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The United States along with the rest of the world has experienced an unprecedented disruption in daily life due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost everyone has experienced some sort of stay at home order resulting in an economic catastrophe greater than the Great Recession of 2008 and on par with the Great Depression almost a century ago. Educational institutions at both the K-12 and post-secondary levels have not been immune from the shutdown, with many schools closed from mid-March through the end of the 2020 school year. Many schools moved classes to remote, distance delivery platforms. Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers were tasked with creative engaging learning activities online for curricula which is taught in a hands-on contextual learning environment. This paper will present preliminary results from research conducted by a collaborative group of nine researchers from across the United States with collectively over 200 years of career and technical education experience. The conceptual framework used for this study was Danielson's Framework for Teaching and Enhancing Professional Practice and Foundations of Career and Technical Education including Constructivism. 3,267 participants representing all 50 states responded to the 37-item survey. The research objectives included description of participants and identified challenges to planning and delivery of CTE content when schools were closed, and instruction was moved to remote/distance/online platforms. Participants ranked their challenges as instructors and their perceptions of challenges that were experienced by their students. CTE teachers ranked replicating classroom or lab environments online and lack of experience teaching online as their biggest challenges. The perceptions of the participants concerning challenges for their students included motivation to guide and manage their own learning and students' access to reliable internet connection. The emergence and prevalence of the COVID-19 pandemic added a layer of complexity to educational practice that was not foreseen and for which no intentional preparation had occurred. Understanding how CTE teachers and instructors responded to this call, and the challenges they and their students encountered, is important to efforts to improve practice in the future and to be in a better position should another crisis occur that forces learning to be delivered in alternative formats from that of the traditional face-to-face classroom. [Note: The page range (177-194) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range is 177-193.]

Data analytics is a rapidly growing field that plays a crucial role in extracting valuable insights from large volumes of data. A data analytics practicum course provides students with hands-on experience in applying data analytics techniques and tools to real-world scenarios. This practicum is intended to serve as a bridge between the student's academic environment and the professional application of their skills in an employment and internship setting. This study examined the design of a data analytics practicum course. The main objectives included (1) the identification of topics and skills employers look for in new hires in data analytics-related internships and entry-level positions, (2) the development and implementation of a Data Analytics practicum course and (3) reflection on the first-time offering of the course and suggested improvements for the next iteration. As part of this study, industry and organization survey responses drove the design of the course and development of key student learning gains for five learning modules throughout the semester. Faculty within the departments of information technology (IT), mathematics, and statistics collaborated in the construction, development, and implementation of team-teaching instructional practices of the Data Analytics Practicum in Spring 2023. This study applies an interdisciplinary approach to data analytics practicum development and instruction.

Pell eligibility for incarcerated people is a great rehabilitative opportunity, but several challenges remain. This article recaps five of the issues identified by the original research articles in this special issue. It also considers how solutions proposed in these studies may be beneficial across a variety of these issues and gathers recommendations together by which actor could implement them. Problems and solutions are corroborated by the author's personal experience with incarceration.

The reinstatement of Pell grant eligibility for incarcerated individuals marks a pivotal moment in the landscape of higher education in prison (HEP) programming in the United States. However, despite this promising development, financial barriers persist, hindering the growth and sustainability of HEP initiatives. This qualitative study delves into the challenges faced by faculty, staff, and administrators within Pennsylvania's colleges and universities as they establish and operate HEP programs amidst an evolving funding environment. Drawing on interviews with nine HEP administrators across the state, we explore obstacles they confront, ranging from the Pell grant funding gap to logistical hurdles such as access to educational materials and technology. Moreover, demographic disparities and security concerns emerge as significant factors impacting the relationship between HEP programs and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC). Our findings extend beyond financial constraints, revealing broader systemic barriers to equitable and accessible HEP programming. We provide potential policy solutions to address these multifaceted challenges and foster a more supportive institutional environment for post-secondary education in Pennsylvania's carceral system.

