Staff development for raising attainment: a practitioner's view of what works

ABSTRACT

This paper offers a practitioner's view of how continuing professional development (CPD) can help raise achievement in schools. It is one of four papers in this issue linked to a research project in Stoke-on-Trent seeking to raise attainment in schools in deprived communicates. Based on over 20 years’ experience working in and with different schools in the UK, this paper frames a head teacher's perspective, outlining seven strategies she believes are key to improving school performance. These strategies are providing CPD opportunities to all staff rather than just those involved in teaching, planning CPD activities in the light of school development priorities, mentoring and coaching between staff, forming inter-school networks and partnerships, team teaching, peer review and continual assessment of CPD impact.     

Changes in the relation of self-efficacy beliefs and behaviors across development

Many social science theories that examine the connection between beliefs and behaviors assume that belief constructs will predict behaviors similarly across development. Converging research implies that this assumption may not be tenable across all ages or all belief constructs. Thus, to test this implication, the relation between behavior and beliefs about the self was examined in 2 independent data sets with 2 different constructs: aggression and achievement. The respondents were 6-18 years of age and predominately Caucasian. Results using quasi-simplex structural equation models suggest that self-beliefs become more strongly related to behavior as children grow older independent of the reliability of the measures used. Possible limitations in the use of self-report methodology with young children are discussed.     

The impact of intercultural contact on host families

This paper reports the results of programmatic research focusing upon the host family component of the Council of International Programs (CIP) exchange program that brings human service professionals to the United States each year. The study shows that four major dimensions of intercultural contact identified in intercultural literature (personal development, intimacy, international networks, and better understanding of foreign affairs) are clearly promoted through the CIP host family experience. The study supports the usefulness of a host family component as part of intercultural exchange programs.     

Subtypes of Social Withdrawal in Early Childhood: Sociometric Status and Social-Cognitive Differences across Four Years

From a sample of 567 kindergartners observed during free play, 150 children were classified as socially withdrawn and followed over 4 years. A cluster analysis involving teacher ratings was used to identify subtypes of withdrawn children. Four clusters were identified, 3 fitting profiles found in the literature and labeled unsociable (n=96), passive-anxious (n=23), and active-isolate (n=19), and I typically not discussed, labeled sad/depressed (n=12). Sociometric ratings indicated that unsociable children had elevated rates of sociometric neglect, active-isolates had higher than expected levels of rejection, and sad/depressed children had elevated rates of both neglect and rejection. Subtypes also differed in social information-processing patterns, with active-isolate children displaying the least competent skills. The findings that some subtypes experience more difficulty than others might account for the ambiguity in extant studies regarding whether or not social withdrawal is a risk factor in psychosocial development, because withdrawal has most often been treated as a unitary construct in the past     

Predicting school weapon possession: A secondary analysis of the youth risk behavior surveillance survey

As school psychologists are asked to help schools evaluate the level of violence risk posed by specific students, they need to fully consider the technical adequacy of any test or procedure that is proposed to “predict” future violent behavior or conditions. In this article, we contribute to this discussion by examining responses of 40,435 students from the 1993, 1995, and 1997 administrations of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey. Student self‐reported school risk behaviors and experiences are used to “predict” recent weapon possession on school campuses and to illustrate the use of receiver operating characteristic curves to evaluate the performance of a test for prediction purposes. An index of nine school risk behaviors was moderately correlated (r = .36) with school weapon possession. However, when the accuracy of using this school risk index to predict weapon possession is evaluated, it is found that the area under the ROC curve was approximately .75, a moderate‐to‐large effect size but still demonstrating inadequate prediction at the individual student level. Further, there were twice as many frequent weapon carriers with zero school risks than with 7–9 risks, suggesting that attention directed toward violence risk profiles may promote inattention to another group of students who engage in potentially high‐risk behaviors at school. It is argued that school psychologists should consider school violence appraisals within a developmental, long‐term model. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Phelan’s bibliometric analysis of the impact of australian educational research

Phelan (2000) has produced a complex bibliometric analysis of the international contribution of Australian educational research based upon publications and citations reported in the journals indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information — the Standard & Poors of the academic world. This paper examines Phelan’s analysis, showing its strengths and weaknesses, as well as examining his proposal for the establishment of an Australian database along the lines of the ISI’s index.     

Introduction to the special issue on the appraisal and prediction of school violence

This article provides an overview of a special issue of Psychology in the Schools that critically examines issues related to the appraisal of the risk for violence among students. It is argued that school psychologists can assume the important role of informing communities about the limitations of school violence screening and assessment procedures and can implement student‐appraisal techniques that focus on long‐term student development. They can also work toward more accurate measurement of general school violence trends and intervention needs. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.