Browsing by Subject "High school"

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Adolescent social marginalization and psychological distress across the transition to adulthood
(2017-05) Olson, Julie Skalamera; Crosnoe, Robert; Benner, Aprile; Hayward, Mark; Hummer, Robert; Umberson, Debra
Adolescence is a developmentally rich stage of the life course during which young people lay the foundation for future adjustment, functioning, health, and well-being. Adolescents experience profound changes to their brains and bodies, individuate from their parents, traverse the complex social systems of U.S. high schools, and ascribe increased importance to their relationships with peers. The confluence of these changes means that young people who become socially marginalized or disconnected from peers in high school face psychological distress in the short term. Moreover, the implications of adolescent marginalization for mental health may reverberate and cascade across the transition to adulthood, jeopardizing trajectories of psychological well-being. In this spirit, this dissertation asks: will adolescent social marginalization leave permanent scars on mental health, and if so, for whom? To explore these questions, I draw on a developmental life course framework and apply structural equation modeling techniques to longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health; n = 10,869). Results from my analyses revealed that adolescence is a sensitive period of the life course during which marginalization from peers triggers problematic mental health trajectories into adulthood regardless of post-high school experiences and despite accessing social resources in high school that would otherwise buffer youth from unhealthy psychological trajectories. These patterns were more distinct among girls than boys. Additionally, trajectories of distress were closely connected with trajectories of binge drinking among marginalized youth in general, and particularly among boys. The bi-directionality of these trajectories suggests that the social ups and downs of high school affect adjustment, functioning, and behaviors well into adulthood. Overall, this dissertation informs theoretical understanding of risk and resilience by pointing to adolescence as a sensitive developmental moment during which social risks are particularly influential on long-term trajectories of health and well-being.
Applied statistics in the classroom
(2013-08) Rodriguez, Christopher Jessie; Allen, David T.
The purpose of this report is to give teachers of AP Statistics a way to enrich student learning with an engaging, rigorous and relevant project. The report details the reasons necessary for student-based learning, along with examples in which projects in classrooms were successful. The project is centered on categorical data analysis involving tests of proportions, chi-squared distributions and confidence intervals. There are supplemental worksheets provided with the intent of showing students the relevance and applications of what they are learning to actual studies. Finally, a rubric is provided for students to align and focus their projects as well as for teachers to assess student learning.
The B.E.S.T. Connection Berryhill's Educational Stagecraft Training
(2011-05) Berryhill, Tramaine Quinton; Jones, Omi Osun Joni L., 1955-; Cloyes, Rusty
In this document I explore the history of African Americans backstage, detail the types of technical theatre training currently provided to young technicians and offer a program that targets African American high school students. The focus is on students who are already engaged and interested in the performing arts but may not have the resources or opportunity to explore design and technology. I spend time discussing models of mentoring, apprenticeship and coaching as examples of the types of training that my program will provide. This document concludes with the proposal of a program that will help educate young African Americans about careers in technical theatre and design. It is my desire to combine two ideas that have been with me my entire life, mentoring and performing arts education, into a program that helps to provide opportunity, ignite ambition, and guide students to success.
Design of an engineering experiment and data driven design in secondary education
(2013-08) Fallin, Patrick Timothy; Allen, David T.
Pre-tests and post tests were used to assess the effectiveness of an engineering high school unit on experimental design and data driven design. The engineering data acquisition unit examined in this report used project based learning to teach the design of an engineering experiment and data driven design as part of the engineering design process. The project consists of the design of a building that can safely withstand an earthquake. Students construct, test and collect data on baseline buildings, with and without load using a shaker table and data acquisition. Students' then design experiments to evaluate design modifications that will meet the customer's needs. Overall, although the number of participants was limited, the survey instruments indicated that understanding of experimental design improved among high school students participating in the unit. Based on this pilot implementation of survey instruments, some of the survey questions were clarified.
