The United States is experiencing a teacher shortage crisis that is even more pronounced in rural communities. Teachers may be driven away from the profession if they feel inadequately trained or under-supported to address students' mental health needs. As such, an important teacher retention strategy is to ensure schools have enough mental health…

This report presents early implementation and operational lessons from the Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM) evaluation. Funded by the Administration for Children and Families, SHM uses a rigorous research design to test the effectiveness of a new approach to improving outcomes for low-income children: strengthening the marriages and relationships…

According to the U.S. Department of Education, shortages of special education and/or related services personnel continue to be a significant challenge for all states. In response to this challenge, state education agencies (SEAs) are implementing various strategies to improve recruitment and retention efforts. The purpose of this document is to…

Responses to a questionnaire sent to all Kansas public school districts with enrollments of 500 and over revealed several characteristics of teacher aide utilization in the state. Such utilization is increasing, especially among larger districts where paid aides predominated over volunteers. In most districts all aides were paid, usually by the…

The state Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funds state programs to help low-income, uninsured children overcome financial barriers to medical care. Previous research found that rural children were more likely to be uninsured than urban children. This report examines the implementation of CHIP and related outreach, enrollment, and…

Presented in this document is a study undertaken by four State Advisory Committees to review the quality and the effectiveness of affirmative action activities in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. An overview of the four States' agencies responsible for education administration, employment services, highways, police, and social services…

Effective administration of rural school districts is a challenge. Rural administrators must develop, execute, and supervise the total school program. Because administrators must do whatever is necessary to operate the program and support staff frequently are not available, administrative roles and responsibilities are many and varied. Most…

This manual is intended to assist volunteer coordinators involved in the Kansas Volunteer Tutor Utilization (KV-TUTOR) project. The first section, which deals with planning, covers management by objectives and a clarification system to test objectives that is denoted by the acronym SMAC (specific, measurable, achievable, compatible). A section on…

PART OF A KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY SERIES ON COMMUNITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT, THIS MONOGRAPH DISCUSSES THE STAGES IN THE PREPARATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF COMPREHENSIVE URBAN SCHEMES. FIRST OF ALL, SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE, ECONOMIC, FEASIBILITY, POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL SATISFACTION ARE VITAL TO SUCCESSFUL PLANNING. ORGANIZATION FOR…