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Sustained inquiry between school administrators and mental health professionals around critical incidents, school policy, and problems of practice is required to mitigate inequities so prominently illuminated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Collaboration between school stakeholders with different role identities and positionalities gainfully blurs structural and organizational barriers to equity and, ultimately, reform. To that end, a formal structure called SLAC, or the Student Life Advisory Council, is presented in the following article. The conceptual rationale for the work of a pioneer three year old SLAC team situated in a large suburban middle school is intentionally grounded in Kaplan and Garner's (2017) DSMRI framework. SLAC's output is then considered through the lens of Victor Ray's theory of racialized organizations (2019). The SLAC approach has the potential to disrupt inequity in schools, build collective capacity for inquiry, and manifest real change in all educational sectors. It is offered to the field for consideration here, with the sincere hope that the organizational hierarchy of schools might be flattened in the interest of our students and their freedom.

School management committees' (SMCs) roles are crucial in the smooth, unfettered administration, development and provision of quality basic education. However, the preponderance of research evidence available indicates that in sub-Saharan Africa SMCs are not adequately involved in preparing and implementing school performance improvement plans (SPIPs). This study surveyed 298 SMC chairpersons and members in the South Tongu District (STD) of Ghana to investigate their knowledge and participation in SPIPs. The results showed that SMC members' limited knowledge of and low involvement in SPIP preparation and implementation were lower than the Ghana Education Service required, which hindered success and contribution to high quality teaching and learning in the schools. These results have implications for improving the quality of education for all by increasing their access to data, technical assistance, and financial resources at the basic school level. We recommend against this backdrop that the STD Education Directorate, in collaboration with the STD Assembly, conduct periodic training workshops, reward success, and provide clear guidelines and expectations to increase SMC members' knowledge and participation in successful SPIP preparation and implementation. Further research needs to focus on SMC members' capacity for sustained school improvement through education policy initiatives at the district and school levels.

Hollywood screenwriters worry about Artificial Intelligence (AI) replacements taking over their jobs. Famous museums litigate to protect their art from AI infringement. A major retailer scraps a machine-learning based recruitment program that was biased against women. These are just a few examples of how AI is affecting the world of work, learning, and living. MIS and computer science students are among the professional groups who are embarking into careers with nebulous frontiers obscured by the outcroppings brought on by AI. Computer Science and Information System curriculum task forces have recognized the increasing ethical and professional implications developers' work can have beyond the scope of the programmers' code. In this article, the authors examine the professional, legal, and ethical implications of copyrights and algorithmic bias resulting from development of AI-enhanced applications and offer suggestions for addressing these topics in courses considering changes to the CC2020 and IS2020 Model Curriculum frameworks.

With the growing recognition of the prevalence and impact of adverse childhood experiences, building trauma-informed service systems is critical. Although there are many online resources to help school systems become more trauma informed, how much they meet the needs of educators is not well understood. To help schools implement trauma-informed practices (TIPS) to support both educators (all school-based certificated staff) and students, a partnership among a California research university, a local foundation, and three school districts was developed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The partnership envisioned a three-phase study to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and outcomes of an intervention supporting TIPS. First, two local districts were engaged in a mixed method needs assessment to explore educators' wellbeing and use of trauma-informed resources. Input from district-level advisory committees guided a needs assessment that informed the development of trainings to (1) help administrators best support their staff, and (2) teach educators how to best support themselves and their students with traumatic stress and related symptoms. Second, researchers curated freely available resources to develop a 3-module administrator training and an 8-module teacher training. Finally, university-based psychologists and teacher educators delivered the curricula in two school districts and the university's teacher education program. Researchers implemented a pretest-posttest evaluation design and gathered in-session feedback after each module. Results indicated that participants found the sessions helpful and relevant and they had greater knowledge of TIPS. Future directions include scaling up implementation, understanding outcomes from multiple perspectives, and integrating follow-up activities to help with skill retention.

