The leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States is tobacco product use. The 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey, which was completed in 2022, showed that the e-cigarette epidemic among youth continues to remain a public health threat. The survey revealed that over 2.5 million middle and high school students…

This study examined the impact of a classroom-level component of The Inclusive Skill-building Learning Approach (ISLA), an instructional and restorative alternative to exclusionary discipline, on student behaviors and school discipline practices in middle schools. Intervention implementation, classroom observations, and all other data collection…

Emotion regulation is a key developmental skillset, but many existing measures rely on self-report or laboratory-based measurement approaches. This study aimed to develop a training and implementation protocol for the widely used Facial Expression Coding System (FACES) to be used in real-world settings with pre-recorded video data. A revised…

As evidence-based interventions are scaled, fidelity of implementation, and thus effectiveness, often wanes. Validated fidelity measures can improve researchers' ability to attribute outcomes to the intervention and help practitioners feel more confident in implementing the intervention as intended. We aim to provide a model for the validation of…

Autistic youth frequently experience interfering anxiety, and schools may be an ideal setting to deliver mental health care. A type 1 hybrid-effectiveness, cluster randomized trial was used to examine the effectiveness of school-based Facing Your Fears compared to usual care. Change in provider cognitive behavior therapy knowledge and treatment…

The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of professional development (PD) and implementation fidelity on the performance of middle school students in mathematics within an online learning environment. Using a quasi-experimental design, the research compares educational outcomes between control and experimental groups…

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of school-wide positive behavior interventions and supports (SWPBIS) on student academic performance. The participants in the study are eight middle schools from an urban Southern California school district where the implementation of SWPBIS was mandated. Using archival data collected by the…

This study examined the impact of a classroom-level component of The Inclusive Skill-building Learning Approach (ISLA), an instructional and restorative alternative to exclusionary discipline, on student behaviors and school discipline practices in middle schools. Intervention implementation, classroom observations, and all other data collection…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation and impact of the Pack program. The Pack was developed by the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) and includes a digital game and set of curricular and professional development resources that aim to support computational thinking teaching and learning in middle school science and computer…

The goal of the current study is to examine the degree to which measures of quality of implementation and student engagement moderate pretest--posttest changes in mediating variables that are targeted by DARE "keepin' it REAL." DARE officers (10 elementary school, five middle school) taught DARE "keepin' it REAL lessons to 1,017…

Bullying is a significant problem in the USA, with both school bullying and cyberbullying peaking in middle school. Although 80% of students witness bullying, only half of middle school students report bullying to their teachers. Bystander training is effective in teaching students how to intervene; however, teachers play an instrumental role in…

Starting in the 2019-2020 school year, NewSchools Venture Fund awarded a research grant to ACT to better understand factors related to social and emotional learning (SEL). SEL lessons were implemented in schools serving students who were 96% Latinx, 85% economically disadvantaged, and 38% English learners during the 2019-2020 school year. The…

This brief report describes findings from a single case withdrawal design study which explored the impact of training and emailed video prompts to promote a teacher's implementation of a culturally responsive teaching plan in a therapeutic school. Data collectors gathered implementation data as well as observed students' academic engagement and…

The success of all students in schools, including students with learning differences, is contingent on how schools operationalize universally designed instruction, positive behavior support, and data-based decision-making for individualized and group-level interventions. When schools have fully functional multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS)…

In this systematic review, we evaluated the quality and rigor of the current evidence base for the Second Step social-emotional learning program in middle schools. Eleven studies were coded using the "Council for Exceptional Children Standards for Evidence-Based Practices in Special Education" with an 80% weighted criterion. We…