Background: After-school programs (ASPs, 3 pm to 6 pm) have been called upon to increase the amount of daily physical activity children accumulate and improve the nutritional quality of the snacks served. To this end, state and national physical activity and nutrition (PAaN) policies have been proposed. Frontline staff who directly interact with…

Evaluation capacity building (ECB) is seldom mentioned in the environmental education (EE) literature, but as demonstrated by the lack and poor quality of EE evaluations, is much needed. This article focuses on an online course, Applied Environmental Education Program Evaluation (AEEPE), which provides nonformal educators with an understanding of…

This column posits enhancing professional development through uses of digital tools to create professional learning communities (PLCs) designed to support collective inquiry and action research leading to schoolwide improvement. These digital tools include a social networking/discussion forum for teacher collaboration; teachers' individual…

Leadership development programmes come in plenty internationally and a number of resources, time and money are being spent to this end. The benefits for schools, staff and pupils arising from professional development activities have been well researched into and elaborated on extensively internationally. Currently in Cyprus, leadership development…

This paper explores how and to what extent digital multimodal text production can play a role in project work. The focus is upon describing and understanding how teachers and learners view multimodal text production as part of a learning process. Group-based project work has been used extensively in Norwegian schools since the 1970s. One criticism…

Case studies about issues arising from education policy were written between 2003 and 2011 by doctoral candidates in Curriculum and Instruction who were career K-12 educators. Literary analysis was employed in grouping 57 case studies, which described primarily situations that occurred in school districts in one large metropolitan area, by topic…

The New Zealand Ministry of Education has published a best evidence synthesis iteration (BES) that identifies the characteristics of teacher professional development that make a positive difference for valued student outcomes. A companion best evidence synthesis iteration (BES) that identifies the leadership influences on valued student outcomes…

This country has few highly qualified personnel to fulfill the various state commitments to legislation mandating effective vocational programs for two special populations, i.e., persons discriminated against on the basis of racial/ethnic identity and the physically handicapped. The result of a lack of national policy in this area has been a…

This paper explores the range of ways in which school districts are using Title I funds for early education through kindergarten and examines how the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has impacted those investments. It also makes recommendations for local education agencies (LEAs) interested in creating Title I-funded early education…

Each year, considerable resources are spent on professional development to build teacher knowledge and skills. Yet not much is known about its impact on student achievement. Research confirms that professional development can affect teacher practice, but research has yet to confirm if those changes in practice improve student learning.…

This report discusses the challenges and successes in creating an education system that meets the needs of all students in Texas. The first two sections provide background information on a project investigating the achievement of students with disabilities in high achieving, high poverty Texas elementary schools, and present a framework for this…

The Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC), a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, seeks to help policy makers and policy implementers alike do a better job of using educational policy as a tool to improve schooling and student learning. EPIC works with federal agencies, state education departments, non-governmental organizations, private…

High-quality teaching is the most significant school-related factor in helping students make significant gains in learning or achievement. Students who have effective teachers year after year routinely make more progress than other students. This is why every child must experience great teaching every day. For this to occur, teachers must have…

The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), schools districts, and institutions of higher education have initiated a number of efforts to improve teacher quality and professional development. The first section of this report highlights the recommendations of leading commissions and reports released in the past ten years pertaining to…

Background: Through its Children First initiative, New York City policymakers promoted collaborative inquiry as a process for helping administrators and teachers use student data to improve instruction and raise student achievement. Since 2007, city schools were expected to engage higher proportions of faculty in the inquiry work each year.…