Mainstreaming to Full Inclusion: From orthogenesis to pathogenesis of an idea

This article traces the trend in the United States towards greater integration of students with disabilities into general education from its origins in mainstreaming to the present call for full inclusion. Research evidence is reviewed to demonstrate that the necessary attitudes, accommodations, and adaptations are not yet in place in general education to provide students with disabilities an appropriate education. Discussion then focuses on the ideological nature of the debate about full inclusion which ignores research evidence and makes a more rational and incremental approach to integration difficult to achieve.     

The New Jersey takeover legislation: Help or hindrance to improvement in troubled school districts

It started in New Jersey in 1988 when the state's department of education took over the Jersey City Public Schools. At the time of the Jersey City takeover, the school system was, by all accounts, among the worst in the Garden State. Now takeover legislation is on the books in nine states, and legislation is pending elsewhere. Does handing over the reins—after a lengthy monitoring process—lead to significant improvements in student achievement and school system operation? In short, is takeover an effective means of school reform? This article traces the three-year road leading to state takeover in Jersey City and questions the wisdom of New Jersey's aproach in failing districts.     

Types of Homeschool Environments and Need Support for Children’s Achievement Motivation

ABSTRACT

Working within a self-determination theory (SDT) framework, this study used cluster analysis to examine the naturally occurring types of homeschool-learning environments parents (N = 457) have created. Measures of support for student autonomy, mastery goal structure, and use of conditional regard were adapted for a homeschool context and used as constituting variables. Follow-up measures of parental need satisfaction, efficacy, student academic engagement, teaching practices, and demographics were used to identify significant differences among homeschooling motivational profiles. A five-cluster solution best fit the data: a high need support profile, low need support profile and three profiles of mixed need support. In general, the high need and mixed need support profiles were associated with higher student engagement, need satisfaction, efficacy for homeschooling, and frequent use of teaching strategies that promote autonomous motivation and support for student competence. The low need support profile was significantly associated with lower need satisfaction and teaching strategies associated with control. Higher levels of academic engagement were reported for those students homeschooled longer and at higher grade levels. Male teaching parents (N = 29) reported significantly less need satisfaction and were significantly more represented in the low need support profile. These findings point to the utility of self-determination theory for characterizing the motivational environments of homeschools.     

Counseling persons injured at work

Support and treatment programs for persons injured at work have expanded considerably since their early beginnings in Germany in 1884. Industrially injured workers must deal with problems in at least four major areas: 1) medical restoration, 2) temporary economic maintenance, 3) psychosocial adjustment to disability, and 4) vocational restoration. The counselor's role in assisting such persons is a significant one. In fact, it could be argued that the counselor is the only professional who has been specifically trained to assist persons who must confront the psychosocial and vocational restoration problems commonly associated with work-related injury. Both individual and group counseling methods can be used to facilitate positive psychosocial adjustment. Essential elements of the vocational restoration process include vocational assessment, job analysis, treatment (including career counseling and possibly physical restoration and/or job training), job placement, and follow-up. Specific counselor interventions in all areas should be guided by both theoretical and practical considerations, and family members and employers should be involved in programming whenever feasible or appropriate. Employee assistance programs and proprietary rehabilitation companies are discussed as relatively recent developments in the United States which offer potential to reduce and/or treat work-related injury and disability.This article is based on a paper of the same title presented at the International Round Table for the Advancement of Counseling Consultation on Counseling Disabled People and Their Families, Vienna, July 1987.     

The performance of minority students beyond the freshman year: Testing a “late-bloomer” hypothesis in one state university setting

This study examines the validity of standard admissions variables for predicting the long-term performance of minority and nonminority students in one state university. Special attention is given to what may be termed a late-bloomer hypothesis, according to which minority students may be expected to show relatively greater improvement in performance following the freshman year than their nonminority classmates. This hypothesis derives from the plausible argument that minority students face unique problems of adjustment to college which adversely affect their first-year but not their long-term performance. The predictive validity of admissions variables was found to be higher for minority than for nonminority students regardless of the criterion under consideration, and somewhat higher for longer-term cumulative GPA than for shorter-term GPA. Minority and nonminority students were more sharply differentiated by overall cumulative undergraduate GPA than by first-year GPA, inconsistent with the late-bloomer hypothesis.     

Impact of North Carolina's Early Childhood Programs and Policies on Educational Outcomes in Elementary School

North Carolina's Smart Start and More at Four (MAF) early childhood programs were evaluated through the end of elementary school (age 11) by estimating the impact of state funding allocations to programs in each of 100 counties across 13 consecutive years on outcomes for all children in each county‐year group (n = 1,004,571; 49% female; 61% non‐Latinx White, 30% African American, 4% Latinx, 5% other). Student‐level regression models with county and year fixed effects indicated significant positive impacts of each program on reading and math test scores and reductions in special education and grade retention in each grade. Effect sizes grew or held steady across years. Positive effects held for both high‐ and low‐poverty families, suggesting spillover of effects to nonparticipating peers.     

Research productivity and scholarly accomplishment of college teachers as related to their instructional effectiveness: A review and exploration

This analysis reviews the research that has been done on the connection between research productivity or scholarly accomplishment of faculty members and their teaching effectiveness (as assessed by their students). On average, there is a very small positive association between the two variables. To understand this relationship better, extant research was explored for factors that might mediate either positive or inverse associations between research productivity and teaching effectiveness and those that possibly could be common causes of them. Pedagogical practices and dispositions of faculty members, as well as certain course or class characteristics (size of class, electivity of course), were examined as potential mediating factors. Potential common causes investigated were academic rank and age of faculty members, their general ability, their personality characteristics, and the amount of time or effort they spend on research activities. The association between research productivity and teaching effectiveness was explored further by considering whether its size and direction varies by career stage of faculty members, their academic discipline, and the type of college or university in which they teach.     

Impediments to change: Applications of coaching in high-school science teaching

This article describes how two coaching models were utilized in an attempt to assist Jonathon, an experienced teacher who had been teaching science for only two years, to improve his science teaching. Because of the numerous difficulties that Jonathon encountered in planning and implementing the science curriculum, school administrators requested assistance from several science educators from a university near the school. In order to assist Jonathon, two coaching models were used over a period of approximately six months. In the first coaching program two high-school teachers were coached by three science educators from the university. In the second coaching program the teachers coached one another. Neither program was successful in improving Jonathon's teaching in the intended manner. The major impediments to change were Jonathon's beliefs about teaching and learning and his relatively poor knowledge of the science content he was to teach. The findings of the study suggest that the coaching interventions require teachers to analyze teaching, reflect on practice, and consider alternative approaches to teaching and learning. Involvement in the coaching programs provided Jonathon with a foundation of knowledge on which sustained improvements in teaching might develop in the future.     

The Contradictions in Science Education Peer Review and Possibilities for Change

The final paper in this special issue of Research in Science Education is a synthesis of the articles that comprise the special issue. The main part of the article consists of a metalogue between the two authors in which we identify critical issues associated with peer review and highlight theory and practices we regard as salient to the continued improvement of science education.