Literacy skills in children with cochlear implants: the importance of early oral language and joint storybook reading

The goal of this study was to longitudinally examine relationships between early factors (child and mother) that may influence children's phonological awareness and reading skills 3 years later in a group of young children with cochlear implants (N = 16). Mothers and children were videotaped during two storybook interactions, and children's oral language skills were assessed using the "Reynell Developmental Language Scales, third edition." Three years later, phonological awareness, reading skills, and language skills were assessed using the "Phonological Awareness Test," the "Woodcock-Johnson-III Diagnostic Reading Battery," and the "Oral Written Language Scales." Variables included in the data analyses were child (age, age at implant, and language skills) and mother factors (facilitative language techniques) and children's phonological awareness and reading standard scores. Results indicate that children's early expressive oral language skills and mothers' use of a higher level facilitative language technique (open-ended question) during storybook reading, although related, each contributed uniquely to children's literacy skills. Individual analyses revealed that the children with expressive standard scores below 70 at Time 1 also performed below average (<85) on phonological awareness and total reading tasks 3 years later. Guidelines for professionals are provided to support literacy skills in young children with cochlear implants.     

The development, validation, and application of the Doctoral Student Connectedness Scale

Student attrition from distance and limited-residency doctoral programs is significantly higher than that from traditional programs. The focus of this paper is the development and application of a survey instrument, the Doctoral Student Connectedness Scale, designed to identify students at risk of dropout. The study focused exclusively on students currently working on their dissertations with results indicating that low feelings of student-to-student and student-to-faculty connectedness in the learning environment may be predictive of departure from the program. This study supports the work of Lovitts (2001) and others who have also recognized connectedness as an integral part of the dissertation experience. Recommendations are made for addressing these issues through various initiatives that administrators, faculty, and students can support including the design and development of a doctoral student community of practice (CoP).     

Alliance performance to integrate higher education： Smarter partners with shared values and capacity building

Demands by internal and external accreditation groups, whether governmental or professional, has resulted in education providers being more aware of partnership paradigms that develop institutional quality for mutual benefit. The focus of this article is to examine current research on educational partnerships in South-East Asia, identify purposes of academic alliances and report on collective goals, expectations and principles that academics have in relation to cross-institutional relationships. A three-round Delphi technique was used to examine the pros and cons of partnerships, how partnerships could be made more successful and to identify specific actions that individual academics could undertake to develop smarter partnerships. A conceptual framework of alliance performance is suggested and the management of a partnership is addressed in relation to shared values, capacity building and the role of an alliance manager.     

Editor's Choice 2002 selected online learning resources

The Editor-in-Chief of The Internet and Higher Education compiles for the last issue of each year's volume resources that may be useful for researchers, teachers, administrators, or students who wish to locate information about the field of online learning and the uses of the Internet for instructional delivery. Resources are organized into several categories.     

Meaningful reading gains by adult literacy learners

To obtain a fuller picture of the efficacy of reading instruction programs for adult literacy learners, gains by individual students were examined in a sample (n = 148) in which weak to moderate gains at the group level had been obtained in response to tutoring interventions that focused on strengthening basic decoding and fluency skills of low literate adults (Sabatini, Shore, Holtzman, & Scarborough, 2011). Learners were randomly assigned to receive one of three tutoring programs for an average of 44 h of instruction. We used within-individual gains replicated over tests (WIGROT) as the method for identifying gainers, who were defined as students whose reading levels increased from pretest to posttest by a half year or more on at least two of four measured aspects of reading proficiency. The 46 % of the sample who met the criterion had higher pretest scores than non-gainers on measures of reading (d = .42, p < .01) and phonological awareness (d = .47, p < .01), and included fewer adults with a history of special education (43 vs. 61 %, phi = .19, p < .05), regardless of which instructional condition had been received. The findings suggest that basic skills instruction can lead to a meaningful degree of benefit for many adult learners who persist in reading programs for several months. Supplementing group level results with analyses of individual growth, such as WIGROT, appears to be useful in evaluating the efficacy of literacy interventions.     

