Formative assessment systems: evaluating the fit between school districts’ needs and assessment systems’ characteristics

Recent legislative and local school accountability efforts have placed a premium on the collection, analysis, and use of student assessment data for educational improvement. As a result, schools have sought assessments that will provide additional information about student performance. In response, a burgeoning boon industry formed—formative educational assessment systems. In this study we describe how districts search for and acquire formative assessment systems to meet their needs. We focus on three school districts that adopted three different formative assessment systems. Our findings suggest the fit between a system’s characteristics and a school district’s intended use is the most important consideration in instituting a successful formative assessment system that will have a positive impact on teacher education and student learning.     

Redirecting the teacher's gaze: Teacher education,youth surveillance and the school-to-prison pipeline

This article addresses an apparent contradiction in American teacher education that results in conflicting goals for educators. It asks: How do we prepare teachers to interrogate their inherited professional roles in the surveillance and disciplining of youth? How might teacher education inspire pre-service teachers to care more about youth who belong to populations that have been deemed "undesirable" and expendable? We critically examine the role of teacher education in contributing to the criminalization of certain youth in urban communities and the resulting school-to-prison pipeline crisis that leads too many students from the schoolhouse to the jailhouse.     

Implementation fidelity of MyTeachingPartner literacy and language activities: Association with preschoolers’ language and literacy growth

There is surprisingly little empirical research examining issues of fidelity of implementation within the early childhood education literature. In the MyTeachingPartner project, 154 teachers were provided with materials to implement a supplemental classroom curriculum addressing six aspects of literacy and language development. The present study examines the degree of variability in three aspects of implementation fidelity – dosage, adherence, and quality of delivery – and whether these components of fidelity were associated with children's growth in language and literacy skills across the preschool year. Findings indicate that teachers reported using the curriculum fairly often (dosage) and that they were observed to generally follow curricular lesson plans (adherence). In contrast, the quality of delivery, defined as the use of evidence-based teacher–child interactions for teaching literacy and language, was much lower. Children in classrooms in which activities were observed to last for longer (dosage) and in which teachers exhibited higher quality of delivery of literacy lessons made significantly greater gains in early literacy skills across the preschool year. Also, teachers’ use of higher quality language interactions was associated with gains for children who did not speak English at home. Results have implications for teacher professional development and the supports provided to ensure that curricula are delivered most effectively.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">See The Dance</Emphasis>: Piloting an Arts-Based Intervention in Higher Education

Every year in higher education institutions across the United States many college students from underrepresented minority groups experience prejudice, discrimination, and verbal harassment based on their race and/or ethnicity. Although underutilized as a preventative intervention strategy in higher education, studies show that the arts have enormous potential to reduce risk factors by facilitating anti-bias education in a nonthreatening way. As a proof of concept, this study discusses the social problem, provides a summary of an arts-based intervention design and development process, and reports the results of a pilot test.     

Leveraging community sport organizations to promote community capacity: Strategic outcomes,challenges, and theoretical considerations

Community sport organizations (CSOs) provide valuable contexts for promoting community development. These initiatives are most effective when they involve local stakeholders in the process of development. A key first step to achieving this objective is building community capacity, defined as local stakeholders’ skills, knowledge, and resources that may be leveraged for change. Interestingly, despite this conceptual importance, few researchers have focused on capacity building in the sport context. This has limited the theoretical advancement of community capacity theory as it relates to CSOs and community development. Using a qualitative case study approach, the authors analyze the outcomes and challenges of implementing community capacity building strategies in an American CSO, and draw on the empirical data to contribute to this theoretical conversation. Interviews, participant observation, and document analysis were used to generate data, and deductive techniques were used for thematic analysis. The results highlight the outcomes of the capacity building strategies and challenges associated with implementation. In addition, the conclusion focuses on theoretical contributions to community capacity theory, namely the role of sport in facilitating inter-community relations across social groups and the link with process models of organizational capacity.     

Feasibility for the Use of a Standardized Fitness Testing Protocol Among Australian Fitness Industry Professionals

Purpose: There is currently no standardized testing protocol for assessing clients’ fitness/health within the Australian fitness industry. This study examined the perceptions of the feasibility of using a standardized testing protocol among Australian fitness industry professionals. Method: In 2014, 1,206 registered fitness industry professionals (aged 17–69 years) completed an online survey. Perceived feasibility for using a standardized testing protocol was assessed based on responses to 6 items. Respondents were classified as having a high level of perceived feasibility if they reported all 6 items to be “definitely feasible.” A multivariate logistic regression analysis, adjusting for demographic and fitness industry-related factors (e.g., qualification/years of experience), assessed the likelihood of having a high level of perceived feasibility. Results: Overall, 25.5% (95% CI [23.1%, 28.0%]) of the sample perceived the use of a standardized testing protocol as highly feasible. Items ranked most often as “definitely feasible” were “undertaking training to use the protocol” (55%) and “conducting follow-up testing every 6 to 12 weeks” (52%). After adjustment for the effect of confounding factors, casually employed professionals (OR = 0.63; 95% CI [0.45, 0.90]) and group instructors (OR = 0.58; 95% CI [0.41, 0.82]) were less likely to perceive standardized testing protocols as highly feasible. Conclusions: Among a large sample of Australian fitness industry professionals, slightly more than a quarter perceived using a standardized testing protocol to be highly feasible. Group instructors and casual employees perceived lower feasibility. Further research should determine the barriers to implementing a standardized testing protocol across the fitness industry.     

