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Emotional, behavioral, and mental health challenges make it difficult for many children and adolescents to engage and succeed at school. Research indicates that at least 20% of all children and adolescents have been diagnosed with one more mental health disorders. Behavioral problems, anxiety, and depression are the most diagnosed mental health issues, and they often co-occur. Moreover, these conditions are being diagnosed at increasingly younger ages. In the past several years there has been a rise in the number of adolescents and young adults with serious mental health issues such as major depression and suicidal ideation, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated mental health problems for children and adolescents. Schools offer promise for providing intensive clinical support to the most at-risk students, and schools are necessary environment to explore the implementation of multi-modal youth mental health services. This paper provides an analysis of an intensive, in-school mental health services model developed and implemented by Effective School Solutions (ESS), a New Jersey based provider of high acuity school based mental health services for K-12 students. We analyze this multi-modal model for its effectiveness in improving educational outcomes for over 3,000 students identified as requiring intensive clinical mental health support across the 2021-22 school year. This analysis reveals that those students receiving High- versus Low-fidelity programming (i.e., multiple sessions per week for at least half of the school year versus for less than half of the school year) had better educational outcomes. Students receiving High-fidelity programming had greater improvements in grade point average (GPA) and greater reductions in absences across the school year. A higher number of in-school clinical sessions per week significantly predicted a greater increase in GPA and a greater reduction in total disciplinary incidents (including out of school suspensions) across the school year. This report provides initial promising evidence that in-school intensive mental health clinical services yield positive effects on students' educational outcomes. Though future research is needed to validate and extend these findings, schools may consider implementing such services onsite to meet students where they are and to optimize students' mental, behavioral, and educational well-being. [This white paper report was published by the Yale Child Study Center."]

This paper analyzes the influence of three different learning paradigms for learning literacy--formalist, cognitive-processing, and literacy practices--on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. It argues that the Common Core State Standards are based largely on a formalist paradigm as evident in the emphasis on teaching text structure/genre forms for reading, writing, and speaking/listening. It also notes that much of the analysis of alignment of the Common Core State Standards with state standards (Porter et al., 2011) as well as the development of "learning progressions" is based on cognitivist learning/cognitive stage model paradigms. And, it posits the value of adopting an alternative literacy practice paradigm that focuses on creating authentic contexts for literacy learning. It also cites research on issues about creating false expectations for low-income students in ways that do not serve students' best interests. All of this suggests the need for further research on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards.

The purpose of this study was two-fold. It was first to find out what the educational materials needs were for children living in poverty, and second, to learn of the challenges, obstacles, and strengths by the programs already in place that were supplying educational materials to these children. This study used interviews and surveys as data gathering methods. Of the 244 electronic surveys sent to educators around the U.S., 17 survey responses were returned from participants in California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In addition, 15 key informants were chosen because of their personal and professional knowledge about the specific needs for educational materials when dealing with children living in poverty. Results from the 32 educators in this study showed that books were the most needed item in both classrooms and in homes. All of the participants stated that any books or reading materials would be of help to the children. When family priorities dictate that they choose food and clothes over the purchase of books, parents and caregivers must next rely on public schools to provide a good education for their children. Needs in schools included English and bilingual books, magazines, newspapers, pens, pencils, paper, current maps and globes, art supplies, educational videotapes, and computers. Very few programs or organizations could be found that specifically supplied educational materials to children living in poverty. Eighty-three percent of the organizations who provide educational materials for children living in poverty interviewed said that they did not personally conduct ongoing evaluations of the children they served due to a lack of funding and resources. While some authors have written from their personal experiences about the poor conditions of the schools in the U.S., no studies have reported what schools in poverty need in their classrooms or what educational materials children living in poverty need from the point of view of receiving an equal education. A website could be established for teachers in the U.S. or possibly around the world for sharing ideas and communicating with one another about their classroom needs, and the availability of excess materials for children living in poverty. Next, teachers could be encouraged to both donate and solicit books and other materials from their communities by hosting a book fair at the end of each school year. (Contains 1 figure.)

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate initiatives the state government announced in 2006 to review the curriculum and assessments, and enhance capacity building and accountability. The methodology for reviewing states' systemic reform policies devised by Achieve, an organisation based in Washington, DC, was applied to identify issues and challenges confronting these initiatives, and determine whether they improve capacity building, accountability and public leadership. The results indicated that the initiatives took account of surveys conducted by the Australian Education Union and Tasmanian State School Parents and Friends, and the Reporting to Parents Taskforce. Comparisons with standards-based reforms in California, Indiana, and Massachusetts identified that some factors leading to success in these states were absent in Tasmania. Potential for improving capacity building and accountability has been met by an 18-month plan. David Bartlett, the new Minister for Education, has restored credible leadership following controversy over the Essential Learnings curriculum in 2005, but absense of a cross-sectoral group to provide strong leadership limits the likelihood of successful reform. Comparison with the controversy over the Profile of Learning in Minnesota revealed similarities to challenges faced in Tasmania. A set of recommendations is presented to meet challenges faced by curriculum reform in Tasmania.

Using critical constructivism as the theoretical lens, the researcher used action research to systematically examine the experience of PreK-12 teachers in his district-based teacher research professional development course, while also examining his development as a teacher educator. The results of this study showed that the teachers made progress as teacher-researchers. The teachers expressed being empowered by the teacher research process and showed a critical awareness in their work. Finally, the teachers faced several important barriers in adopting an inquiry stance in their practice. This research generates both local and global knowledge about teacher research as a form of inservice teacher education. Three appendices include: (1) Interview Protocol; (2) Questionnaire; and (3) Coding Dictionary.

A year-long collaborative action research project used networked technologies to connect researchers at a university-based online professional development program and a group of practitioner researchers based in a range of schools and educational agencies in several countries. They studied the process and effects of online professional development structured by specific research-based educational frameworks, refined a model of systemic educational improvement that includes online professional development, and devised a new approach to collaborative action research to support such work. Their report describes a coherent school improvement model with impacts on teachers, school leaders, students, and educational systems and illustrates the power of networked technologies for 21st century collaborative action research. (Contains 1 figure and 1 footnote.)