This issue brief was written to assist state policymakers in better understanding how social and emotional learning (SEL) can help students to be college and career ready. The brief provides a short description of what SEL is, why it is needed, and what it looks like in practice. In addition, examples of standards that support SEL at the federal…

The goal of this study was to examine whether the leadership style of principals affects teacher and student performance. The study includes an elementary, middle, and high school principal along with two teachers from each school who worked at schools that were in good standing from 2007-2011. Each school made adequate yearly progress (AYP) each…

The purpose of the study was to conduct a comprehensive review of the research and best practices of exemplary elementary school World Language and Culture Programs. Specifically, (1) to assess the degree to which various program designs had most closely met the measurable goals of the American Council of Teachers of a Foreign Language, commonly…

Multilingualism is an international fact of life and increasing in the United States. Multilingual families are exceedingly diverse, and policies relevant to them should take this into account. The quantity and quality of a child's exposure to responsive conversation spoken by fluent adults predicts both monolingual and multilingual language and…

Research on how to improve the quality of education for all students and reduce academic achievement gaps has primarily focused on individual schools (Fullan, Bertani, & Quinn, 2004). In contrast, the research published on successful district-driven strategies and processes has been comparatively sparse (Honig & Copland, 2008). To sustain…

Beginning in 1998, the editors of "Technology and Children" ("T&C") have included 72 different children's books in a regular feature called "Books to Briefs." These columns are offered to teachers as a means of integrating design and technology activities into elementary-school curricula via children's literature. The purpose of this study was to…

In 2008, the Helen Macpherson Smith (HMS) Trust commissioned Victoria University to conduct an evaluation of the Mentoring and Capacity Building Initiative's Regional Coordination Projects (RCPs). The RCPs are founded on a model of community education and collaboration that aims to enhance cross-sectoral and whole-of-community approaches to…

There are 54 million working adults in the United States without bachelor's degrees (Pusser et al., 2007). Many would like to obtain a college degree but need an educational program that fits their needs. A viable alternative to a traditional college program is an accelerated program in a cohort format. This article highlights best practices for…

These are heady days for online learning in the academy. What was once the domain of innovative institutions, administrators, and faculty is quickly becoming mainstream. Higher education has seen rapid growth in online enrollments relative to the rest of the college population. More than one in five college students has taken a class online. A…

The last decades have seen increased emphasis on the quality of training for direct-care staff serving people with intellectual disabilities. Nevertheless, it is unclear what the key aspects of effective training are. Therefore, the aim of the present meta-analysis was to establish the ingredients (i.e., goals, format, and techniques) for staff…

The Best Practices for Mental Health in Child Welfare Consensus Conference focused on developing guidelines in five key areas (screening and assessment, psychosocial interventions, psychopharmacologic treatment, parent engagement, and youth empowerment) related to children's mental health. This paper provides an overview of issues related to the…

Parents often go to principals to ask for help in supporting their gifted children. They may request acceleration for their child in mathematics, a specialized curriculum or course, extracurricular activities, a pullout program, or even a different teacher. Since misconceptions about identifying gifted students are prevalent, it's important that…

This article highlights the annual Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) Convention held at Charlotte, North Carolina. It was the first time that the premiere professional development event for career and technical educators had come to Charlotte and the city did not disappoint. In fact, Charlotte proved to be the perfect place for…

The rapid growth in delivery of online courses in business programs has resulted in concern among faculty that the educational experience in online courses will be less rich and that the courses will too closely mirror independent study experiences. The authors undertook a pilot project regarding the use of Clinical Teaching Assistants in large…

In today's knowledge-based society universities and firms must learn to engage more effectively. Universities focus on generating new knowledge, while firms are increasingly drawing on external collaborations to add value to their offerings. This book shows managers how to work with universities to boost their competitive position and revenue.…