Self-directed learning (SDL), while essential to graduate student success and continued professional development beyond the degree, is rarely addressed intentionally in the college curriculum. In this mixed-method study with 91 participants from two counseling-related degree programs, researchers examined the impact of integrating a unit focused…

Professional identity development is an emerging area for alcohol and drug counselors. Few studies have investigated professional identity in alcohol and drug counselors (Ogborne, Braun, & Schmidt, 2001; Massella, Simons, Young, Haas, & Toth 2013). The goal of the current study is to add to this area of research. A total of 1,333 certified…

This descriptive study investigated the challenges related to implementing gifted education services in preschool centers. Participants were 254 licensed preschool center directors in a southern state. Participants completed a researcher-created survey including both selected response items and constructed response items to examine the perceived…

There are international calls for teacher preparation programs to increase the quantity and quality of field experiences. The belief is that spending additional time in the field being mentored by inservice teachers will develop high-quality preservice teachers. However, the figured worlds of teacher education and the knowledge base of inservice…

Early career psychologists (ECPs) are considered a distinct professional group that faces unique career challenges. Despite recent organizational efforts to increase engagement of these individuals, little is known about the professional development needs and training interests of ECPs, particularly within psychology's subfields. As such, this…

The role of principals, especially in rural schools, where educational outcomes fall below the national average, is significant in implementing changes in the school. The focus of this qualitative study was to explore factors that principals deem most crucial to establishing and maintaining Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). Moreover,…

As scrutiny of teacher effectiveness increases, there is a greater call for multiple instruments to measure teacher effectiveness and provide robust feedback to support teacher growth and development. Student perception surveys, questionnaires completed by K-12 students about their teachers, have increasingly been used to evaluate teachers and…

Despite efforts to positively impact educational outcomes for underrepresented youth, the achievement gap persists in the United States. Underrepresented youth are students representing lower socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, or language minority populations that are underrepresented in higher educational attainment relative to their numbers in the…

A state department of education requested information about other states' efforts implementing Kindergarten entry assessments (KEAs). Reviewing experiences from other states implementing KEAs will help inform stakeholder discussions and decision points as they procure a KEA tool; specifically, identifying key data points and reporting; and…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which a school--university mentorship programme promotes a range of growth experiences, both negative and positive, for the participating mentor teachers. The paper presents a brief description of a school--university partnership, discusses the ways in which this partnership operates, summarises…

This article seeks to develop transformative social and emotional learning (SEL), a form of SEL intended to promote equity and excellence among children, young people, and adults. We focus on issues of race/ethnicity as a first step toward addressing the broader range of extant inequities. Transformative SEL is anchored in the notion of…

School-university partnerships have served as possible solutions for many contemporary educational challenges. As centers for clinical practice, they are potential vehicles for the development and refinement of candidate use of high-leverage practices (HLPs). This article describes our institution's efforts to utilize our framework for clinically…

The creation of ePortfolios as a capstone project for school counselors-in-training has many benefits for the students, instructors, and program. However, there can be tension due to misalignments in goals and lived experiences of the ePortfolio even when the students find ePortfolios useful. This paper explores this tension between instructor…

The purpose of this study was to explore early career professionals' perceptions of how their higher education or student affairs (HESA) graduate program prepared them to work with international students in their postgraduation student affairs work. The following themes emerged: HESA curricula lack formalized coursework about international…

Social work programs shape the profession through their admission practices. A stakeholder analysis of a baccalaureate social work program was conducted to seek stakeholder perspectives on admission practices through interviews and focus groups with 53 participants representing seven stakeholder groups. Results suggest that external stakeholders…