The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at St. Mary's College of Maryland has scaffolded collaboration skills throughout the Biochemistry curriculum and developed several assessment tools to evaluate these skills. Biochemistry I and II have used team contracts at the beginning of extensive team projects where students identify their…

Healthcare Professionals Working in Schools (HPWS) are responsible for providing health services to students and play a role in providing education to prevent illnesses, including tickborne diseases (TBD). Providing TBD education to children has been shown to increase prevention behaviors and knowledge of TBD symptoms, but little is known…

Background, Purpose, & Research Questions: High school exit exams are meant to standardize quality and ensure that students graduate with basic knowledge and skills. However, policies that expand exit exams are associated with increased dropout rates, particularly among non-white students (e.g. Papay, Murnane, and Willet, 2010; Reardon and…

Preparing to become a music teacher educator is a complex process and one component of this process should be learning to model, demonstrate, and teach assessment practices to preservice music educators. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to discover how, and to what extent, music teacher educators (MTEs) are educated about…

The "Blueprint for Maryland's Future," passed by the 2021 Maryland General Assembly, requires that a college and career readiness (CCR) standard be set for Maryland public school students that "certifies that by the end of 10th grade, and not later than the end of 12th grade, a student has the requisite literacy in English and math…

Purpose: We examine considerations regarding the positive contributions of evidence accountability and challenges that frustrate educators in gaining access to the needed product information. Design/Approach/Methods: We review the research literature on the multiple characteristics of evidence relative to consumer (practitioner) interests. We then…

The recent turn toward core practices and practice-based teacher education has been accompanied by a growing literature on the definitions, pedagogies to teach, and assessments of core practices. Despite these developments, the field lacks core practices performance assessments designed to be used across course sections, courses, and subjects.…

After decades of advancement in education equality, a disproportional number of racially minoritized students are placed in special education. Addressing the disproportionality is a complicated issue due to various contributing factors. One possible cause is racial bias from teachers who rate problem behaviors of African American boys for special…

Plant clinics have been used as a tool to help Extension professionals diagnose crop production problems; however, limited resources have made it difficult to continue to offer in-person clinics. Using distance-learning technology, University of Maryland Extension initiated and offered to Extension professionals "virtual" plant clinics…

Socially anxious adolescents commonly experience impaired interpersonal functioning with unfamiliar, same-age peers. Yet, we lack short screening tools for assessing peer-related impairments. Recent work revealed that a parent-reported, three-item screening tool produced scores that uniquely related to social anxiety concerns. However, this tool…

In 2017, the National 4-H professional research, knowledge, and competencies (PRKC) taxonomy was updated reflecting the current needs of 4-H youth development professionals. Knowledge and skill gaps of 4-H professionals need to be identified to optimize resource allocation for professional development on the state and regional level. We developed…

Post-training consultation support is linked to improvements in evidence-based treatment fidelity following initial training, but little is known about what makes it work, and how clinician-level factors may moderate its effects. This study examined the adherence and competence of N = 33 school-based clinicians trained to provide modular Cognitive…

This study presents findings from a 58 high-school group-randomized controlled trial testing the effectiveness of training in a multitiered system of supports for behavior (MTSS-B) framework, which was leveraged to reduce students' risk for emotional and behavior disorders. The trial tested the impact of MTSS-B, which included (a) training in the…

Background: School-based treatments for anxiety disorders are needed to address barriers to accessing community-based services. A key question for school administers are the costs related to these treatments. Aims of the Study: This study examined the cost-effectiveness of a school-based modular cognitive behavioral therapy (M-CBT) for pediatric…

Salaries are one of the most powerful policy levers states and school districts can use to attract qualified, effective, and diverse teachers. What role do states play in supporting strategic use of salaries? This report examines the state teacher compensation policies that influence districts' potential strategic use of teacher pay. It analyzes…