Each edition of the IDRA Newsletter strives to provide many different perspectives on the issues in education topics discussed and to define its significance in the state and national dialogue. This issue focuses on Parent and Community Engagement and includes: (1) Principles of Family Leadership in Education--Putting Principles into Action…

This report provides national estimates on the availability of alternative schools and programs for students at risk of educational failure in public school districts during the 2007-08 school year. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) previously reported results from a similar survey of alternative schools and programs conducted…

This project examines the adjustment sequelae of perceived popularity beyond high school, and the moderating role of relational aggression (RA) in this process. Yearly sociometric measures of popularity and RA were gathered across grades 9-12 for a sample of 264 adolescents in a lower-middle-class high school. In addition, data on post-high school…

Districts and states that have begun to get traction in improving their graduation rates are pursuing a reform agenda that includes both the redesign of failing high schools and the development of multiple alternative pathways that help young people get back on track to graduation and to postsecondary education. Unlike traditional alternative…

Research clearly shows the importance of obtaining a postsecondary education in terms of accessing job opportunities, higher salaries, and improved benefits for a better quality of life in the United States. Bringing together the literature on school-based caring for Black students and the literature on college preparation, I utilize notions of…

Background: The Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Model (TPSR) has been used throughout the USA and in several other countries to integrate systematically life skill development within physical activity-based programs. While TPSR is widely used in practice and has a growing empirical base, few studies have examined the degree of…

The studies presented in this article longitudinally examined preschool children's learning behavior, which has received increased attention in recent years because of its positive influence on school readiness. The first study used a statewide database (N = 23,434) to examine whether and how learning behavior changed over time. The second study…

The National Association of School Nurses advocates for body mass index (BMI) screening. Little research describes school nurse practice of BMI screening. In this descriptive study, 25 Ohio school nurses participated in three focus groups. An adapted "Healthy People 2010" Determinants of Health Model guided the research questions. School…

The 2006 Spellings Commission report, "A Test of Leadership," stated that substandard high school preparation is compounded by poor alignment between high schools and colleges, which often creates an "expectations gap" between what colleges require and what high schools produce. This gap results in an annual expenditure of roughly one billion…

Students in an eighth-grade, urban, low-achieving reading class were introduced to critical literacy through engagement in Image Theatre. Developed by liberatory dramatist Augusto Boal, Image Theatre gives participants the opportunity to examine texts in the triple role of interpreter, artist, and sculptor (i.e., image creator). The researchers…

Graduation and dropout rates are the center of the conversation about high school reform, with President Obama and the U.S. Department of Education leading the charge to boost high school and college graduation rates among our nation's students in the next ten years. Recognizing the need for a comprehensive approach to keeping teens in school and…

The nation's community colleges share a common and vital purpose: preparing students--young and working adults--for jobs and continued academic study. Today, over 7 million community college students strive to attain a degree that will expand their opportunity, whether they aim to graduate directly into the workforce or continue on to seek a…

High-stakes testing is one of the most controversial issues in American education. Advocates contend that these tests encourage students to work harder, provide teachers with a stronger understanding of students' strengths and weaknesses, and allow educators to target failing schools for extra help. Critics claim that they narrow and distort the…

Existing research posits multiple dimensions of bullying and victimization but has not identified well-differentiated facets of these constructs that meet standards of good measurement: goodness of fit, measurement invariance, lack of differential item functioning, and well-differentiated factors that are not so highly correlated as to detract…

School systems often implement character education initiatives in reaction to a violent event. Following the school shootings that occurred in the 1990s, many school systems started to implement character education and violence prevention programs. Unfortunately, because the efforts were reactive, little thought was given to sustainability…