Teacher Leader Model Standards and the Functions Assumed by National Board Certified Teachers

The Teacher Leader Model Standards (TLMS) were created to stimulate discussion around the leadership responsibilities teachers assume in schools. This study used the TLMS to gauge the self-reported leadership responsibilities of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs). The NBCTs reported engaging in all domains of the TLMS, most frequently with Domain 1: Fostering a collaborative culture to support educator development and student learning, and least frequently with Domain 7: Advocating for student learning and the profession.     

RESOLV: Development of a telephone-based program designed to increase socialization in older veterans

We describe the development of a telephone-based program, Recreation, Education, and Socialization for Older Learning Veterans (RESOLV) that aims to connect Veterans with one another by phone and thereby reduce loneliness. The program was developed through a collaboration between VA and a community-based organization, Episcopal Senior Communities Senior Center Without Walls (SCWW). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 rural and non-rural dwelling older Veterans to identify leisure interests and potential barriers to participating in leisure activities. Program feasibility was examined with questions about telephone use and interest in and perceived benefits of a telephone community. We conducted content analysis to quantify Veterans’ leisure interests and thematic analysis to characterize barriers to participation. Veterans expressed interest most frequently in groups focused on conversation, support, gratitude, and technology. Rural and non-rural participants did not differ significantly in interests. Barriers to current activity participation included limited access to activities, limitations due to physical conditions, and transportation difficulties, which were consistent themes for both rural and non-rural participants. Themes related to perceived benefits of socialization that emerged include connectedness, learning from others, being active despite limitations, and distraction from limitations. Our findings demonstrate how a telephone-based socialization program could be developed and tailored for older Veterans. It seems that such a program is feasible and may be of benefit for older Veterans in rural and non-rural areas. Further evaluation is needed to ascertain the direct benefit of such a program to older Veterans.     

Are You My Grandmother?: Constructing and Maintaining Stepgrandparent Identity and Roles

The disruption of the biological family unit due to divorce or separation followed by remarriage or re-partnering has a profound impact on every family member, including extended family members. An individual becomes a stepgrandparent through later life re-partnering, when an adult child becomes a stepparent, or when a stepchild becomes a parent. In order to gain a greater understanding of the communication influencing the development and maintenance of stepgrandparent roles and identity, a qualitative interpretive analysis method was employed as a guide for interviews with 41 adult stepfamily members across two generations of stepfamily membership: stepparents and stepgrandparents.     

If I experience formative assessment whilst studying at university,will I put it into practice later as a teacher? Formative and shared assessment in Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

The aim of this article is to analyse whether having experience of formative assessment during their initial teacher education courses (ITE) influences graduates’ subsequent practice as teachers. That is, if the assessment methods that university students are subject to during their learning process are then actually employed by them during their professional practice as schoolteachers. To address this issue, questionnaires were issued and focus groups were held with a sample of ITE graduates. The main results of the study are that: (1) formative and shared assessment (FSA) is not used a great deal during ITE, but is highly valued; (2) some graduates have implemented FSA in their practice as teachers, following their experience on their ITE course; and (3) significant variables are found regarding the implementation of FSA in schools (possible resistance from colleagues and/or pupils’ parents, etc.).     

A Conceptual Framework for Emergent Digital Literacy

As we progress in the 21st century, children learn to become proficient readers and writers of both digital and non-digital texts. Knowledge, skills, and understandings of literacy emerge through sociocultural interactions with non-digital tools (e.g., paper-printed books) and digital tools (e.g., touch screen tablets). However, debate is ongoing over the role that digital experiences play in emergent literacy development. Researchers have voiced the need to conceptualise a common framework for literacy development that considers the emergence of digital literacy skills alongside conventional literacy skills and how these skills might interact during development. This is particularly important in light of the increasing use of digital texts used by young children, such as E-books and digital games. Therefore, this paper proposes a framework that might guide research and practice by examining the relationships between emergent literacy skills, emergent digital literacy skills, and proficiency in reading and writing.     

Measurement Invariance of a School Readiness Screener for Use in Preschool and Kindergarten

Research Findings: Public policy has increasingly focused on expansion of preschool access for underserved students and systematic evaluation of preschool quality and students’ readiness for school. However, such evaluation is limited by a lack of thoroughly validated assessments for use with preschool populations. The present study examined the measurement and structural invariance of the Kindergarten Student Entrance Profile (KSEP) across kindergarten and prekindergarten groups to evaluate its potential use across developmental groups. Participants included 522 kindergarten and 548 prekindergarten students in central California. Invariance was tested by fitting a series of multiple-groups confirmatory factor analysis models with parameter constraints across groups. Results indicated that measurement and structural parameters of the KSEP were invariant across kindergarten and prekindergarten groups. Prekindergarten means on both Social–Emotional Readiness and Cognitive Readiness were significantly lower than kindergarten means. Practice or Policy: These results suggest that the KSEP may potentially be used with prekindergarten students to assess school readiness and inform intervention before kindergarten entry.     

The Accessibility of Higher Education in the Russian Regions

This article provides a comparative analysis of accessibility of higher education across Russian regions in terms of the following three factors: the availability of admission opportunities; financial affordability; and geographic accessibility.

The study will be of interest to government agencies in higher education at various levels, analysts and researchers, as well as a wide range of readers focused on regional differences in higher education systems and policies.     

Parents’ Perceptions of and Responses to Children’s Emotions: Relations With Meta-Emotion Philosophy and Adult Attachment

Objective. This study investigated how parents’ perceptions of, feelings toward, and anticipated responses to children’s emotions relate to parents’ meta-emotion philosophy and attachment. Design. Parents (112 mothers and 95 fathers) completed an online research study where they viewed photographs of unfamiliar girls and boys (aged 10–14 years) displaying varying intensities of happiness, sadness, fear, anger, and neutral expressions. Parents labeled the emotion, identified the emotion’s intensity, and reported their mirrored emotion and responses. They also completed measures assessing their meta-emotion philosophy and attachment. Results. Meta-emotion philosophy predicted parents’ responses to children’s negative emotion, in that greater emotion-coaching predicted greater accuracy in labeling emotions (boys only), a greater likelihood to interact with children, and for mothers to be further from the mean in either direction in their mirrored emotion. Attachment also predicted parents’ responses to children’s negative emotions: Parents higher in anxiety reported more mirrored emotion, and those higher in avoidance reported less mirrored emotion, lower intensity, and less willingness to interact (boys only). In exploratory models for positive emotion, parents’ meta-emotion philosophy did not predict their responses, but parents higher in attachment avoidance rated girls’ positive emotions as less intense, reported less mirrored emotion, less willingness to interact, and less supportive responses, and those higher in anxiety showed the opposite pattern. Conclusion. Despite methodological limitations, results offer new evidence that parents’ ratings on a standardized emotion perception task as well as their anticipated responses toward children’s emotion displays are predicted by individual differences in their attachment and meta-emotion philosophy.     

Que Luchen por sus Intereses (To Fight for Your Interests): Unearthing Critical Counter-Narratives of Spanish-Speaking Immigrant Parents

This article reports on findings from a year-long research project conducted during the 2012–2013 school year in a PK–12 school district, located in the Mountain West region of the United States, utilizing the Photovoice method. The findings in the project point to the important critical counter-narratives Spanish-speaking immigrant parents present to the larger school community when given the opportunity to have their voices and perspectives heard and recorded in written form. The article provides teachers, counselors, administrators, and support staff in schools and school districts with insight into the hopes and aspirations of Spanish-speaking immigrant parents and highlights educational practices that address issues of equity and access, as seen through the eyes of the participants in the study.