Enrichment of live unlabelled cardiomyocytes from heterogeneous cell populations using manipulation of cell settling velocity by magnetic field

The majority of available cardiomyocyte markers are intercellular proteins, limiting our ability to enrich live cardiomyocytes from heterogeneous cell preparations in the absence of genetic labeling. Here, we describe enrichment of live cardiomyocytes from the hearts of adult mice in a label-free microfluidic approach. The separation device consisted of a vertical column (15 mm long, 700 μm diameter), placed between permanent magnets resulting in a field strength of 1.23 T. To concentrate the field at the column wall, the column was wrapped with 69 μm diameter nickel wire. Before passing the cells through the column, the cardiomyocytes in the cell suspension had been rendered paramagnetic by treatment of the adult mouse heart cell preparation with sodium nitrite (2.5 mM) for 20 min on ice. The cell suspension was loaded into the vertical column from the top and upon settling, the non-myocytes were removed by the upward flow from the column. The cardiomyocytes were then collected from the column by applying a higher flow rate (144 μl/min). We found that by applying a separation flow rate of 4.2 μl/min in the first step, we can enrich live adult cardiomyocytes to 93% ± 2% in a label-free manner. The cardiomyocytes maintained viability immediately after separation and upon 24 h in culture.     

The reliability and validity of the bar-mounted PUSH BandTM 2.0 during bench press with moderate and heavy loads

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of the bar-mounted PUSH Band^TM 2.0 to determine peak and mean velocity during the bench press exercise with a moderate (60% one repetition maximum [1RM]) and heavy (90% 1RM) load. We did this by simultaneously recording peak and mean velocity using the PUSH Band^TM 2.0 and three-dimensional motion capture from participants bench pressing with 60% and 90% 1RM. We used ordinary least products regression to assess within-session reliability and whether the PUSH Band^TM 2.0 could accurately predict motion capture velocity. Results showed that PUSH Band^TM 2.0 and motion capture peak and mean velocity reliability was acceptable with both loads. While there was a tendency for the PUSH Band^TM 2.0 to slightly overestimate peak and mean velocity, there was no fixed bias. However, mean velocity with 60 and 90% 1RM demonstrated proportional bias (differences between predicted and motion capture values increase with magnitude). Therefore, PUSH Band^TM 2.0 peak velocity with 60 and 90% 1RM is valid, but mean velocity is not.     

Can we measure practical wisdom?

ABSTRACT

Wisdom, long a topic of interest to moral philosophers, is increasingly the focus of social science research. Philosophers have historically been concerned to develop a rationally defensible account of the nature of wisdom and its role in the moral life, often inspired in various ways by virtue theoretical accounts of practical wisdom (phronesis). Wisdom scientists seek to, among other things, define wisdom and its components so that we can measure them. Are the measures used by wisdom scientists actually measuring what philosophers have in mind when they discuss practical wisdom? I argue that they are not. Contemporary measures of wisdom and its components may pick out some necessary prerequisites of practical wisdom, but they do not measure a philosophically plausible practical wisdom or its components. After explaining the argument and defending it against objections, I consider its implications. Should wisdom scientists ignore the philosophical conception of practical wisdom in favor of other conceptions, revise their methods to try to measure it, or continue the interdisciplinary study of practical wisdom without expecting to measure it? I make a preliminary argument for the third option.     

Reconceptualizing the Sources of Teaching Self-Efficacy: a Critical Review of Emerging Literature

Teachers’ efficacy beliefs are thought to influence not only their motivation and performance but also the achievement of their students. Scholars have therefore turned their attention toward the sources underlying these important teacher beliefs. This review seeks to evaluate the ways in which researchers have measured and conceptualized the sources of teaching self-efficacy across 82 empirical studies. Specifically, it aims to identify what can be inferred from these studies and what important questions still remain about the origins of teachers’ efficacy beliefs. Results indicate that a number of methodological shortcomings in the literature have prevented a clear understanding of how teachers develop a sense of efficacy. Nonetheless, insights gleaned from existing research help to refine, and to expand, theoretical understandings of the sources of self-efficacy and their influence in the unique context of teaching. Implications for future research and practice are addressed.