A Content Comparison of Literacy Lessons from 2004 and 2010 for Students with Moderate and Severe Intellectual Disability

Mandates such as No Child Left Behind (2001) No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Pub. L. No. 107-110, 115 Stat.1425 (2002). [Google Scholar] and Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004) Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, 20 U.S.C. §1400, H. R. 1350. [Google Scholar] shifted the emphasis of instruction to include skills that access the general curriculum for students with moderate to severe intellectual disability. The purpose of this study was to describe changes in literacy instruction of teachers who participated in literacy research using secondary data analysis of instructional videos from 2004 to 2010. Results from the study suggest that teachers in 2004 focused on fewer components of reading that did not include phonemic awareness or phonics than teachers in 2010. Other changes in instruction included use of systematic instruction, grade-appropriate materials, and structure of literacy lessons.     

Legal Aspects of Preventing Problem Behavior

Changes to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (Public Law 108-446) (now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, H.R. 1350 (passed both houses of Congress 11/19/04; signed by President Bush 12/3/04) [Google Scholar]: IDEA) mandated new requirements for providing discipline to students with disabilities. These changes led to simplified procedures when students with disabilities commit infractions of the school code. A review of potential legal dilemmas, however, challenges the simplicity of the revised procedures and may actually underscore new legal entanglements to parents and school officials. We discuss what we know about discipline and reasons for an interest in discipline applications, potential legal complications resulting from the reauthorized IDEA, and implications of prevention strategies for students with disabilities demonstrating problem behaviors.     

Identifying Best Practice in a Shifting Landscape: Making Sense of RTI in the Context of SLD Identification

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. 1997, 1999, 2004. 20 U. S. C. 1400 et. Seq. (Statute). 34 C.F.R. 300 (Regulations) [Google Scholar] has had substantial influence on special education in general and the field of learning disabilities in particular. Since its reauthorization in 2004, ongoing regulatory efforts have been underway to determine its operationalization and implementation. Of particular concern to those involved in the educational process (i.e., special educators, school psychologists, families, advocates) are the guidelines for identifying children with specific learning disabilities (SLD), including the use of Response to Intervention (RTI). In this article, some of the most relevant and controversial issues associated with the use of RTI for the identification of SLD are detailed. We discuss how SLD is conceptualized in terms of identification approaches and classification criteria and present position statements of special education professional associations on the changes to the federal SLD definition and identification criteria. Finally, we summarize proposed resolutions to the seemingly irreconcilable differences identified throughout the article.     

Systemic and Organizational Obstacles in the Tale of the Reading Coach: A Commentary

In this commentary on Al Otaiba, Hosp, Smartt, and Dole's article (this issue), key strengths, limitations, and systemic issues in the consultation project are identified. It is posited that despite expanded opportunities for school improvement since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Pub. L. No. 107-110 (H. R. 1) [Google Scholar] and clear evidence that improvement is warranted, school improvement remains an extremely difficult process. Several positive elements in the Al Otaiba project are identified. The need for increased attention to systemic variables, a closer examination of existing district policies and resources, and the need for systematic professional development are identified as project elements that may have improved the outcome.     

Addressing Systemic Oppression in Greenland's Preschools: The Adaptation of a Coaching Model

For most of the last two centuries, Native Greenlandic teachers had been left out of the decision-making process regarding effective education for Greenlandic students. Rather, Danish education and church officials, living in Denmark, made important pedagogical and curricular decisions with little to no input from local teachers (Jakobsen, 1999 Jakobsen, J. 1999. The Greenlandic public school in the tension between Greenlandic and Danish pedagogics in this century, Copenhagen, , Denmark: Master's thesis. Royal Danish School.  [Google Scholar]). This article describes a collaborative effort between Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE) professional developers and Greenlandic teachers in the design and implementation of a coaching model that includes Native Greenlandic ways of teaching and learning. Implications for other professional developers and researchers in education doing similar work are included.     