To determine factors affecting successful research and publication among medical students, a cross-sectional survey study was carried out at four Thai medical schools during 2018-2022. Medical students who had previously performed research under research advisors' supervision and their research advisors were included. There were 120 participants, 78 medical students and 42 research advisors. The most common problems reported by the students were student's lack of knowledge of research design (78%) and research topic (53%), while the most common problems reported by the advisors were student's lack of knowledge of research topic (55%) and how to prepare documents for ethics committee approval (48%). The promoting factors for research success commonly reported by the students and advisors were "an advisor helps with protocol writing and reviewing the manuscript", "research teaching in the curriculum", "provision of an example of a written ethics committee protocol", and "arranging a special session so that advisors can talk to students about their research of interest". Among the 78 participating students, 20 (26%) had successfully published their research in journals. These 20 students were more likely than those without publications to be from an institute that had a special research project or conference for medical students (20% vs. 0%,) and to suggest that teaching protocol writing helped in promoting research success (70% vs. 43%). These findings suggest that teaching research, a special research project or conference for medical students, and faculty development of research advising could potentially increase the success rate of students' research publications.

In 1974, the United States Congress asked a question prompting a national conversation about ethics: which ethical principles should govern research involving human participants? To embark on an answer, Congress passed the National Research Act, and charged this task to the newly established National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. The Commission's mandate was modest however, the results were anything but. The outcome was "The Belmont Report:" a trio of principles -- respect for persons, beneficence, and justice -- serving as an ethical compass for scientists, researchers, and institutional review boards (IRBs). Almost 50 years later, the utility, legacy, and ingenuity of "The Belmont Report" continues to be both admired and challenged. Critics argue that Belmont is not fit for the 21st century, while supporters praise "Belmont" for its enduring wisdom. The goal of this paper is to equip IRB practitioners with the tools necessary to maximally interpret "The Belmont Report" and meaningfully engage in ethical analysis that reconsiders outmoded legacy thinking and fixed decision-making. Through historical and contextual reflection, this paper describes how IRB practitioners can contemporize review of ethical human research using their moral imagination - a skill found at the intersection of creativity, deliberation, and empathy.

Background/context: Challenges faced by community college students have both intensified and transformed since COVID-19 hit in spring 2020. As colleges transitioned operations online and are still gradually returning to in-person teaching and learning, they have had to experiment with how to help students maintain some sense of connection to their peers, their learning, and their schools. This task is complicated in a community college setting because of the size and diversity of student populations; supporting particular populations such LGBTQIA2S+ students calls for additional layers of ongoing reflection. Purpose: Amid increased backlash and a surge in legislation against LGBTQIA2S+ individuals, community colleges face the challenge of helping this marginalized part of our student population feel confident that they belong on campus. In reflecting on efforts by my college to support LGBTQIA2S+ students before, during, and after the pandemic, I show how a focus on increasing feelings of belonging are instrumental in retaining LGBTQIA2S+ students.

Arab researchers encounter formidable obstacles when conducting and publishing their scientific work. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 17 Arab researchers from various Arab Middle East countries to gain a comprehensive understanding of the difficulties they face in research and publication. We analyzed the transcripts using reflexive thematic analysis. Our findings revealed several key challenges. First, Arab researchers struggle to conduct high-quality research due to limited resources, inadequate funding, and a lack of a supportive research infrastructure. Furthermore, a shortage of teamwork and mentoring diminishes research productivity. Perverse promotion policies, heavy teaching loads, and low salaries force many researchers to seek external income sources, leaving them with insufficient time for research. Regarding publishing in high-impact journals, Arab researchers confront challenges existing of insufficient scientific writing skills, underrepresentation on editorial boards, and unconscious biases against researchers from economically challenged areas. Finally, achieving research integrity is closely tied to lack of access to essential resources. To address these issues, our participants proposed targeted interventions at the institutional and external levels. For example, universities can implement mentoring programs, offer workshops on scientific writing and publishing, and foster a supportive institutional culture for research. Addressing the underrepresentation of Arabic researchers on editorial boards is crucial for equity in global scientific publishing. In conclusion, acknowledging and addressing these challenges will empower Arab researchers, elevate research quality, and promote equitable global scientific collaboration. Our findings provide guidance for universities, governments, and international donors seeking to enhance research and publication practices in the Arab Middle East.

