his “View From the Field” column is the first in a series discussing aspects of implementation science important for scaling up and sustaining evidence-based practices in schools and districts. Recent research suggests there are important approaches to instruction, behavior support, and mental health that have been empirically documented but are not being implemented widely across local schools and school districts (Ginns et al., 2020; Mazzotti & Plotner, 2016; Powell et al., 2020).

Book Summary: The purpose of this book is to assist readers to use better practices when developing educationally meaningful and legally sound Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Beginning with the history and purpose of IEPs, this book examines the context and reasons IEPs were first created. The core chapters address better practices in conducting assessments, developing present levels of academic achievement and functional performance statements, crafting measurable annual goals, determining special education services, and monitoring and reporting on students’ progress. The authors also discuss placing students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment (LRE) and provide forms and graphics to assist in developing students’ special education programs.

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In this class, we wanted to support students’ knowledge of light and the ways in which it interacts with other materials through a series of connected learning experiences. These experiences are related to NGSS standard 1-PS4-3 Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer. Plan and conduct investigations to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light. We aimed for children to discover that light tends to move in a straight line unless something gets in the way, materials can affect the beam of light, and the way light moves can be impacted by moving the objects. The connected activities described here were guided by the 5E learning cycle. The students watched the video to spark their curiosity about the path in which something might travel, worked in teams to design and test ideas while exploring the properties of the light, and documented and communicated their observations.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between trade liberalization, measured using the Heritage Foundation’s Trade Freedom indicator, and human development, measured using the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index, in subSaharan Africa’s Least Developed Countries between 1990 and 2011 as data allows. In addition to exploring the relationship between these two variables, alternative factors that influence human development are examined in bivariate correlations with human development as well as used as control variables in a multiple regression analysis. Namely, this study includes government effectiveness, the percentage of the labor force employed in the agricultural sector, the percent of Gross Domestic Product made up of the sale of agricultural products, geography, and armed conflict as control variables. By conducting a cross-national bivariate correlation analysis as well as a cross-national multiple regression analysis for the years between 1990 and 2011, this study highlights how, when included in a model with control variables, trade liberalization goes from being a statistically significant predictor of human development index scores to losing its significance altogether. The results from this study indicate that trade liberalization, government effectiveness, and geography, more specifically being landlocked or not, do not have statistically significant effects on human development for LDCs in the region. However, this study finds that for every unit increase in the percentage of the labor force working in agriculture as well as the percentage of GDP made up by agricultural products, a lower human development score can be expected. Armed conflict also has a statistically significant, negative effect on human development.

We examined the dimensionality of oral language in Spanish-English bilingual 6th-grade children. Research indicates that oral language in bilingual children is multidimensional (LARRC, 2015). However, dimensionality may differ by age and the measures used. Few studies have included pragmatic skills or studied the structure of oral language in Spanish-English bilingual adolescents. We conduct confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) on a sample of 95 bilingual 6th-grade children to test oral language models with one to four (grammar, vocabulary, listening comprehension, and pragmatics) underlying factors, as well as bifactor and hierarchical models that include a general factor. In addition, we test two models with language-specific factors. Model parameters and appropriate fit statistics, including chi-square difference tests for nested models, are presented to aid in judging the adequacy of alternative models. The study is preregistered, and the data are collected and cleaned.

When teachers are new to a school, they must make sense of policies within a new context. In this horizontal comparative case study, I analyze interview data from three teachers in North Carolina taken at two points in a school year to explore how new teachers make sense of and respond to teacher evaluation policy. Study participants framed the evaluation problem around the extent to which school-level enactment focused on assessment. Teachers demonstrated the following reform typologies in response to their sensemaking around evaluation policy: Assimilation, Adaptation, and Avoidance. When new to a school, teachers are expected to follow the same policies and processes as teachers who have long operated in that school's policy context. So, new-to-the-school teachers must reconcile new-to-them policies with their personal preconceptions of practice in an entirely new context. Teacher evaluation policies outline what is valued in teaching by delineating and measuring those values. So, it is worth considering how teacher perceptions of evaluation may influence their practice and career choices, particularly teachers trying to balance such valuation with their daily work in an unfamiliar context. This case study of three teachers in North Carolina utilizes sensemaking theory and problem framing to explore the question, how do teachers who are new to a school make sense of and respond to teacher evaluation policy?

The Supreme Court of the United States’ decision to reclaim the constitutional right to carry out an abortion in 2022, was founded in a far-right politician's agenda. Considering recent developments in Western countries in Europe, far-right political parties have increased their power during the 2010s until present time. With this thesis, the aim was to review far-right European politicians’ abortion policies on national and EU-level, to be able to present whether a threat towards abortion rights and thus human development could be seen in Europe as well. The human development approach was the theoretical framework used to analyze the findings in this thesis. This framework helped understand in what ways anti abortion policies oppose different types of freedom and general goals in society, and how this affects well-being, agency and justice. The research was carried out through a qualitative desk study with a deductive element, by presenting data in forms of results of roll-call votes in the European Parliament, party programmes and agendas, and other official documents. The results and analysis showed that the reviewed politicians and parties conduct policies against abortion rights at both national and EU-level, which drew the conclusion that tendencies of a threat toward human development in the West were found.