Reliability and Validity of a Measure of Preschool Teachers' Attributions for Disruptive Behavior

Research Findings: This study examined the quality of teacher attributions for child disruptive behavior using a new measure, the Preschool Teaching Attributions measure. A sample of 153 early childhood teachers and 432 children participated. All teachers completed the behavior attributions measure, as well as measures regarding demographics, beliefs, self-efficacy, child behavior, and the quality of the teacher–child relationship with selected children. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the hypothesized 2-factor model fit significantly better than a 1-factor model, with the 2 factors being Causal and Responsibility. The resulting Causal and Responsibility subscale scores had solid internal consistency as measured by Cronbach's alpha coefficients. Significant bivariate and partial correlations with teacher practices and beliefs provided preliminary support for the measure's construct validity. Practice or Policy: Findings from this study suggest the importance of including a measure of teacher attributions in studies that explore teachers' beliefs, practices, and relationships with children.     

The Transition to Kindergarten for Typically Developing Children: A Survey of School Psychologists’ Involvement

Research suggests that a large percentage of kindergarten children do not successfully transition to school (Rimm-Kaufman et al. 2000). As a result, a number of school transition initiatives have been developed by educators and policy makers to address the difficulties young children may experience upon kindergarten entry. Despite this attention, our review found no studies examining the involvement of school psychologists in kindergarten transition practices. The present study reports the outcomes of a national survey of the membership directory of the National Association of School Psychologists examining school-based involvement in kindergarten transition activities; school psychologists’ perceived involvement with and training in kindergarten transition activities; and school psychologists’ perceived barriers to engage in kindergarten transition activities. Results showed that most schools engaged in at least one kindergarten transition activity per year, with half of the responding sample reporting involvement. School psychologists were more likely to be involved in kindergarten transition activities if they were employed in an urban locale or a large to moderate-sized school setting. School psychologists most frequently reported involvement with kindergarten screenings and collaborating with kindergarten and preschool teachers. Implications and recommendations for practice among early childhood and other educational professionals are delineated.     

Mothering and the work of educational care – an integrative approach

This article, through looking at mothers’ modes of engagement with their children’s education, proposes an integrative analytical approach to the study of the making of mothers, mothering, and motherhood. The article presents and brings into dialogue four different bodies of anthropological and sociological literature: mothering as a form of care work, anthropological work on child-rearing in different cultural settings, sociological studies of the class negotiation of home–school boundaries, and the theoretical and empirical literature on consumption in post-industrial society. Bringing together ideas of care, culture, class, and consumption into one analytical framework is crucial for attending to, in holistic fashion, the complex ways in which mothering, in different social–cultural contexts, is perceived and practiced.     

Electronic health record: integrating evidence-based information at the point of clinical decision making

The authors created two tools to achieve the goals of providing physicians with a way to review alternative diagnoses and improving access to relevant evidence-based library resources without disrupting established workflows. The “diagnostic decision support tool” lifted terms from standard, coded fields in the electronic health record and sent them to Isabel, which produced a list of possible diagnoses. The physicians chose their diagnoses and were presented with the “knowledge page,” a collection of evidence-based library resources. Each resource was automatically populated with search results based on the chosen diagnosis. Physicians responded positively to the “knowledge page.”     

For the Public Good or Just Good Publicity? Celebrity Diplomacy and the Ethics of Representation

Celebrities in recent years have taken on a more active role in communicating global humanitarian crises to the American public. This role at times shifts between journalist, advocate, philanthropist, and personal publicist. This article evaluates how three of the most well-known celebrities in this genre in the United States—Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, and Bono—differ in their method of speaking about these issues, focusing on how their public discourse adds to, or detracts from, citizens' abilities to understand, discuss, and respond to the issues presented in the public sphere. Through critical discourse analysis, similarities and differences are teased out and placed within the context of previous research on celebrity diplomacy and humanitarian crises, in order to evaluate the usefulness of such performances for the U.S. public as democratic citizens and for the victims of foreign suffering the celebrities purport to represent.     

Predictors of Children's Kindergarten Classroom Engagement: Preschool Adult–Child Relationships,Self-Concept,and Hyperactivity/Inattention

The aim of this prospective study was to identify preschool factors that are associated with children's classroom engagement during their 1st school year. The study was guided by a social-motivational process model that highlights the importance of parent–child and teacher–child relationships in promoting engagement. In preschool, parents and teachers completed questionnaires assessing children's (n = 562) parent–child and teacher–child relationships, global self-concept, and mental health problems. Teachers rated children's engagement levels 1 year later in kindergarten. Research Findings: Results from structural equation modeling suggested that experiencing good-quality relationships with parents and teachers and positive self-concept during preschool were only indirectly associated with children's kindergarten classroom engagement through their negative associations with hyperactivity/inattention; only hyperactivity/inattention had a significant direct (small-moderate and negative) association with children's engagement. Practice or Policy: Interventions that improve adult–child relationships may reduce childhood hyperactivity/inattention during preschool and potentially improve children's engagement, helping them start school ready and eager to learn.     

Benchmarking and Alignment of Standards and Testing

The success of standards-based education systems depends on 2 elements: strong standards, and assessments that measure what the standards expect. States that have or adopt test-based accountability programs claim that their tests are aligned to their standards. But there has been up to now no independent methodology for checking alignment. This article describes and illustrates such a methodology and reports results on a sample of state tests. In general, although individual items align quite well with some standard, the tests as a whole are not well aligned. With few exceptions, the collections of items that make up the tests that we examined do not do a good job of assessing the full range of standards and objectives that states have laid out for their students. This misalignment can have serious consequences for instruction and for the validity of test results.     

Student Teaching: Reflections of a Relentless Journey

This action research article shares the story of a student teacher and the arduous, but rewarding process of self-reflection. The authors integrate real life examples of the implementation of self-reflective strategies of a student teacher with self-efficacy, teacher life cycle, and effectiveness literature to analyze the student teacher's perspective. Strategies that encouraged positive changes during the student teaching semester are examined and discussed along with implications.