Association of “Macho Man” Sexual Attitudes and Behavioral Risks in Urban Adolescents

We examined whether sexual attitudes of adolescents were related to their self-reported sexual risk behavior by analyzing survey data from 1,052 boys and girls aged 14 to 17 years from a low income, urban community. Sexual behavior norms that may increase sexually transmitted infection/HIV risks in youth were sanctioned more by males and by sexually experienced youth, but their attitudes were unassociated with either their age or race/ethnicity. Endorsement was correlated with greater intention to have sexual intercourse among all youth. Among sexually experienced participants, it was associated with earlier sexual debut, more partners, and less intention to use condoms but not with the number of unprotected sexual episodes in the prior six months. Sexual attitudes of youth may conflict with initiation and maintenance of safer sex practices, making them vulnerable to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Risk reduction interventions for adolescents should address this.     

Reinscribing urban: teaching high school mathematics in low income, urban communities of color

This article reports findings from a research and professional development project at two high schools located in low-income, urban communities of color. The project collaborates with teachers on improving their instructional practices, using a framework of culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy, which is described in detail here. We present results from a qualitative and quantitative analysis of mathematics instruction in 68 classroom observations of seven teachers. In particular, we use culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy as a lens through which to analyze instruction and the associated opportunities to learn mathematics provided to students.     

Examining the Relationship Between Neighborhood Environment and School Readiness for Kindergarten Children

In the current research project, the relationship between neighborhood environment and school readiness was investigated. To measure neighbourhood environment, data from the 2001 Canadian Census were used, while school readiness was measured using the Early Development Instrument (EDI). EDI data were collected for kindergarten children across British Columbia, Canada, in the school years 2000/2001 through 2004/2005 by the Human Early Learning Partnership. A hierarchical linear modeling approach to data analysis was taken given the complex structure of the data (children nested within neighborhoods). Results from this study suggest that neighborhood environment is related to children's school readiness outcomes as measured by the EDI. Specifically, all 5 EDI domains were significantly predicted by between 2 and 8 of 13 neighborhood variables that were conceptually grouped into 8 categories accounting for family structure, income, education, Aboriginal status, language, labor force occupations, employment rates, and domestic work. Overall, 3 themes emerged from this study that suggest neighborhood-level sources of social wealth: the importance of neighborhood culture, stability, and heterogeneity in promoting better school readiness outcomes for children. Formulations regarding areas for future research are presented.     

Predictors of adult quality of life for foster care alumni with physical and/or psychiatric disabilities

INTRODUCTION: This study used quality of life and resilience as theoretical frameworks for evaluating predictors of outcomes for adults who received foster care services alumni of foster care and were diagnosed with a physical or psychiatric disability while in foster care. METHOD: First, outcomes for foster care alumni with and without physical and psychiatric disabilities (N=1,087) were compared according to quality of life variables. Second, using only participants with disabilities (N=578), stepwise regression analyses were performed to determine whether risk and protective factors were associated with specific outcomes. RESULTS: Alumni with disabilities had significantly lower economic (p=.020) and health (p=.001) outcomes; and reported lower educational attainment (p=.002), more difficulty paying monthly bills (p=.026), more psychiatric diagnoses (p=.006), lower self-esteem (p=.013), and worse physical health (p=.001) than those without disabilities. For alumni with disabilities, receiving special education services and experiencing sexual abuse while in foster care were significant risk factors for poor self-esteem; conversely, receiving services and resources that prepared foster care alumni for leaving foster care (e.g., protective factors) predicted better outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: By expanding the quality of life outcomes analyses to investigate the impact of risk and protective factors on outcomes of foster care alumni with disabilities, this study fills a gap in the literature by assessing outcome differences within the foster-care population. The study found protective factors were associated with more educational attainment and higher self-esteem in adulthood. Conversely, those who received special education services and experienced sexual abuse while in foster care may be at the greatest risk of poor self-esteem and therefore, could benefit from services that enhance self-esteem.