"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Senators Introduce Graduation Promise Act: New Legislation Would Target Lowest-Performing High Schools; (2)…

The School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) is a national survey periodically conducted to assess school health policies and programs at the state, district, school, and classroom levels. This brief reports study results in the area of tobacco-use prevention, covering the following areas: (1) Health Education; (2) Health Services and…

Educators in the Northern Plains have long discussed dropout rates among American Native youth. Human potential is lost in allowing any one American Native student to drop out of school. The problems among this group of adolescents are apparent, yet nebulous. This document investigates the complexities of achieving school success among American…

The present study examined cultural orientation as a protective factor against tobacco and marijuana smoking for African American young women (ages 18 to 25). African American college students (N = 145) from a predominantly White university were administered subscales from the African American Acculturation Scale-Revised (AAAS-R); the shortened…

Obesity is a major pediatric public health problem. Adolescents are a priority population for intervention strategies. School nurses are in key positions to design intervention strategies to promote healthy lifestyles and prevent adolescent obesity in the students they serve. To design effective programs, school nurses need to know what components…

Organized afterschool programs have received increased attention over the past two decades because of changes in family demographics and in society's structures for supervising and socializing youth. The number of afterschool programs has been rapidly expanding to meet the increased need. However, not all youth in need are being reached, and the…

This study evaluates the efficacy of Keepin' It Safe, a theory-based, gender-specific, CD-ROM-mediated HIV prevention program for urban, early adolescent girls. Intervention effects were examined in a randomized, pretest-posttest wait-list control-group design. Changes in HIV/AIDS knowledge, protective attitudes, and skills for reducing HIV…

Purpose: The purpose of the population-based study in the paper is to report on progress in formulating instruments to measure children's resilience and associated protective factors in family, primary school and community contexts. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper a total of 2,794 students, 1,558 parents/caregivers, and 465 staff were…

Background: The specific health services provided to students at school and the model for delivering these services vary across districts and schools. This article describes the characteristics of school health services in the United States, including state- and district-level policies and school practices. Methods: The Centers for Disease Control…

This study evaluates the impact of a school-based intervention program on aggressive behavior among junior high school students in Japan. One hundred and four seventh-graders were enrolled in the program and completed Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3 surveys. The program was implemented in two classes between Time 1 and Time 2 surveys (the first…

This research examined the "mental health literacy" of adolescents concerning eating-disordered behavior. A vignette describing a fictional 16-year old female meeting diagnostic criteria for bulimia nervosa was presented to 522 female high school students, followed by a series of questions concerning treatment of and treatment-seeking…

This research is a follow up to a similar study published by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania in 2003 in which researchers examined alternative education policies and practices among Pennsylvania school districts. The current study extended the previous research to include information on the perceptions of administrators and teachers on the…

When this research report was first conceived, the current economic crisis was only just on the verge of revealing its full extent. Economic crisis or no economic crisis, over the years funding for PK-12 education has been a constant struggle. While all schools continue to face difficulties, for various reasons rural schools have different and…

This report provides a detailed description of a statewide injury prevention program of the Wisconsin Emergency Medical Technician Association. A project introduction is followed by brief descriptions of the components of the injury prevention program: occupant protection seminars; mock crash seminars; Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Buckle Bear,…

An evaluation was conducted of a 3-year demonstration program the purpose of which was to demonstrate the efficacy of projects that included vocational education as a key component in encouraging at-risk youth to remain in or return to school. Six of the 10 project grantees, funded under the Cooperative Demonstration Program of the Carl D. Perkins…