"Discriminatory censorship laws" regulate classroom conversations about racism, gender identity, and other topics targeted in the backlash against efforts toward inclusive classrooms and curricula. This policy brief examines the proliferation of these laws and their impact on K-12 schools, including the creation of hostile learning…

This Formative Evaluation Lessons Learned template captures the major findings and lessons learned from the formative evaluation of the Youth Transitions Partnership (YTP) program in Alameda County, California. The YTP program is an intervention built around the core components of intensive case management and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).…

Early childhood educators play a critical role in preparing students for success later in their school experience. The instructional techniques, emotional supports, and assessment approaches for early childhood settings are different from classroom settings in later grades. How can states and districts develop evaluation systems that are tuned to…

With the passage of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 (Post- 9/11 GI Bill), Congress created a comprehensive education benefit program for veterans, service members, and their dependents pursuing postsecondary education. Since implementation, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has provided just over $5.7 billion for…

International research into educational decision-making has been extensive, focusing on the way in which young people and their families assess the different options open to them. However, to what extent can we assume that different groups of young people have equal access to the information needed to make such an assessment? And what role, if…

A university governing board's influence on institutional policy is undeniable. Educating board members about student affairs issues is essential to ensuring a well-informed, effective board. This study examined the relationship between student affairs and the board's student affairs committee (SAC). An 89-item survey was developed and…

The Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project is the most comprehensive effort thus far to ascertain which approaches help welfare recipients and other low-income people stay steadily employed and advance in their jobs. Launched in 1999 and slated to end in 2009, the ERA project encompasses more than a dozen demonstration programs and…

Four leisure counseling approaches are presented: leisure counseling as a selected life-style process; leisure lack as a force to be considered in the guidance enabling process; leisure counseling as an opportunity to minimize the frequency of default leisure activities in the triangulation leisure counseling model; and leisure counseling as a…

To ensure secondary school counseling program effectiveness, administrators should know the premises underlying all guidance and counseling programs, the components of all school counseling programs, and the major helping processes used by professional counselors. This article introduces a special section focusing on counseling research studies,…

Outlines the background, rationale, methodology, and outcomes of developing local lifelong guidance strategies in four geographic areas. Analyzes the main components of the strategies developed and addresses a number of issues relating to the process of strategy development. Explores implications for parallel work in other localities. (RJM)

Discusses origins of action planning and action plans and possible influence of different antecedents on practice. Analysis indicates a lack of clarity concerning the origins of the process. Influence of contrasting models appear to remain unrecognized, and training needs of helpers, particularly for guidance skills, are underestimated. (FC)

Service-learning classes taught by professional middle school counselors and teachers can help middle school students meet comprehensive guidance program goals related to academic/learning development, life/career development, personal/social development, and multicultural/global citizenship. An example is provided of a service-learning class…

This practicum report describes the development and implementation of a comprehensive pilot middle school guidance program. Staff members reviewed the literature on middle schools in general and guidance programs in specific, explored programs in operation throughout the state of California, and consulted with members from the State Department of…

Goal card sort and ranking task was given to middle school teachers and a sample of sixth- through eighth-grade students to generate data relevant to revising goals of an advisory program. Study categories included advocacy, community, skills, invigoration, academic and administrative. Community and advocacy goals received highest student ranking,…

In fall 1989, the Nanaimo (British Columbia) School District No. 68 asked five people, selected from the school system and community, to evaluate the "Steps to Maturity" Program (STMP), a district-wide family life education and affective development program that has developed gradually since 1972. The evaluation team interviewed a large…