This guide is intended to help states assess the engagement strategies used during the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) development stage, identify the ones to sustain or refine, and develop a long-term plan that will continue to create opportunities for stakeholders to be heard on this and other education issues. The guidance in this document…

Essential life skills such as confidence, motivation, resilience and communication are associated with better academic outcomes and better prospects in the workplace, and there is an increasing emphasis on their value, given labour market trends towards automation. While 'character' has traditionally been at the centre of British private school…

The rising need for engineers has led to increased interest in community outreach in engineering departments nationwide. We present a sustainable outreach model involving trained undergraduate mentors to build ties with K-12 teachers and students. An associated online module database of chemical engineering demonstrations, available to educators…

The most promising intervention for improving learning and reducing academic gaps in outcomes is present in every classroom: the "teacher". Teachers empowered to create relationship-centric, supportive classroom and school cultures, combined with rigorous academics, produce breakthrough results for their students. Three nonprofits'…

National efforts have been made to encourage technology integration in teacher preparation with expectations for frequent and successful applications with K-12 learners. While online learning has become pervasive in many fields in education, it has been somewhat slow to catch on in K-12 settings. The "Handbook of Research on Emerging…

This study explores how teacher educators involved in developing collaborative teacher research teams of pre-service and in-service teachers perceive their new role. Ten teacher educators in 9 teams were involved in a 1-year teacher research cycle. Thematic analysis was performed on the transcriptions of audio-taped group sessions, video diaries…

Within the SWIFT framework, the Inclusive Policy Structure and Practice domain addresses the need for a supportive, reciprocal partnership between the school and its district or local educational agency. Therefore, intentional and effective policy decision-making processes are integral to SWIFT implementation. Such processes create opportunities…

Giftedness is a complex phenomenon impacting the development of the whole child. Many specialists must work together to address the diverse academic, social and emotional aspects of the development of children with gifts and talents. It is imperative that educators in gifted, general, special education programs, and related professional services…

The "Quality Practice Project" (QPP) is the National Association of Charter School Authorizers' (NACSA's) multi-year research initiative to identify what high-performing authorizers do to achieve stellar student and public interest outcomes. Participants and researchers collaboratively investigated the perspectives and practices of…

School-based teams are central to referrals, problem solving and decision-making in school mental health (SMH). Although the use of teams in SMH appears commonplace, research on these teams, however, is much more limited in scope. Using best practice teaming principles as a conceptual framework, this exploratory study examined the purpose,…

Experimental intervention studies constitute the current dominant research designs in the autism education field. Such designs are based on a "knowledge-transfer" model of evidence-based practice in which research is conducted by researchers, and is then "transferred" to practitioners to enable them to implement evidence-based…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) offers states an incredible opportunity to develop or refine a strategic vision for education to chart their own path forward. The new federal law allows education leaders and stakeholders to rethink their own accountability, funding, school improvement and grant-making systems by gathering input from the…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has drastically changed the federal education landscape for the first time in more than a decade. State education agencies (SEAs) have been granted additional flexibility under the new law but first must establish their state strategic vision and evaluate how the new law will affect their accountability,…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) asks states to engage with a wide array of stakeholders throughout the development of their plans, encouraging outreach that goes well beyond the organizational leaders with whom the state education agency is most familiar. The purpose behind this outreach is to ensure that the state's ESSA plan truly…

Racial inequity is a pernicious problem in American schools. Discrepancies in school discipline show that black students are two to three times more likely than their peers to be suspended and expelled, even for similar infractions. This directly affects the racial achievement gap, school dropout, and involvement in the juvenile justice system.…