Authors Casey Reason and Brandon J. Larson advocate for the strategic design and development of impactful activities and athletics to enhance school culture. Their Rally model provides strategies for aligning extracurricular programs with academic goals, fostering leadership, and boosting participation and engagement. The Rally approach improves…

Athena Swan was established in 2005 with the goal of advancing the careers of women in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine) subjects in higher education. Since then, it has expanded its remit in various ways and has generated some controversy. This paper explains how Athena Swan operates as a policy-scoring scheme,…

This study aims to explore in greater depth the role of implementing child-friendly schools, parental involvement in enhancing the effectiveness of child-friendly school policies and practices, and evaluating the challenges that arise in the implementation of child-friendly schools. This qualitative descriptive exploratory research utilizes the…

Recent research finds that a longer clinical experience may be one of the most substantial distinguishing features of teacher residency programs. We need to understand much more about how these field experiences are designed, paced, and scaffolded to contribute to teacher learning and identity development and to center equity. Drawing from case…

Most universities run outreach camps that bring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school students onto university campuses to demystify university and build and sustain student engagement with university. However, there are varying perspectives on how 'success' should be defined and measured in relation to these programs. The staff who run…

A recent Common Sense Institute report addresses two important policy questions about Arizona's ESA program. First, how much will the ESA program cost in the upcoming year? Second, what are the characteristics of ESA users by household income and race/ethnicity? The report concludes that the ESA program is "essentially fully subscribed,"…

College promise programs, also known as free college initiatives, have the potential to address structural barriers to college access and enrollment in terms of financial, academic, and informational. The current literature indicates that these programs generally increase educational outcomes, but no prior studies have explored the overhead costs…

Studies link intensified immigration enforcement to reduced safety net participation among mixed-status families, but less is known about how this varies by settlement duration. Bridging research on immigrant settlement and system avoidance, we theorize that the impacts are strongest among immigrants with shorter US residency. To test this, we…

Similar to national trends, in Illinois, fatal opioid overdoses have risen. Black men (35+) outrank all other racial subgroups for the highest rate of fatal opioid overdoses in the state. To address this, Prevention First and the Illinois Department of Human Services developed a public health education campaign to support increasing enrollment in…

A substantive body of research demonstrates that programs for young people have a range of positive benefits including academic achievement, career exploration and development, and social, emotional and civic skills. However, many programs do not realize this potential -- often due to the lack of coordination and support about how to assess and…

Adult student transition programs (also known as 18+ programs, 18-21 programs, adult transition programs, and community transition programs) are educational programs that provide instruction in age-appropriate community environments to adult students who have met the state credit and assessment guidelines for graduation but who still require…

Background: The closures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted teacher licensure pathways. During that time, prospective teachers had less access to student teaching experiences, fewer program and course completion opportunities, and a reduced ability to prepare for and pass state licensing examinations. In response, a State…

The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "Building STEM Education Pipelines." Contents include: (1) IDRA Youth TechXperts…

Early care and education (ECE) apprenticeship programs provide structured on-the-job learning combined with job-related education or coursework. ECE apprenticeships are viewed as a promising strategy to prepare people for careers in ECE and provide career pathways for people currently working in ECE. ECE Registered Apprenticeship Programs--meaning…

School-based mentoring (SBM) is any intervention that takes place within the school building that connects young people with an adult. In contrast to community-based mentoring, mentor-mentee matches in SBM programs typically meet for shorter periods of time (e.g., one hour per week instead of four hours per week), have a shorter duration, and set…