Higher education students, formally adults, are nevertheless subject to adultism. The co-authors of this article--the director of the Students as Teachers and Learners (SaLT) program and three undergraduates who have worked in pedagogical partnership with faculty through SaLT--discuss how this program counters adultism on three levels: conceptually, structurally, and personally/interpersonally. We conclude with implications of this work for others interested in creating structures, practices, and relationships that counter adultism in higher education.

This article examines the ways in which interdisciplinary small groups were used in a school setting in order to drive students' "joyful engagement and" literacy instruction. Drawing from the work of Dr. Gholdy Muhammad in "Cultivating Genius" (2020) and "Unearthing Joy" (2023) we designed and implemented a summer program built around bolstering foundational literacy skills, with an intentional focus on helping students experience joy and making each and every child feel special. In keeping true to the work of Dr. Muhammad, we designed learning opportunities to develop students' intellect, skills, and criticality, and grounded those competencies in their identity. The program design--including structured small groups, texts chosen to empower and resonate with our specific population of students, multiple opportunities to connect with the same texts--fostered an experience in which students were immersed in literacy in an authentic and meaningful way. Throughout this article we discuss how we implemented this work with rising first through third graders in a collaborative effort with the Netter Center and Penn GSE and share teacher feedback as well as student data.

Using the Pennsylvania Department of Education Family/Community Standards, university professors from the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford collaborated with multiple community clubs such as the Rotary and Kiwanis as well as local agencies including St. Bonaventure University on the development and implementation of a family literacy day event that assisted a rural community with increasing family literacy engagement. Seventeen community agencies/clubs and forty-two university students engaged in event coordination. Thirty-two families, including 82 children, attended. These standards aided in an efficacious first year event.

The term nature deficit disorder describes the "human costs of alienation from nature" (Louv, 2019). While not meant to be a medical diagnosis, Louv argues that the condition has, "profound implications, not only for the health of future generations but for the health of the earth itself" (Louv, 2008). Children most at risk are those who live or go to school in an urban setting, as well as students diagnosed with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD). Students diagnosed with EBD are often kept indoors as their teachers and caretakers are frequently trained in the indoor use only of behavior management techniques (Riden et al., 2022). This means that during professional development training, any that pertain to behavior management techniques, procedure, or protocol are routinely taught inside of a classroom, conference room, or recently home office, using an indoor scenario (classroom, auditorium, cafeteria, etc.) as an example of when and how to use these behavior management tools. Outdoor professional development, equipping students with natural tools that can help improve not only their physical but also their mental health, as well as connecting students with nature in a way that teaches them to advocate for the health of the earth, thus becoming citizen stewards are all themes that are part of the massive, currently dysfunctional system that is outdoor education in schools. This study shows that when students are encouraged to interact with nature on their own terms on-task behaviors and motivation increase. Students also retained lesson information and asked follow-up questions after the lesson when taught outside using hands-on activities.

Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, increasing attention has been paid to rural communities. For our study, we used a multicase study approach that included five states to study the difference between the rhetoric about the need to focus more attention on rural communities soon after the 2016 election and the practiced reality of state conditions (e.g., policies, practices, constraints) changing to support postsecondary education outcomes (e.g., enrollment, retention, and graduation) for rural students between 2017 and 2021. We collected and analyzed two forms of data for our study, legislative records and newspaper articles. We noted inequitable funding for rural K-12 education in several states. While some state policymakers responded to these inequities, their responses raised questions about the unintended consequences for some of the decisions. In addition, we found state policymakers and leaders have placed increased attention on postsecondary education enrollment and affordability, but we found limited evidence that attention was paid to rural students and rural-serving higher education institutions and to postsecondary education retention and graduation for rural students.

Prior to the fall semester of 2017, the elementary preservice teachers who were enrolled in a science methods course engaged in a variety of field experiences across different settings, mostly informal. Beginning in the fall semester of 2017, students enrolled in this science methods course completed their field experience in formalized classroom settings. Most students were placed at the site of a partnership school, a K-8 building in the local urban school district where an automated greenhouse was built. At the outset, the original study aimed to compare the self-efficacy for science teaching of the elementary education preservice teachers pre- and post-greenhouse implementation. However, the construction of the greenhouse was delayed and thus accidentally created a third cohort of students in addition to pre- and post-greenhouse. This third cohort of students were placed in a K-8 school setting but did not have access to the greenhouse. This paper compares the first two cohorts of preservice teachers, those who completed informal field experiences, and those who completed school-based field experiences without the utilization of the greenhouse.

