The purpose of this guide is to illuminate best practices for meaningful engagement of youth in Community Schools and to recognize youth voice as a community asset that can help advance more equitable school systems. Youth voice plays an important role in redesigning how public education functions. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted education and…

In January 2022, music teacher shortages accounted for eight percent of all vacancies in U.S. school systems. After emerging from COVID-19 lockdowns, many education stakeholders began to reconsider the ways in which teaching and learning have shifted. By committing to a strong understanding of teacher self-efficacy and empowerment, administrators…

Get Smart Fast about the benefits of supporting student and staff well-being! Prioritizing well-being in schools creates environments where everyone feels valued and supported, which leads to better educational outcomes and a healthier, more supportive community. This infographic provides strategies, examples, and resources to effectively support…

The importance of establishing effective literacy/reading skills at an early age, preschool to early elementary, is well known and accepted among educators. For students whose heritage language is not English, the influential factors of cultural relevance and parent/family involvement for the acquisition of these fundamental skills are…

Although past studies of mentoring at-risk youth have yielded mixed results (Faith et al., 2011; DeWit et al., 2016), mentoring as an intervention for at-risk youth has increased in the past decade and has been supported by the United States Federal Government (Hughes, Boyd, & Dykstra, 2010; Gordon, Downey, & Bangert, 2013; Reddick,…

This quantitative study investigated the impact of leadership behaviors and additional factors on teacher morale across seven schools from three Arkansas school districts. The study utilized the "Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)" and "Purdue Teacher Opinionaire (PTO)" as measurement tools to explore various leadership…

Student voice is the process of allowing students to work collaboratively with adults to produce a learning culture that is conducive for optimum growth in every student. In a traditional setting, the adults make the decisions and the students are passive observers in the learning process. Data has shown that this traditional culture is not…

States across the country have begun to take strides to implement policies that support a new, student-centered vision for learning, several of which are highlighted in this resource. However, we recognize that many states still need additional supports and resources to enable all communities to realize the promise of student-centered learning.…

Given the emphasis on promoting self-determination in the field of special education and the corresponding use of scales to measure self-determination in research and practice, it is important to examine whether widely used self-determination assessments measure the same constructs among and between students from different disability categories.…

The 1990 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) reauthorization introduced transition mandates that included a "student involvement in transition planning" requirement, creating an emphasis on promoting such involvement so as to enhance the self-determination of students with disabilities and positive transition-related…

Promoting self-determination has been identified as an important practice for the successful transition of youth and young adults with disabilities, and numerous studies have examined the relationship between levels of self-determination and transition-related and postsecondary outcomes. Only a few such studies, however, have examined the global…

A camp-based conference was designed through collaborative efforts as a replicable intervention for infants and young children newly identified with hearing loss and their families. The educational curriculum was designed to target families choosing listening and spoken language as a communication outcome for their child. One of the goals of this…

KIPP Delta succeeds at its stated mission, probably because of its careful attention to culture building. What distinguishes this KIPP school is thoughtful work linking the daily processes of schooling to the goals of schooling, in this case success in college. Day to day tactics reflect broader themes: having a clear mission and hiring staff who…

This study used action research methodology to explore factors that influenced student athletes to major in family and consumer sciences (FCS). Three survey groups included current student athletes (n = 23), alumni athletes (n = 14), and FCS faculty (n = 5). Current student athletes and FCS faculty participated in separate focus groups. The…

Schoolwide support for higher achievement is essential. Students need a nurturing environment where they feel secure about learning, where the goal is success for every student and where students are confident they will receive mentoring and encouragement to prepare for their futures. Many schools are reinventing themselves to motivate students to…