To confront the sense of isolation created by a global pandemic, a rise in book challenges, and navigating newly enacted laws pertaining to school and classroom libraries, school librarians can achieve a positive impact by creating inclusive communities for their students, while also engaging with their own professional communities to increase connection. This issue of "Knowledge Quest" presents several examples of school library-led community engagement when school librarians have implemented innovative projects leading to increased collaboration and community connections. This feature article provides an overview of ideas and approaches to building community through trying times, using current and past challenges as springboards for building stronger bonds and connections within the school and with other stakeholders.

Students with disabilities continue to experience barriers to accessing tertiary (i.e., postsecondary) education in Australia. Using the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) may help educators proactively address barriers through the design of more accessible and inclusive educational experiences. However, at present, references to UDL appear in only a small number of Australian educational policies and tertiary institute websites, and few tertiary educators use UDL in practice. In this article, we describe how a team of educators, learning designers, accessibility advocates, and people with disabilities from multiple institutions across Australia collaborated to co-create a free, accessible eLearning program to build workforce knowledge and skill in UDL. We first describe how the advisory group was established, how the Knowledge to Action cycle was used to guide the activities of the advisory group, and the evaluation framework that was used to assess the outcomes of the eLearning program. We share potential future activities to raise awareness of UDL and influence policy and practice in local contexts and propose directions for future work in this area.

Successful honors programs inspire and sustain a vibrant and committed faculty. This essay presents an established honors program which demonstrates, through varied faculty commitments over time, honors as a valuable asset in identifying, recruiting, supporting, and rewarding a strong, creative, loyal faculty that benefits the entire institution. Authors suggest multiple ways for establishing and nurturing the kinds of relationships that enhance both honors and its dedicated faculty. Leveraging honors for professional growth and pedagogical development, these include the design of interdisciplinary courses and special seminars, mentoring of student projects, engaging in study-travel ventures, winning distinguished awards, serving on important committees, earning academic grants, and presenting at conferences. As exemplified in its long and rich history, honors continues to be an incubating space for faculty development and student success.

This article argues for a Deweyan "democratic design" approach to program leadership that builds programmatic ideals into leadership practices. To illustrate democratic design in practice, we draw from case studies of two partnership programs based in writing studies--a writing partnership between the University of Arizona and area high schools and a collaboration between Salt Lake City Community College and the University of Utah--that utilize community advisory boards and democratic processes to work toward stakeholder-oriented approaches to leadership. Through these case studies, we emphasize three core principles of democratic design, including stakeholder leadership, political vision, and epistemic equity, that can be applicable across a range of programmatic opportunities. For leaders in composition studies who see collaboration as central to their mission, democratic design can serve as a linchpin for aligning processes with values.

As a reviewer of middle level schools, their programs, policies, curricula, mission statements, instructional behaviors, assessment processes, and student-oriented community the author offers observations that can promote better student equity. He suggests: (1) "Producing Equity Belief Statements." Mission, Equity, or Inclusion Statements that drive their actions as well as those of school board members, administrators, bus drivers, coaches, custodians, cafeteria workers, and front office personnel. (2) "Middle Level Students' Voices." Young adolescents are constantly searching for identity. This self-examination and searching for acceptance make young adolescents perfect sources of information for educators who want to address their needs, including how to create inclusive and equitable learning communities. (3) "Preventing Inequitable Disciplinary Practices." The level of respect for students can easily be assessed by the way students who need social, emotional, and behavioral guidance are supported. (4) "Inequitable School Dress Codes." Dress code guidelines should take priority as evidence of educators' comprehension of and commitment to equitable ideals. (5) "Equity in Teaming Structures." Teaming offers occasions for teachers to collaborate on curricular issues, develop and deliver interdisciplinary and teachable-moment lessons on racial events, LGBTQIA+ topics, religious differences, and socioeconomic challenges to clarify misunderstandings that young adolescents commonly experience. (6) "Advisory." Middle level faculty who implement effective advisory programs make a commitment to provide an adult advocate for every student, address students' social and emotional needs, and promote greater student success.

