Providing access to the underserved has long been a priority in college admission. A newer trend to increase access to underserved students are fly-in programs that enable students to visit campuses overnight, get deeper insight into a college, and consider schools that they might not have otherwise. The idea for fly-ins is to increase the number…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the major planning and implementation practices that should be followed in a short term international study trip (IST). The focus throughout is on how to utilize experiential learning to establish cultural competence. Design/methodology/approach: The paper shows how to plan and manage an…

The North American Association for Environmental Education encourages state environmental education associations to develop professional certifications for individual environmental educators. To understand perceptions in Wisconsin, the authors distributed an online survey. Survey questions encompassed participant demographics; certification…

Teacher education programs require effective development for mentors of preservice teachers to increase the likelihood student teaching is reliable and that it produces preferred outcomes. There are few studies, however, that describe development programs for mentors. This study identified characteristics of an effective program for mentors of…

Conducting needs assessments serves as a valuable way for Extension educators to ensure that they are designing programs that meet community needs. We developed a needs assessment tool kit that educators across urban, suburban, and rural communities can use to answer the question "What are the youth development needs in my county?"…

This academic year marks the tenth anniversary of the establishment of a five-year (bachelors and masters) urban teacher education program at a small, state institution in the northeast. This program was founded on the principles of social justice and decolonization "with" and "through" critical scholars such as Freire (1996),…

In 2009, the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences (IES) allocated $120 million to establish the Reading for Understanding (RfU) initiative. This initiative responded to concern that children's improvement in reading comprehension had leveled off over the previous few decades, coupled with the observation that research on reading comprehension had…

For decades, professional organizations and leaders in the field of student affairs have called for student affairs professionals to engage in evidence-informed programming (EIP). EIP refers to the use of theory and empirical research to build programs intended to impact specific student learning or development outcomes. The benefits of EIP range…

In this essay, as a group of teacher educators, we discuss our experience of "walking the walk" of teacher education transformation at a time of urgent change. We reflect upon our process of integrating three key priorities in our preservice teacher education courses: education for sustainability; trauma-informed practice; and…

Youth within juvenile justice facilities (JJFs) are often some of the most vulnerable and marginalized population in our communities. These youth often have experienced trauma, social-emotional learning (SEL) issues as well as difficulties in school. Many of these youth have had little opportunity to express their voice in positive and healthy…

High-quality early childhood (EC) education has emerged as a national priority alongside the need for ensuring practitioners have the knowledge and skills to support the learning of all children, including those with disabilities and delays (Snyder et al., 2012). To create high-quality learning environments that meet the needs of children…

This article describes the curriculum and program development process that was used to create the North Carolina Extension Master Food Volunteer program. We used a rigorous program development process, including conducting a needs assessment, piloting and evaluating the program, incorporating revisions based on feedback, and receiving external…

Background: The "Healthy Men, Health Communities" program aims to improve preventive behaviors among African American men to reduce HPV-related cancer disparities. Purpose: We describe the development of an educational intervention using cultural-targeting strategies (i.e., linguistics, peripherals, evidence, socio-culture, and…

In this paper, we describe a new course that we developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: 'Horticulture 380: Indigenous Foodways'. In consultation with Indigenous partners in the region, we sought to create a course focused on the foodways of Indigenous peoples of the Upper Great Lakes and to center Indigenous knowledge systems as they…

Information about effective interventions for students with early reading difficulties is essential when deciding about how best to provide support. MiniLit, a small-group intervention for young struggling readers, was released in 2011 after several years of development and trials. This paper provides a rationale for MiniLit, a brief history of…