Mature student experiences in teacher education: widening participation in Greece and England

In the context of the growing number of mature students entering higher education in Europe, this study breaks new ground in comparing the personal and professional identities of mature student teachers in Greece and England. Using an analytical model of student success by Zepke and Leach (2008 Zepke, N. and Leach, L. Linking soft skills and student engagement in second chance education. Paper presented at the Comparative Education Society of Europe (CESE) annual conference. July7–10, Athens, Greece.  [Google Scholar]), the research sought to identify the factors affecting the progress and development of 30 mature student teachers (15 in each country). It was found that individual motivation and prior experience were assets in the development of the student teachers, while peer and family support were vital success factors. In the English context, the importance of institutional support from university and school-based tutors was also strong. Barriers included financial difficulties and domestic responsibilities, which had a particular impact on mature women students. Some recommendations to improve institutional support for mature student teachers are made in conclusion.     

An Evaluation of the Use of the Behaviour Questionnaire

Effective and efficient assessment is essential to support school improvement, the progress of individual pupils and teachers’ classroom management. A group of educational psychologists used the items for measuring pupils’ emotional and behavioural development found in Supporting school improvement: Emotional and behavioural development (2001 Department for Education and Skills. 2001. Supporting school improvement: Emotional and behavioural development, Sudbury: QCA.  [Google Scholar]) to develop a questionnaire for use in their schools. Following the introduction of the Behaviour Questionnaire (BQ) its usefulness, ease of completion and potential as a tool to monitor intervention were evaluated. Most users found the Behaviour Questionnaire useful and easy to complete. Changes in the behaviour of pupils were identified indicating that the Behaviour Questionnaire has potential for use in monitoring and evaluating interventions.     

Mathematics Achievement in the Netherlands and Appropriateness of the TIMSS Mathematics Test

Evaluators are frequently asked to assess the effectiveness of school programs implemented to improve academic achievement. School connectedness has been shown to be directly related to academic achievement (McNeely, Nonnemaker, &; Blum, 2002 McNeely, C. A., Nonnemaker, J. M. and Blum, R. W. 2002. Promoting school connectedness: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Journal of School Health, 72: 138–146. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and is therefore of interest to evaluators. The construct of school connectedness has been shown to consist of 3 elements: connectedness to adults in schools, connectedness to peers, and connectedness to the school (Karcher &; Lee, 2002 Karcher, M. J. and Lee, Y. 2002. Connectedness among Taiwanese middle school students: A validation study of the Hemingway Measure of Adolescent Connectedness. Asia Pacific Education Review, 3: 92–114. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). This paper reports the psychometric properties and factor analyses findings from a School Connectedness Scale (SCS) given to adolescents in 2 very different high schools in the Northeast, one a large urban school and one a medium-sized suburban school. The results indicate that the SCS is highly reliable with a stable factor structure across diverse populations. The broad applications of use for the instrument are discussed.     

Time to go back to the drawing board: organisation of primary school reading development in South Africa

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 findings highlighted concerns about reading literacy teaching quality in South African primary schools (Howie et al., 2007 Howie, S.J., Venter, E., Van Staden, S., Zimmerman, L., Long, C., Scherman, V. and Archer, E. 2007. Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 summary report. South African children's reading literacy achievement, Pretoria, South Africa: Centre for Evaluation and Assessment, University of Pretoria.  [Google Scholar]). In response, the national Department of Education (DoE, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c, 2008d) has emphasised instructional practice improvement. However, little emphasis has been placed on the role of school organisation in learners’ reading success or failure. This article presents school organisation findings from a mixed methods study that explored South African Grade 4 teachers’ instruction practices and schooling conditions for reading literacy development. The analysis considered is based on the reclassification of the PIRLS 2006 sample according to class achievement levels on the PIRLS benchmarks and instructional language profiles. Findings from the PIRLS 2006 school questionnaire data are reported together with findings from case studies to illustrate differences and similarities in school organisation for reading literacy across a range of low- and high-performing schools.     

Fighting to Educate Our Own: Teachers of Color,Relational Accountability,and the Struggle for Racial Justice

Abstract

Research demonstrates that many teachers of Color enter schools committed to challenging injustice, yet often face barriers to accomplishing this goal. This article presents emergent themes from a qualitative study with 218 self-identified, racial justice-oriented teachers of Color. Using Wilson's (2008 Wilson, S. (2008). Research is ceremony: Indigenous research methods. Halifax, Canada: Fernwood. [Google Scholar]) indigenous cultural framework of relationality and relational accountability to analyze our data, we introduce the concept of community-oriented teachers of Color to describe the accountability these teachers have towards students of Color and their communities. We found that despite their connections, insights, and successes with students, hierarchies of ontology (ways of being) and epistemology (ways of knowing) within schools that promote individualism served to isolate and marginalize community-oriented teachers of Color and, thus, limited their ability to advance racial justice.     