The 4-H program is America's largest youth development organization (National 4-H Council, 2019). The 4-H program is part of the Cooperative Extension system, which provides unbiased, research-based educational programming to communities through the land grant university system (USDA, 2019). Volunteers play a major role in the delivery and functioning of Cooperative Extension's 4-H Youth Development program. 4-H volunteer leaders serve in various capacities (Radhakrishna & Ewing, 2011), including leading 4-H clubs, organizing educational clinics for youth members on various topics, and assisting with educational events and camps. Around ten thousand volunteers currently serve the Pennsylvania 4-H program. 1, 2018). In the 4-H program, volunteers often spend more time with youth and families than 4-H Extension educators and paid program staff, as they are the adults teaching and working with the youth. This can lead to volunteers having a closer relationship with 4-H members than 4-H staff. Despite volunteers' integral role in maintaining the 4-H program, Penn State Extension has not recently examined 4-H volunteer leaders' satisfaction (Dr. Josh Rice, , October 1, 2018 personal communication), reasons for volunteering, and turnover intention. Ensuring volunteers are satisfied and provided with conditions to thrive and grow through their work is vital to 4-H and the Cooperative Extension system. 4-H educators must understand volunteer service motivators (Cleveland & Thompson, 2007) to recruit and maintain dedicated and fulfilled volunteers. Therefore, the authors examined Pennsylvania 4-H Extension volunteers' experience with volunteering in a twenty-first century context. Results will help improve Pennsylvania Extension's 4-H program's service for volunteers, enhance volunteers' effectiveness in the Pennsylvania 4-H program, and improve clientele satisfaction. Services for volunteers include training and recognition programs. If volunteer feedback data support volunteer programming, they will likely make volunteers feel more satisfied with their experience (Pascuet et al., 2012).

Staff meetings are a regular occurrence in schools, yet both teachers and principals typically report dissatisfaction with these meetings. The current investigation seeks to understand the viewpoints of public-school teachers on silence during staff meetings. This was the first known investigation on the topic using Q methodology. Data analysis extracted three distinct viewpoints: "Get the Party Started, I Don't Care Anymore, and Don't Stop Believin'." This study provides the results of data analysis, responds to research questions, and makes recommendations for meeting design and facilitation. The findings indicate how the principal facilitates the meeting seems to have a more pronounced influence on teacher silence behaviors, teacher attitudes towards staff meetings, and their own silence levels, while the leadership style was less impactful. Regardless of the principal's leadership style, teachers report increased satisfaction when the principal intentionally designed and facilitated relevant and impactful staff meetings where group norms were followed.

In an effort to improve student success and thus retention, the College of Arts & Sciences at a highly selective MidAtlantic private undergraduate university in the United States developed a for-credit course titled "Psychology of Success." The course, grounded in positive psychology, adopts a strengths-based approach. Students who are on academic warning after their first semester are enrolled in the course, although not required to remain in the course. After four years of implementation, student outcomes for those who participated, across a variety of dimensions--including retention, persistence, and graduation--had better outcomes than those who did not participate. This practice report will share the philosophy, methodology, and implementation of the course as well as results from the first four years of implementation.

