How Can We Improve the Accuracy of Screening Instruments?

Screening for early reading problems is a critical step in early intervention and prevention of later reading difficulties. Evaluative frameworks for determining the utility of a screening process are presented in the literature but have not been applied to many screening measures currently in use in numerous schools across the nation. In this study, the accuracy of several Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) subtests in predicting which students were at risk for reading failure in first grade was examined in a sample of 12,055 students in Florida. Findings indicate that the DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency, Initial Sound Fluency, and Phoneme Segmentation Fluency measures show poor diagnostic utility in predicting end of Grade 1 reading performance. DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency in fall of Grade 1 had higher classification accuracy than other DIBELS measures, but when compared to the classification accuracy obtained by assuming that no student had a disability, suggests the need to reevaluate the use of classification accuracy as a way to evaluate screening measures without discussion of base rates. Additionally, when cut scores on the screening tools were set to capture 90 percent of all students at risk for reading problems, a high number of false positives were identified. Finally, different cut scores were needed for different subgroups, such as English Language Learners. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

The relationships between elementary students' knowledge-in-use performance and their science achievement

This longitudinal study examines the relationship between students' knowledge-in-use performance and their performance on third-party designed summative tests within a coherent and equitable learning environment. Focusing on third-grade students across three consecutive project-based learning (PBL) units aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the study includes 1067 participants from 23 schools in a Great Lakes state. Two-level hierarchical linear modeling estimates the effects of post-unit assessments on end-of-year summative tests. Results indicate that post-unit assessment performances predict NGSS-aligned summative test performance. Students experiencing more PBL units demonstrate greater gains on the summative test, with predictions not favoring students from diverse backgrounds. This study underscores the importance of coherence, equity, and the PBL approach in promoting knowledge-in-use and science achievement. A systematically coherent PBL environment across multiple units facilitates the development of students' knowledge-in-use, highlighting the significance of designing science and engineering practices (SEPs) and crosscutting concepts coherently and progressively, with intentional revisitation of disciplinary core ideas (DCIs). The study also investigates how the PBL approach fosters equitable learning environments for diverse demographic groups, offering equitable opportunities through equity-oriented design. Contributions include a coherent assessment system that tracks and supports learning aligned with NGSS, emphasizing the predictive power of post-unit assessments, continuous monitoring and tracking. The implications of context similarity and optimal performance expectations within units are discussed. Findings inform educators, administrators, and policymakers about the benefits of NGSS-aligned PBL systems and the need for coherent and equitable learning and assessment systems supporting knowledge-in-use development and equitable opportunities for all learners.     

Relations among reading skills and sub-skills and text-level reading proficiency in developing readers

Despite the recent attention to text reading fluency, few studies have studied the construct of oral reading rate and accuracy in connected text in a model that simultaneously examines many of the important variables in a multi-leveled fashion with young readers. Using Structural Equation Modeling, this study examined the measurement and structural relations of the rate and accuracy of variables important in early reading: phonemic blending, letter sounds, phonograms, decoding, single-word reading, reading comprehension, and text reading as well as reading comprehension among second grade readers. The effects from phonemic blending fluency and letter sound fluency to decoding were completely mediated by phonogram fluency, decoding fluency, single-word reading fluency, and reading comprehension had direct effects on the text reading fluency of the second grade students. Understanding the relationship among the many component skills of readers early in their reading development is important because a deficiency in any of the component skills has the potential to affect the development of other skills and, ultimately, the development of the child as a proficient reader.     

Negotiations of the ageing process: older adults' stories of sports participation

The purpose of this paper is to examine the talk of older athletes, with particular focus on how the context of sport helps them negotiate the ageing process. It draws on personal stories provided by 44 World Masters Games competitors (23 women; 21 men; aged 56–90 years; M = 72). Four themes emerged: ‘There's no such thing as old’ (a story of avoiding old age); ‘Keep moving’ (a story of fighting the ageing process); ‘Fun, fitness, friendship … [and] competing’ (a story of redefining self and ‘old age’) and; ‘Making the most of your life … with the capabilities that you still have’ (a story of adaptation and acceptance). Together, the four themes show how through sports participation older individuals can simultaneously resist, redefine and accept the ageing process. These stories of a ‘sporting later life’ allow for alternative meanings to the dominant ‘declining body’ narrative of ageing. Therefore, these narratives present the possibility for personal, pedagogical and social transformation.     

