The following case study presents an approach to teaching research courses in undergraduate exercise science programs. Research courses are commonly required in the curriculum for this degree. Service learning (SL) is an effective way to promote student learning outcomes (SLOs) by providing hands-on experience for the students, and should be…

This study compared the quality of survey data collected from Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers and college students. Three groups of participants completed the same survey. "MTurk" respondents completed the survey as paid workers using the Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing platform. "Student Online" respondents also completed the…

This phenomenological study explores the dimensions of youth-adult partnerships (YAPs) in agricultural mechanics classrooms in three rural schools. YAPs presume a positive learning collaboration between young people and adults who work together to achieve meaningful community-based change. Previous research on the development of YAPs has focused…

Increasing criticism of practicing educational leaders has led to additional critiques of the university programs in which they are prepared. In response, many states have mandated statewide university preparation program redesign. The articles in this special issue describe five unique cases of principal preparation program redesign--including…

As a diagnostic intervention (Bowles, Churchill, Effrat, & McDermott, 2002) for schools failing to meet school improvement goals, Kentucky used a scholastic audit process based on nine standards and 88 associated indicators called the Standards and Indicators for School Improvement (SISI). Schools are rated on a scale of 1-4 on each indicator,…

Differential response (DR), also referred to as alternative response (AR), family assessment response (FAR), or multiple track response, was developed to incorporate family-centered, strengths-based practices into child protective services (CPS), primarily by diverting lower risk families into an assessment track rather than requiring the…

College student retention has been and continues to be one of the most important issues facing the higher education community. Despite this importance, little is known about the type and methodological rigor of institutional efforts to increase student retention. This article presents the findings of a study which attempted to gain a clearer…

Students in research methods courses, especially those taught in an intense format, might be hard pressed to actually conduct research studies due to logistics and time constraints. I describe the use of single-case research design and a personalized behavior project as an alternative research project for students in an undergraduate psychology…

This paper presents information on re-developing an outcome evaluation for a state-funded program providing service coordination utilizing wraparound to youth with severe emotional disturbance (SED) and their families. Originally funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Kentucky IMPACT program has existed statewide since 1990. Changing…

The complexity of the early intervention to preschool transition process has been highlighted in the early childhood literature; however, the role of independent therapy providers in transition planning has not been described specifically. The present study used survey research methods to gather information about the transition practices of 103…

In the past, juvenile gang researchers have focused primarily on the characteristics of gangs and the prevalence of gangs in communities and schools. One of the greatest limitations of this research, however, surrounds the lack of agreement on the definition of a gang and, consequently, the prevalence of gangs in the community and in schools. In…

This paper describes a research partnership conducted between Jefferson County (Ky.) Public Schools, the University of Louisville, and the University of Kentucky. The aim of the partnership was to share resources while meeting the different institutions' needs in areas such as research and recruitment. Although effective district and university…

Adequacy is a key issue propelled by high court decisions across the states. Initially the equity of funding systems that resulted in "savage inequalities" between school districts within a state based on property wealth was at issue. However, just since 1989, with the state supreme court decision in Kentucky finding the system…

A model projecting school enrollment by using births lagged an appropriate number of years and a model using lagged births and the previous year's enrollment were applied to two school grade levels and state and county levels in Kentucky. The model using lagged births and earlier figures provided better predictions. (SLD)