The appropriateness of the NC state-mandated reading competency test for deaf students as a criterion for high school graduation

Deaf students consistently score lower on standardized measures of reading comprehension than their hearing peers. Most of the studies that have been conducted to explain this phenomenon have focused on variables within the reader, and important differences have been found between deaf and hearing readers. More recently, in the face of increasingly high-stakes consequences, researchers are looking "outside" the reader, at the tests themselves, to determine whether there are fairness issues for special populations, such as deaf students. The study reported here, the first of its kind with deaf students, examines the North Carolina (NC) reading comprehension test. The study employs the same method used originally by NC to determine its appropriateness of the test for the general population of NC students. The experts in this article, like those in the original construction of the NC test, are familiar with the content of the reading curriculum in NC; however, the raters in this article bring a special perspective related to teaching and testing reading of students who are deaf. Findings from this study raise questions about the appropriateness of the NC reading test for deaf students. Implications for future research and instructional practice are discussed.     

Do organisational commitments matter in teaching approaches among academics in elite universities in Beijing?

This research investigated the statistical predictive power of organisational commitments for academics’ teaching approaches. Participants were 268 academics working in six elite universities in Beijing, mainland China. Results showed that academics’ organisational commitments as measured by the Organisational Commitment Inventory significantly predicted their teaching approaches as assessed by the Approaches to Teaching Inventory – beyond gender, age, taught academic discipline, academic rank and type of institution. Limitations and theoretical contributions of the study are noted; and practical implications of the findings are discussed in relation to academics and university senior managers.     

Assessing Literary Reasoning: Text and Task Complexities

This article addresses 3 broad challenges of assessment in reading comprehension: (a) explicitly articulating the knowledge and skills students need to recognize and be able to use in comprehending complex texts; (b) understanding how knowledge and skills progress and successively deepen and develop over repeated opportunities to engage in tasks that require critical thinking and interpretation; and (c) how to approach text selection and sequencing. The article examines these challenges in terms of discipline specific comprehension, specifically in the domain of response to literature. It further illustrates how these discipline specific assessment challenges are taken up in Project READI in the design of authentic assessments of literary reasoning.     

Teachers,Families, and Communities Supporting English Language Learners in Inclusive Pre-Kindergartens: An Evaluation of a Professional Development Model

The purpose of the Teachers, Families, and Communities Supporting English Language Learners (TFC) project was to implement and evaluate a sustainable model of high-quality professional development focused on improving inclusive pre-kindergarten services for English Language Learners (ELL) and their families. The professional development program consisted of three interactive training sessions and on-site classroom coaching visits. The project evaluation consisted of an assessment of the professional development program (i.e., the training sessions and coaching) and teachers' self-assessments of their beliefs and practices. Results indicate that the professional development program supported pre-kindergarten teachers in their efforts to be responsive to ELL children in their classrooms and with their families. Results also indicate that pre-kindergarten teachers are in need of continued support as they work with linguistically and culturally diverse children and their families. Implications for future professional development focused on English Language Learners are discussed.     

Parent Reading Belief Inventory: Reliability and Validity With a Sample of Mexican American Mothers

Research Findings: The purpose of the current study was to (a) evaluate the internal consistency of the 7 scales of the Parent Reading Belief Inventory (PRBI), (b) assess the factor structure, and (c) examine concurrent validity in a sample of Mexican American mothers from low-income homes.

Two hundred and seventy-four mothers of preschool children completed the PRBI and the Home Literacy Activities Questionnaire.

Five of the seven scales demonstrated adequate internal consistency. Principal component and parallel analyses revealed that one component provided the best summary of the observed variables. Preliminary evidence of concurrent validity was revealed. Practice or Policy: Future qualitative research is needed to explore mothers' interpretations of the items and to examine modifications to the PRBI.     

Making Sense of Performance Management: official rhetoric and teachers’ reality

Performance management is one aspect of major reforms which have transformed the public sector workforce in Australia and other Western countries since the 1980s. Embedded in the discourse of managerialism, performance management represents an attempt by the state to make workers—in this case teachers—more efficient, more effective and more accountable. In this paper we want to explore and compare a number of perspectives on performance management. Firstly, we consider several evaluation studies which have been undertaken in various contexts over recent years. These studies tend to take for granted the assumptions behind performance management and to judge its effectiveness within the framework of managerial thinking itself. Secondly, we review the critical literature which locates performance management in a broader social and political context and considers the interests it might serve. Finally, we present the perspectives of a focus group of teachers who are currently ‘being performance managed’ and reflect on the relationship between their stories, the official rhetoric of their education system and the views expressed in the literature.     

Father-Time: Welcome to the Rest of Your Life

This guest editorial reports on the expansion of a program for expectant and new fathers within a local health service on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. The program, titled “Father-Time: Welcome to the Rest of Your Life,” incorporates, and is an extension to, the all-male discussion forum previously reported in this journal (Spring 2005, Volume 14, No. 2).     

Museums: Impact and value

The role of museums and their place within society is no longer one which we can take for granted. Eschewing the notion of funding based on ‘public good’, successive iterations of public sector reform have progressively required museums to prove that they are worthy of public support. Notions of ‘worth’ have increasingly been tied to the achievement of government policy and enforced through making attainment of key policy directions a condition of funding agreements. Current government policy aimed at ‘building social capital’ in both the Britain and Australia expects museums to prove that they ‘make a difference’ in terms of long-term social impact. However, unease over the imbalance created by what many perceive to be an overly ‘instrumental’ approach to assessing the role of museums has generated growing criticism and a parallel conversation about ‘intrinsic value’. Impact and value—the twin peaks of current discourse about the role of museums in contemporary society—are the subject of a recent study carried out in Australia, which is described here.