The development and present status of the social studies in Texas high schools
(1948) Young, Morgan Martin, 1903-; Umstattd, James Greenleaf, 1896-1988
Discourses and enactments of English Language Arts in a secondary English Department
(2018-09-24) Williamson, Thea Church; Skerrett, Allison; Bomer, Randy; Brown, Keffrelyn; Cvetkovich, Ann; Wetzel, Melissa
This year-long qualitative embedded case study explores the nature of the discipline of English Language Arts in a secondary context, Midgard High School, using the case of the English Department (n = 27) and subsequent embedded cases of focal classes (n = 4) and focal students (n = 12). Relying on Bakhtinian theories of discourse, new materialist concepts of work (Tsing, 2015), and rhetorical genre theory (Bawarshi, 2003), the study shows how teachers’ talk and practices both perpetuated traditional expectations in English instruction and also broke with tradition to better serve a linguistically and racially diverse student body. Overall, teachers’ most common discourses about the discipline of ELA replicated 19th century traditions of defining it as the “tripod” (Applebee, 1974) of reading, writing, and language study. Students also articulated similar understandings of their work in ELA, however English IV students’ discourse was dominated by linguistic aspects of the discipline, in particular conceptions of “proper” English. The case of an English II classroom shows how writing instruction was an important space where teachers’ discourse and instruction departed from historicized patterns in three ways: reorienting the discipline around composition (rather than the traditional literature-focused course), specifically the writing of “real-life” text genres, and enacting classroom practices characterized by intimacy and closeness (Tsing, 2015). This study has important implications for practice as it suggests teachers and students have different experiences of the discipline of ELA, teachers practices might vary significantly within similar discursive patterns, and that novel (Bakhtin, 1981b) discourses and practices can exist in restrictive policy contexts. The study also shows possibilities for new ways to “do” ELA in high schools, particularly bringing students’ experiences and voices into the curriculum through writing instruction. Findings suggest the need for consensus building and a reexamination of the ideological underpinnings of classroom practices in ELA, particularly those related to language teaching that perpetuates ELA as monolingual and tied to notions of standardized language, as well as ideologies embedded in classroom work structures.
Does A deeper level of empathy help high school engineering students generate more innovative consumer products?
(2011-08) Garcia, Bobby Jo; Seepersad, Carolyn; Allen, David T.
Secondary level engineering education is a relatively new field of study. This report evaluates an activity in which high school students experience simulated disabilities as they interact with and redesign consumer products. These activities are also known as empathic experiences, in which the designer is challenged to place himself or herself in the position of a lead user who pushes a product to its extremes and experiences various customer needs sooner and more acutely than the typical user. The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not these types of empathic experiences help high school students develop more innovative product ideas in a concept generation activity. The results of this study are compared with similar studies that use college students for the subject pool. Differences between subject pools are examined to identify implications for secondary engineering education and assessment.
Educational barriers for refugee high school students literature review
(2017-12-08) Saco, Maria Teresa; Callahan, Rebecca M.; Horwitz, Elaine
This report contains a review of the literature concerning the schooling experience of recently migrated refugee high school students. The report first distinguishes the refugee dilemma and why it is a focus of research. This work reviews citations that include literature reviews, empirical studies, ethnographic studies as well as practitioner pieces. The themes found throughout the research fall into the two categories of social and academic context of a school. The aim is to see what the literature has in terms of these categories and then to assess critical issues for future research. The review concludes with a series of recommendations for practitioners to implement in their classrooms with refugee students.
Effects of an intensive reading intervention on reading outcomes for adolescent English learners with disabilities and comprehension deficits
(2017-12) Williams, Kelly Jean; Vaughn, Sharon, 1952-; Roberts, Greg; Cooc, North; Toste, Jessica; Barnes, Marcia
English Learners with disabilities (ELSWDs) in both eighth and twelfth grades scored significantly lower on the 2015 NAEP reading assessment than English Learners (ELs) only or students with disabilities (SWDs) only. Despite this, there is limited evidence on how to improve reading outcomes through reading interventions for adolescent ELSWDs. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the effects of an intensive, year-long reading intervention, the Reading Intervention for Adolescents (RIA), on reading outcomes (word reading, vocabulary, and comprehension) for ninth grade ELSWDs (n = 95) with deficits in reading comprehension and to determine if the effects of the intervention varied by limited English proficiency (LEP) status (current versus former). Participants assigned to RIA received the intervention for the entire ninth-grade school year, while students in the comparison condition participated in electives such as band, chorus, or computer. Phase I of the intervention focused on advanced word study, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, while Phase II of the intervention emphasized vocabulary and comprehension, as well as the application of the strategies learned in Phase I with science and social studies texts. Participants were assessed at pre- and post-intervention on measures of real and pseudoword reading, comprehension, and vocabulary. After using analysis of covariance to test for treatment effects and controlling for false discovery rate, there were no significant differences between the RIA treatment and the comparison groups. Small effects were observed on measures of word reading, comprehension, and proximal vocabulary, and Hedge’s g values ranted from 0.08 to 0.40. There were also not significant differential effects of the intervention for students currently identified as LEP versus students formerly identified as LEP. Findings from this study confirm previous research with ELSWDs, in that it is difficult to improve vocabulary and comprehension for this population of students.