Why are many urban universities' relationships with their surrounding communities fraught despite university efforts at community engagement? Relationships between the factors underlying university-driven neighborhood change remain largely unexplored. In this article, I take the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) as a case study and examine the relationship between campus security on the one hand and university-related redevelopment projects in Penn's West Philadelphia neighborhood on the other. I ask what this relationship can reveal about how university-driven neighborhood change operates and why Penn's relationship with its community is persistently tense. I organize my data into two case studies and argue that campus safety and redevelopment have long worked hand-in-hand to securitize campus by creating and reinforcing private zones of exclusivity. Not only have crime and resulting security measures played a key role in driving redevelopment projects, but recently, redevelopment itself has further begun to serve as a form of securitization.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread closures of early care and education (ECE) facilities that negatively impacted children's socioemotional, behavioral, and academic development. Policies permitting child care centers to remain open by obtaining waivers from closure directives involved varying levels of administrative burden. This study examined administrative burden within waiver policies and its association with ECE stability, as measured by children's enrollment in waiver-obtaining child care centers. I found Black children were significantly less likely than White children to be enrolled in a waiver-obtaining center, and also far less likely to have a center that obtained a waiver very early on in the pandemic. Analyses showed rates of enrollment in waiver-obtaining centers were far lower among children whose centers experienced more administrative burden, and suggested racial disparities in ECE stability were driven by Black children's concentrated residence in communities where the waiver application process was more burdensome.

Racial/ethnic minoritized youth are underrepresented in autism research. Documented inequities in accessibility to and utilization of autism-specific services highlight the importance of better understanding for whom and under what conditions autism evidence-based practices (EBPs) work. This report examines the race, ethnicity, sex, and gender of school-based autism research participants (e.g. educators, students), given schools are the most common setting in which autistic youth receive services in the United States (US). Data across 14 years of research, for eight school-based studies in the US, showed that while most teachers identified as non-Hispanic White, over half of the youth sampled identified as being of a racial/ethnic minoritized background. Findings provide insights into who is being served in school-based autism research and how school partnerships may increase diversity among autism research participants and offer a means of reducing existing barriers. Researchers should continue to utilize schools to reach diverse populations and consider how demographic characteristics of school staff affect EBP effectiveness. Researchers should continue to better understand the impact of the EBP, provider, and setting on outcomes.

William Frederick ("Fred") Cardin served as a director of instrumental music in the Reading, Pennsylvania, School District from 1930 until his retirement in June 1960. An accomplished performer and composer, Cardin studied at the Curtis School of Music and the Conservatoire Américaine in Paris, France. He is remembered as an outstanding educator and conductor both in the public schools and with community organizations. Cardin was also known as Pejawah, his Native American name. To gain further insight regarding Cardin's musical legacy and how it reflects his heritage, interviews were conducted with former students and colleagues. Additional artifacts were collected pertaining to his education, influences, and accomplishments. Cardin pursued a focused mission through compositions and performances to promote Native American music and culture while also demonstrating aptitude in music composition, performance, and conducting. Cardin is one individual who pursued a successful career in music and music education while navigating the issues of racial discrimination.

Anatomy with human dissection may help to develop respect for the human body and professionalism; however, dissection may worsen students' attitudes about body weight and adiposity. The purpose of this study was to measure weight bias among Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students enrolled in gross anatomy and determine if, and how the experience of dissection impacts weight bias. Ninety-seven DPT students (70 University of Colorado [CU], 27 Moravian University [MU]) were invited to complete a survey during the first and final weeks of their anatomy course. The survey included demographic items, two measures of weight bias--the Modified Weight Bias Internalized Scale (M-WBIS) and the Attitudes Towards Obese Persons (ATOP) Scale--and open-ended questions for the students who participated in dissection (CU students) that explored attitudes about body weight and adiposity. At baseline, there were no significant differences (p > 0.202) in ATOP, M-WBIS, or BMI between the two universities. The mean scores on both the ATOP and M-WBIS indicated a moderate degree of both internalized and externalized weight bias. There were no significant changes in ATOP (p = 0.566) or M-WBIS scores (p = 0.428). BMI had a low correlation with initial M-WBIS scores ([rho] = 0.294, p = 0.038) and a high correlation with change scores in CU students ([rho] = 0.530, p = 0.011). Future studies should utilize the same measures of weight bias in other healthcare trainees to facilitate comparison and incorporate larger populations of DPT students.

Background: Long-term care services are funded primarily by Medicaid long-term services and support in the United States, where eligibility is based on care needs of the individual with intellectual and developmental disability alone. Impact of Medicaid waiver services on self-reported caregiver needs is not well understood. Method: Caregivers (n = 405) of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities across four states (NY, OH, TX, and PA) completed an online survey. Results: Caregivers reported a moderate degree of burden and susceptibility of stress-induced health breakdown. Despite controlling for the activities of daily living of the care recipient, caregivers of individuals with Medicaid Waiver services reported greater difficulty managing medications (p = 0.013) and finding paid help (p < 0.001) than caregivers of individuals without services.

