Understanding the working parents' plight

Judith Savage is the Program Coordinator of the Rockland Council for Young Children in Spring Valley, New York. The Council provides child care resources and referrals for working parents in Rockland County.     

Equalizing educational opportunities and its problems

The Editors are glad to be able to open the third year of theInternational Review of Education with an article by Isaac Leon Kandel. They offer him. their respectful greetings and best wishes on the occasion of his 75th birthday, celebrated in 1956, and on his entry into the fourth quartercentury of his life.They admire him as one of the grand old men of Comparative Education and hope that he will continue to bring an unbroken freshness and further stimulus to education in general and especially to his favourite subject.

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Das Problem der Schaffung Gleicher Bildungs-Möglichkeiten Für Alle

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La Démocratisation de L'enseignement et Ses Problémes

     

Helping social workers address the educational needs of foster children

OBJECTIVE: The main aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Education Initiative, an intervention program in one of the largest urban counties in the US seeking to increase the responsiveness of social workers to the educational needs of foster children. METHOD: A pre-post test control group design was used. Data from case files and social workers were examined at the start of the project and 18 months later to determine changes in social workers' (a) knowledge and practices regarding school programs and services and (b) maintenance of educational records for children on their caseloads. RESULTS: Data were analyzed from approximately 300 case files and over 200 questionnaires completed by social workers. Findings indicated that social workers who received training and had access to an education liaison (1) increased their knowledge about the school system and (2) were more likely to gather current educational data and comment on schooling needs in the case files. On questionnaires measuring knowledge and practices, supervisory social workers showed no gains while case workers increased their levels of knowledge and involvement. CONCLUSIONS: Evaluative data from both sources support the effectiveness of this collaborative model between the school and child welfare agency for addressing the educational needs of foster youth. Social workers in the pilot offices knew more and focused more on the school experience of youth on their caseloads than workers in the control offices. They reported more educational information in the case files and solicited current progress reports from the schools. Discrepancies between worker and school reported performance data raise questions as to whether social workers by themselves are the most effective advocates for foster children.     

Expanding educational opportunities: Conceptualization and measurement

This paper re-examines data on inequality of opportunity for higher education in the light of the debate aroused in Sweden by the U68 report. Earlier data for four countries (U.S.A., Sweden, Spain and Germany) are used to portray diverse status profiles of students: neither level of national income nor level of university enrolment appreciably affects selectivity of attendance. Changes in rates of attendance for three status categories in Sweden from 1950 to 1970 are measured in three ways. Convergence between the status categories in rates of enrolment is demonstrated.     

Dimensions of maltreatment and academic outcomes for youth in foster care

Childhood maltreatment is often associated with youth’s ability to successfully function in school. Youth with a history of maltreatment often receive lower grades and scores on tests of academic achievement, as well as demonstrate more negative behaviors in school, as compared to non-maltreated youth. However, there are many inconsistencies in previous studies examining the association between maltreatment and academic outcomes in youth. One potential reason for mixed findings within the literature could be a result of how maltreatment is measured and operationalized. The current study examined if the methods used to define and describe maltreatment contribute to the association between maltreatment and academic functioning in youth. Youth in foster care (N = 490, M_age = 13.13[3.09]) were recruited and information on their maltreatment history and academic functioning was obtained from official agencies, school records, and self-reported measures. Using a SEM framework when examining each dimension separately in the same model, results suggested that frequency maltreatment was more predictive of academic behavior, as compared to type and severity. No dimensions were associated with grades and significant findings were only observed for models using self-report data. However, when examined using a measurement model approach, maltreatment as a whole was associated with school behavior, which was found for both self-report and case file measurement models. The findings suggest a need for research on academic functioning to take a comprehensive approach when measuring and defining maltreatment as this may be a more robust and accurate predictor of academic functioning.     