Essays on inference and education economics
(2022-05-10) Meiselman, Akiva Yonah; Linden, Leigh L., 1975-; Kline, Brendan; Murphy, Richard; Schudde, Lauren
This dissertation examines several policies in secondary and tertiary education and improves on existing methods of inference in settings that are salient for policy evaluation. In the first chapter, I propose a hypothesis test for clustered samples. This test is exact in samples with few clusters, few ever-treated clusters, cluster size outliers, or treatment intensity outliers; these features cause previous tests to over- or under-reject true hypotheses. I derive my test by inverting the distribution of the test statistic under a standard assumption about the errors, so that critical values can be selected from a distribution that matches the test statistic. I use Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate where this adjustment is most impactful in achieving exact tests compared to previous hypothesis tests, and I apply my test to an empirical setting from the literature. The second chapter, previously published in Education Finance and Policy and co-authored with Lauren Schudde, examines the impact of a developmental education (dev-ed) reform for community colleges. Dev-ed aims to help students acquire knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in college-level coursework. The traditional prerequisite approach to postsecondary dev-ed—where students take remedial courses that do not count toward a credential—appears to stymie progress toward a degree. At community colleges across the country, most students require remediation in math, creating a barrier to college-level credits under the traditional approach. Corequisite coursework is a structural reform that places students directly into a college-level course in the same term they receive dev-ed support. Using administrative data from Texas community colleges and a regression discontinuity design, we examine whether corequisite math improves student success compared with traditional prerequisite dev-ed. We find that corequisite math quickly improves student completion of math requirements without any obvious drawbacks, but students in corequisite math were not substantially closer to degree completion than their peers in traditional dev-ed after 3 years. The third chapter, coauthored with Anjali Priya Verma, examines students who were removed from their regular instructional environments for disciplinary reasons and sent to disciplinary schools. We study the long-run effects of disruptive peers on educational and labor market outcomes of students placed at these institutions. The existing literature documents that students who are removed from their regular instructional setting and placed at disciplinary schools tend to have significantly worse future outcomes. We provide evidence that the composition of peers at these institutions plays an important role in explaining this link. We use rich administrative data of high school students in Texas which provides a detailed record of each student’s disciplinary placements, including their exact date of placement and assignment duration. This allows us to identify the relevant peers for each student based on their overlap at the institution. We leverage within school-year variation in peer composition at each institution to ask whether a student who overlaps with particularly disruptive peers has worse subsequent outcomes. We show that exposure to peers in the highest quintile of disruptiveness relative to lowest quintile when placed at a disciplinary school increases students’ subsequent removals (5-8% per year); reduces their educational attainment--lower high-school graduation (6%), college enrollment (7%), and college graduation (17%); and worsens labor market outcomes--lower employment (2.5%) and earnings (6.5%). Moreover, these effects are stronger when students have a similar peer group in terms of the reason for removal, or when the distribution of disruptiveness among peers is more concentrated than dispersed around the mean. Our paper draws attention to an unintended consequence of student removal to disciplinary schools, and highlights how brief exposure to disruptive peers can affect an individual’s long-run trajectory.
Florence
(2015-05) Kuntz, Caleb Brandon; Raval, P. J. (Paul James); Rifkin, Edwin; Spiro, Ellen
Florence is an 8-minute narrative film about an adolescent girl with a spectrum of Asperger's Syndrome that is medically misdiagnosed and prescribed psychotropic medication. The following report gives and account of the conception, pre-production, production and post-production phases of the film's realization. The lessons learned through both successes and failures will be considered as well as the future life of the project.
