PERSONNEL NEEDS IN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY: A 10‐YEAR FOLLOW‐UP STUDY ON PREDICTED PERSONNEL SHORTAGES

Concerns regarding whether a sufficient supply of school psychologists exists have been evident for decades. Studies have predicted that school psychology would face a critical personnel shortage that would peak in 2010, but continue into the foreseeable future. The current study is a 10‐year follow‐up investigation based on previously published personnel shortage projections. Data derived from the National Association of School Psychologists 2009–2010 national study were used to examine current personnel shortages as well as to project the extent to which personnel shortages are likely to continue. Findings indicate that the field of school psychology continues to experience a personnel shortage that will continue through 2025. Additionally, greater rates of retirements are projected for the field for school psychologists who are males, who possess a doctoral degree, and for university faculty. Analyses based on the U.S. Census Regions indicate that notable differences are likely to occur in the match between the supply of and demand for school psychologists based on geographical location. Implications are discussed relating to the recruitment and retention of school psychologists and to the services they deliver.     

Bridging Research and Practice: How Sales Training Can Contribute to New Product Launch Success

This study demonstrates how academicians and practitioners can work together on an important topic that matters to organizational performance: the pivotal role played by salespeople during new product launches. In particular, the authors present three potential interventions that training and sales managers may use to sell a new product to salespeople. The results legitimatize the critical contribution of sales training to new product sales performance and highlight the value of the partnership between training professionals and sales managers.     

Parent and Student Voices on the First Year of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program

In January 2004 President Bush authorized the DC School Choice Incentive Act, an initiative funded at $14 million that created a scholarship program providing 1,700 low-income Washington, DC, children the opportunity to attend participating K–12 nonpublic schools in the district. In addition to offering opportunities to participating children, the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program opens a door for examining the implications when more families are given the opportunity to select private schools for their children. This article reviews the results of a qualitative assessment aimed at understanding how families experienced their first year in the program. Referencing direct quotes from families that took part in focus groups, we address the following areas of participants' experience: reaction to the choice opportunity, motivation for participation, what was valued in schools, how information was received, selection of final school, reaction to new school environment, parent responses to new challenges, student–school responses to new challenges, financial policies, and overall satisfaction. Each section contains family responses juxtaposed with popular literature on school choice. This report is the first in a series that will monitor the experiences of families during the first 5 years of this program.     

A Longitudinal Analysis of the Relations Among Professional Development,Educators’ Beliefs and Perceived Skills,and Response-to-Intervention Implementation

ABSTRACT

Professional development is a critical systems-level intervention thought to facilitate Response-to-Intervention (RtI) implementation. The current study examined the relations between professional development, educator outcomes, and problem-solving implementation within an RtI framework using growth curve modeling. School leadership teams from pilot schools (n = 34) participated in 3 years of training. Pilot schools also received job-embedded coaching. Comparison schools (n = 27) provided a referent group. Results indicated that problem-solving implementation increased faster at pilot schools (β = 0.10, SE = 0.05, t = 2.03, p < .05). In addition, beliefs regarding data-based decision-making (β = 0.36, SE = 0.17, t = 2.13, p < .05) and perceived problem-solving skills applied to academics (β = 0.30, SE = 0.10, t = 3.07, p < .01) positively related to implementation. Implications include the needs to further explore professional development activities and for consultants to utilize evidence-based professional development principles when supporting RtI implementation.     

International University Education: An Australian Perspective

This paper attempts to explore the effectiveness of UK universities' websites. The area of branding in higher education has received increasing academic investigation, but little work has researched how universities demonstrate their brand promises through their websites. The quest to differentiate through branding can be challenging in the university context, however. It is argued that those institutions that have a strong distinctive image will be in a better position to face a changing future. Employing a multistage methodology, the web pages of 20 UK universities were investigated by using a combination of content and multivariable analysis. Results indicated ‘traditional values’ such as teaching and research were often well communicated in terms of online brand but ‘emotional values’ like social responsibility and the universities' environments were less consistently communicated, despite their increased topicality. It is therefore suggested that emotional values may offer a basis for possible future online differentiation.     

Left-handed materials in magnetized metallic magnetic thin films

INTRODUCTION Veselago (1968) showed that if both the permit- tivity ε and the magnetic permeability μ of a material are negative, the propagation direction of an elec- tromagnetic (EM) wave will be opposite to its energy flow direction. Such media are called left-handed materials (LHMs) since the electric field E, magnetic field H, and wave vector k in these media form a left-hand triplet of vectors, instead of a right-hand triplet observed in conventional materials. For a long time, …     

Assessment of Containment Structures Against Missile Impact Threats

In order to ensure the highest safety requirements, nuclear power plant structures (the containment structures, the fuel storages and transportation systems) should be assessed against all possible internal and external impact threats. The internal impact threats include kinetic missiles generated by the failure of high pressure vessels and pipes, the failure of high speed rotating machineries and accidental drops. The external impact threats may come from airborne missiles, aircraft impact, explosion blast and fragments. The impact effects of these threats on concrete and steel structures in a nuclear power plant are discussed. Methods and procedures for the impact assessment of nuclear power plants are introduced. Recent studies on penetration and perforation mechanics as well as progresses on dynamic properties of concrete-like materials are presented to increase the understanding of the impact effects on concrete containment structures.     

An Outreach Framework for Retaining Nontraditional Students at Open‐Admissions Institutions

The author discusses an outreach framework focused on retaining nontraditional students at small open‐admissions institutions. By using both campus and community resources, this approach integrates social work and counseling disciplines in an attempt to meet the needs of this population more effectively. Components of the program, implementation strategies, and limitations are also delineated.