Substitute Senate Bill (SSB) 5357, laws of 2017, required the Washington State Department of Early Learning, now the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), to establish a four-year pilot project to license "outdoor, nature-based early learning and child care programs," otherwise known as "outdoor preschools." As…

In this article, professors share how the district/university partnership model thriving at Kansas State University was successfully replicated in North Dakota, and was adapted to match their own department goals. While teacher leadership has become a theme among Kansas State academies, their model was created out of principal preparation efforts.…

The path to principalship in Hillsborough County Public Schools in Florida is not one taken lightly. After receiving the Wallace Foundation Principal Pipeline Initiative grant, Hillsborough was one of six districts that developed a comprehensive principal pipeline based on four key components: leader standards that define the role of principal;…

The framing of "implementation" of learning technologies in universities can have profound effects on approaches to teaching and learning that may be insufficiently acknowledged by practitioners. This paper investigates a case that demonstrated the formation of strong connections between technology and pedagogy, in which a learning…

This manuscript describes a pilot project in which infants in Guam who refer on newborn hearing screening receive diagnostic audiological evaluation conducted by audiologists in Colorado over the Internet (telepractice). The evaluation is completed in real time using commercially-available software and personal computers to control the diagnostic…

Minnesota Statutes 122A.40, Subdivision 8 and 122A.41, Subdivision 5, require that all districts evaluate teachers beginning in the 2014-2015 school year. In response to the statutes, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) convened a work group in early winter 2011 to consult with the MDE Commissioner to develop a state model for teacher…

A quality improvement system (QIS) is an intentional effort to raise the quality of afterschool programming in an ongoing, organized fashion. There are a number of reasons the QIS is gaining popularity. The main reasons community leaders are drawn to improving quality is that they know that 1) higher quality programs will mean better experiences…

This "Stated Briefly" report is a companion piece that summarizes the results of another report of the same name. REL Northeast and Islands, in collaboration with the Northeast Educator Effectiveness Research Alliance and the New Hampshire Department of Education conducted a study of the implementation of new teacher evaluation systems…

REL Northeast and Islands, in collaboration with the Northeast Educator Effectiveness Research Alliance and the New Hampshire Department of Education, conducted a study of the implementation of new teacher evaluation systems in New Hampshire's School Improvement Grant (SIG) schools. While the basic system features are similar across district…

The American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC) Plus 50 Initiative (2008-2011), funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies, was created to build the capacity of community colleges nationwide to develop programming that engages the plus 50 learner. The Initiative supported a pilot group of 13 two-year institutions to develop or expand college…

This paper reports on a study that examined skill standards pilot programs to identify lessons learned in the selection and involvement of representatives from the various stakeholder communities and the potential for sustaining the efforts of the pilot programs. Data were gathered through structured conversations with staff and committee members…

When the author was a little girl, her father told her the story of how he once saw the great Harry Houdini escape from a straight jacket. In the early 1900s, Houdini fascinated thousands of people by performing feats of life-threatening daring and agility. Houdini was a professional in the traditional sense: he acted alone, kept his trade secrets…

The Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects (YIEPP) demonstration was a large-scale test of a school-conditioning guaranteed jobs program for teenagers from low-income families. Unlike previous youth employment programs, the YIEPP linked school and work by offering jobs to all youth who met the eligibility criteria and who also agreed to remain…