From class to club : an exploration of high school civic-minded student organizations from 1996-2011 in Corpus Christi, Texas
(2012-05) Noyola, Sonia Adriana; Field, Sherry L.; Davis, O. L. (Ozro Luke), 1928-
Our educational system has long claimed that preparing students to be active citizens is one of its main goals. With high-stakes testing pressures, schools with high minority enrollment have been found to cut back social studies programs and/or implement a drill and practice fragmented teaching style. (Center on Education Policy, 2007; McNeil and Valenzuela, 2000). This research project seeks to understand how civic engagement opportunities were provided for, the impact of these opportunities on students and community members in Corpus Christi, Texas, during the last 15 years, and the ways in which these opportunities may serve to maximize civic engagement for today’s Latino/a student. Using oral histories and archival data as a means to uncover the history of civic-minded organizations in Corpus Christi, Texas, on high school youth and their community, this research project will investigate the founding of the organizations, the people involved in them, and the impact of these organizations as it is perceived by alumni and those with direct experience of the organizations. While a study of this type may not be highly generalizable, it will provide new insights into promising civic education and engagement for previously marginalized groups of students. The findings of this research should add to the educational and social science literature by providing a nuanced understanding of how civic engagement opportunities may be tailored to fit into the learning environment of the high school civics classroom and beyond.
From the mind to the hand : a beginners guide to milling
(2013-08) Crocker, Paul Michael; Deshpande, Ashish D.; Marshall, Jill
The purpose of this document is to provide a starting point to engage high school students in a program utilizing CNC milling technology along with CAD/CAM innovations. The beginners’ user manual gives students foundational knowledge in using for Autodesk Inventor, sprutCAM software, and operation of a Tormach PCNC 1100 mill. These tools were chosen since they are available to the author’s school district. Supporting information is given to support the claim of its importance in the classroom for high schoolers.
Functional modeling through energy flow diagrams for novice engineering design students
(2015-12) Sathyaseelan, Sadhan; Crawford, Richard H.; Borrego, Maura
Functional Modeling through Energy Flow Diagrams for Novice Engineering Design Students By Sadhan Sathyaseelan, MSE The University of Texas at Austin, 2015 SUPERVISOR: Richard Crawford The UTeachEngineering program from The University of Texas at Austin is currently developing a high school engineering curriculum that emphasizes design, project-based learning, and development of engineering habits of mind. One module in the curriculum uses reverse engineering of an electromechanical device to teach functional modeling, among other design methods and techniques. Experienced engineers think in terms of the functions – what a product or system must do – before they determine what it will be in its physical form. This is an abstract way of thinking that is commonly taught to engineering undergraduate students, but can be difficult for high school students to grasp. To assist novice engineers (both high school students and undergraduates), a new approach has been developed and evaluated. The Energy Flow Diagram (EFD) focuses on modeling and documenting the energy flow and transformations in the product or system. Energy conversions are prevalent in most products that are feasible for high school students to reverse engineer, and we hypothesize that the results of energy conversions are evident in the behavior of these products. In this paper, we describe the EFD and the materials developed to support its teaching. The EFD method was piloted with an assortment of students from different majors and year of study in the undergraduate level. A pre/post-test was conducted to evaluate any increase in functional thinking among novice design engineers. It was found that the tool was much simpler to understand and implement, and also provided some insights for product redesign opportunities that are similar to the current method of teaching functional modeling.
High school English learners and college-going : three stories of success
(2011-05) Moon, Daniel Louis; Callahan, Rebecca M.; Sardegna, Veronica G.
Recent research suggests that the college-going trajectories of English language learners (ELLs) may be improved by focusing on their academic abilities rather than their English limitations; that ELLs are capable of high-track, college preparatory coursework. Most research draws on feedback or observations of current high school students. This qualitative study uses semi-structured interviews to elicit retrospective perspectives of three Latina college students placed in English as a second language (ESL) during high school. These three former ELLs were able to navigate from ESL courses to higher-track, advanced placement (AP) courses, which prepared them for college. Results suggest that relatively short times spent in ESL may positively influence ELLs’ access to college preparatory coursework and integration with native English speaking (NES) peers who possess college-going social capital. Results also suggest that ELLs’ perceptions of teachers’ high expectations and college-going assistance may provide important social capital facilitating ELLs’ access to higher-tracks and college.
