This study examined the effects of the Living Skills school-based intervention program as a method of improving school adjustment and the social lives of at-risk elementary school students. Youth participants were referred to the program by teachers or school counselors based on perceptions of risk due to rejection and isolation, aggressive and…

Parents die during the lives of their children. If the child is an adolescent, that death will impact the student's education immediately or in subsequent years. Findings show the death of a mother does impact the daughter's education. It is imperative educators are willing to work with the student at the time the death occurs as well as in the…

For over a decade the nations' schools have been fighting bullying. Bully and violence prevention initiatives have become a priority in schools as a result of the media's focus on bullying and victimization. Schools across the nation have spent an exorbitant amount of money on purported evidenced-based bullying programs and curricula. Research…

An estimated 50 to 60% of children from typical families develop secure attachment relationships with their parents (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978; Van IJzendoorn & Kroonenberg, 1988); however, intervention research has focused primarily on interventions for high-risk clinical samples (Berlin, Zeanah, & Lieberman, 2008). In this project,…

The use of Web 2.0 communication practices in assessment may offer a new approach to assessment "as" learning, a goal for assessment that is more highly valued than assessment "of" and even "for" learning in the literature. This paper describes a case study of a wiki-writing assignment that aimed to achieve this goal. The stakes were high, in that…

Purpose: To compare the effectiveness of a one-time sexual assault prevention theatre performance against a similar content video performance and a non-intervention control group. Methods: Using the College Date Rape Attitudes and Behaviors Survey, four-hundred ninety-seven students provided matched pairs data for analysis. Results: At a…

Dolphin-assisted therapy (DAT), as a part of animal-assisted therapy and complementary and alternative medicine, yields several positive results. This study intended to add to DAT effectiveness research while using a standardized assessment. In the Ukraine, a DAT program called DolphinSwim agreed to take part in research with 37 voluntary…

While the idea of teacher performance-pay is increasingly making its way into policy, the evidence on the effectiveness of such programs is both limited and mixed. The central questions in the literature on teacher performance pay to date have been whether teacher performance pay based on test scores can improve student achievement, and whether…

Nationwide, magnet programs enroll more than twice the number of students served by charter schools, making them the most popular form of school choice. Across the U.S., over 1.5 million U.S. children attend magnet schools. In Miami-Dade County Public Schools, over 42,000 students are enrolled in magnet programs. The bulk of this report focuses on…

This evaluation study examined the formation and implementation of the West Virginia Board of Education's Master Plan for Professional Staff Development for 2011-2012 (PD Master Plan). The performance of PD providers included in the PD Master Plan: Marshall University, all eight regional education service agencies (RESAs), the WV Center for…

Home visiting is a child abuse prevention strategy that seeks to optimize child development by providing mothers with support, training, and parenting information. Research has consistently found high rates of depression in mothers participating in home visiting programs and low levels of obtaining mental health treatment in the community.…

Through secondary data analysis of a nationally representative sample, the study explored the relations between adolescent summer arrangements and associated developmental outcomes (well-being, externalizing behavior, body mass index, and academic performance). The study also examined if these relations were mediated by parental knowledge of youth…

The authors use data from a finance-related theme park to explore how financial education changes investment, financing, and consumer behavior. Students were assigned fictitious life situations and asked to create household budgets. Some students received a 19-hour financial literacy curriculum before going to the park, and some did not. After…

Objective: The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a school-based physical fitness intervention (Fit4Fun) on the physical fitness and physical activity (PA) levels of primary school children. Methods: A group-randomized controlled trial with a 3-month wait-list control group was conducted in…

This study is the first social validity evaluation of the Spanish version of the "FRIENDS for Life" program with Mexican children. "FRIENDS for Life" is a cognitive-behavioral intervention aimed at increasing social and emotional competence and decreasing anxiety and depressive symptoms in children. The program is designed to…