一双袜子

在一个阳光明媚的下午,我走在第五街,突然想起应该买一双袜子了. 我恰巧看到一家短袜专卖店,便走了进去.一个不超过十七岁的男服务员迎上前来说道:“先生,您需要什么?”“我想买一双短袜.”听了我的话,他的眼睛一亮.他的话语充满了激情:“您知道吗?现在您正站在世界上一流的短袜专卖店里!”他热情地向我讲解着.而我却根本没有在意他说的话,因为我来这里实属偶然.“跟我来吧.”他说着,就径直走向商店里面.他不断地把货箱一个个从货架上搬下来,让我随意挑选.     

Foster Youth Need Sex Ed,Too!: Addressing the Sexual Risk Behaviors of System-Involved Youth

ABSTRACT

The social, economic, and environmental determinants of health include employment, housing, and education; exposure to environmental factors like lead or access to healthy food; and poverty, racism and oppression. Many of these conditions can lead to Adverse Childhood Experiences that may put children and youth at risk for abuse or maltreatment leading to involvement in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems. All young people experience important developmental milestones on their path to becoming healthy adults, and while this time of change is full of promise, it can be a time of increased vulnerability or risk. For system-involved youth, navigating this time of change can be fraught with even more challenges or barriers. Without strong family and social networks, they may face increased risk of engaging in high-risk behaviors—such as unprotected sex and sex with multiple partners—as well as unintended pregnancy, HIV, and other sexually transmitted infections. Our study examined survey data to assess the overall sexual reproductive health behaviors for youth aged 14–21 in out-of-home care in an urban environment (n = 270; 60.7% male; 82% African American; 7.9% Latinx). Youth were recruited between 2012 and 2016; 76.4% of these teens had had sexual intercourse at some point in their lifetime. Of these, 86.0% were sexually active before the age of 16. Although there were numerous risk factors related to contraception and condom use as well as partner demographics, there were assets or strengths identified. A discussion of how these findings can be utilized to develop effective prevention intervention strategies is provided.     

If I had a magic wand I'd magic her out of the book: the rich literacy practices of competent early readers

This article explores the reading behaviours of 10 young competent nursery and reception children, The 10 children were selected from a group of 54 case study children involved in the national Bookstart evaluation study, Bookstart: Planting a Seed for Life (2005). This group of young readers, from different socioeconomic groups, were identified as reading in advance of their peers. The first part of this article explores the children's attitudes to reading, their responses to selected texts and their understanding of early phonological and letter knowledge. Second, the article reports on the findings from interviews with the parents of these children in order to illuminate the home literacy events that shape these young children's reading competences. This article is based on the larger scale national evaluation study of the Bookstart project, Bookstart: Planting a Seed for Life (2005). The evaluation was set up to explore the effectiveness of the Bookstart programme and the impact of early book giving on the first national cohort of Bookstart children as they entered school. View all notes     

A multilevel analysis of student perceptions of school climate: The effect of social and academic risk factors

This multilevel study examines the extent to which individual‐ and school‐level variables are predictive of three aspects of students' perceived school climate (order, safety, and discipline; fairness and clarity of school rules; and teacher‐student relationship) by using a nationally representative sample. A wide range of social and academic risk factors at the individual level are examined. The results show that individual‐level predictors, such as having behavior problems at school, being held back a grade, coming from a single‐parent family, parents' education level, gender, and ethnicity (e.g., Hispanic and Asian), play a significant role in student perceptions of school climate. The results suggest that these relationships between the individual‐level predictors and students' perceived school climate are fairly robust across schools. School‐level variables, such as attending a private or a Catholic school, are also significant predictors of students' perceived climate. Furthermore, the study reveals significant interaction effects among the predictors and provides more accurate interpretations of the findings. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Paraprofessionals in early childhood classrooms: an examination of duties and expectations

Millions of dollars are expended, in the USA and elsewhere, to provide paraprofessionals or ‘teaching assistants’ for regular early childhood classrooms. However, little consistent information exists related to best practice in the use of paraprofessionals in these early childhood settings. This article describes a study employing the use of 159 teacher and 161 paraprofessional surveys and classroom observations in 23 randomly selected kindergarten and four-year-old classrooms. Paraprofessionals delivered large amounts of group instruction and frequently managed student behavior. Furthermore, it was found that a lack of understanding of specific duties and expectations related to the roles of paraprofessionals was characteristic of both teachers and the paraprofessionals themselves.     

Investigating the dynamics of formative assessment: relationships between teacher knowledge,assessment practice and learning

This exploratory study of elementary school science examines questions central to policy, practice and research on formative assessment: What is the quality of teachers’ content-pedagogical and assessment knowledge? What is the relationship between teacher knowledge and assessment practice? What is the relationship between teacher knowledge, assessment practice and student learning? Drawing on multiple measures, hierarchical linear modelling and path analysis, results suggest that despite weaknesses in teachers’ content-pedagogical and assessment knowledge, teachers’ formative assessment practices are positively related to student learning. Relationships between teachers’ knowledge and assessment practices are mixed. Findings underscore both the potential and challenge of bringing effective formative practice to fruition as well as the need for continued research.