Hispanic parent engagement : how urban high school principals address the National Parent Teacher Association parent engagement standards
(2018-06-13) Ortiz, Moisés; Holme, Jennifer Jellison; Ovando, Martha N., 1954-; Green, Terrence; Sharpe, Edwin; Treisman, Philip Uri
This study examined the description principals of Hispanic-serving urban high schools had of their parent engagement activities through a nationally recognized parent engagement framework, including their understanding and perceptions of Hispanic parents. An exploratory qualitative case study approach was used to provide an in-depth analysis of how aligned urban high school principals' parent engagement activities are with the National Parent Teacher Association (NPTA) Standards for Family-School Partnerships. Data were provided from in-depth interviews of 7 high school principals in a predominantly Hispanic-serving urban school district in the south-central United States. The findings suggest that principals lack understanding of the various parent-engagement standards and generally operate from a deficit lens model with Hispanic parents and rarely consider Hispanic parents' funds of knowledge or community cultural wealth. Principals value and emphasize that all families feel welcome into the school community and prioritize parent-engagement activities to primarily target social services and community resources for Hispanic parents. Principals value communication but are varied in the way they view, interpret, and implement communication with Hispanic parents. Further, principals generally do not consider parent empowerment as a component of parent involvement programming. When principals described their understanding of Hispanic parents when developing parent involvement programs, they view language as the most important tool for accommodating parents. They generally emphasize low socioeconomic status over ethnicity. Principals also attribute Hispanic parents' distrust and hesitancy to participate in parent-engagement activities to a general lack of information regarding their children's schools and the overall American school system. Implications in practice are presented for principals as well as district officials and leadership preparation programs supporting principals in parent engagement efforts.
How academic deans support data-driven decision making in high schools: a case study to examine perceptions from district leaders, principals, academic deans, and teachers
(2015-12) Goodwin, Wendy Renee; Olivárez, Rubén; Sharpe, Edwin; Pazey, Barbara; Villalpando, Suzanne M; Peters, Robert
There continues to be a growing body of literature regarding data-driven decision making practices in elementary and middle schools; however, there is limited literature regarding the practices in the high school environment, especially as they are juxtaposed against the role of the academic dean. The purpose of this study was to identify the functions of an academic dean and how the role supports data-driven decision making and changes in instructional practices. The study followed a qualitative methodology approach, a case study design and was guided by an interpretivist paradigm; it took place at a public high school in central Texas. Participants consisted of a district leader, principal, assistant principals, the academic dean, department chairs, and teachers whose perceptions and understandings were gathered individually or through focus group interviews. This study addressed the following research questions: (1) What is the role of the academic dean with data analysis activities? (2) How does role of the academic dean support principals in using data to make effective instructional decisions? (3) How does the role of the academic dean support teachers in using data to change instructional practices? Based on the three research questions and cross-analysis of participant responses five significant findings emerged. These five significant findings included: (1) Types of data analysis activities; (2) Provide a data culture and climate; (3) Challenges encountered by the academic dean with data analysis activities; (4) Promote a climate of trust through cognitive coaching; (5) Support instructional capacity through clinical coaching. There were also two subcategories that emerged not commonly shared: (1) Challenges of understanding the role of the academic dean and (2) Data expertise.
How high school learners of Spanish respond to a flipped classroom : an analysis of performance & involvement
(2018-06-25) Abels, Jared P.; Horwitz, Elaine Kolker, 1950-; Schallert, Diane; Kelm, Orlando; Murphy, Melissa
Although many studies have examined “flipped classrooms” (essentially the inversion of presentational and practice learning spaces, Bergman & Sams, 2012; Bledsoe 2015; Bretzman, 2013; Lockwood & Folse, 2014; Pasisis, 2014; Plunkett & Beckerman, 2014), few have examined flipping foreign language classes and even fewer have examined the practice in high schools (Huang & Hong, 2016; Hao 2016). In addition, although a large number of blogs, teacher forums and online help pages address flipped language classrooms, few empirical studies have appeared in peer-reviewed journals. Consequently, the efficacy of the flipped classroom approach in the foreign language high-school classroom has not been adequately assessed. The purpose of this study was to better understand learning interactions and outcomes of secondary Spanish 2 students within a flipped classroom environment. The nine -week action research project assessed the flipped classroom approach for two high-school Spanish classes. The study investigated the process of learning second year Spanish at a private high school through a collection of questionnaires, teaching artifacts, and assessment data. Involvement with the flipped materials and student performance on daily quizzes proved to explain most of the variation in grades and other outcome measures. Data analysis showed students to be classified into four groups: high-performance high-involvement, low-performance high-involvement, high-performance low-involvement, and low-performance low-involvement. The study found that effective learners reported a range of learning strategies which they used to select the best methods to practice the target language concepts. A variety of learning strategies in addition to efficient choice of time and investment corresponded with increased performance in the Spanish class. The flipped classroom was an effective approach to teaching Spanish for secondary students in this study. The study also found that some learners needed support in selecting learning strategies, managing time, and remaining accountable. Teachers who want to implement flipped high school Spanish classrooms should pay attention to individual student involvement and performance for this approach to achieve maximal effect.
