Access to vice presidential records in the aftermath of Executive Order 13,233: From haphazard past to uncertain future

Because the vice presidency of the United States was for so many years considered a “nonjob,” it is hardly surprising that preserving its records has been a nonissue for most of the nation's history. However, the vice presidency in recent years has emerged as an executive rather than a decorative role, and vice presidential papers have been included both in legislation to promote access to historical documents, and presidential orders delaying that access, such as Executive Order 13,233. The end result is that researchers arguably have less access to vice presidential records than before the groundbreaking Presidential Records Act of 1978, which should have opened doors to this increasingly rich source of government information.     

Time to end the bias towards inclusive education?

The UK coalition Government's call to end the ‘bias’ towards inclusion represents a shift in ‘policy speak’ as the new administration attempts to re‐narrate special education by putting forward a ‘reasonable and sensible’ solution to the ‘problem of inclusion’. However, implicit in the call is the assumption that there has, in fact, been a ‘bias towards inclusion’ in education policy and practice; here, that assumption is challenged. Using a critical disability studies perspective, Katherine Runswick‐Cole, who is a research fellow in Disability Studies and Psychology in the Research Institute of Health and Social Change at Manchester Metropolitan University, draws on the concept of ableism and critiques of neo‐liberal market systems in education to reveal and explore the persistent barriers to inclusive education embedded within the education system. It is argued that although there may have been an inclusive education policy rhetoric, this rhetoric is rooted in conceptual incongruities which, rather than promoting inclusion, undermine an inclusive approach to education.     

A framework for research into Australian middle school practice

As a new reform in Australian education, middle schooling has been gaining momentum. The rationale behind middle schooling is to bridge the traditional primary-high school gap and provide a more developmentally appropriate educational experience for young adolescents. Middle schooling in the USA has gone through a “boom-to-bust” cycle and is currently undergoing a “reinvention” as research on practice and reporting of research on practice has, in the most part, been ad hoc and piecemeal. If Australian middle schools are to avoid the boom-to-bust-to-reinvention cycle experienced in parts of the USA (Beane 2001), then a more systematic approach to researching practice is required. Research-based criteria for systematic study and improvement of middle school practice have been identified as (a) acceptance as part ofplanning alternative practice, (b)effectiveness as part ofimplementing alternative practice, and (c)sustainability as part ofevaluating alternative practice.     

Effect of a Combined Repeated Reading and Question Generation Intervention on Reading Achievement

Research was conducted to ascertain if a combined repeated reading and question generation intervention was effective at improving the reading achievement of fourth through eighth grade students with learning disabilities or who were at risk for reading failure. Students were assigned to a treatment or control group via a stratified random sampling. Instructional components and training were based on best practices reported in the literature. Students receiving intervention significantly improved their reading speed and ability to answer inferential comprehension questions on passages that were reread. Compared to the control group, students in the intervention group also made significant gains in oral reading fluency on independent passages.     

Stability of Attachment Style in Adolescence: An Empirical Test of Alternative Developmental Processes

Few studies have examined stability and change in attachment during adolescence. This 5‐year longitudinal study (a) examined whether prototype or revisionist developmental dynamics better characterized patterns of stability and change in adolescent attachment (at T1, N = 176; M_age = 14.0 years, SD = 0.9), (b) tested potential moderators of prototype‐like attachment stability, and (c) compared attachment stability in adolescence to stability in adulthood. The results supported the prototype model, which assumes that there is a stable, enduring factor underlying stability and change in attachment. Exploratory moderation analyses revealed that family conflict, parental separation or divorce, minority status, and male sex might undermine the prototype‐like stability of adolescent attachment. Stability of attachment was lower in adolescence relative to adulthood.     

The Foodborne Outbreak Challenge—Using Experiential Learning to Foster Interdisciplinary Training Among Students on Foodborne Disease Outbreak Investigations

The Integrated Food Safety Centers of Excellence aim to develop novel learning methods to educate and train the future public health workforce to investigate foodborne outbreaks. The Foodborne Outbreak Challenge (FOC) was a one‐day event hosted by the Colorado Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence at the Colorado School of Public Health. The FOC incorporated experiential, problem‐based, and interdisciplinary pedagogies from case studies, simulation exercises, and public health case competitions, to deliver a novel learning experience that met the training needs of a multidisciplinary foodborne outbreak response team with diverse skills sets. The event received positive feedback, and participants demonstrated knowledge gain. Event materials are available for other institutions to use.     

Does Interpretive Test Score Information Help Teachers?

To what extent do teachers possess the competence to interpret state testing program results properly?