The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established School Health Profiles (Profiles) in 1996 to monitor school health policies and practices in secondary schools in states and school districts across the United States. Profiles is a system of surveys conducted biennially in even-numbered years and provides data on the following topics:…

U.S. public schools have an important opportunity to positively impact children and families from historically marginalized communities, serving as a stable point for children as they grow and a front-lines point of intervention for families. However, few schools are able to successfully create authentic, egalitarian partnerships with communities…

Community. Collaboration. Co-creation. These are the three principles that the Community Engagement Coalition (CEC) has applied for more than ten years to tackle myriad community-wide challenges. A partnership of several coalitions in the southeast Indiana region, the CEC understands that increased rates of postsecondary completion benefit not…

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 "Bridging the Digital Divide." Contents include: (1) Texas Needs an Equitable…

As the percentage of diverse students continues to increase, the problem of disproportionate representation of students in special education by race/ethnicity persists (Kena et al., 2014; Zhang, Katsiyannis, Ju, & Roberts, 2014). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA, 2004) requires states to monitor…

High rates of absenteeism are often an early warning sign for negative long-term outcomes. Typical high school attendance policies, especially those that are punitive in nature, can make attendance problems worse. Fortunately, evidence suggests that even small improvements in student attendance can lead to meaningful outcomes. To support this…

Reforms to support and increase personalized learning approaches are increasingly being introduced in middle schools around the country. Personalization as enacted in response to these reforms encourages teachers to implement many practices that have long been advocated for among middle grades reformers. However, middle grades teachers working…

When family-school engagement models operate on the beliefs of engagement and disengagement, it leads to hierarchical understandings of leadership and practices of partnership with racialized populations. Drawing on the analytic framework of race-conscious transformative leadership, this self-study of a former bilingual school administrator…

Educational backgrounds of incarcerated women differ from study to study, proportionate to the rest of the country; incarcerated women possess lower levels of educational attainment when they enter prison. Approximately 56% of women incarcerated in state prison entered without a high school diploma. Prior research on urban prisons indicates…

Site-level assessment questionnaires (SLAQs) were developed to assess nutrition and physical activity practices and environments in schools and other places children spend time in order to facilitate program planning and evaluation. After expert panel review for content validity, questionnaires were feasibility tested by users in six schools,…

Demand for school reform, particularly urban schools labeled as "failing," requires a community engagement strategy centered on intermingled social problems: poverty, racial isolation and discrimination, cultural clashes, socio-economic inequalities, and funding disparities. While school administrators are challenged to turn schools…

Lack of family engagement in transition planning continues to be a challenge in special education. This study examined the experiences of Chinese and Vietnamese families of youth with disabilities toward transition planning. Results suggested that participants were eager to be engaged in the transition planning and valued the importance of…

The purpose of the staff focus groups was to gather information about staff perspectives on the GEAR UP program, their experiences with the GEAR UP program, and their support for student college preparation. Most of the focus group participants across five GEAR UP campuses understood the GEAR UP program. Many staff provided positive comments about…

Transition planning and processes can greatly influence the quality of schooling transitions for students with learning disabilities. Student-focused planning and family involvement are two integral components of transition planning that do not always receive the emphasis that they deserve. The educational transitions of one student are examined…

This correlational, explanatory, longitudinal study sought to determine the combination of community and family-level demographic variables found in the 2010 U.S. Census data that most accurately predicted a New Jersey school district's percentage of students scoring proficient or above on the 2010, 2011, and 2012 NJ ASK 7 in Language Arts and…