In Djibouti, extreme poverty was 41.9% and relative poverty 79.4% according to the poverty profile elaborated by the national statistical office (DISED) in 2012. Malnutrition remains high in Djibouti, and comparable to Sub-Saharan countries, with 29.7% of children under the age of five chronically malnourished, 29.6% underweight, and over 17.8% of…

Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts (PA PKC) is a state-funded prekindergarten program for 3- and 4-year-old children to help them gain school readiness skills. The goal of PA PKC is to help reduce educational disparities by providing high quality prekindergarten for children who lack opportunities or reside in environments that place them at risk of school…

Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting legislation permits states to fund "promising practices"--with the understanding that these models will have a rigorous evaluation component. This article describes an innovative, low cost paraprofessional home visiting model developed in Pennsylvania by the Maternity Care Coalition. In…

Many physical educators are aware of the impact the tightening fiscal climate has on physical education programs at all levels. Shrinking resources have generated a need to protect and promote the quality of physical education programs in this country. Additionally, administrators need to be proactive when attempting to target physical education…

Twitter is increasingly being used by Extension educators as a teaching and program-marketing tool. It is not enough, however, to simply use Twitter to disseminate information. Steps must be taken to evaluate program impact with quantitative and qualitative data. This article described the following Twitter evaluation metrics: unique hashtags,…

Many schools identified by states as needing improvement through their Elementary and Secondary Education Act waivers have selected Response to Intervention (RTI), a three-tiered instruction program sometimes referred to as tiered levels of instruction, as one of their main strategies for improving school performance and closing achievement gaps.…

Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest assisted Milwaukee Public Schools in developing a fidelity monitoring system for measuring schools' progress in implementing Response to Intervention (RTI). The study examined the ratings produced by that system to determine the system's reliability, schools' progress in implementing RTI, and whether ratings…

The purpose of this study was to determine effectiveness of a modified version of Azrin and Foxx's (1971) intensive toilet training method on teaching of toilet skills to children with autism. This method consists of administering extra fluids and a time schedule, but does not use overcorrection procedures. Implementation requires a study of six…

Growing evidence shows that participation in out-of-school time (OST) activities positively supports youth development in general. However, simply participating in a self-identified STEM program is not sufficient. Youth will benefit more if they participate in "quality" afterschool programs. Therefore, a common understanding of quality…

Graphs are widely used to model structures and relationships of objects in various scientific and commercial fields. Chemical molecules, proteins, malware system-call dependencies and three-dimensional mechanical parts are all modeled as graphs. In this dissertation, we propose to mine and index those graph data to enable fast and scalable search.…

Several recent studies have shown that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are less physically active than their typically developing peers and are thus at risk of health problems associated with inactivity (e.g., obesity or diabetes). There is a need to examine the effectiveness of interventions such as swimming that are aimed at…

Drawing on a qualitative case study of four Head Start sites, this article analyzes a number of governing patterns that have emerged and grown in the field of early childhood education and care in the United States. This article specifically highlights a government's enhanced oversight and management of Head Start programs by mandating a school…

For many years, the Kauffman Foundation has focused efforts on improving educa­tion for children in Kansas City. Prior to opening the Kauffman School, the Kauffman Foundation operated several programs that addressed the challenges faced in urban education, such as Project Early (an early childhood program), Project Choice (a high school dropout…

There is no doubt that the safety of children in schools and in communities is paramount. Incidents of school violence in the United States have motivated researchers and practitioners to explore and employ effective methodologies and strategies to promote safety in classrooms and schools. Still, issues of disruptive behavior top the list of…

This guide for district and school leaders shows how to recognize opportunities to embed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) into planned policies or programs. Opportunistic RCTs can generate strong evidence for informing education decisions--with minimal added cost and disruption. The guide also outlines the key steps to conduct RCTs and responds…