Do the Effects of Head Start Vary by Parental Preacademic Stimulation?

Data from the Head Start Impact Study (N = 3,185, age = 3–4 years) were used to determine whether 1 year of Head Start differentially benefited children from homes with high, middle, and low levels of parental preacademic stimulation on three academic outcome domains—early math, early literacy, and receptive vocabulary. Results from residualized growth models showed positive impacts of random assignment to Head Start on all three outcomes, and positive associations between parental preacademic stimulation and academic performance. Two moderated effects were also found. Head start boosted early math skills the most for children receiving low parental preacademic stimulation. Effects of Head Start on early literacy skills were largest for children receiving moderate levels of parental preacademic stimulation. Implications for Head Start are discussed.     

Manipulating the data: teaching and NAPLAN in the control society

High-stakes testing is changing what it means to be a ‘good teacher’ in the contemporary school. This paper uses Deleuze and Guattari's ideas on the control society and dividuation in the context of National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing in Australia to suggest that the database generates new understandings of the ‘good teacher’. Media reports are used to look at how teachers are responding to the high-stakes database through manipulating the data. This article argues that manipulating the data is a regrettable, but logical, response to manifestations of teaching where only the data counts.     

Resisting innovation talk in higher education teaching and learning

The exhortation to innovate is a pervasive one that occupies a central position across university mission statements, strategic plans, marketing literature and job titles. This article locates a discourse of innovation within a history of Australian federal higher education policy, a history that may bear similarity with other national contexts. The article names this discourse as an innovation talk that influences our teaching and learning practices, a discourse that can be reconfigured in a way that opens up the possibility for change. As such, the article presents an analytical process used to resist taken-for-granted views of what constitutes valuable teaching practices. Suggestions for re-conceptualising how universities govern and support teaching and learning innovation are drawn from analysis of key federal policies that have influenced university practices in recent years.     

Transforming the doctorate from residential to online: A Distributed PhD Learning Technologies

This article discusses a systemic change that expanded the doctorate in Learning Technologies at the University of North Texas to include a distributed option, delivered primarily online. It provides an overview of the development process from concept to initial implementation. The article examines the specific differences that make the online version different from its residential counterpart. We share both the challenges that emerged as well as suggestions for improvement that have come from our experience.     

The quality of toddler child care and cognitive skills at 24 months: Propensity score analysis results from the ECLS-B

Over half of the toddlers in the US experience routine nonparental care, but much less is known about early care than about preschool care. This study analyzed 2-year-old child care and child outcome data from the nationally representative ECLS-B sample of children born in 2001. At two-years of age, 51% of children experienced exclusive parental care, 18% relative care, 15% family child care, and 16% center care. More children in nonparental care were in medium quality care (61%) than in high quality (26%) or low quality (13%) care. Low-income children were more likely than non-low income children to be cared for by their parents and, when in care, were more often in lower quality care. The impact of toddler care quality on cognitive skills was estimated using propensity score adjustments to account for potential selection confounds due to family and child characteristics. Children's cognitive scores were higher in high or medium quality care than in low quality care, but no evidence emerged suggesting that poverty moderated the quality effects. Nevertheless, this suggests that increasing the proportion of low-income children in high quality care could reduce the achievement gap because low-income children are very unlikely to experience high quality care.     

Academic responding during instruction and reading outcomes for kindergarten students at-risk for reading difficulties

The purpose of this study was to investigate the academic responding of students at-risk for reading difficulties in beginning reading instruction. Opportunities for kindergarten students at-risk for reading difficulties to respond academically during teacher-facilitated reading instruction in the general education classroom were examined in relation to student reading achievement as well as social behaviors. Student academic responding during teacher-facilitated instruction significantly predicted end of year reading achievement. Teacher perceptions of students’ social skills (positive correlation) and problem behaviors (negative correlation) were significantly correlated with academic responding. When academic responding and teacher perceptions of social behaviors were examined together, only teacher perceptions of academic competence and problem behaviors predicted spring outcomes.     

The Sonorous Envelope and Political Deliberation

ORAL INTERPRETATION. By Charlotte Lee. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1952; pp. xii+580. $3.50.

EMBATTLED MAIDEN: THE LIFE OF ANNA DICKINSON. By Giraud Chester. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1951; pp. 307. 14.00.

THE POLITICAL THEORY OF JOHN C. CALHOUN. By August O. Spain. New York: Bookman Associates, 1951; pp. 306. $3.50.

JOHN C. CALHOUN, SECTIONALISM 1840–1850. By Charles M. Wiltse. Indianapolis: Bobbs‐Merrill Co., 1951; pp. 592. $6.00.

