This article examines the health education implications of targeted nutrition lesson plans at Head Start programs in south central Minnesota. The Head Start program in Mankato and the University of Minnesota Extension collaborated to deliver and evaluate a nutrition education program directed at preschool children and their families. Nine lesson…

The current study evaluated the peer-to-peer interactions of at-risk children enrolled in Head Start who participated in a social pragmatic intervention targeting skills such as initiations, responses, name use, proximity, and turn-taking skills. Eight Head Start classroom teams received two workshops and two coaching sessions and were taught to…

Drawing on the work of Celia Genishi, this article discusses data from an ethnographic case study of young Latina/o children, starting in their four-year-olds classroom in a Head Start Program through their first grade year in a dual-language program in a public school. The children attended a bilingual Head Start program that followed a…

On July 7, 2014, the U.S. Department of Education announced plans to enforce a provision of the 2001 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act meant to ensure that every student is taught by a great teacher and attends a school run by great administrators. The provision requires states to develop and implement plans to ensure that no subgroup of students is…

In 1994, the federal Early Head Start (EHS) program was created to address the comprehensive needs of low-income pregnant women and children under age 3. EHS was launched almost 30 years after Head Start was established in 1965 to serve low-income 3- and 4-year-old children and their families with comprehensive early education and support…

This report explores implementation of the District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) in the first two years after Congress reauthorized it with some changes under the SOAR Act of 2011. Key findings include the following: (1) Just over half of all DC private schools participated in the OSP, with current schools more likely to have…

This report explores implementation of the District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) in the first two years after Congress reauthorized it with some changes under the SOAR Act of 2011. Key findings include the following: (1) Just over half of all DC private schools participated in the OSP, with current schools more likely to have…

From 2002-2003 to 2012-2013, the total amount of federal financial aid awarded to students under Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA) jumped from $82.7 billion to an estimated $169.7 billion, a 10-year increase of 105 percent. For 2012-2013, the Title IV programs accounted for 71 percent of the $238.5 billion in total financial aid received…

Mounting evidence across different disciplines suggests that early-life conditions can have consequences on individual outcomes throughout the life cycle. Relative to other developed countries, the United States fares poorly on standard indicators of early-life health, and this disadvantage may have profound consequences not only for population…

Trade Adjustment Assistance for Farmers (TAAF) is a national multifaceted USDA program that provided technical and financial assistance to farmers and fishermen adversely affected by import competition. This article describes how Extension was successfully mobilized to deliver the TAAF program to 10,983 producers across the nation using innovative…

Examining education policy, specifically policy related to standards, testing and accountability, from a critical perspective reveals the dominance of neoliberal perspectives. Trends of individual motivators in the educational system limit the democratic curriculum development process. "Feel good" moments for policy makers lead to…

It has been three years since Race to the Top grant-winning states piloted new teacher evaluation systems and many of them have made considerable progress, yet according to media coverage and a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published in April 2015, struggles remain and most grantees have asked to extend the timetables for…

The Adult Education--Basic Grants to States program authorized under the" Adult Education and Family Literacy Act of 1998" (AEFLA), enacted as "Title II" of the "Workforce Investment Act of 1998" (WIA) (P.L. 105-220), is the major source of federal support for adult basic education and literacy education programs.…

At the beginning of 2009, with the country facing the worst of the economic crisis, the president and Congress understood that Americans needed help paying for child care to get back to work in the recession. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, they allocated an additional $2 billion for the Child Care and Development Block…

One constant found in almost every education facility, in addition to students and teachers, is the school washroom. Every day, millions of students, staff members and visitors use school washrooms and in the process consume millions of gallons of water. For students concerned about conserving resources and for educators committed to teaching…