The Drama for Schools (DFS) professional development program is an arts integration approach developed by the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin (Dawson, 2006). The goal of the DFS program is to support arts integration for non-arts teachers who wish to bring drama-based instruction into their classrooms. Drama for Schools trains K-12 teachers to use drama-based instruction techniques including interactive games, improvisation, and role-playing. In 2007, DFS began to evaluate the efficacy of the program along key program objectives. The purpose of this article is to report data on the effects of DFS on authentic instruction and student engagement. In contrast with the extant literature base of drama-based instruction with elementary grade teachers, this study focuses on middle school teachers and their students. The study framework is represented in Figure 1. The starting point on the left side is the Drama for Schools professional development program. DFS is an intensive, job-embedded program that provides teachers with drama-based instructional strategies in a context that honors each teacher's individual needs and goals. This study investigates the extent to which participation in Drama for Schools led to two outcomes: changes in student engagement and authentic instruction. Student engagement is defined in this study as active participation in classroom activities as indicated by levels of on-task behavior. Authentic instruction is conceptualized as classroom activities that encourage students to draw on their previous knowledge and experiences, engage in critical thinking, and apply what they learn to their own lives. Student engagement and authentic instruction are represented as concurrent activities here in this figure due to the symbiotic nature of instruction and student participation. This study examines changes to the classroom process within the immediate context of teacher implementation of lesson plans developed as part of the DFS program participation.

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All the steps in the model of therapeutic assessment used with children (TA-C) are designed to involve and impact the child's parents. However, a distinctive process that parallels and accompanies the testing sessions with the child might be the most significant in helping parents shift their story of their child and family. In this process, parents are invited to observe their child's testing sessions (in an adjacent room through a live video feed, through a 1-way mirror, or in the corner of the testing room) and process the experience with the assessor (either simultaneously in the case of the 2-assessor model or after the fact in the 1-assessor model). We discuss the development and evolution of what we have come to call the "behind the mirror" method. We describe the therapeutic intent of the method and delineate 13 techniques utilized to enlist parents as active collaborators. We illustrate each technique using the case study of a 10-year-old boy where the 2-assessor model and live video feed method were used. We also provide research findings from the case study that address the parents' experience of the assessment and their changed view of their child.

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Science students increasingly need programming and data science skills to be competitive in the modern workforce. However, at our university (San Francisco State University), until recently, almost no biology, biochemistry, and chemistry students (from here bio/chem students) completed a minor in computer science. To change this, a new minor in computing applications, which is informally known as the Promoting Inclusivity in Computing (PINC) minor, was established in 2016. Here, we present the lessons we learned from our experience in a set of 10 rules. The first 3 rules focus on setting up the program so that it interests students in biology, chemistry, and biochemistry. Rules 4 through 8 focus on how the classes of the program are taught to make them interesting for our students and to provide the students with the support they need. The last 2 rules are about what happens “behind the scenes” of running a program with many people from several departments involved.