This report summarizes Austin ISD's state-funded Optional Extended Year Program activities for the 2006-2007 school year.

Cell phones afford a set of distinctive advantages for gathering information on daily patterns of behavior, establishing relationships, maintaining contact, and providing professional expertise to participants in a wide array of programs, including intervention, treatment, and service. This paper presents new findings about innovative applications…

In this article, the author discusses AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination), a program that enrolls the students who are most frequently marginalized in rigorous classes to prepare them for postsecondary education. The best predictor of success or failure in postsecondary education is the intensity and quality of secondary school…

In 2000 and 2001, the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education conducted a series of projects on career and technical education (CTE) practices, trends and outcomes. Selected preliminary findings from a review of the reports on those projects are as follows: (1) integration of CTE and academic instruction in high schools remains…

During fiscal year 1999, the Office of Correctional Job Training and Placement (OCJTP) conducted numerous activities related to its primary functions, which are as follows: (1) coordinate federal departments' and agencies' efforts related to correctional job training and placement; (2) provide training to develop staff competencies needed by state…

Electronic portfolios represent an assessment measure with strong potential for providing feedback about student performance to improve curricula and pedagogy, determining individual students' mastery of learning and providing feedback for improvement, and actively involving students in the assessment process. This study examined the relationship…

Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, takes on teacher education in this essay published for the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's white paper series "Fwd: Arresting Insights in Education." Walsh highlights a 2005 study, "Studying Teacher Education," a nearly 800-page report by a panel of the American Educational Research…

As the largest and most highly publicized initiative to improve teaching in American schools, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) has raised great expectations. It has created rigorous standards for teaching and a system to assess and certify teachers meeting these standards; it has promoted financial incentives to…

When 29 percent of final grades for students at Bendle Middle School showed up as Ds and Es, teachers knew something had to give. Kenkel, Hoelscher, and West describe how the ABCI approach, based on mastery learning, shook up a community culture of low expectations for working class kids, and opened the way for more appropriate teaching methods…

Severely inattentive, hyperactive and impulsive children fall behind their peers and can be difficult for teachers. What impact do screening and/or advice have? Interventions were randomly assigned to 2040 schools and 24 local education authorities in England. School-level interventions involved naming pupils with ADHD-like behaviour, or providing…

In November 2001, the Greek Society for the Protection of Autistic People (GSPAP) established the first residence for people with autism in Greece, following the guidelines of structured teaching and the TEACCH method with all 12 of the residents. Using interview questionnaires and systematic naturalistic observations, this case study explored the…

Identifying ways to increase and sustain active living among young people represents a priority for health promotion interventions. This qualitative study explored the experiences of adolescent boys and girls in the United Kingdom (aged 14-15 years) who had made the transition from inactivity to active participation in physical education (PE). The…

Hybrid learning, or blended learning, has become an interesting learning delivery method in recent years. Many universities have sought to develop their own hybrid learning courses as another option for students and instructors who prefer to replace some portion of traditional face-to-face meeting time with online instruction. This paper provides…

Objective: This paper explores young peoples' health concerns and their knowledge and views of school nurse drop-in clinics (drop-ins) held in their schools. Design: Cross section survey of adolescents using questionnaires delivered in schools to 10 per cent of the population, and school drop-in monitoring data from the Primary Care Trust (PCT).…

The alternative education field lacks a common definition and has a major divide between the differing philosophies of alternative programs; little empirical evidence is available to identify the components necessary to create effective alternative educational programs. Tremendous growth in the availability of alternative programs in the United…