Instructional strategies aimed at improving achievement of low performing student subgroups in need of support were selected by the District Improvement Advisory Committee, so that WCPSS could exit District Improvement status. Impact of each initiative, which often included teacher training and coaching is examined in this implementation report.…

Learning to identify organisms is extraordinarily difficult, yet trained field biologists can quickly and easily identify organisms at a glance. They do this without recourse to the use of traditional characters or identification devices. Achieving this type of recognition accuracy is a goal of many courses in plant systematics. Teaching plant…

School mental health (SMH) programmes serve as a necessary niche within rural communities and aim to bring accessible care to youth who may otherwise go without mental health services. The following study evaluated the impact of mental health treatment provided by the Assessment, Support, and Counseling (ASC) Center, an SMH health initiative…

The North Carolina Pre-Kindergarten Program (NC Pre-K) is a state-funded initiative for at-risk 4-year-olds, designed to provide a high quality, classroom-based educational program during the year prior to kindergarten entry. Children are eligible for NC Pre-K based on age, family income (at or below 75% of state median income), and other risk…

Autism spectrum disorder is characterized as a complex brain disorder that impacts the life of an individual (Autism Society, n.d.; Autism Speaks, 2013). The prevalence of autism is on the rise (Baio, 2012; CDC, 2012), impacting the stress of the family (Haimer, 2012; Hall & Graff) and the need for services (Haney, 2012). This capstone study…

States are pushing ahead with efforts to make sweeping changes to education policy through the Race to the Top program, despite some of them having seen individual schools and districts back out of the process because of concerns over the time and money required to make those plans a reality. The Obama administration has envisioned Race to the…

This report details the story of North Carolina's Race to the Top--Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) Grant for the period of 2012-2016. It provides detailed reflections on the state's accomplishments over the grant period and shares the enhanced vision for the RTT-ELC in North Carolina. Specific details are provided about what has changed in the…

The purpose of the program evaluation was to evaluate two alternative programs in a North Carolina and South Carolina public school district to determine if they are effective in delivering constructive interventions that modify student behavior once students have left the programs and have returned to their regular learning environments. This…

This study aimed to evaluate how peer-to-peer interactions through writing impact student learning in introductory-level massive open online courses (MOOCs) across disciplines. This article presents the results of a qualitative coding analysis of peer-to-peer interactions in two introductory level MOOCs: English Composition I: Achieving Expertise…

Creating a pipeline of great teachers for all schools and students in each state is a crucial policy goal. Strengthening teacher pipelines requires states to examine multiple policy areas, including certification requirements, educator evaluation, compensation and career ladders, educator environment (e.g., working conditions), and the range of…

Race to the Top States offer a wide range of supports for local educational agency (LEA) implementation of one of four school intervention models. Some States allocate resources on a regional basis, while others coordinate resources at the State level. Certain States also use data tools to measure district needs, capacity and progress on key…

The levels and growth achievement functions make extreme and diametrically opposed assumptions about the rate at which teacher inputs persist. I first show that if these assumptions are incorrect, teacher value-added estimates can be significantly biased. I then develop a tractable, cumulative model of student achievement that allows for the joint…

In order to enhance Extension evaluation efforts it is important to understand current practices. The study reported here researched the evaluation behaviors of county-based Extension professionals. Extension professionals from eight states (n = 1,173) responded to a survey regarding their evaluation data collection, analysis, and reporting…

The purpose of this program was to analyze the effects of The Leader in Me/seven habits philosophy on the selected elementary school in western North Carolina. The perceived problem was that in this particular school there was a need for methods to encourage student participation and student motivation and to increase homework completion and…

Reading ability is one of the most crucial skills learned in elementary school, a primary focus for students in these years. Around the third grade, though, students start transitioning to a skill they will need the rest of their academic and work career--reading to learn. Students begin demonstrating their learning by taking high-stakes…