Examining the Relationship Between Purposeful Heading in Soccer and Computerized Neuropsychological Test Performance

The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between purposeful heading in soccer and neuropsychological test performance. Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics throughput scores were derived on seven subset variables that measure a variety of neurocognitive abilities. Simple Spearman's rank correlations were calculated between headers per game (HPG) and the criterion variables. Interestingly, math processing speed (Spearman's rho = .160) and continuous performance test #2 (rho = .124) had small but significant correlations; both showed improvement in performance pre- to postseason. There were no significant correlations between HPG and the other five variables. This study found no detrimental relationship between the number of purposeful headers and the neurocognitive measures in this population.     

Implementing RFID in a hospital library: a scoping study

This article discusses a scoping study on implementing radio frequency identification device (RFID) in a hospital library context, conducted by Joseph Norwood for his MA dissertation at the University of Brighton. The study was carried out during the summer of 2011 to support possible RFID implementation at the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals (BSUH) Trust, and the library staff were able to use the findings to good effect to create a business plan. This article also acts as the template for the new Dissertations into Practice feature, which was introduced in the March issue (Marshall, A. Health Information and Libraries Journal 2012, 29, 72). The dissertation highlighted here is very practical in nature and had immediate and quantifiable benefits for the Trust library. Future feature articles are likely to reflect the range of health-related dissertation topics which students choose and will include studies on user information behaviour, information services related to mental health and well-being, as well as the impact of technology on health-related library or information services.AM.     

Library and Information Services to the Arabic‐Speaking Community: A Survey of Michigan Public Libraries

Public Libraries tout that they serve diverse communities, even having collection development policies, programs, and service that recognize their dissimilar neighborhoods. The authors of this article, having noted the influx of Arab‐speaking populations from Iraq and other Middle East countries to the United States, sought to find out the extent to which this population was receiving library service. The investigators discovered that four Michigan counties comprise a significant Arab‐speaking population; in fact, that population base is surpassed only by that of the Middle East countries and Paris, France. The researchers constructed a survey, based on a successful model used with libraries serving Spanish‐speaking populations and applied it to the Michigan libraries in the counties with a significant Arab‐speaking population. The results reveal that the Arab‐speaking neighborhoods, at least at the time of the survey, were not very well served (except in a few instances) by their public libraries.     

Using Metadata to Design a Database-Driven Website

ABSTRACT

After a review of the Kent State Libraries and Media Services Web site, a committee of librarians and staff gathered user feedback and developed a library-specific content management system (CMS) to make the move from a static HTML environment to database-driven design. This article focuses on the significant role of metadata in the CMS from the perspective of one of the site's architects and one of its content developers. This article includes figures and a biography for further reading. The work of the redesign was earlier described in a poster presentation for the 12th Annual ACRL conference.     

Is There a New Bibliography?

Describes the position claiming that the contemporary technological, sociopolitical, and socioeconomic environment gives us pause to consider the core theory and practices of bibliography, combining bibliography of the work (in library and information science), bibliography of the text (in textual studies and scholarly editing), and bibliography of the artifact (in book history and now digital forensics), and calls for collaborative multidisciplinary research at the intersection of these fields to ask, is there a new bibliography?     

The influence of power upon powerful speech: A social‐exchange perspective

Several researchers have proposed that power, rather than gender, accounts for a greater use of powerless language by females than by males. The present study considered whether the manipulation of power as grounded in the social exchange perspective would influence the use of powerful language by males and females alike. The results indicated that males in positions of higher bargaining power used more bottom‐line statements than males in positions of lower power. Yet, the level of power apparently had little impact upon the use of bottom‐line statements by female bargainers.