Considerations for Equating Alternate Assessments: Two Case Studies of Alternate Assessments Based on Alternate Achievement Standards

The development of alternate assessments for students with disabilities plays a pivotal role in state and national accountability systems. An important assumption in the use of alternate assessments in these accountability systems is that scores are comparable on different test forms across diverse groups of students over time. The use of test equating is a common way that states attempt to establish score comparability on different test forms. However, equating presents many unique, practical, and technical challenges for alternate assessments. This article provides case studies of equating for two alternate assessments in Michigan and an approach to determine whether or not equating would be preferred to not equating on these assessments. This approach is based on examining equated score and performance-level differences and investigating population invariance across subgroups of students with disabilities. Results suggest that using an equating method with these data appeared to have a minimal impact on proficiency classifications. The population invariance assumption was suspect for some subgroups and equating methods with some large potential differences observed.     

Eyeballs in the Fridge: Sources of early interest in science

This paper examines the experiences reported by scientists and graduate students regarding the experiences that first engaged them in science. The interviews analysed for this paper come from Project Crossover, a mixed‐methods study of the transition from graduate student to PhD scientist in the fields of chemistry and physics. This analysis involved review of 116 interviews collected from graduate students and scientists and focused on the timing, source, and nature of their earliest interest in science. The majority (65%) of participants reported that their interest in science began before middle school. Females were more likely to report that their interest was sparked by school‐related activities, while most males recounted self‐initiated activities. Our findings indicate that current policy efforts (which focus on high school science reform) to increase the numbers of students studying in the science fields, may be misguided.     

Fostering teachers' design expertise in teacher design teams: conducive design and support activities

Supporting Teacher Design Teams (TDTs) during local curriculum development efforts is essential. To be able to provide high-quality support, insights are needed about how TDTs carry out design activities and how support is valued by the members of TDTs and how it affects their design expertise. In this study, the design and support processes of two TDTs assisted by an external facilitator were investigated using a case study approach. The results revealed that support offered to TDTs depended on the contextual boundaries and the focus of the design process. The focus, coherence and form of support affected the opportunities for developing teachers’ design expertise. In both cases, teachers’ curriculum design expertise had grown, whereas their pedagogical content knowledge and subject matter knowledge were hardly developed. Findings show that the most conducive support activities and materials were those that could directly be applied in the design process.     

“Talent” and the Misrecognition of Social Advantage in Specialized Arts Education

Attention has been drawn to the persistent underrepresentation of underserved populations in gifted education programs. Though a small number of working-class students, students of color, recent immigrants, and students with limited English proficiency attend these programs, access to gifted education remains closely linked to White and upper-middle-class populations. The question remains: how, in a system that claims to be committed to achieving equity, do such disparities come to be and, furthermore, how are they justified? In this article we attempt to make sense of this phenomenon by examining how discourses of talent are mobilized within the context of a particular kind of gifted education program: a specialized arts program within a Canadian public secondary school.     

Integrating different tracking systems in football: multiple camera semi-automatic system,local position measurement and GPS technologies

Abstract

During the past decade substantial development of computer-aided tracking technology has occurred. Therefore, we aimed to provide calibration equations to allow the interchangeability of different tracking technologies used in soccer. Eighty-two highly trained soccer players (U14–U17) were monitored during training and one match. Player activity was collected simultaneously with a semi-automatic multiple-camera (Prozone), local position measurement (LPM) technology (Inmotio) and two global positioning systems (GPSports and VX). Data were analysed with respect to three different field dimensions (small, <30 m² to full-pitch, match). Variables provided by the systems were compared, and calibration equations (linear regression models) between each system were calculated for each field dimension. Most metrics differed between the 4 systems with the magnitude of the differences dependant on both pitch size and the variable of interest. Trivial-to-small between-system differences in total distance were noted. However, high-intensity running distance (>14.4 km · h^?1) was slightly-to-moderately greater when tracked with Prozone, and accelerations, small-to-very largely greater with LPM. For most of the equations, the typical error of the estimate was of a moderate magnitude. Interchangeability of the different tracking systems is possible with the provided equations, but care is required given their moderate typical error of the estimate.     

Secondary Teachers can Teach Reading

This article presents guiding principles governing the design, implementation, and management of a point system to promote discipline and academic rigor in a secondary classroom. Four considerations are discussed: (1) assigning appropriate point values to integral classroom behaviors and tasks; (2) determining the relationship among consequences, rewards, and corresponding point attainment thresholds for the purpose of reinforcing ideal behavior; (3) stressing equity and minimizing distractions during implementation; and (4) creating a recordkeeping system to ensure the efficient management of the point system. Equipped with this customizable framework, readers can then create a point system tailored to a multitude of classroom needs.     

Beyond Intimaphobia: Object lessons from Foucault and Sade

In this study I suggest ways of thinking through issues of intimacy that have emerged in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries in the USA. I propose a state of intimaphobia in education. However, I move beyond exposing this state of intimaphobia to offer particular readings of two philosophers of intimacy: Michel Foucault and the Marquis de Sade. I argue that these two philosophers provide alternative models of thinking through the problems and potentials of and for intimacy. While Foucault has been taken up within education in any number of ways, his concept of the ‘homosexual’ is utilized to offer insights into intimacy. Sade, while the stranger philosopher to engage, offers challenges to contemporary educational practices through the lessons of the libertine. Foucault and Sade offer, to put it simply, promises for pedagogical pleasures that challenge the current fears around intimacy in education.     

Introduction to the development of the ISPCAN child abuse screening tools

The World Report on Children and Violence, (Pinheiro, 2006) was produced at the request of the UN Secretary General and the UN General Assembly. This report recommended improvement in research on child abuse. ISPCAN representatives took this charge and developed 3 new instruments. We describe this background and introduce three new measures designed to assess the incidence and prevalence of child abuse and neglect.     

Computing controversy: Formal model and algorithms for detecting controversy on Wikipedia and in search queries

Controversy is a complex concept that has been attracting attention of scholars from diverse fields. In the era of Internet and social media, detecting controversy and controversial concepts by the means of automatic methods is especially important. Web searchers could be alerted when the contents they consume are controversial or when they attempt to acquire information on disputed topics. Presenting users with the indications and explanations of the controversy should offer them chance to see the “wider picture” rather than letting them obtain one-sided views. In this work we first introduce a formal model of controversy as the basis of computational approaches to detecting controversial concepts. Then we propose a classification based method for automatic detection of controversial articles and categories in Wikipedia. Next, we demonstrate how to use the obtained results for the estimation of the controversy level of search queries. The proposed method can be incorporated into search engines as a component responsible for detection of queries related to controversial topics. The method is independent of the search engine’s retrieval and search results recommendation algorithms, and is therefore unaffected by a possible filter bubble.Our approach can be also applied in Wikipedia or other knowledge bases for supporting the detection of controversy and content maintenance. Finally, we believe that our results could be useful for social science researchers for understanding the complex nature of controversy and in fostering their studies.