Background: Afterschool programs are promising arenas to improve youth physical activity (PA) levels. During the school year for 2012-2013, 5 elementary schools from a low-socioeconomic status (SES) school district in southern Colorado participated in evaluation of the afterschool program entitled Keep It Moving! (KIM). Methods: In this…

With improvements in information technologies, distance education programs have become widespread. Institutions that offer distance education programs are increasing in number. Scholars who were used to face-to-face teaching began to give courses in distance education programs which entail technological teaching methods, a new teaching experience…

The same high stakes accountability measures that have shaped the K-12 educational context over the past decade have become part of the university teacher preparation landscape. National accrediting organizations have created more rigorous, outcomes-based accountability measures for teacher preparation programs. Educational stakeholders offer…

Most students with disabilities participate in state assessments with or without accommodations [based on each student's Individualized Education Program (IEP)]. A small number of students with the most severe or profound intellectual disabilities participate in an alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS). Until…

High-risk drinking among college students is believed to be the most serious health issue facing college and universities throughout the United States. In 1999, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) established a task force to address the issue and released a report with recommendations for intervention and prevention.…

All too often leadership programs are developed in relative isolation; that is, they tend to be either academic or practitioner in nature. Arguably, much more effective leadership programs are possible through collaboration between academics and practitioners. This application brief describes one such successful collaboration to develop an…

This paper describes the inaugural success of implementing Inquiry Guided Learning Projects within a college-level human anatomy and physiology course. In this context, scientific inquiry was used as a means of developing skills required for critical thinking among students. The projects were loosely designed using the Information Search Process…

Many states in the United States have mandated school health screenings for early identification and referral to professional services for a set of health conditions. Healthe Kids, a community-based program, began offering school-based health screenings to Missouri elementary schools in March 2007. The purpose of the article is to provide a…

This tool is a simplified version of the evaluation framework developed by Wenger, Trayner, and de Laat (2011), building upon Kirkpatrick (1976, 1994). These internationally recognized experts on professional learning and collaboration developed their value creation framework to address the dual challenges of attending to the diversity of types of…

This article is part of the dialogue on human performance technology (HPT) models that began in the October 2011 issue of "Performance Improvement." In 1996, the author shared a new HPT model with "Performance & Instruction" readers. Since then, he has refined the model and added empirical research. In the spirit of continuous improvement, the…

This Annual Plan presents the major initiatives and priorities the U.S. Department of Education (Department) Office of Inspector General (OIG) intends to undertake to assist the Department in fulfilling its responsibilities to America's taxpayers and students. The Department continues to face significant challenges in FY 2019 that impact its…

This commentary is part of an ongoing dialogue that began in the October 2011 special issue of "Performance Improvement"--Exploring a Universal Performance Model for HPT: Notes From the Field. The performance improvement/HPT (human performance technology) model represents a unifying process that helps accomplish successful change, create…

Groups are frequently used in courses, but there is substantial evidence that insufficient attention is paid to creating conditions for successful teamwork. One key condition is high-quality, individual, and team-level feedback. An online peer assessment system and team improvement process was developed for this test case based on three design…

The author compares the efficacy of commercially available and internally developed standardized tests and evaluates their strengths and weakness in assessing student learning outcomes. The author shares the experience of a regional school in developing a standardized test to assess business knowledge. Data from a sample of 268 students were used…

In Chicago, over a quarter of students fail at least one semester of algebra in their ninth grade year, and only 13% of students who fail both semesters of Algebra I in ninth grade graduate in 4 years. Offering credit recovery options is one strategy to deal with high failure rates. The primary goal of credit recovery programs is to give students…