Islamic education in contemporary Egypt : al-Azhar under al-Ṭayyib
(2023-04-21) Omara, Attia; Azam, Hina, 1970-
More than two million students in Egypt today receive their Islamic education through Al-Azhar Institutes. Since its establishment in1936, Al-Azhar Institutes’ Islamic curriculum has undergone various changes with regards the topics covered and textbooks used. This study examines the most recent modifications to al-Azhar Institutes’ curriculum introduced in 2013, namely, the simplification of the fiqh textbooks and the introduction of the Islamic Heritage (Al-Thaqāfah al-Islāmiyyah) subject. In the aftermath of the Arab spring, Al-Azhar faced accusations that its teaching of classical jurisprudence promotes extremism and preaches sectarian division. In response, al-Azhar prepared “simplified” versions of the classical fiqh textbooks to be used at the middle, and high school levels. This study seeks to answer the following questions: What was the nature of these modifications in the fiqh curriculum? What were the topics discussed in the Islamic Heritage subject? Were the modifications motivated by ideological or pedagogical reasons? Were the modifications a state-sponsored project or ʿulamā led-effort? Using comparative content analysis and focusing on the fiqh sections of the middle- and high-school textbooks, this study compares the “simplified” content with the original content to identify patterns of change and to propose reasons behind the changes. My analysis suggests that one main purpose of the modifications was to make the fiqh textbooks age-appropriate to middle and high school students. Additionally, my comparison shows the systemic removal of topics and passages that could be seen as threatening the national security of Egypt. This is in addition to the topics discussed in the Islamic Heritage subject which aimed at strengthening national unity and countering extremism. Hence, I argue that state stability, national unity, and security were main purposes for curricular modification. However, did this make the curricular changes a state-led project? Evidence suggests that, though the curricular changes eventually served the state and its stability, they were not directed by the state, but rather were conducted in accordance with the Azharī ʿulamā’s conceptualization of a revival (tajdīd) of the Islamic tradition (turāth). The study contributes to the scholarly literature on modern Egypt by bringing attention to the country’s Islamic educational system and by highlighting the role al-Azhar can play in maintaining the stability of the state and strengthening national unity during critical times.
Making alternative sport/PA programs work : understanding the essential elements vital to successful and sustainable after-school sport/PA programs
(2014-12) Burden, Theadore France; Dixon, Marlene A., 1970-
The purpose of this study is to examine the components that are essential to successful and sustainable after-school sport and physical activity programs. The study examines not only what components must be present, but what barriers as well must be overcome to ensure implementation, success, and sustainability. While some programs have been successful in attracting and providing alternative programs for those that do not currently participate in interscholastic sport, the elements that make such programs successful and sustainable have yet to be thoroughly identified in the field. This study will examine best practices of existing successful programs, in order to make recommendations for expanding these programs to other schools. This study employed a qualitative descriptive design aimed at garnering an in-depth understanding of the experiences and perceptions of participants and program administrators in public schools who currently offer such programs. The study utilized questionnaires, interviews (individual and group), and observations to examine the best practices toward implementing attractive and sustainable after-school physical activity programs. The study included a comprehensive description of the programs, participants, and procedures of seven (7) separate Texas high school after-school programs. The programs fall into three (3) distinctive program designs. In addition, the essential components that make these programs successful and sustainable were reviewed. These five components were Supportive Administrators and Decision Makers Quality Facilitators, Inclusive and Enjoyable Opportunities, Practical and Flexible Logistics, and Parental and Community Involvement. Each of these elements is discussed in-depth in relation to motivational and adolescent development theories. This study demonstrates the viability of promoting and implementing theoretically sound programs that address appropriate developmental capabilities and student motivations. Through focus on local interests, inclusive programs, engaged facilitators, community involvement, and creative facility usage, a broad range of public schools could embrace the value and benefit of physical activity and sport programs for academic enhancement and positive youth development.