Subject to the South African Schools Act, 84 of 1996 section 16(1), the governance of every public school is vested in its governing body and it may perform only such functions and obligations and exercise only such rights as prescribed by the Act. Section 30(1a) of this Act demands school governing bodies to establish committees and appoint members of the School Governing Body (SGB) to such committees based on expertise. With this study I investigated the financial management decision-making of school finance committees in public primary schools in the Mpumalanga province in South Africa. A qualitative approach was applied in the study. Focus-group interviews were used to collect data from the purposefully selected 2 public primary schools in which the finance committee members were involved. A case study design was applied. Thematic data analysis was used to analyse the collected data. All the participants demonstrated awareness of their financial management decision-making roles. Participants revealed that they did not perform their roles effectively due to their illiteracy levels, limited understanding of financial management legislation, inadequate training, interference of the principals in the management of finances, poor consultation and communication. I recommend to the Department of Education to provide financial committees with adequate support and training, to capacitate principals in the area of human relations and resource management and consider appointing financial management advisors at the circuit offices within districts to assist in guiding, monitoring and evaluating the financial management processes in schools on a regular basis.

For teens growing up in military-connected families, challenges relating to relocation, parental deployment, and reintegration add layers of stress to an already complex time of life. Out-of-school time programs provide military-connected teens opportunities to utilize existing strengths, develop new skills, and build support networks, as exemplified in the Military Teen Ambassador (MTA) program -- a positive youth development program developed by the Boys and Girls Clubs of America in collaboration with the US Armed Forces. This study investigates the developmental benefits experienced by the teens serving on the MTA Steering Committee -- a youth-adult collaboration designed to plan and deliver the MTA program. Interviews with teen and adult participants were analyzed through the lenses of relational developmental systems theory and a structured evaluation framework. Findings contribute insights into developmental processes and outcomes for programs targeting military-connected youth and provide applied implications that extend to broader youth and adult populations.

Purpose: The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for Higher Education in the UK focuses on maintaining, enhancing and standardising the quality of higher education. Of significant impact are the development of subject benchmark statements (SBS) by the QAA, which describe the type and content of study along with the academic standards expected of graduates in specific disciplines. Prior to 2022, the QAA did not have a SBS to which higher education policing programmes could be directly aligned. Design/methodology/approach: Over 12-months, a SBS advisory group with representatives from higher education across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, The College of Policing, QAA, Police Federation of England and Wales and policing, worked in partnership to harness their collective professional experience and knowledge to create the first UK SBS for policing. Post publication of the SBS, permission was sought and granted from both the College of Policing and QAA for members of the advisory group to reflect in an article on their experiences of collaborating and working in partnership to achieve the SBS. Findings: There is great importance of creating a shared vision and mutual trust, developed through open facilitated discussions, with representatives championing their cause and developing a collaborative and partnership approach to completing the SBS. Practical implications: A collaborative and partnership approach is essential in developing and recognising the academic discipline of policing. This necessarily requires the joint development of initiatives, one of which is the coming together of higher education institutions, PSRBs and practitioner groups to collaborate and design QAA benchmark statements. Social implications: The SBS advisory group has further driven forward the emergence of policing as a recognised academic discipline to benefit multiple stakeholders. Originality/value: The SBS for policing is the first across the UK. The authors experiences can be used to assist others in their developments of similar subject specific benchmarking or academic quality standards.

Over the past 30 years, the nation has experienced a decline in the number of public school library programs. New York City has been trying to combat this trend by implementing several innovative programs. One of them is the VITAL Libraries program. VITAL stands for Vital, Instructional, Transformative, Accessible, Learning Libraries. It is a program New York City school librarians can apply to for a grant of up to $50,000 to enhance and revitalize their school libraries. The goal was to take existing school libraries to the next level by making them more sustainable. The program also sought to create model school libraries across the city. One way to make school libraries more viable and equitable was to require the school's administrators to be more heavily embedded in their school's library programs. How to persuade them to be more involved? The program would require the principals to commit to participating on the Library Advisory Committee (LAC), in return for this substantial and coveted grant. A LAC is a group consisting of the library's stakeholders, who have a vested interest in the operational success of the school library program. The purpose of the LAC is also to increase buy-in for the school library program from stakeholders and others in the school community, develop and design the school library program, and build community and create community ownership.

