When it comes to STEM education, the nation's K-12 public schools cannot do it all. The nature of 21st century proficiency in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is too complex for any single institution. The good news is that schools do not have to do it alone. Museums, zoos, nature centers, aquariums, and planetariums are among the…

Globally mosquito-borne lymphatic filariasis (LF) is targeted for elimination by 2020. Towards this goal, the scope of community-based vector control as a supplementary strategy to mass drug administration (MDA) was assessed through an intensive education campaign and evaluated using pre- and post-educational surveys in an intervention and…

Hopa Mountain's StoryMakers program is an innovative, research-based program for donating high quality young children's books to parents. Hopa Mountain is a nonprofit organization based in Bozeman, Montana. Hopa Mountain works with groups of rural and tribal citizen leaders who form StoryMakers Community Teams to talk one-on-one with local parents…

The English Language Learner (ELL) Summer Camp in Worcester, Massachusetts--an intensive six-week program that served middle school and high school students from Worcester Public Schools (WPS)--was the product of a five-way partnership that included the school district, higher education institutions (Latino Education Institute [LEI] at Worcester…

A meta-analytic review of 33 studies and 41 independent samples was conducted of the effectiveness of community-based mental health and behavioral programs for low-income urban youth. Findings indicated positive effects, with an overall mean effect of 0.25 at post-test. While this is comparable to previous meta-analytic intervention research with…

The use of a dyadic lens to assess and leverage academic and community partners' readiness to conduct community-based participatory research (CBPR) has not been systematically investigated. With a lack of readiness to conduct CBPR, the partnership and its products are vulnerable. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the dimensions…

The study describes an evaluation of a 48-week physical activity and nutritional education programme for overweight/obese school-age children using quantitative and qualitative methods. The majority of participants were obese or severely obese when enrolled, and while some improvements in body mass index, self-esteem and engagement in a range of…

Assessments of U.S. students typically reveal stronger performance in science than mathematics yet their science performance remains uninspiring at best. Whether the metric considered is an international benchmark from TIMSS or PISA or the nation's NAEP report card, the mediocre portrait of U.S. science achievement has remained virtually unchanged…

The cultural competence of 13 parenting education programs for Latino families with young children was examined in this study. Based on our analyses, we make several recommendations for improving the cultural competence and effectiveness of parenting education programs for Latino families with young children. Specifically, we recommend the…

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of an osteoporosis education program to improve calcium intake, knowledge, and self-efficacy in community-dwelling older Black adults. Design: Randomized repeated measures experimental design. Setting: Churches and community-based organizations. Participants: Men and women (n = 110) 50 years old and older…

Little is known about the effectiveness of prevention and early intervention programs for young people and adolescents once they leave or dropout from school. The effectiveness of 18 anxiety and 26 depression studies addressing prevention in community programs were identified using systematic review methodology. Anxiety and depression symptoms…

Digital literacies have fast become indispensable for productive engagement, competency, and citizenship in a rapidly changing world. After-school programs represent an important venue where many young people can develop a mastery of digital literacies, encompassing both the creative and responsible use of a broad range of new media. This paper…

Over the last decade, the emerging field of sport-for-development (SFD) has advanced global efforts of related and applied scholarship and programming. While most of the existing SFD body of knowledge addresses social challenges of the "global south", today's economic global recession spreads challenges beyond these regions.…

The Afterschool Alliance is proud to present the first in a series of two issue briefs on afterschool STEM programs, generously supported by the Noyce Foundation. The issue brief topics represent emerging discussions within the afterschool field and are drawn from the two award categories of the 2013 Afterschool STEM Impact Awards: (1)…

Alcohol is all too often seen as an accepted part of college life, but there are programs that can significantly reduce students' risky drinking, according to a series of studies in a special college drinking supplement of the "Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs." Fourteen studies detail results of projects funded by the National…