Shopping for schools or shopping for peers: public schools and catchment area segregation

Market theory positions the consumer as a rational choice actor, making informed schooling choices on the basis of ‘hard’ evidence of relative school effectiveness. Yet there are concerns that parents simply choose schools based on socio-demographic characteristics, thus leading to greater social segregation and undercutting the potential of choice to drive quality improvements. In this paper, we explore segregation by examining catchment areas for a range of public high schools in a specific middle-class urban area. We focus on socio-demographic characteristics, including levels of income, country of birth and religion affiliation, in order to explore residential segregation according to public high school catchment areas. Our data suggest distinct residential segregation between catchment areas for each public school within our data-set, particularly for the schools deemed to be popular and rejected, that may pose risks for broader equity concerns. We argue that, in contrast to market theory, even more affluent and active choosers are not equipped with information on the programmatic quality of their different school options, but instead may be relying on socio-demographic characteristics of schools – through surrogate information about the urban spaces that the schools occupy – in order to choose peer groups, if not programmes, for their children.     

‘Other’ boys: negotiating non‐hegemonic masculinities in the primary school

Focusing on the experiences of boys who choose not to cultivate their masculinities through hegemonic discourses and practices, this paper seeks to empirically explore and theorize the extent to which it is possible to live out the category ‘boy’ in non‐hegemonic ways in the primary school setting. Drawing upon a year‐long ethnography of children's constructions of their gender and sexual identities in two primary schools, it examines how a minority of 10‐ and 11‐year‐old white working and middle‐class boys create and seek out spaces from which they can resist, subvert and actively challenge prevailing hegemonic (heterosexual) masculinities within a peer group pupil culture which thrives on the daily policing and shaming of Other1 Following the writings of bel hooks (e.g., 1990 hooks b. (1990) Yearning: race, gender and cultural politics (Boston, MA, South End Press)  [Google Scholar]) I am loosely using the term Other to conceptualise those identities located at the margins— those non‐hegemonic identities that are in some ways resistant and order‐transforming (rather than conventional and order‐maintaining) and thus cross and/or blur sex/gender boundaries. View all notes masculinities. The paper attempts to theorize more fully the inter‐relationship of hegemonic and non‐hegemonic masculinities and argues that the ways in which boys inhabit and construct non‐hegemonic masculinities both subverts and reinforces hegemonic gender/sexual relations.     

Towards universal accessibility: The UK policy landscape and supporting technology

Key points

• The UK policy landscape supports access for the users whilst allowing publishers to maintain business models.
• Advancements such as EPUB 3, aligning publishing with web technologies, and the Inclusive Publishing hub help publishers reach accessibility compliance.
• Print impairment is not an on/off switch, and each reader has his or her own unique set of requirements – a fact that is supported by EPUB 3.
• The time is ripe for publishers to make firm commitments to accessibility initiatives.

     

Puberty Predicts Approach But Not Avoidance on the Iowa Gambling Task in a Multinational Sample

According to the dual systems model of adolescent risk taking, sensation seeking and impulse control follow different developmental trajectories across adolescence and are governed by two different brain systems. The authors tested whether different underlying processes also drive age differences in reward approach and cost avoidance. Using a modified Iowa Gambling Task in a multinational, cross‐sectional sample of 3,234 adolescents (ages 9–17; M = 12.87, SD = 2.36), pubertal maturation, but not age, predicted reward approach, mediated through higher sensation seeking. In contrast, age, but not pubertal maturation, predicted increased cost avoidance, mediated through greater impulse control. These findings add to evidence that adolescent behavior is best understood as the product of two interacting, but independently developing, brain systems.     

Quality indicators for effective early intervention in literacy and numeracy

Recent research suggests that multi‐strand and interlinked interventions meet the requirements of early primary school intervention programmes more fully than single programmes. A set of quality indicators, which education authorities and schools can utilize to review and evaluate processes and outcomes of such interventions, is derived from the outcome of an evaluation of the implementation of an early intervention programme (EIP) in literacy and numeracy, involving 274 pupils, in three North Ayrshire primary schools. The implications for primary prevention of difficulties in literacy and numeracy are discussed.     

