Mentoring is a series of collaborative activities and conversations between young people and older or more experienced persons (i.e., mentors) who are acting in a helping capacity to provide support that benefits one or more areas of the young person's development. This resource offers those who develop and implement mentoring services meaningful…

"Blended learning" is an educational approach that combines online and face-to-face components in the classroom, and it is becoming popular in American schools. But the quality of these programs is inconsistent; some are based on scientific findings on how children learn, while others lack such support. In fact, very little reliable…

Governments and other organizations that design, implement, or manage in-service teacher professional development (TPD) programs navigate many choices and challenges to build monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems that suit their program objectives and constraints. The primary objective of a TPD M&E system is to help guide the program…

The middle grades have become the agreed upon starting point for high-quality Career Technical Education (CTE) programs, as this represents a critical time for students making important decisions that may have a lasting impact on their careers. However, there lacks a common view among state and local leaders on what makes up a high-quality middle…

This guide is addressed to policy officials, program providers, and researchers who are seeking to: (1) identify and implement social programs backed by valid evidence of effectiveness; or (2) sponsor or conduct an evaluation to determine whether a program is effective. The guide provides a brief overview of which studies can produce valid…

Social and emotional learning (SEL) involves the processes through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.…

When social workers draw on experience, theory, or data in order to develop new strategies or enhance existing ones, they are conducting intervention research. This relatively new field involves program design, implementation, and evaluation and requires a theory-based, systematic approach. "Intervention Research" presents such a…

This guide is designed to help districts and schools evaluate reform efforts related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), including School Improvement Grants. It includes practical, how-to tips for conducting program evaluations, whether one takes a "do-it-yourself" approach or seeks outside assistance to evaluate reform…

Achieving the Dream colleges engage in a process of institutional improvement to increase student success. A central component of this process is engaging internal and external stakeholders to help develop and implement interventions or changes in programs and services that improve student success. To determine whether these interventions do…

Outlines a 10-step process for designing performance improvement systems which is intended to reduce time spent on the project, to assure client approval, and to assure management support. Client participation with the consultant throughout the process is stressed as the key to success. (LRW)

The author defines school climate, summarizes the rationale for climate improvement from evidence on improved student behavior, and outlines the climate improvement process originally developed by the Colorado League of Schools for Climate Improvement and now the basis for an ASCD staff development kit. (Author/SJL)

To deal with the time shortage problem while simultaneously stressing student educational development, a system was designed and implemented to manage a peer forensics coaching program. The program taps the peer coaching potential available on every team and generates academic credit and letter grades for the peer coaches by utilizing a…

This guide provides ideas and suggestions that might assist in the design and implementation of orientation programs for new foreign students at U.S. universities. An introduction discusses the various constraints which hinder the effectiveness of foreign student orientation programs and ways for overcoming those constraints. The second part…

This article highlights some projects that are currently being undertaken by business-education partnerships at the local level. The authors also suggest some guidelines for both educators and business people as they start to explore the development of more partnerships in the future. (CT)

Despite variation in structure and activities of campus retention programs, successful programs are similar in the way they approach retention, emphasis given to retention efforts, and objectives. Focus should be less on what types of programs retain students and more on how and why programs have been successful. (Author/MSE)