DRED SCOTT'S CASE. By Vincent C. Hopkins. New York: Fordham University Press, 1951; pp. ix+204. $4.00.

THE INSTITUTIO ORATORIA OF MARCUS FABIUS QUINTILIANUS WITH AN ENGLISH SUMMARY AND CONCORDANCE. By Charles Edgar Little. Nashville, Tennessee: George Peabody College for Teachers, 1951; 2 volumes; pp. 346; 286. $6.00.

THE ART OF CLEAR THINKING. By Rudolph Flesch. New York: Harper &; Brothers, 1951; pp. ix+212. $2.75.

THE ANATOMY OF PUBLIC OPINION. By Norman John Powell. New York: Prentice‐Hall, 1951; pp. 619. $5.00.

DESIGNED FOR LISTENING. By Seth A. Fessenden. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Co., 1951; pp. viii+98. $1.75.

THE NEW WAY TO BETTER HEARING. By Victor L. Browd, M.D., with an Introduction by Robert West, Ph.D. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1951; pp. 226. $3.00.

MOTOR PHONETICS: A STUDY OF SPEECH MOVEMENTS IN ACTION. By R. H. Stetson. (Revised edition). Oberlin: Oberlin College, 1951; pp. xi+212. $3.50.

PATHOLOGY OF SPEECH. By William R. Parker. New York: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1951; pp. xiv+321. $3.25.

VOICE AND DICTION DRILLBOOK FOR STUDENTS IN SPEECH. By Lucia C. Morgan. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Company, 1951; pp. 65. $1.50.

A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN THEATRE (1700–1950). By Glenn Hughes. New York: Samuel French, 1951; pp. xiv+562. $5.00.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE NEW ORLEANS THEATER. By John S. Kendall. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1952; pp. 624. $8.00.

APPLIED SEMANTICS. By Joseph G. Brin. Boston: Bruce Humphries Inc., 1951; pp. 189. 13.00.

GUIDE TO REFERENCE BOOKS. By Constance M. Winchell. (Seventh Edition, based on the ... Sixth Edition, by Isadore Gilbert Mudge). Chicago: American Library Association, 1951; pp. 645. $10.00.

HUMAN RELATIONS IN ADMINISTRATION (with Readings and Cases). By Robert Dubin. New York: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1951; pp. xvii+573. $5.50.

AN INTRODUCTION TO PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES. Edited by Harold H. Anderson and Gladys L. Anderson. New York: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1951; pp. xxiv+720. $6.75.     

Education policy as numbers: data categories and two Australian cases of misrecognition

While numbers, data and statistics have been part of the bureaucracy since the emergence of the nation state, the paper argues that the governance turn has seen the enhancement of the significance of numbers in policy. The policy as numbers phenomenon is exemplified through two Australian cases in education policy, linked to the national schooling reform agenda. The first case deals with the category of students called Language Backgrounds Other than English (LBOTE) in Australian schooling policy – students with LBOTE. The second deals with the ‘closing the gap’ approach to Indigenous schooling. The LBOTE case demonstrates an attempt at recognition, but one that fails to create a category useful for policy-makers and teachers in relation to the language needs of Australian students. The Indigenous case of policy misrecognition confirms Gillborn’s analysis of gap talk and its effects; a focus on closing the gap, as with the new politics of recognition, elides structural inequalities and the historical effects of colonisation. With this case, there is a misrecognition that denies Indigenous knowledges, epistemologies and cultural rights. The contribution of the paper to policy sociology is twofold: first in showing how ostensive politics of recognition can work as misrecognition with the potential to deny redistribution and secondly that we need to be aware of the socially constructed nature of categories that underpin contemporary policy as numbers and evidence-based policy.     

Science for the handicapped‐gifted child

Teachers and administrators who participate in developing a philosophy statement for gifted education learn more about the field and are able to realistically apply what they have learned to their specific responsibilities.     

The Birth to School Study: evidence on the effectiveness of PEEP,an early intervention for children at risk of educational under‐achievement

This article presents the findings of the Birth to School Study (BTSS) a longitudinal evaluation of the Peers Early Education Partnership (PEEP); a family‐focused intervention aimed at promoting early literacy, numeracy and self‐esteem in a community at risk of educational underachievement. The main aim of the study was to investigate the effects of PEEP on the children and families from the community it served. Embedded within this aim were dual objectives: to determine if the intervention had an effect within the community as a whole, and simultaneously to determine whether it had an effect on the sub‐group of families who participated in the PEEP weekly sessions. Outcomes in favour of the intervention were found for parents and for children's progress in language and early literacy skills, both at community and sub‐group level. The study is located within a discussion of social exclusion, the potentially mediating influence of education and the accessibility of literacy skills to intervention and change.