Using public information from birth certificates and prison records from Florida, we adopt a reduced-form approach to estimate the effect of relative age on the probability of incarceration in adulthood (until age 30-40). We use a Regression Discontinuity Design around the cutoff date for Kindergarten enrollment (Sept. 1). We find strong evidence…

Water availability is an important issue addressed by Cooperative Extension programs nationwide. Rapid population growth and urbanization present unique challenges and opportunities for Extension programming. In this study, we explored whether urban Extension audiences in Florida had unique characteristics that could be used to design tailored…

The purpose of this study was to identify selected characteristics of current Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) members in Florida and then compare the results between Florida and non-Florida institutes. This study was primarily quantitative and employed the Demographic and Behavioral Trends Survey (DBTS) with the addition of four…

In 2015 while higher educational institutions received $40 billion in gifts, community colleges only received about 1.5 percent of that amount--despite the fact that they account for about half of students at any one time, according to an estimate provided by the Council for Aid to Education, which maintains data on educational giving. The reason…

Water is a scarce resource in Florida. There is an immediate need to reduce the stress on water resources and make the availability of water more sustainable by encouraging engagement in water conservation among the residents of Florida. This study examined how the future intentions of high water users in Florida to conserve water outdoors were…

School mass murder shootings were practically unheard of prior to the 1980s. It is the purpose of this qualitative case study to explore what parents of teenagers believe are shared behaviors, social characteristics and personality traits of juveniles at risk of becoming mass murderer offenders. Being a loner or having social isolation was the…

Human reliance on water has led to water issues globally. Although extension professionals have made efforts successfully to educate the general public about water conservation to enhance water resource sustainability, difficulty has been found in reaching high water users, defined as residents irrigating excessively to their landscape irrigation…

Opinion leaders are persuasive in convincing others within their social networks to adopt certain opinions and behaviors. By identifying and using opinion leaders, agricultural educators may be able to leverage individuals who have influence on others' opinions, thereby speeding up the adoption of new practices. In this article, we review a…

In the past several years Cooperative Extension has focused on developing educational programs that address water conservation, specifically for individuals using exorbitant amounts of water, with limited success. However, few research studies have examined how the way people think, including their critical thinking styles, can be used to inform…

This study describes the results of a survey administered to alumni of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship's (NFTE) education programs. These programs aim to improve the entrepreneurship knowledge and skills of middle and high school students in under-resourced communities throughout the United States. The study was designed to gather…

The ability to evaluate and accurately articulate the outcomes associated with leadership development programs is critical to their continued financial and administrative support. With calls for outcome-based accountability, the need for rigorous evaluation is particularly relevant for those programs administered through the Cooperative Extension…

Comprehensive childhood obesity prevention (COP) strategies should include increasing school nurse involvement. This study was conducted to determine the influence of key school nurse perceptions (self-efficacy, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers) on participation in COP practices at the individual child and school level. Florida…

While honors programs and colleges often proclaim the importance of recruiting and retaining a diverse group of high-ability students, many are still exclusionary and predicated on assumptions about the student body that are no longer valid. The structure and programming of honors can thus prohibit the full participation of nontraditional students…

In spite of national initiatives such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, American students continue to be struggling readers. Research on content area reading strategies (CARS) has shown that such strategies increase students' ability to read and comprehend text. The purpose of this research was to assess agricultural educators'…

Surveys are commonly used in Extension to identify client needs or evaluate program outcomes. This article examines how available email addresses can be incorporated into mixed-mode procedures for surveys. When mail and email addresses are used to implement a sequence of email and postal invitations in a mixed-mode survey, response rates were…