Parental involvement and the educational trajectories of youth in Russia

This paper studies the influence of parental involvement in the educational process on the educational achievements of Russian students and their educational strategies, such as studying in high school and successful admission to university. We argue that the patterns of parental involvement represent a link between the formal (school) and informal (family) educational institutions and can have a beneficial effect on academic performance and contribute to the choice of the educational pathway to higher education. Based on data from the longitudinal study ‘Trajectories in Education and Careers’, it was shown that the results of school state examinations are positively associated with the active participation of parents in school meetings, the employment of tutors (except for the Unified State Exam score in mathematics), and the provision of additional literature for the child. A negative relationship was found between homework control and student success. In general, the factor of ‘rational’ (not excessive) involvement is positively associated with educational achievement and educational choice, which may indicate the non-linear nature of the relationship. Parental involvement itself depends on the family characteristics, such as mother’s education, family income and the number of books at home. In addition, family has a positive impact on educational success and educational strategies, and high school characteristics are especially important for the results of the Unified State Exam and the university choice.     

The predictors of perceived social support among former foster youth

Based on a 5-wave panel survey of 732 foster youth, the current study examined the respective relationships between foster youths' individual characteristics, youths' social connections with individuals and formal institutions, and the development of perceived social support across the transition to adulthood. Several youth characteristics – including self-reported delinquency and attachment insecurity – were found to be statistically significantly associated with perceived social support. Attachment insecurity also appeared to mediate the relationships between social support and several other youth-level characteristics, including prior placement disruptions and placement with relatives. Social connections with different types of individuals – including caregivers, relatives, natural mentors, and romantic partners – were found to be associated with additive increases in perceived social support. However, some types of connections (e.g., romantic partners, natural mentors) appeared to be associated with much larger increases in social support than other connections (e.g., school or employment). Collectively, the findings help inform agencies' efforts to bolster foster youths' social connections as they transition to adulthood.     

关于如何保证和提高研究生教育质量的探讨

研究生教育是培养高层次创新型人才的重要环节,如何保证和提高研究生教育质量已成为社会各方面普遍关注的问题。本文从质量是研究生教育的永恒主题、提高研究生教育质量的有效途径、造就创新人才需要教育创新和创新教育三个方面对其进行了探讨。     

The grip of trauma: How trauma disrupts the academic aspirations of foster youth

The academic challenges foster youth encounter during their P-12 education have been widely reported. Yet, despite these challenges, the majority of foster youth desire postsecondary education. What is less known is the reason why so few foster youth alumni who desire a four-year college degree, achieve this goal. For the participants in this four-year longitudinal study, maltreatment, resulting in foster care placement, and the ensuing exposure to the foster care system, resulted in trauma histories and mental health diagnoses. Anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), were the most common diagnosis. The participants shared the ways in which these mental health challenges manifested throughout their college education. Of those in the study, almost half successfully graduated from college, a third dropped out, and only two remain enrolled. This study provides a unique and critical insight into the experiences of foster youth, enrolled in a four-year university, by sharing their stories     

Growing confidence in educational research: Threats and opportunities

We live in difficult times—socially, economically and politically—and it is right that learned societies, such as the British Educational Research Association, reflect on their purpose and direction. We cannot take for granted the social contract that supports the funding of social science and educational research. This paper reflects on enduring themes and new pressures and argues for special attention to: collaboration within and beyond the community of university‐based educational researchers; support for, and recognition of, the importance of reviews of research; the development of accessible forms of communication of findings and their implications, to guide sound decision making; more direct engagement with practitioners, policy makers and the public. It argues that it is time for communities of educational researchers to have confidence to become outward looking and strengthen alliances with other groups of researchers at home and abroad, across disciplines, with different types of research institutions and also with practitioners and policy makers. What drives this should be our principal aim to pursue educational research and its application for the improvement of education and the public benefit.     

Queer pedagogy,educational practice and lesbian and gay youth

Our article explores the potential that queer paradigms and pedagogies hold for affirming sexual diversity in secondary schools. In understanding the operation of schools as heteronormalising institutions, it is possible to move beyond viewing queer youth as a disenfranchised minority group requiring reparation within an equity framework (a process that we suggest operates simultaneously to legitimate heterosexuality and to reinforce the abnormality of same-sex desire). Using research that we have undertaken with lesbian and gay youth in New Zealand secondary schools, and drawing on queer, post modern and feminist theoretical threads, we explore three (hetero) normalising processes experienced by the queer participants in their schools; the maintenance of silences, the pathologisation of (homo)sexualities, and the policing of gender boundaries. We close by exploring how several queer pedagogical features - creating venues, abnormalising the normal, dissolving the homo/hetero binary and forming alliances - could be used in order to affirm the sexual diversity of secondary school students.     