Based on 1,364 children across Grades 1, 3, and 5, the present study explored the mutualism of (externalizing and internalizing) behavioral problems and language, and whether social skills explained such mutualism. The random intercept cross-lagged panel models were conducted to control for between-person level variance and to explore mutualism of variables on the within-person level. Results indicated the mutualistic coupling of language and externalizing behavioral problems from Grades 3 to 5. When including social skills in the model, only social skills and externalizing behavioral problems formed the mutualism from Grades 3 to 5; language only predicted behavioral problems and social skills in the early elementary stage (Grades 1-3). These results suggest that language and behavioral management early on are important investing skills for the development of language, behavior skills, and social skills. With development, social skills may become more important than general language skills to manage problem behaviors. These findings indicated that interventions targeting behavioral problems may need to adapt their focus as children develop: fostering general language abilities early on but shifting to building social skills in later grades.

The home numeracy environment (HNE) is an essential factor to explain family engagement in relation to numeracy. Research in this field has mostly focused on English-speaking families and has not taken into consideration cultural differences that contextualize the home environment. Measuring HNE in more ethnically diverse samples might counter results that are biased from using a deficit perspective. Given the growth of the Latine population in the United States, there is a need to redefine family engagement in numeracy and update the HNE measures to increase their cultural relevance. This mixed methods study used a strengths-based framework to develop an HNE measure for Latine families. Fourteen Latine caregivers were interviewed (57% mothers) in the first study, and 216 Latine caregivers (63% mothers) participated in the second study, which examined the scale's factor structure. The validation process included parent reports of their child's numeracy skills (child M[subscript age] = 2.93 years, SD = 0.74). Three factors were identified (caregiver-child interactions, caregivers' math anxiety, and math beliefs). The first and third factors were significantly associated with parental reports of their child's numeracy skills.

Pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS) is an autoimmune disorder associated with sudden onset of behavior changes. The prevalence of PANDAS is increasing in schools and interdisciplinary collaboration, knowledge, and the use of referrals to the school nurse are important for supporting students. This project sought to provide education on PANDAS to the interdisciplinary school team and implement a referral process for students exhibiting behavior changes. A self-directed online educational intervention was employed. A pretest-posttest design was utilized to assess knowledge before, immediately after, and six-weeks after the educational intervention. A referral log was implemented to track the number of referrals to the school nurse. The final sample size included 19 participants. Mean scores increased from pretest to posttest, and the implementation of a referral system produced 12 new school nurse referrals. Further strategies are needed to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration and support students experiencing health-related issues.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relations among children's symbolic functioning at 15 months, joint attention at 24 months, expressive communication at 24 and 36 months, and executive functioning at 36 months. With the sample from rural areas in the United States collected by the Family Life Project (N = 1,008), a longitudinal data analysis was conducted. The results of structural equation modeling suggested that children's symbolic functioning at 15 months and children's executive functioning at 36 months was directly related to each other. These two variables were also indirectly related to each other through joint attention at 24 months and expressive communication at 24 and 36 months. Psychological distancing and verbal and nonverbal communication were used to explain the role symbolic functioning plays in the development of executive functioning during the second and the third years of children's lives.

In this study, researchers investigated the library experiences of Black undergraduate students at Penn State in University Park, a predominately white institution. Their goal was to improve services and spaces and to highlight and validate experiences with race, racism, and microaggressions on campus and in the library. Twenty undergraduate students were interviewed and asked to talk about their experiences and how these affected their perception of the University Libraries. Using the lens of critical race theory, which sees race as a socially constructed category used to oppress people of color, this study seeks to present a counternarrative to the prevailing dominant view of the library as a neutral space. Several consistent themes were identified. The themes included, but were not limited to, a low awareness of library services, lack of Black representation in the University Libraries, and a general lack of comfort within the library space.

