Recent research suggests that many environmental education (EE) programs for youth in the United States focus on meeting educational standards rather than using civic engagement and advocacy techniques to promote environmental literacy. We distributed a survey to members of several EE organizations to identify which civic engagement, advocacy, and…

Many adolescents lack the requisite physical preparation for sport participation and PA. Multi-sport participation and resistance training during youth (age 5-11) and adolescence (age 12-17) years can positively affect physical activity levels, health outcomes, and promote long-term athletic development (LTAD). The National Strength and…

Social emotional learning (SEL) is an important field of education, and has been for the past 25 years, although the majority of SEL programs are designed for elementary ages, some for middle school, and only a few designated for high school ages. With a weakening of community organizations, an increase in stressors, and higher occurrences of…

The goal of physical education (PE) is to assist students in the development of physical activity habits that will last a lifetime. To achieve this, PE teachers must shift beyond only teaching sports and games during instructional periods. Strength and conditioning programming is one alternative available to PE teachers. This article provides an…

Developing students who are physically literate is one of the most important aspects of physical education (PE). As teachers, we introduce students to the concepts of health and fundamental movement skills like throwing, catching and using implements to allow them the skill proficiency to pursue an active lifestyle. This article focuses on the…

Background: Emergent evidence suggests a positive school climate may be a promising population-level intervention to promote academic achievement and student well-being. However, researchers have called for expanding the school climate evidence-base to better describe how the construct is associated with student outcomes. The purpose of this study…

Educators have embraced the promotion of social emotional development, student well-being, and mental health as essential educational objectives to promote academic readiness and growth. To address known research-to-practice gaps and limited availability of evidence-based, universal high school programs, we took a community-based participatory…

Providing young people and children with age and developmentally appropriate comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is important for young people in making informed decisions. There are presently few studies documenting the relationship between school grade of learning CSE and curriculum coverage. We studied this relationship using a 2015…

Adolescents with overweight and obesity are at risk for future health problems. The purpose of this study was to examine the feasibility and initial efficacy of a weight management intervention to help adolescents develop healthy nutrition and physical activity behaviors and improve their anthropometrics. This study used a single-group repeated…

Including youth in the development and evaluation of out-of-school time (OST) programs has positive effects on youth, the organizations that serve them, and the communities in which they live. Such involvement can improve young people's social competence, foster leadership and engagement, and empower groups. Youth provide unique perspectives on…

The aim of the present study was to determine the factor structure of the Positive Life Assets Scale (PLAS), a new measure to identify both internal and external life assets among high school students in Thailand, and to further examine the usefulness of the PLAS for a comprehensive, developmental, and strengths-based school and community…

Using the water molecule as a metaphor, Marilyn Doerr presents a study of a Montessori high school that combines the elements of Montessori with International Baccalaureate (IB) and other institutions in the surrounding community that enrich the experience of the students. The pedagogy of the high school, she explains, must be based on an…

This study describes high school students' use of smart technology to enhance leisure-time physical activity. Participants included 109 students who completed an informational survey comprised of questions examining non-school sport and physical activity hours, daily video game hours, and use of Kinect active video games and smartphone apps.…

Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC) partnered with the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) to conduct a multi-year study of Michigan's implementation of competency-based education in K-12 schools. This mixed-methods study seeks to investigate the implementation and effectiveness of CBE using data from surveys administered to 21j…

Preparing students to be competitive in the 21st century global economy is undoubtedly one of the major goals of all educators. Studies have shown that students who have an increased exposure to engaging STEM courses at the high school level are more likely to enter STEM majors at the collegiate level and, thus, STEM industries post-graduation…