducted with 2,248 students from grades 5 to 12 (38% Black, 32% Hispanic) attending 18 schools in the U.S. Northeast. After 1 year of implementation, the experimental analyses of the…

Students identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning/queer (LGBTQ) often face bullying and inequity in classrooms and schools across the United States. This article outlines a school-wide coaching framework to create safe spaces at elementary and secondary levels for students who identify as LGBTQ. Although well-intentioned,…

This article details the development of Living-Learning Community Certificate Programs (LLC-CPs) at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). Based on the Best Practices Model for living-learning programs proposed by Inkelas et al. (2018), LLC-CPs will engage cohorts of students in a four-semester sequence of intentionally integrated courses and…

The aim of health and physical education (HPE) is to help children and youth develop physical activity and health behaviors that will benefit them throughout their lives. However, adolescent girls are often disengaged in HPE. Girls place considerable importance on having a socially supportive learning environment. Therefore, teachers should try to…

The Head Start Act mandates that each Head Start recipient receive a monitoring review at least once every 3 years; each newly designated recipient be reviewed after the completion of its first year (and then at least once every 3 years thereafter); and all recipients that "fail to meet the standards" receive Follow-up reviews. Reviewers…

The Head Start Act mandates that each Head Start grantee receive a monitoring review at least once every 3 years; each newly designated grantee be reviewed after the completion of its first year (and then at least once every 3 years thereafter); and all grantees that "fail to meet the standards" receive Follow-up reviews. Reviewers…

The Head Start Act mandates that each Head Start grantee receive a monitoring review at least once every 3 years; each newly designated grantee be reviewed after the completion of its first year (and then at least once every 3 years thereafter); and all grantees that "fail to meet the standards" receive Follow-up reviews. Reviewers…

This report presents a summary of the findings of fiscal year (FY) 2018 Head Start monitoring reviews, fulfilling the reporting requirement in Section 641A(f) of the Head Start Act. It highlights the enhancements made to the FY 2018 monitoring review system, summarizes grantee review outcomes, and describes the types of findings most commonly…

Given established links between social-emotional skills and academic achievement, there is growing support for implementing universal social/behavioral interventions in early schooling (Jones & Bouffard, 2012). Advocates have been particularly interested in implementing such programming in low income urban schools where students are likely to…

This dissertation investigates how relational trust manifests within schools that have recently enacted the distributed leadership framework, a program implementation by the Penn Center for Educational Leadership. First, the dissertation highlights research that connects the distributed leadership and relational trust frameworks in the task of…

The Disabilities Education Act was introduced in June, 1997 in the Turkish Education System. The Act states that schools have a duty to educate children with disabilities in general education classrooms. All children with disabilities should be educated with non-disabled children at their own age and have access to the general education…

In an era of reductionist approaches to teaching and assessment, this dissertation returns to the fundamental question: "What is the value of writing, particularly poetry writing, in our society today?" The poet's central task, to abstract reality through symbols, requires profound cognitive and emotional work (Vendler, 2004; Steele,…