This article describes a successful Wyoming partnership recently developed between the long-standing Wyoming Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (WAHPERD) and the newly founded Wyoming Physical Education Teaching (WYO PETe) Collaborative. The organization leaders engaged in extended discussion about how this multi-sector partnership could collaborate to offer Wyoming physical educators a range of professional development (PD) opportunities that meets their individual needs and the unique barriers they face. The decision to combine efforts resulted in WAHPERD and WYO PETe expanding PD opportunities at state convention and throughout the year. The partnership also saw multiple inservice physical educators joining with university faculty and graduate students to form a WAHPERD Advocacy Committee to survey Wyoming physical education and physical activity policy implementation and develop advocacy tools and guidance documents for teachers to use in their districts. The partnership also led to an annual WAHPERD hosted student event called Healthy Kids Roundup that empowers middle school students and their teachers to promote health and wellness in their schools.

Background: Youth may be reluctant to seek health care from school health providers due to feeling embarrassed or stigmatized in the health office environment or worried about their confidentiality. The purpose of this project was to create a set of youth-centered health posters that promote youth engagement with nursing staff and to standardize health messaging across high schools in Hawaii school-based clinics. Methods: Two community advisory boards, 1 composed of 10 youth stakeholders (mean age 17 years) and the other of 7 adult stakeholders, informed poster development utilizing web-based discussion groups. The discussions were transcribed, and additional data was collected using field notes and anonymous digital messages. Adult advisory board members also provided feedback on suggested poster text through an online survey. Results: Youth and adult advisory board participants identified 4 key health concerns facing youth: confidentiality, sexual health, relationships, and mental health. Based on input from the 2 advisory boards, 4 posters were developed, each centered on 1 key health issue. Implications for School Health Policy, Practice, and Equity: School-based posters can convey important messages to help youth understand their health care rights and responsibilities, as well as identify important issues open for discussion with nurses. Conclusion: Posters are an underutilized tool for school health providers to create welcoming, inclusive health care environments and facilitate health-related conversations with youth. This paper describes participant feedback about the characteristics of a memorable poster and briefly outlines current knowledge and recommendations for school health providers regarding each of the 4 health issues.

In 2016, an NCAA multidisciplinary task force published a consensus document outlining best practices for addressing student-athletes mental wellness. However, despite their recommendations and the growing development of mental health services for college student-athletes, no published literature exists reviewing the existing models of collegiate sport psychology programs. This article serves to address that gap by providing a general overview of common models, followed by an in-depth description of a successful sport psychology model at a Power Five, Division I athletic program. Considerations and recommendations for other institutions, including barriers to student-athlete wellness, availability of university resources, and advantages and disadvantages of the models, will be discussed.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the professional identity, post-degree experience, and journal article publication counts of 798 editorial board members who served on 22 counseling journals. Implications of these findings for counselor education and editorial board membership are discussed.

Several authors have underlined that processes of Europeanisation of education emerge despite the European Union's lack of formal power in this area. This article argues on the contrary that its lack of power precisely enables the EU to open up a range of possibilities for its involvement in this sector, among which the ET2020 Working Groups (WG) of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC). Based on observations of WG meetings and interviews with key actors, and using Niklas Luhmann's systems-theory, we aim to show how the distance separating the ET2020 WG from the formal circuits of European decision-making acts as a resource for the development of a European discourse on education. Alongside the ordinary legislative procedure based on voting and implementing collectively binding decisions, the alternative political circuit of the OMC is based on the irritation of a set of education sector stakeholders through the creation and dissemination of reports of 'good practices'. In doing so, the ET2020 Working Groups illustrate how politics transforms itself and redefines its boundaries when it is structured at the European level rather than at the level of the nation-state.

