Two graduate students and a faculty member of the Department of Entomology at the University of Kentucky developed and implemented a two-year extension program aimed to train Amish farmers on identification and management of their major agricultural problems. Students conducted periodical visits to the community, inquired about farmers' needs, and…

Effective professional development (PD) is crucial for enhancing teacher instruction and student achievement. This Spotlight explores innovative approaches to PD that prioritize teacher needs and foster meaningful learning experiences. From hybrid PD models to teacher-led initiatives and on-demand online courses, these articles offer valuable…

Bob Cornett, a former state budget director for Kentucky, describes himself as a "retired bureaucrat." But as a parent, grandparent, and a person who has been involved in education reform for more than 20 years, he's come to understand that, if public education policies are to be corrected, the impetus has to come from the citizenry. In…

Deaf education in the United States began in 1817 with the bilingual co-leadership of Laurent Clerc and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. In 2018, Marianne Belsky and Nicole Sutliffe, a bilingual, deaf/hearing team, were officially appointed as co-leaders of the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center. In this article, Belsky and Sutliffe share the…

This article presents a multiple case study exploring the emergence of inclusive learning communities within geoscience field courses designed to enable the active participation of students with disabilities. The purpose is to reflect on the outcomes of three distinct projects and consider what lessons can be drawn from them to help promote and…

This report examines community feedback to shed light on the impact technical assistance (TA) has on place-based programs for people in disadvantaged communities. Focusing on how TA can shape practices, expand stakeholder knowledge, and enhance stakeholder networks, it offers guidelines for future TA investments.

Typically, when a community's historical materials encounter a large academic library's archives, the engagement is transactional: they sign forms, they hand over their archives, and we assure them that their materials will be valued by researchers. These procedures make assumptions about comfort with gift agreements (what if communities seek…

The Institute for Citizens & Scholars (C&S) is fundamentally rethinking how young people prepare to be productive lifelong citizens. A critical element of this work is engaging youth at the intersection of community and civic life. C&S' work has proven that significant civic learning takes place in after-school programs, on the sports…

When examining the efforts of African Americans to create and operate viable primary and secondary schools from 1865 to 1870 in Kentucky, it is difficult to not contemplate what potentially might have been had national support for the Black transition from enslavement to freedom not waned. W.E.B. Dubois and several subsequent historians concluded…

The NIEHS-sponsored "Appalachian Health & Well-Being Community Forum" held in Eastern Kentucky brought various community members together to communicate and establish better coordination of efforts to improve health and address regional environmental issues. The 2-hour forum discussion provided bi-directional feedback about the needs…

In 2017, the state of Kentucky distributed the Teaching, Empowerment, Leading, and Learning (TELL) survey to gain an understating of the learning environments in Kentucky schools. Many of the items on the TELL survey addressed key components of the School to Watch criteria and rubric. Researchers were interested in the teaching and learning…

Since 2015, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has provided schools across the state with access to highly skilled instructional coaches. Primarily working in rural settings, these coaches provide a voluntary, integrated coaching model that focuses on building sustainable systems. Coaches provide a range of services, including systems…

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted face-to-face instruction in schools across the United States and the world. Using the Online Student Connectedness Survey (OSCS), we analyzed data from three middle schools in a suburban school district in the southeastern United States in order to determine if there were any statistically significant interaction…

Strategies to recruit and hire faculty and staff of color to the Commonwealth of Kentucky's population levels have continued for 57 years. From Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the Kentucky Plan in 1982 to the Strategic Plan for Kentucky Higher Education from 1982 to 1995, to the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education's 2010-2015…

This is the first of two reports exploring the relationship between coal activity and funding for elementary and secondary education in the Appalachian Region. In this first report, patterns in funding for elementary and secondary education are explored using annual data from 1995 to 2016. Counties that had some level of coal employment over this…