Although US teenage birth rates substantially decreased over the past two decades, it still remains the highest in the developed world. More innovative, community-wide initiatives are needed to combat the issue. In Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, the Central Oklahoma Teen Pregnancy Prevention Collaboration is utilizing the collective impact model to…

Collaboration among Tribes, state educational agencies (SEAs), and local educational agencies (LEAs) is essential for supporting Native students and their education. This infographic highlights the importance of Native education and provides resources, examples, and funding opportunities to enhance collaboration.

One factor that may facilitate a successful reunification of children in foster care with their parents--or failing that, provide an alternate route to permanency through adoption or guardianship--is children's connections with extended family. However, because foster care frequently disrupts social connections, practitioners may need to take…

This document was produced by the authors based on their research for the report, "Family Finding Evaluations: A Summary of Recent Findings. Publication #2015-01," and is an added resource for further information. The report reviews the results from 13 evaluations of Family Finding. The Family Finding model provides child welfare…

In 2009, the Coalition for Community Schools at the Institute for Educational Leadership (CCS-IEL) embarked on an ambitious action research and development project, leveraging the community school system infrastructure present in three geographic regions (Tulsa, Oklahoma; Multnomah County, Oregon; Albuquerque, New Mexico) to advance research and…

This study utilized a mixed-methods approach to explore the relationship between the implementation of recommended transition education practices and perceptions of administrative support of transition education. Utilizing a web-based survey, I surveyed 120 secondary educators across Oklahoma to determine the extent to which they reported the use…

State-funded voluntary prekindergarten programs have grown steadily over the past decade and now enroll more than one million children. While the overall trend has been one of increasing participation in publicly funded preschool education, access in most states is limited to select groups of disadvantaged or otherwise-at-risk 4-year-olds.…

The Consortium was established in the summer of 1967 to provide the machinery necessary to encourage Oklahoma institutions of higher education to band together voluntarily for the purpose of developing their intrainstitutional and interinstitutional research capabilities, and to enable them to improve the quality of instruction in the state. This…

In May 2004, a group of 25 teachers at Jenks High School in Oklahoma received an invitation to the Summer 2004 Advance. Although many organizations hold retreats for their employees, the administrators wanted to send a different message: we're not retreating; we're advancing! Like many states, Oklahoma suffered a school budget crisis during the…

Two-year continuing education project jointly sponsored by Oklahoma County Libraries System and South Oklahoma City Junior College is described. (KP)

To investigate present operating relationships and make suggestions for improving these relationships among county extension workers and vocational agricultural teachers, an hypothesis was made that county extension agents have more positive attitudes than teachers toward cooperation. A questionnaire, evaluated in the preparation by state…

Eileen Simmons, a veteran teacher-consultant from the Oklahoma State University Writing Project, describes collaboration among writing project teacher-consultants and site-based teachers to plan professional development before, during, and after a summer writing camp for students at their school. This model, which has been adapted in a variety of…

Studies continue to surface a disheartening fact: while research shows that teachers are key to closing achievement gaps, poor and minority students as well as those in low-performing schools are far less likely to have access to the most experienced and qualified teachers. For instance, although National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) are…

This paper illustrates how the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma is exploring a new paradigm of evaluation that is responsive to the claims, concerns, and issues of stakeholders involved. Known as culturally responsive evaluation, this alternative conceived by the Initiative for Culturally Responsive Evaluation (ICRE) is considered more appropriate than…

A study aimed to provide education and welfare officials with information on the experiences of welfare/education programs as they had been implemented in five states. The states (California, Florida, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin) represented a range of noteworthy approaches to providing education to welfare recipients, including some dramatic…