Making visible the literacy practices of elders through the day in the life methodology: considerations for literacy education across the lifespan

This pilot study uses ‘day in the life' methodology to observe the everyday literacy practices of a self‐identified thriving elder. Through the case of one nonagenarian female residing in an assisted living community in the United States, we identified the multimodal, posthuman nature of this elder's literacies, exploring how they were connected to a sense of well‐being and the types of literacies that remain relevant across the lifespan. We further consider what the insights gained from such a study might teach about literacy education more generally. We advocate for education that keeps open people's literacy options across the lifespan through acknowledging and cultivating the myriad interrelated constituents of literacies, including the physical, social and political.     

Leaving or staying in teaching: a ‘vignette’ of an experienced urban teacher ‘leaver’ of a London primary school

In the field of teacher attrition, there is a significant body of literature on why teachers leave high-needs urban schools and particularly why beginning teachers leave their schools and the profession. However, there is little research on the reasons why experienced teachers leave the teaching profession. This paper examines this subject by considering whether teachers experience an ‘identity crisis’ in their careers which prompts them to leave. Drawing on identity theory, data from a single case study of an experienced urban teacher are taken from a wider qualitative research study carried out in London, England. The case is made that decisions to leave or stay in a school are contingent on a number of personal, professional and situational factors related to the teacher’s identity. The article concludes that one way to understand why long-serving teachers leave the profession is to examine aspects of their teacher identity and explore how a crisis in professional identity can contribute towards teacher attrition. In the light of this alternative approach towards understanding attrition, at the very least, supportive structures can be put in place to encourage more teachers to stay and contribute to the success and well-being of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.     

EarlyBird in South Staffordshire: reflections on an innovative model of interagency working to deliver an intervention for families of preschool children with autistic spectrum disorder

In this article three education and health services professionals, Julia Halpin, Sally Pitt and Emma Dodd, describe and reflect upon the way in which a small group of professionals from health and education services worked in collaboration to meet the need to inform and empower parents of preschool children with a diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Julia and Sally, both clinical nurse specialists, and Emma, an educational psychologist, outline the background to the project in terms of demographics, epidemiology and service needs, and explain the way in which the interagency project was initiated as a ‘bottom‐up’ response, reflecting on the advantages and disadvantages of this way of working. The team piloted an innovative evaluation method which is offered as a tool that could usefully be developed further.     

Pre-analytical mysteries: A case of severe hypervitaminosis D and mild hypercalcaemia

We describe a case of severe hypervitaminosis D and mild hypercalcaemia in a 68-year-old woman who presented with fatigue and weight loss. Her 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25OHD) was > 400 nmol/L (50-150) and corrected serum calcium was 2.83 mmol/L (2.1-2.6). Her intact parathyroid hormone (PTH) was 4.9 pmol/L (2.0-9.5). Further investigation revealed an IgM kappa paraprotein, and a bone marrow aspirate confirmed a diagnosis of lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma/Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia (LPL/WM). As the vitamin D level was discordant with the patient’s other results and presentation, the presence of an assay interferent was suspected. A 1-in-2 dilution of the sample returned a 25OHD result of 84 nmol/L in keeping with the presence of an interferent. Testing for rheumatoid factor was negative. The sample was treated with an antibody blocking reagent (Scantibodies) and results were not consistent with heterophile antibody interference. The sample was then analysed using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), which returned a 25OHD result of 82 nmol/L. Testing on an alternative immunoassay platform produced a 25OHD result of 75 nmol/L. Reapeted testing on the original platform following reduction of the monoclonal paraprotein with chemotherapy, returned a result of 64 nmol/L. The patient’s mild hypercalcaemia persisted following resolution of the monoclonal paraprotein, in keeping with a diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism. This case highlights the potential for paraproteins to cause assay interference, and the importance of considering interference when results are incongruous with the clinical presentation.