Can districts keep good teachers in the schools that need them most?

This study investigates how school demographics and their interactions with policies affect the mobility behaviors of public school teachers with various human capital characteristics. Using data from North Carolina from 1995 to 2006, it finds that teachers’ career stage and human capital investments dominate their decisions to leave public school teaching and school demographic characteristics play a dominant role in intra-system sorting. Schools serving at-risk children struggle to attract and retain teachers with desirable observable characteristics. We find evidence to suggest that across-the-board school-based pay-for-performance policies have small but significant associations with mobility decisions and appear to exacerbate inequities in the distribution of teacher qualifications.     

Professional Development for School Library Media Professionals: Elements for Success

The American Association for School Librarians suggests an important mission for school librarians is to ensure personal growth through ongoing exposure to conferences, journal articles, webinars, presentations, and membership in professional organizations. As professional educators, School Librarians should exemplify the vision for being life-long learners. Methods and means to grow in the profession should be evaluated and examined for elements that lead to success in growth and maturity as professionals in school library media. This article investigates the attributes of successful professional development experiences which include learning environment, characteristics of learners, methodologies, and instructional design of staff development workshops.     

Fundamental movement skill performance of preschool children in relation to family context

Evidence suggests the development of fundamental movement skill (FMS) is a key factor in promoting long-term physical activity. Low levels of activity among preschool children and the relationship between physical activity and the development of fundamental movement skills underline the need to determine the factors associated with children's development of such skills. As parents play an important role in the socialization process, the aim of this study was to examine correlates of family and neighbourhood characteristics as well as parental behaviour and beliefs on FMS performance in 4- to 6-year-old preschool children. Relationships between preschool children's FMS performance and family contextual variables were examined within a sample of 846 preschool children. Results identified positive associations of FMS performance with parental education, father's physical activity, transport to school by bicycle, and the high value placed by parents high on sport-specific aspects of children's physical activity. Variables negatively associated with preschool children's FMS performance included father-child interaction in TV-viewing and reading books, the high importance placed by parents on winning and performance in children's physical activity. Furthermore, the ambiguity of associations between FMS performance and parental beliefs underlined its complexity.     

Bandpass sorting of heterogeneous cells using a single surface acoustic wave transducer pair

Separation and sorting of biological entities (viruses, bacteria, and cells) is a critical step in any microfluidic lab-on-a-chip device. Acoustofluidics platforms have demonstrated their ability to use physical characteristics of cells to perform label-free separation. Bandpass-type sorting methods of medium-sized entities from a mixture have been presented using acoustic techniques; however, they require multiple transducers, lack support for various target populations, can be sensitive to flow variations, or have not been verified for continuous flow sorting of biological cells. To our knowledge, this paper presents the first acoustic bandpass method that overcomes all these limitations and presents an inherently reconfigurable technique with a single transducer pair for stable continuous flow sorting of blood cells. The sorting method is first demonstrated for polystyrene particles of sizes 6, 10, and 14.5 μm in diameter with measured purity and efficiency coefficients above 75 ± 6% and 85 ± 9%, respectively. The sorting strategy was further validated in the separation of red blood cells from white blood cells and 1 μm polystyrene particles with 78 ± 8% efficiency and 74 ± 6% purity, respectively, at a flow rate of at least 1 μl/min, enabling to process finger prick blood samples within minutes.     

The role that schools hold in supporting young people with selective mutism: a systematic literature review

Schools are expected to hold an increasingly central role in co-ordinating support for children with mental health needs. However, the role that schools hold in supporting pupils with selective mutism (SM) is complex. Through a Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS), this review explores the multidimensional role which educational settings hold in supporting children with SM. Key databases were searched (PsycInfo, British Education Index, Education Resources Information Center, British Library EThOS and Google Scholar) and a conceptual map, informed by experienced practitioners, guided additional purposive searching with a focus on conceptual saturation. A total of twenty-four papers were identified following a further process of appraisal. Reciprocal Translational Analysis (RTA) found that schools hold a tripartite role in supporting children with SM: this incorporated developing a shared understanding of the disorder, engaging in effective (and often multi-professional) planning, and offering direct support through adapting provision and facilitating individual intervention. Through realising this role, schools and educational settings might transform the support currently available for children and young people with SM. Implications for practice, policy and future research also emerged. This included a clear need for enhanced teacher understanding of SM, arguably at the level of initial teacher training (ITT).     

“I Managed It Pretty Good”: Birth Narratives of Adolescent Mothers

The aim of this study was to understand adolescent mothers’ childbirth experiences. Semistructured interviews were conducted with participants recruited from a community-based program for adolescent mothers. Fourteen mothers described their birth experiences. Using a narrative analytic approach, responses were reconstructed into birth stories. Stories, condensed into poetic form, were compared and contrasted. Four unique categories emerged: connected births, surreal births, disconnected births, and disempowered births. Categories differed by agency, support, and emotional tone. Positive support was found in stories that portrayed high agency and positive affect, whereas problematic support was apparent in stories that conveyed passivity, frustration, and disappointment. This study has implications for tailoring childbirth education for adolescent mothers and can inform health-care professionals working with this population.     

Analogical reasoning in adolescents with intellectual disability: effects of external memories and time processing

Analogical reasoning involves the comparison of pictures as well as the memorisation of relations. Young children (4–7 years old) and students with moderate intellectual disability have a short memory span, which hampers them in succeeding traditional analogical tests. In the present study, we investigated if, by providing external memory hints, the visual aid could enable these participants to succeed in analogies comprising more relations than their memory span was able to manage. Our analogical test, composed of 2 × 2 matrices, was administered in two versions: the standard version, similar to traditional tests, required the participant to memorise all the relations involved in order to discover the solution, whereas the construction version required him/her to construct the answer part by part by using external memories, which potentially increased success by offloading the memory. Our results show that students with moderate intellectual disability reached results similar to typically developing control children when provided with external memory hints (referred to as external memories). Moreover, in the most complex levels of the test, they did not spend more time than control children in solving the analogies.     

Morningness–Eveningness and College Advising: A Road to Student Success?

In addressing the challenges faced by E‐type (evening‐type) students, researchers have pointed to the need for school schedules that reflect chronotypic concerns and the recognition of the importance of sleep for academic achievement and well‐being. One approach to dealing with this issue for adolescent students has been to move the start of the school day later. In college, however, schedules become more varied and the social context in which these challenges occur differs requiring more individualized approaches to scheduling. In spite of this, morningness–eveningness is rarely considered by college administrators, advisors, or individuals involved in student services. It is important that faculty and staff who work with students be aware of chronotypical influences on classroom performance and other aspects of student life so that they can help them succeed in college and beyond.