This guide was created to help district leaders understand the benefits and drawbacks of the four-day school week, assess their district's readiness to make the switch, and evaluate the results of implementing the new schedule. This guide begins with an overview of common goals and outcomes for the four-day school week. It then provides a set of…

The effects of activity schedules on on-task and on-schedule behavior were assessed with two boys at risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and referred by their public school teachers as having difficulty during independent work time. On-task behavior increased for both participants after two training sessions. Teachers, peers,…

Using a group-randomized field experimental design, this study tested whether a workplace intervention--designed to reduce work-family conflict--buffered against potential age-related decreases in the affective well-being of employees' children. Daily diary data were collected from 9- to 17-year-old children of parents working in an information…

The Indiana Science Initiative (ISI) is a systemic effort to reform K-8 science education. The program provides teachers with professional development, reform-oriented science modules, and materials support. To examine the impact of the initiative's professional development, a participant observation study was conducted in the program's pilot…

This qualitative phenomenological study sought to understand how beginning special education teachers experience the relationship between their teacher training and their actual teaching practice. Effective and insufficient aspects of the teacher training programs of special education teachers were explored. Thirteen special education teachers…

In 2009, the federal government committed over $3 billion nationwide to help states and districts turn around their worst-performing schools. The U.S. Department of Education intended for the School Improvement Grants (SIGs) to spur dramatic change.This report looks at the results of a field study of the first-year implementation of those grants…

In this study we explored faculty and student experiences of accelerated learning. We conducted interviews with faculty members who had delivered the same course in 12 and 6-week timeframes, and we analysed a student survey. Students reported overall positive experiences in the accelerated courses, particularly in the social aspects of learning,…

Teaching has long been considered an isolated profession with little opportunity for collaboration. A major task for school leaders is to create improvement from within the school. Teachers are a valuable resource and each one possesses expertise in strategies and methodologies that can be a benefit to others. This action research explored the…

This paper presents the results of interviews with staff from 64 community organizations regarding their experiences with service-learners. One of the themes that emerged from the interviews focused on concerns related to short-term service-learning commitments that last a semester or less. We explore the challenges presented to community groups…

Two schools in Michigan received ARRA SIG (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act School Improvement Grants) funds to enable them to implement their improvement efforts. This paper describes the outcomes of these two ARRA SIG recipient schools: (1) Phoenix Elementary-Middle School; and (2) Arthur Hill High School. The experiences of these…

This was developed in collaboration with the White Bear Lake Senior High School Evaluation Committee to evaluate the school's flexible module scheduling program. It includes a questionnaire about the school and its program and a questionnaire form for interviews in the community. Part I of the high school questionnaire has 25 questions about the…

Flexible scheduling in school libraries can provide a mechanism for achieving the learning goals and objectives of both the school library program and the curriculum by making information available at the point of need and by promoting use of the library and its services at a relevant moment instead of on a predetermined schedule. This pilot study…

This investigation had as its objective to collect relevant information in a systematic fashion concerning the actual, implemented four-quarter program. The investigators sought to identify what was currently operational in cooperating metropolitan school systems and to assess the degree to which the operational four-quarter plan meets the…

A questionnaire responded to by 424 students was intended to find out the ways in which the needs and experiences of 19,000 lifelong learners enrolled in the Lifelong Learning Society (LLS) at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) meshed with the goals of the LLS. Of those students, 44 participated in a follow-up interview. These were the goals of the…