Moberly Junior College,the four-year junior college

In Leonard Koos’s book, The Junior-College Movement, he described the establishment of a junior college in an American public school district as the ‘culmination of the local school system’, alluding to the prestige associated with having a junior college in a community. The best-known example of this arrangement was in Pasadena, California where the combined high school and college operated for 27 years. Less well known is the four-year junior college in central Missouri called Moberly Junior College (MJC). MJC operated as a combined high school and college for 36 years from the autumn of 1931 to the autumn of 1967, the longest running four-year junior college in the United States. This case study of the college examines how the seamless transition between high school and college was accomplished, and what changes in the institution and the educational environment led to the eventual dissolution of the four-year junior college.     

“If only”: Outdoor and adventurous activities and generalised academic development

This paper reports on research conducted as part of a project, the aim of which was to utilise outdoor and adventurous experiences to help schools address their 'if only' factor — that aspect of learning perceived to be key to raising standards, whether it be the acquisition of knowledge, skills or a change in attitudes to learning. The project involved nine schools and 671 children, all engaged in the “I Can!” project and the follow-up activities that took place at schools. The research was carried out with children, teachers and parents and consisted of a series of focus groups and analysis of children's work. Limitations inherent within the research opportunity prevent the confident attribution of causation. However, the study's findings do offer insight into an under-researched, yet potentially valuable educational experience. The findings suggest that outdoor and adventurous activities can impact upon children's learning in school by addressing their intellectual, affective and social development.     

Understanding Barriers and Solutions Affecting Preschool Attendance in Low-Income Families

ABSTRACT

Preschool attendance problems negatively impact children's school readiness skills and future school attendance. Parents are critical to preschoolers’ attendance. This study explored parental barriers and solutions to preschool attendance in low-income families. School-district administrative data from a racially/ethnically diverse sample of parents with children attending the district's half-day preschool program were obtained (N = 111). Subsamples of parents participated in a phone interview and follow-up, in-person interview. Parents valued early learning and preschool. Children missed school due to illness, problems with child care, transportation, and family life. Differences in attendance rates appeared by school, family demographics, and race/ethnicity. African-Americans and Hispanics experienced more barriers than Whites and Asians, and were more likely to miss school because of illness and medical appointments. Hispanics were more likely to miss for vacation. Parents noted a lack of social connection with other parents in the school/neighborhood, making seeking help to resolve attendance barriers difficult.     

Predictors of Criminal Justice Undergraduates’ Intentions to Pursue Graduate Education in Criminology or Criminal Justice

This study relies on data from 388 junior and senior criminal justice majors to examine predictors of intentions to pursue graduate education in criminology, criminal justice, or a closely related field. Logistic regression results demonstrate that women, students who receive greater encouragement to attend graduate school, students with a lower aversion to reading, writing, and statistics, and students who perceive greater diversity intolerance are more likely to report graduate school intentions. Although students’ race was not found to be significant in the overall model, split-sample models revealed that the significance of predictors varied by race and ethnicity. In discussing the findings, special attention is given to the need for primarily White institutions (PWIs) to partner with historically Black college and universities (HBCUs). We conclude by calling for departments to redouble their efforts to diversify their faculty and student bodies.     

Professional skills, concerns, and perceived importance of work with families in early intervention.

Innovations brought about by Public Law 99-457 require early intervention personnel to expand their work practices to involve and support families in the provision of early intervention services. To support training needs in this area, and to understand possible barriers to change, this study examined the extent to which 142 early interventionists from two states felt competent in working with families, valued family roles, and were concerned about changing to family-centered practices. Relationships among these characteristics and experience, discipline, and job category were explored. In general, nurses and social workers scored higher than did educators and other health-care professionals on several dimensions of family-centered care. Many professionals expressed concerns about collaboration.     

An Investigation of the Effectiveness of an Evaluation Instrument Designed for Use with Modular Masters Courses in a Range of International Contexts

In a previous paper the construction of an instrument designed to be of use in the evaluation of modular Masters courses for teachers and administrators in international schools was described. Initial impressions of the efficacy of the instrument were encouraging, and its use was extended in a number of ways within the scheme of continuing professional development organised through the Centre for the study of Education in an International Context at the University of Bath. In particular, the evaluation model was extended to three different modules taught in an increased number of Study Centre locations, by different tutors, to groups of different sizes and composition. Under such a range of conditions the question arises of parity of quality in the delivery of the modules, and the usefulness of the evaluation instrument in contributing to an assessment of the quality of teaching and learning was explored. This paper describes the results of an investigation undertaken to test the robustness of the instrument with respect to both the increased range of dimensions involved and the level of detail possible. The outcomes confirm initial impressions of the overall value of the instrument in assessing general levels of satisfaction expressed by participants with respect to a variety of course features, but also indicate the ways in which it could be employed as a tool to evaluate the relative contributions to overall success made by a set of components concerned with the content of the modules, the teaching arrangements, support for participants and the relevance of the modules to the educational work of those taking part.     

A Critical Study of Comics

The paper describes a project for Liverpool John Moores University PGCE Art and Design students in which they carried out practical research into comics and graphic novels as part of their preparation for teaching. The students were encouraged to investigate the history of the genre, its formal properties as well as its potential as a vehicle for social realism. The practical task was to prepare a single comic book page design, in the course of which they explored a range of possibilities from imaginative children's stories to serious issues such as illness and abuse. They took the opportunity to investigate the potential of this sequential medium to construct narratives using devices such as sequence, repetition and multiple perspectives as well as the juxtapositions of image and text. The paper contains examples of students' work where the investigations yielded interesting and innovative results.     

Differentiating the neural response to intervention in children with developmental dyslexia

Developmental dyslexia is associated with functional abnormalities within reading areas of the brain. For some children diagnosed with dyslexia, phonologically based remediation programs appear to rehabilitate brain function in key reading areas (Shaywitz et al., Biological Psychiatry 55: 101–110, 2004; Simos et al., Neuroscience 58: 1203–1213, 2002). However, a non-trivial number of children diagnosed with dyslexia fail to respond to these interventions (Torgesen, Learning Disabilities Research & Practice 15: 55–64, 2000). A cross-sectional fMRI study investigating post-treatment effects was conducted in an effort to better understand differences in brain function between treatment responders and non-responders. Educational testing and brain activation measured after treatment suggested that the reading intervention used in the present study rehabilitated several basic level reading processes in all participants diagnosed with dyslexia. However, activation in the left inferior parietal lobe differentiated treatment responders and non-responders in comparison to non-impaired readers. Children with persistent deficits in single word decoding (treatment non-responders) demonstrated significantly less activation in the left inferior parietal lobe when compared to non-impaired readers.     

Formula-based research incentive plans at colleges and universities

Financial problems at colleges and universities have led many institutions to initiate extra efforts to obtain extramural funds. One such effort has been the establishment of formula-based research incentive plans. These plans generally utilize the recovery of indirect costs as the basis for allocating additional incentive funds to various areas as an encouragement to obtain additional extramural funds. Data from surveys conducted by the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Ohio University were combined with National Science Foundation reports to provide information about this relatively recent phenomena. The increasing popularity of these plans was shown in that a majority of institutions had such plans in effect during FY 1979. Analyses of the effectiveness of these plans showed no statistically significant differences between institutions with incentive plans and those without such plans, although mean federal research expenditures were approximately 20% greater at those institutions without these incentive plans. The evidence presented indicates that the receipt of federal research funds is not associated with the use of a formula-based research incentive plan.