The COVID-19 pandemic simultaneously disrupted supply chains and generated an urgent demand in medical infrastructure. Among personal protective equipment and ventilators, there was also an urgent demand for chemical oxygen. As devices to purify oxygen could not be manufactured and shipped rapidly enough, a simple and accessible oxygen…

When Dr. Tina Lupton and Dr. Timisha Barnes-Jones joined the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, Opportunity Culture implementation was happening in the midst of COVID. Lupton, the executive director of professional learning, and Barnes-Jones, the area superintendent for a network of 15 transformation schools, used their experience in other…

This report from the field shares information describing a pilot program that addressed the literacy needs of middle school culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. One of the authors played a key role in designing and implementing the Building Bonds family literacy program. This program was made to engage these students and their…

In education, the field of implementation science is a discipline dedicated to supporting educators' use of evidence-based practices (EPBs) to improve school and student outcomes. As highlighted in previous columns in this series, school teams must thoughtfully consider how EBPs align with the school/district core values and fit the local context…

The following resource is an impact story of how NCSI built the capacity of Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to design a state system of support to begin addressing the special education teacher shortage. The resource provides context for the intensive technical assistance focusing on improvement science, provides qualitative and…

The Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center (OhSFEC) is implementing a comprehensive, scalable approach to enact state policy for family and school engagement at local levels. Joyce Epstein and Barbara Boone report how OhSFEC's research-based design, implementation, and evaluation of a leadership ladder has enabled state leaders to support…

We report on the process of planning, adapting, and implementing a brief, instrumental, school-based mentoring curriculum originally developed in the United States, in three cities in India. India has the world's largest population of young adults aged 10-24 years, a developmental period associated with heightened psychosocial stressors and the…

Civil, informed debate is essential for any healthy democracy. This is truer than ever judging from the often uncivil, fact-free public discourse one sees too often on television and social media. But does participation in formal debate training improve educational outcomes? While policy debaters historically have come from high-income public…

Educational escape rooms are immersive puzzle-based games that rely on teamwork skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication. This paper describes the development of desert island themed escape rooms in a blended learning environment using physical and online puzzles that were hosted on Genially. The blended escape rooms were…

This article explores the parallels between improvisational theater, commonly known as improv, and active teaching. Specifically, it focuses in the impact of improv techniques on instructor and teaching assistant professional development. The implementation of an active teaching seminar is analyzed, where improv techniques were used in developing…

Agile, Lean, and Scrum (collectively referred to as Agile) are frameworks that help teams collaborate more effectively and transparently on complex projects. Originally developed in business and information technology, these methods have since been adapted for use in a variety of disciplines. Agile is based on iterative and incremental…

The purpose of this article is to provide information on how to teach a Sport Education fitness season with the intent to improve students' physical activity, fitness development, and health-related fitness knowledge as to work towards achieving SHAPE America's goal of 50 Million strong. Readers are provided with a daily lesson schedule, detailed…

It is imperative that educators take a positive and preventive approach to support students and promote school safety. This article addresses the importance of identifying students who need additional mental health support and providing the highest quality support. These include best practices of emphasizing strength-based approaches, working with…

What do people need to learn to engage actively in social action for neighbourhood improvement or development? How important is emergent learning relative to planned learning in this context? Where does first-person knowledge fit into the body of knowledge required for success in bringing about change for the better in neighbourhoods through…

Our university is one campus of the larger, 23-campus California State University system. In 2017, the Chancellor of the system discontinued the developmental mathematics programs at all 23 campuses. This caught us by surprise and compelled us to act quickly. This article gives an overview of our response, highlighting the change our department…