The Re-membering Blackness Digital Archive at the University of Scranton shares the university's racial story as part of a campus-wide initiative devoted to reconciliation and collective memory. By bringing together archival records on Black history in a thematic digital collection, the project presents a corrective lens through which the university community transformed its understanding of the historical Black experience on campus and considered how this history reverberates in the present. The initiative contributes to a growing collection of institutional research projects on African American history and the legacies of slavery and racism in higher education. This article considers the metaphor of archives as memory within critical archival literature, and it examines the relationship between archives and collective memory in the context of the University of Scranton's initiative to recover Black memory.

Collaboration has become an important way for organizations to leverage human resources to create shared organizational goals. Schools, as organizations, thrive on positive collegial partnerships among educators, with effective educator collaborations linked to improved school effectiveness and student outcomes. However, not all collaborations are successful. The current study draws heavily from Coleman's (1988) social capital framework to understand with whom educators choose to interact and how patterns of interaction facilitate educators' social capital development. Using an equal status, sequential mixed methods design, K-12 educators' interview and survey data were iteratively analyzed to explore how educators describe their school-based collaborations, how collaborations reveal distinct social network structures, and how school-based collaborations and network structures lead to educators' social capital. Findings illuminated four distinct profiles of collaboration that emerged as educators described their school-based collaboration, which were linked to different social network structures and qualities of social capital. These results can be used to inform professional development practices for school administrators and human resources teams through consideration of profiles that may inform responsive school-based collaborations. We discuss additional implications for educator hiring and retention as well as policy around PK-12 teacher standards.

Communication deficits are one of the main characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Self-injurious behavior (SIB) in individuals with ASDs often occurs due to the individuals' lack of social-communicative abilities to express what they want (e.g., attention; access to tangible items; help). Many researchers have successfully used functional communication training (FCT) to replace SIB with positive communicative responses for children with ASD. While these studies have reported positive outcomes, there is limited research examining the extent to which the individuals will maintain the gains of the treatment after treatment is discontinued. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the impacts of FCT on socially appropriate behavior of children with ASD and the extent to which the gains would be maintained after withdrawal of treatment. FCT procedures were implemented to increase functional communication responses by asking for a break while limiting SIBs expressed by the participants when confronted with non-preferred activities (e.g., academic tasks). This study revealed that combining FCT with concurrent schedules instead of extinction effectively maintained low rates of SIBs while simultaneously increasing the opportunity for participants to emit alternative communicative responses over time.

Healthy lifestyle behaviors can improve health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in cancer survivors; but the combination of behaviors most important for HRQOL is not known. This study investigated the patterns of lifestyle behaviors among cancer survivors and differences in HRQOL between behavioral classes. Cancer survivors (n = 2,463) were invited to participate in a cross-sectional survey. Participants (N= 591) were predominately female (63%) and non-Hispanic White (90%). Survey items included self-reported physical activity, diet, smoking, sleep, HRQOL, and demographics. Behavioral classes were estimated by latent class analysis. Differences between classes were assessed by latent class regression. Compared with the "healthy lifestyles" class (higher probabilities of meeting aerobic/strength-based activity guidelines, high fruit/vegetable intake, and no sleep problems; 11% of sample), the "sleep and diet problems with inconsistent physical activity" class (higher probabilities of not meeting strength-based guidelines, low fruit/vegetable intake, some sleep problems; marginally higher probability of meeting aerobic guidelines; 41%) had poorer general and physical HRQOL. The "poor physical activity and diet" class (higher probabilities of not meeting aerobic/strength-based guidelines, low fruit/vegetable intake, and some sleep problems; 48%) had poorer general, physical, and mental HRQOL. Few participants exhibited healthy lifestyle patterns associated with HRQOL. The findings provide opportunities to develop differentiated multiple behavior-change interventions, targeted to two common patterns of behavior. A large subgroup of cancer survivors was susceptible to suboptimal physical activity and diet, warranting interventions exclusively targeting these behaviors. Another subgroup was susceptible to suboptimal physical activity, diet, and sleep, indicating interventions for this group should include strategies targeting these three behaviors.