Making sense of pre-service teachers’ dispositions towards social justice: can teacher education make a difference?

Given Australia's diverse student population, the need for pre-service teacher education to prepare what is a predominantly Anglo-Australian and middle-class profession to be effective teachers of diverse students is critical. In Lortie's (1975 Lortie, D. 1975. Schoolteacher: A sociological study, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.  [Google Scholar]) classic study, however, he argues that the predispositions of teacher education students are a much more powerful socialising influence than pre-service education. This article explores dispositions towards social justice in pre-service teachers from two teacher education programs within one Australian metropolitan university. Drawing on notions of distributive, retributive and recognitive justice (Gale & Densmore, 2000 Gale, T. and Densmore, K. 2000. Just schooling: Explorations in the cultural politics of teaching, Buckingham: Open University Press.  [Google Scholar]) as a way of making sense of socially just dispositions, interviews with four pre-service teachers – two beginning their Graduate Diploma in Education program (a one year program) and two beginning their final year of the Bachelor of Education program (a four year program) – are analysed. Differences in the dispositions of teachers from the two cohorts are examined and implications for teacher education discussed.     

The Creation and Evolution of a Co-Teaching Community: How Teachers Learned to Address Adolescent English Language Learners' Needs as Writers

This article reports findings from a four-year formative experiment (Reinking &; Bradley, 2008 Reinking, D., &; Bradley, B. (2008). On formative and design experiments. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. [Google Scholar]) investigating a summer writing institute for ninth graders entering an urban high school. Intended as enrichment, not remediation, for a heterogeneous group of students, and as a learning experience, not just a teaching opportunity, for practitioners, the institute was grounded in multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996 New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66, 60–92. [Google Scholar]) and scholarship on inclusive schooling (Udvari-Solner, 1997 Udvari-Solner, A. (1997). Inclusive education. In C. A. Grant &; G. Ladson-Billings (Eds.), Dictionary of multicultural education (pp. 141–144). Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press. [Google Scholar]). Its essential elements included (1) composing by students in both print and digital genres, (2) a small set of instructional approaches effective for heterogeneous populations, and (3) co-teaching and co-planning by institute staff. This article focuses on teachers' efforts to support the writing development of English Language Learners (ELLs), who represented 20–30% of institute participants each year. Findings revealed that as teachers made adjustments to the institute model over time, their efforts to support ELLs' participation became more grounded in collective examination of varied student data. As teachers worked in community with each other (Swanson, 2007 Swanson, D. (2007). Ubuntu: An African contribution to (re)search for/with a “humble togetherness.” Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education, 2(2), 53–67. [Google Scholar]; Venter, 2004 Venter, E. (2004). The notion of Ubuntu and communalism in African educational discourse. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 23, 149–160. [Google Scholar]), they increased their ability to address student writers' diverse needs.     

Preparing Teachers to Design Instruction for Deep Understanding in Middle School Earth Science

This study compared the efficacy of 3 approaches to professional development in middle school Earth science organized around the principles of Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998 Wiggins, G. and McTighe, J. 1998. Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development..  [Google Scholar]) in a sample of 53 teachers from a large urban district. Teachers were randomly assigned to a control group or to 1 of 3 conditions that varied with respect to the conceptions of ideal curriculum use embedded within. Teachers either designed units of instruction, adopted units developed by expert Earth scientists and Earth science educators, or learned principled ways to adapt expert-designed curricula. Relying on data from surveys and independent ratings of naturally occurring teacher assignments, we used hierarchical linear modeling techniques to analyze the impacts of the professional development on how teachers planned and coordinated instruction. Our results suggest that to realize positive effects on both their planning and coordination of instruction, teachers need access to high-quality curriculum materials and professional development that helps them plan for principled adaptation of those materials.     

