Reform efforts require stakeholder support, but more importantly, a strong leader to see them through. In this article, the author addresses the importance of strong leadership and the role of principals in effecting change. He describes the success story of Harborside Elementary School in Chula Vista, California as one of a growing group of…

Students with mild and moderate disabilities need to be skillful at problem solving. This article provides an overview of a problem-solving intervention designed to teach students with mild and moderate disabilities the skills of problem solving. An explanation of the assessments, materials, instructional outline, and methods is presented.…

Background and Purpose: Given the urgency to design programs to increase physical activity, especially to combat obesity in children, the primary purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions and opinions of a nature-based physical activity intervention designed for low-income urban adolescents. Methods: Four focus groups of adolescents,…

This report describes a cluster randomized control trial (RCT) intervention study of the effectiveness of the ABRACADABRA (ABRA) Web-based literacy system using a classroom-level RCT intervention with 1,067 children in 74 kindergarten and Grade 1 or Grade 1/2 classrooms across Canada. The authors closely followed the CONSORT criteria for executing…

Background: People with intellectual disabilities face barriers that affect their sexual health. Sex education programmes have been developed by professionals working in the field of intellectual disabilities with the aim to overcome these barriers. The aim of this study was to explore the development of these programmes. Methods: Sex education…

For developing professional development (PD) programs, research suggests referring to effective components. In developing a PD program on classroom dialogue, we explored to what extent effective components could be addressed. We conducted a study with two groups. In the "Dialogic Video Cycle" (DVC), six German teachers participated in a…

This report examines the implementation and effects of the academic summer program for middle school students offered by Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL). BELL's middle school program serves rising sixth- through eighth-grade students who are performing one to two years below grade level. The goals of the program are to increase students'…

Success for All (SFA), one of the best-known school reform models, aims to improve the reading skills of all children but is especially directed at schools that serve large numbers of students from low-income families. First implemented in 1987, SFA combines a challenging reading program, whole-school reform elements, and an emphasis on continuous…

Success for All (SFA), one of the best-known school reform models, aims to improve the reading skills of all children but is especially directed at schools that serve large numbers of students from low-income families. First implemented in 1987, SFA combines a challenging reading program, whole-school reform elements, and an emphasis on continuous…

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…

Five knowledge-for-action theories are summarized and compared in this chapter for their evaluation implications: knowledge utilization, diffusion, implementation, transfer, and translation. Usually dispersed across multiple fields and disciplines, these theories are gathered here for a common focus on knowledge and change. Knowledge in some form…

This pilot study examined the efficacy of a Tier 2 first-grade mathematics intervention program targeting whole-number understanding for students at risk in mathematics. The study used a randomized block design. Students (N = 89) were randomly assigned to treatment (Fusion) or control (standard district practice) conditions. Measures of…

High school is an important time in the educational career of students. It is also a time when adolescents face many behavioral, academic, and social-emotional challenges. Current statistics about the behavioral, academic, and social-emotional challenges faced by adolescents, and the impact on society through incarceration and dropout, have…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of high school tutors' implementation of "Great Leaps Reading" (Campbell, 1998), a reading fluency supplementary instructional program. The program consists of three sections: phonics, sight word phrases, and story passages. Daily 15-minute tutoring sessions involved repeated 1-minute timings of…

We conducted a randomized field trial to test an academic vocabulary intervention designed to bolster the language and literacy skills of linguistically diverse sixth-grade students (N = 2,082; n = 1,469 from a home where English is not the primary language), many demonstrating low achievement, enrolled in 14 urban middle schools. The 20-week…