Children and youth in foster care: distangling the relationship between problem behaviors and number of placements

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this research was to provide a prospective look at the relationship between change in placement and problem behaviors over a 12-month period among a cohort of foster children. METHOD: The sample contained 415 youth, and was part of a larger cohort of children who entered foster care in San Diego, California and remained in placement for at least 5 months. The Child Behavior Check List was used to assess behavior problems. Every change of placement during the first 18 months after entry into the foster care system was abstracted from case records. RESULTS: The results suggest that volatile placement histories contribute negatively to both internalizing and externalizing behavior of foster children, and that children who experience numerous changes in placement may be at particularly high risk for these deleterious effects. Initial externalizing behaviors proved to be the strongest predictor of placement changes for the entire sample and for a sub-sample of those who initially evidenced problem behaviors on at least one broad-band CBCL scale. Our findings also suggest that children who initially score within normal ranges on the CBCL may be particularly vulnerable to the detrimental effects of placement breakdowns. CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of these findings we argue for an analytical approach that views behavior problems as both a cause and as a consequence of placement disruption. Children who do not evidence behavior problems may in fact constitute a neglected population that responds to multiple disruptions of their primary relationships with increasingly self-defeating behaviors.     

Foreign direct investment and youth educational outcomes in Mexican municipalities

Inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) has often been considered to play a prominent role in the development of human capital in the host economy by introducing a foreign wage premium into the labour market. However, extant evidence on IFDI labour market effects is inconclusive, especially in emerging economies. We investigate for the case of Mexico whether foreign wage premia have an effect on educational outcomes of young cohorts that were 15 years old at the time of IFDI arrival in their municipality of residence. Results suggest that increasing foreign wage premium for unskilled jobs, both in manufacturing and services, has negative effects on a cohort's subsequent educational outcomes. The effects of foreign wage premium for skilled workers, however, are not significant but may lead to positive educational outcomes. The long-term implications of losses accruing from low investment in human capital do not only affect individuals but regions as well.     

犹太人的困境与自救--论当代美国犹太文学的走向

美国犹太文学在五、六十年代达到鼎盛时期,大批犹太裔作家雄居美国文坛,长盛不衰.有的甚至超越了国界,在世界文坛享有盛誉.本文通过解读其中最具代表性的作品,拟就从探索新伊甸园的美国亚当、异化困境、皈依犹太传统与"大屠杀后意识"的崛起等三个主题剖析犹太文学在美国作为一个整体文化运动的成功所在,由此勾勒出其历史性的发展倾向.     

Untangling the relative contribution of maltreatment severity and frequency to type of behavioral outcome in foster youth

Within maltreatment research, type, frequency, and severity of abuse are often confounded and not always specifically documented. The result is samples that are often heterogeneous in regard to maltreatment experience, and the role of the different components of maltreatment in predicting outcome is unclear. The purpose of the present study was to identify and test the potential unique role of type, frequency, and severity of maltreatment to elucidate each variable's role in predicting outcome behavior. Data from 309 youth in foster care (ages 8–22) and their caregivers were collected using the Modified Maltreatment Classification System and the Behavioral Assessment System for Children, 2nd Edition (BASC2), to measure maltreatment exposure and behavioral outcome respectively. A measurement model of the BASC2 was completed to determine model fit within the sample data. A second confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was completed to determine the unique contributions of frequency and severity of maltreatment across four types of abuse to externalizing, internalizing, and adaptive behavior. The result of the CFA determined good fit of the BASC2 to the sample data after a few modifications. The result of the second CFA indicated that the paths from severity to externalizing behavior and adaptive behavior (reverse loading) were significant. Paths from frequency of abuse were not predictive of behavioral outcome. Maltreatment is a complex construct and researchers are encouraged to examine components of abuse that may be differentially related to outcome behavior for youth. Untangling the multifaceted nature of abuse is important and may have implications for identifying specific outcomes for youth exposed to maltreatment.     

Counseling the chronically ill youth and their families

International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling -