The problem addressed was that academic achievement gaps existed for low socioeconomic status (SES) family special education students among special education students in United States schools. This problem was important because it negatively affected equity in education as low SES community special education students lagged behind more affluent…

This paper examines the feasibility of developing a new Master Volunteer training program to help communities adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Traditional models of volunteer training programs, such as the Cooperative Extension Master Volunteer peer-to-peer learning model, are based in part on Diffusion Theory. The existing…

Over the past decade, national initiatives have shifted States' attention to the challenge of turning around low-performing schools. The lack of consistent, dramatic improvements in the lowest-performing schools reflects the severity of the school turnaround challenge, but also suggests the need to continuously evaluate and refine turnaround…

Research shows that active student participation facilitates learning. However, encouraging undergraduate college students to engage meaningfully in classroom discussion and to respond to questions, especially in larger classes, can often be frustrating for instructors (Weaver & Qi, 2005). Set against a focused review of the literature, the…

In Spring 2010, the Delaware Education Research and Development Center conducted an evaluation of Delaware's PBS project, an initiative focused on developing a school-wide system of strategies to reduce behavior problems and foster a positive school climate. The study focused on facilitators and barriers to PBS implementation, and also included…

In Spring 2010, the Delaware Education Research and Development Center conducted an evaluation of Delaware's PBS project, an initiative focused on developing a school-wide system of strategies to reduce behavior problems and foster a positive school climate. The study focused on facilitators and barriers to PBS implementation, and also included…

The investigation identified Delaware public and charter middle schools across the state which outperformed other Delaware middle schools with similar student demographic profiles. Teachers and administrators at six of these "Beating the Odds" schools and at six comparison middle schools were surveyed regarding their schools…

In 1990, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) included a Trial State Assessment (TSA); for the first time in the NAEP's history, voluntary state-by-state assessments (37 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Virgin Islands) were made. The sample was designed to represent the 8th grade public school population in a state…