Sexual Health Education for Individuals with Disabilities: A Call to Action

Expressing sexuality is part of the human experience, yet sexual health is often ignored in regard to persons with disabilities. Individuals with disabilities are at risk of sexual abuse and exploitation, unwanted pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases. Additionally, many adolescents with disabilities lack the knowledge needed to develop a healthy sexual identity, therefore, increasing their vulnerability (Baladerian, et al., 2013 Baladerian, N. J., Coleman, T. F., &; Stream, J. (2013). Abuse of people with disabilities: Victims and their families speak out: A report on the 2012 national survey on abuse and people with disabilities. Retrieved from http://disability-abuse.com/survey/survey-report.pdf [Google Scholar]; Boehning, 2006 Boehning, A. (2006). Sex education for students with disabilities. Law &; Disorder, 1, 56–66. [Google Scholar]; Preston, 2013 Preston, M. (2013). ‘Very very risky’: Sexuality education teachers' definition of sexuality and teaching and learning responsibilities. American Journal of Sexuality Education, 8(1-2), 18–35. doi:10.1080/15546128.2013.790223.[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]; SEICUS, 2012 SIECUS: Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. (2012). Bibliography: Sexuality and disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.siecus.org [Google Scholar], 2014 SIECUS: Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.siecus.org [Google Scholar]). Resources have been developed to improve the sexual health of individuals with disabilities; however, those who need this education may not have access to the resources. The purpose of this literature review is to examine sexual health education for individuals with disabilities; it focuses on risks to people with disabilities, current barriers to education, and available resources.     

Entrepreneurialism at the University of Zagreb: Managing the Sustainability of Change

This article presents a study of the different aspects of entrepreneurialism at the University of Zagreb in the context of Croatian higher education. The recent history of changes at the University of Zagreb is described using a temporal perspective from the beginning of the development of the European Higher Education Area to the implementation of the Bologna Process in Croatia. The theoretical framework for the study has been Burton Clark's (1998 Clark, B. R. 1998. Creating Entrepreneurial Universities, Oxford: Pergamont and Elsevier Science. Organizational Pathways of Transformation [Google Scholar]) seminal analysis of the main features of academic entrepreneurialism. Each feature: the strengthening of steering capacity, the diversification of financial sources, a stimulated academic heartland, an extended periphery, and integrating entrepreneurial culture have been elaborated using the illustrative examples from university practice and university statistics. The last part of the study gives an overview of the results of the empirical study conducted among university managers, teachers, and students on their perceptions of the university's entrepreneurial culture at the level of the institution as a whole as well as at the level of their respective faculty. In the final conclusions, the main requirements for effective change management within the university context are listed.     

A meta-ethnography of two studies on interactions in schools: reflections on the process of translation

ABSTRACT

This paper reflects upon our experience gained from engagement in a meta-ethnography of two studies on interactions between teachers and students in schools situated in England and Germany. Starting with a short overview of Noblit and Hare’s (1988 Noblit, G. W., and R. D. Hare. 1988. Meta-Ethnography: Synthesizing Qualitative Studies. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) conceptualisation of the method, the paper outlines the meta-ethnography we undertook especially focusing on the process of translation. We present the findings of our study which show teachers’ understanding of the pastoral aspect of their role as incompatible with demands related to their performance and to those associated with their institutional responsibilities. We show also how attempts to develop personalised interactions with students may reinforce students’ vulnerability. Our final discussion contributes our own deliberations about the potentials and challenges of the method, especially in relation to the role of the ethnographers and their relationship to the meta-ethnographic field.     

Fifteen pupils’ positive approach to primary school science: when does it decline?

The decline in secondary school pupils’ attitudes towards science is well documented. However, recent research has shown that pupils’ attitudes to science appear to become fixed during their primary school years. This study investigated end of Key Stage 1 (Yr 2 (ages six to seven years)) and end of Key Stage 2 (Yr 6 (ages 10–11 years)) pupils’ attitudes to science, using Klopfer’s themes (1971 Klopfer, L.E. 1971. “Evaluation of learning in science”. In Handbook on summative and formative evaluation of student learning, Edited by: Bloom, B.S., Hastings, J.T. and Madaus, G.F. 559–641. New York: McGraw‐Hill.  [Google Scholar]), through a paired activity and interview for Yr 2 pupils and a pre‐ and post‐Test of Science‐Related Attitudes questionnaire (adapted) for Yr 6 pupils. The questionnaire was analysed using the mean and chi square values and Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to test reliability. The results revealed that while Yr 2 pupils exhibit a thirst for knowledge and enthusiasm for science, Yr 6 pupils’ attitudes over the period of one academic year did not change: their attitude towards science was fixed. This insight raises some implications and responsibilities for primary school teachers.