Identity Narratives: Stories from the Lives of Urban Adolescent Females

In this article, I present narratives told to me by female students of color who attended high school in an urban setting. Collected as part of an interpretive study in which I interviewed students during their senior year of high school and the first two years after graduation, these narratives focus on two themes: identity as oppositional and as contingent or shifting. I use these narratives to describe how youth simultaneously participated in and resisted school. I show that youth's shifting sets of identities shaped their participation in school, their definitions of success and the visions they held for the future. This article suggests that schools provide safe spaces for adults and young women to form mentoring relationships, that we reorganize schools so that school personnel have contact with fewer students, and finally, that we be careful not to write off students once they have children or because of poor academic records. The narratives belie simple explanations of success or failure for females of color living in poverty. Rather, they suggest the importance of listening to youth as we reformulate education policy and practice.     

Differentiation In Elementary School Counselor Preparation Programs Among ACES Regions

A national survey, reported by ACES regions, examined the differentiation of counselor education programs for the preparation of elementary school counselors. While the study, based on usable questionnaire returns from 225 counselor education programs, provides evidence of many efforts toward program differentiation, there remains a substantial lack of uniformity in preparation background of elementary school counselors graduating from preparation programs across the country.     

Teacher professional development in Teaching and Teacher Education over ten years

A review of publications in Teaching and Teacher Education over ten years (2000-2010) on teacher professional development is the subject of the paper. The first part synthesises production referred to learning, facilitation and collaboration, factors influencing professional development, effectiveness of professional development and issues around the themes. The second part, selects from the production nine articles for closer examination. The paper concludes by noting how the production brings out the complexities of teacher professional learning and how research and development have taken cognisance of these factors and provided food for optimism about their effects, although not yet about their sustainability in time.     

Emergent literacy and learning to write: A predictive model for italian language

The aim of the present study is twofold: (1) contribute to identifying a model for the variables that compose the emergent literacy construct and their relationships; (2) assess the predictive power of the emergent literacy model on early writing abilities in a transparent orthography language. We examined emergent literacy skills in 464 children (mean age 5.5, range: 48–6.1) who were followed longitudinally until entering the 1st grade in primary school. Exploratory and Confirmatory factor analyses were used to address questions on the nature of emergent literacy skills and their possible relationships. Regression analyses were implemented to evaluate the predictive capability of an emergent literacy model on word writing competences. The factor analyses showed three factorial dimensions (phonological, conceptual knowledge on writing system and textual) and their relationship. The regressions showed a significant prediction of conceptual knowledge on writing system and of phonological abilities on early writing abilities.     

Recognizing the Outliers: Behaviors and Tendencies of the Profoundly Gifted Learner in Mixed-Ability Classrooms

This article focuses on (a) distinctions between the profoundly gifted individual and others, and (b) a chart describing tendencies and/or behaviors associated with the profoundly gifted student in common, mixed-ability educational settings. The intent is to provide educators, parents, and policymakers with preliminary awareness about the unique behaviors and tendencies of the profoundly gifted learner in heterogeneous educational settings. Learners with measured IQ scores greater than 3 SD units above the mean are a statistical rarity—outliers—in most educational settings. The current inability of most educators to identify and even minimally address needs leaves these students anxious, frustrated, and otherwise unable to reach their intellectual capacity in the majority of school settings across the country. Focused research and careful attention to the nature and needs of these individuals throughout their lives can contribute substantially to our developing understanding.