Virginia's SHARP logger program is a Cooperative Extension program currently providing training to over 1,500 loggers, foresters, and others. We conducted a mail survey of SHARP loggers to characterize program participants, assess programming needs, and evaluate program effectiveness. Results indicate a diverse group of participants in terms of…

This phenomenological narrative study investigated the successes of eight Generation 1.5 high school seniors on the Exit state assessment in English language arts in Texas. These eight participants represented three difficult ethnic cultures, Hispanic, Pakistani and Turkish; within the Hispanic cultures the countries of Mexico and El Salvador were…

This report provides a portrait of children who entered Head Start for the first time in fall 2009 and completed a year in the program in spring 2010. It also describes their family backgrounds and the classrooms and programs that serve them. Data are drawn from the 2009 cohort of the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), a…

In 2011, the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition revisited its 1999 National Survey of Senior Seminars and Capstone Courses to explore the current state of culminating experiences in American higher education. Drawn from a sample of public and private colleges and universities across the country, the…

Over the past few years, the focus group method has assumed a very important role as a method for collecting qualitative data in social and behavioural science research. This article elucidates theoretical and practical problems and prospects associated with the use of focus groups as a qualitative research method in social and behavioural science…

Studies of primary education within the UK have shown that small groups can feature within classrooms; however, equivalent research within secondary education remains scarce. Research has established effective group work approaches, yet secondary teachers may encounter difficulties employing approaches tied to parameters embedded within primary…

This paper presents the rules and guidelines of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2011 to be held in Los Angeles, California in May 8-13, 2011. In addition to providing the rules of competition, these rules and guidelines for conducting research were developed to facilitate the following: (1) protect the rights and welfare of…

The study reported here examined 367 adolescent 4-H participants in terms of demographic, psychological, behavioral, and relational characteristics, as well as their perceptions and experiences in 4-H. Overall, participants scored high on all outcome variables except having a diverse population in their club. Older participants were more…

Based on Boyce and Ellis's model on "context" and "biological sensitivity to the context", this article analyzes the interaction between the experience of daily hassles and experimentally induced cardiovascular reactivity as an indicator of stress reactivity, in explaining risk taking and self-esteem. This study found, in a…

The Fast Track Teaching (FTT) programme in England, developed and funded by central government, is an accelerated leadership development programme designed for teachers in the early years of their careers. It was intended to promote their retention and rapid promotion in the profession through advancing their leadership skills. It provides a…

Findings from this study show that educational and mobility opportunities for families and students participating in the Chilean voucher system are not homogenously distributed. Some families and students use and benefit from the system, while others will remain marginalized. The quantitative results in this study demonstrate that students of…

This is the first of three evaluation reports on the effectiveness of a regional train-the-trainer strategy to support classroom implementation of the Next Generation Content Standards and Objectives (NxGen CSOs). This report focuses on six regional Educator Enhancement Academies (EEAs) hosted by the eight regional education service agencies…

Older people with intellectual disabilities sometimes live in older people's homes rather than homes for people with intellectual disabilities. Little is known about their quality of life in these homes. A non-equivalent comparison group design was used to compare the quality of life of 59 people in three groups; older people without an…

Institutional review boards (IRBs) are responsible for regulating and safeguarding research with human participants in academic institutions in the United States. The authors explore (a) the historical impetus for IRBs, (b) the ethical values and principles as core components of the review process, and (c) the American Counseling Association's…

Evaluation of public service programming is becoming increasingly important with current funding realities. The taxonomy of evaluation competencies compiled by Ghere et al. (2006) provided the starting place for Taxonomy for Assessing Evaluation Competencies in Extension. The Michigan State University Extension case study described here presents a…