Health screenings conducted during Special Olympics competitions and games have consistently shown that a significant number of athletes with intellectual disabilities (IDs) were overweight or obese, and surveys have indicated that athletes need more fitness training than they receive from their sport practices. In 2002, Special Olympics initiated…

Directions for taking a test in community awareness are presented. (CK)

A Michigan high school piloted a program to work on improving student attendance. It denies credit to students exceeding six absences in a class and includes a makeup provision. The absenteeism rate dropped from 12 percent to 3.5 percent. (MD)

The authors share the results of an ongoing study of the changing roles that paraeducators may face when they work in inclusive classrooms. The results of the study may fill an identified research gap regarding what para-educators in inclusive classrooms actually do (given that only 7 studies published between 1999-2006). The results of the pilot…

This report summarizes key activities and contributions and offers recommendations for project operations. The pilot project was very successful in building a solid foundation for the Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) Consultation Program. Practitioners and other regional stakeholders clearly indicated that the project is providing a much…

Persons who are elderly, visually impaired, and primary caregivers for ailing or disabled spouses or significant others are a unique population that has not been studied previously. By definition, "informal caregivers" are family members or friends who provide unpaid day-to-day assistance with activities of daily living and are familiar with the…

This study describes a pilot project that included senior volunteer readers reading aloud to third graders in diverse schools across a district in northeast Florida. The researchers interviewed students about their perceptions of the aging process before and after the read aloud as well as their view of the read aloud events. The children enjoyed…

The present study examines the written products of third-semester German students' written productions during a timed, in-class writing activity. Topic selection control was modulated from instructor to student during eight 10-minute sessions. To account for order of treatment, two of the four groups were counterbalanced with the other two. Each…

There are millions of youth ages 16 to 24 who are out of school and out of work. They cost the nation billions of dollars every year and over their lifetimes in lost productivity and increased social services. They also represent an opportunity for the nation to tap the talents of millions of potential leaders and productive workers at a time when…

Teaching has long been considered an isolated profession with little opportunity for collaboration. A major task for school leaders is to create improvement from within the school. Teachers are a valuable resource and each one possesses expertise in strategies and methodologies that can be a benefit to others. This action research explored the…

In spring 2010, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) began planning a pilot of an application for the Apple iPad, "HMH Fuse: Algebra 1," which was then in development. The application was to be piloted in four California school districts during the 2010-2011 school year. HMH contracted with Empirical Education Inc. to conduct a one-year…

This study reports findings from a year-long pilot study during which 991 students in 9 core courses in the Virginia State University School of Business replaced traditional textbooks with openly licensed books and other digital content. The university made a deliberate decision to use open textbooks that were copyrighted under the Creative…

PEPNet's "Perspectives" is the collaborative newsletter of the four PEPNet regional centers. This newsletter combines each centers' individual strengths into a single resource that can be used on a national level. PEPNet's mission is to improve transition services and educational access for students who are deaf or hard of hearing, including those…

Language teacher education (LTE) has received increased attention over the last several decades. Language teacher educators, university researchers, classroom teachers, and future teachers have contributed immensely to existing knowledge on how language teachers learn to teach. Researchers and practitioners have finally acknowledged that future…

"Gift of Tongues: Passing the Ohio Mathematics Graduation Test" examines the Ohio Graduation Mathematics Tests of 2004, 2005, and 2006 in the context of bilingual test takers at one of Cleveland's high schools and reports findings from a promising, bilingual pilot project in 2007 that may point to a new strategy for passing the…