Numerous universities throughout the world have established top-level advisory boards -- informal bodies and councils that the institutional leadership may consult on issues perceived as important. Through a series of qualitative interviews with members of such entities as well as representatives of the institutions appointing them, the article sheds light on how strategic advisory bodies function, and how these entities frame and interact with the institutional leadership. We observe that strategic advisory boards represent a hybrid form of governance installing mutual dependencies between representatives of the boards and the institutional leadership -- what we label as a kind of controlled collegiality. While university leadership acts as a gatekeeper controlling access to these boards, once members are nominated the power relations between the actors, become more equal. The study highlights the importance of strategic advisory boards as new elements in higher education governance -- working in the shadow of more formal governance arrangements. Here, we argue that the establishment of these boards can be interpreted as a re-introduction of a collegial element in universities exposed to a number of reforms resulting in more streamlined and managerial governance structures.

Postsecondary readiness is critical to broadening opportunities for educational and career options beyond high school. However, Black males are often at a disadvantage to gaining access to postsecondary preparation and school counselors who can respond to their academic needs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the experiences and culturally responsive practices of school stakeholders (who are predominantly Black) from an academy of engineering (career academy). The authors used a case study approach to examine culturally responsive practices school personnel utilize to enhance the college and career readiness of Black males. Findings emphasize the role of culturally responsive practices (e.g., Black male role models from business and industry in the engineering field and school counselors), cultural matching, and the role of the advisory board in ensuring the success of Black male students. Recommendations for practice, policy, and research for Black males and school counselors are discussed.

This article compares the purposes and content of the four foundational documents of the American Evaluation Association (AEA): the Program Evaluation Standards, the AEA Public Statement on Cultural Competence in Evaluation, the AEA Evaluator Competencies, and the AEA Guiding Principles. This reflection on alignment is an early effort in the third step of professionalization: defining how to use and recognize evaluator competencies. The analysis intentionally focuses on content and reflects on the implications of the differences and similarities across documents. The comparison reveals important questions of interest at both the micro level (individual evaluator) and the macro level (evaluation). The article concludes with challenges, learnings, and proposed next steps of AEA's Professionalization and Competencies Working Group.

This study evaluated the inclusion and representation of women serving on school psychology journal editorial boards from 1965 to 2020. A total of 3,267 names were collected from six journals at 5-year increments and coded for gender using a four-step process. Across 55 years, women constituted 38% of editorial boards across these journals. When considering their levels of service, they constituted 10% of editors, 42% of associate editors, and 39% of board members. Women demonstrated a consistent increase in participation across all levels, with an overall change from 3.4% to 54.8%. In 2020, five out of six journals included more than 50% women on their editorial boards. However, underrepresentation of women is still apparent as recent reports showed women compose 87% of school psychologists, 63% of school psychology faculty, and 85% of school psychology doctoral recipients. Low numbers of women as editors as well as differences in women's participation across journals suggest a need for further evaluation of potential bias and gender-related barriers related to service in school psychology journals.

As an alternative to Hunt et al.'s (1997) general guidelines for strategic planning and Chance and William's (2009) summative rubric for evaluating university strategic plans, this article proposes a new rubric, the Rubric for Formatively Assessing Strategic Plans in Higher Education. The purpose of this new rubric is to provide institutional strategic planning committees with feedback throughout the strategic planning process to help colleges and universities strengthen their strategies and strategic plans. This formative approach is especially supportive of colleges and universities who are seeking to or who are in the process of changing their vision or core strategies. Additionally, the rubric is designed to meet the diverse needs of colleges and universities, including large and small schools, private and public, and community college through graduate programs, who create a similarly wide range of strategic planning products (e.g., websites, booklets, briefs) that serve varied audiences (e.g., administrative teams, faculty and staff, students, alumni, the public) by framing strategic plans into four core components: informative inputs, strategic direction, strategic actions, and design. Finally, the rubric provides institutions with the opportunity to assess their plans holistically or analytically, thereby providing an efficient multi-use tool. By applying this rubric formatively, institutions may improve their strategic plans by gaining added insights to their strategic planning process, strategic thinking, and strategies.