A critical look at methodologies used to evaluate charter school effectiveness

There is no consensus among researchers on charter school effectiveness in the USA, in part because of discrepancies in the research methods employed across various studies. Causal impact estimates from experimental studies demonstrate large positive impacts, but concerns about the generalizability of these results have prompted the development of alternative methodologies for estimating charter impacts. Considerable attention has been paid to non-experimental national charter school studies conducted by the Stanford Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO). To reconcile conflicting findings in the charter school literature, this within-study analysis uses statewide data from Florida between 2001 and 2009, finding large differences in the estimated charter school effects for oversubscribed and undersubscribed schools. This helps explain why experimental studies often find charter impacts that are much larger than those reported by studies relying on non-experimental methods.     

The effects of physical activity on children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a review

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorder among children. Despite the noted positive aspects of the disorder, it is often associated with a range of negative outcomes for that are detrimental to children's education and wider well-being. This comprehensive scoping review examined empirical literature from seven academic journal databases and specialist journals, published over 10 years, in relation to the benefits of sport/physical activity upon the effects of ADHD. The databases and time frame were chosen to give the ‘ideal [scenario]?…?that could answer the review question’, within the limitations of journal database access and resource available; searches of grey literature were also conducted. Ten articles were included in the final review. Due to the variation of methodological approach, sample size, and, most importantly, the form of physical activity measured, it is difficult to identify the ‘best’ form of physical activity to mediate symptoms of ADHD. However, it can be plausibly claimed that physical activity interventions may provide an alternative, non-pharmaceutical approach to management of ADHD in children.     

Bullying as a Display of Social Dominance Orientation

The study employed Social Dominance Theory in a communicative assessment of bullying in secondary education. Participants were 189 college students who completed a survey about their bullying perpetration in secondary school (physical victimization, verbal victimization, social manipulation, and attacks on property) and their current propensity to accept social hierarchy myths (social dominance orientation). Social dominance orientation was correlated positively with all four types of bullying behavior. Moreover, bullies’ sex moderated the relationships between social dominance orientation and physical forms of bullying (physical victimization, attacks on property). For communication scholars assessing bullying, these findings propose that this single variable (social dominance orientation) be included when addressing the psychological underpinnings of bullying behaviors.     

Assessing the Effectiveness of Collaborative Interorganizational Networks Through Client Communication

A hallmark of today’s civil society sector is the prevalence of collaborative interorganizational networks. The purpose of this study is to investigate how collaborative interorganizational network structures affect interactions within client networks, and how this in turn impacts assessments of collaborative interorganizational network effectiveness. In particular, we focus on recommendations as key indicators of collaborative interorganizational network effectiveness in relation to client networks. We identify client networks of phantom populations as an important but unexamined aspect of collaborative interorganizational network effectiveness that warrants further research. We present an empirical investigation of a collaborative interorganizational network of social service agencies working to address the problem of homelessness in Boulder County, Colorado (USA). Findings indicate that organizations with a greater number of connections with other organizations generate more recommendations within client networks. Our study demonstrates a relationship between the degree of connections within a collaborative interorganizational network structure and the recommendations generated with a phantom population.     

Celestin Freinet’s printing press: Lessons of a ‘bourgeois’ educator

This article seeks to provide a new reading of the work of Celestin Freinet and his use of the printing press. Specifically, this article aligns Freinet’s approach to teaching and learning with a counter-reformation in pedagogical thought-an approach that places him both within and outside of the ‘progressive’ turn in education that began to emerge at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. Freinet’s pedagogical experiment in rural France during mid-twentieth century demonstrated the way that student freedom, uninhibited by overarching ideological pre-emption, and unbound from the progressive imperatives typical of reform education in either its Marxist or liberal variants, can be utilized as a way to inspire pedagogical techniques founded on alternative social, political, and anthropological postulates. Specifically, the authors demonstrate how Freinet’s use of the press helps us to think about the following: 1) a different relationship to technology and the role it could play in the conception of the common within the classroom; 2) the creation of an existential good as opposed to the private good discovered through the amassing of property and the advancement of the related notion of progress; 3) and a reaffirmation of the possibility of a genuine workers education.     

Breaking the Silence: Achieving a Positive Campus Climate for Diversity from the Staff Perspective

The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that create a positive climate for diversity and to demonstrate how these factors predict outcomes related to achieving a positive campus climate for diversity. Based on survey data collected from 437 staff members employed at a large, public, predominantly White university in the Midwest, results suggest that the institution’s ability to achieve a positive climate for diversity reflects not only the personal characteristics of the staff member (race, gender, education level, and age) but also their perceptions of their immediate work environment. Implications are discussed.     

An initial study of the diagnostic utility of the emotional and behavioural screener in Lithuania

In schools, screening is an effective method to identify students at-risk for emotional and behavioural disorders. Several intervention programmes such as Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports, Response to Intervention, and Multi-tiered Systems of Supports call for the use of psychometrically sound screening instruments. This study investigated diagnostic utility of a brief (10-item) screener, the Emotional and Behavioural Screener (EBS) with a sample 312 Lithuanian students. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was used as a reference point for the investigation. Diagnostic utility statistics (i.e. overall agreement, misleading negatives, sensitivity, specificity and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve) were used to evaluate the usefulness and validity of the EBS. The results indicate, that majority of the diagnostic utility statistics thresholds were met; however, some gender differences were found. In sum, the EBS appears to be an accurate screener discriminating students not at-risk and at-risk for emotional and behavioural problems. Study limitations, future research directions and implications are discussed.     

College Students’ Appreciative Attitudes Toward Atheists

Atheists are often marginalized in discussions of religious and spiritual pluralism on college campuses and beyond. As with other minority worldview groups, atheists face challenges with hostile campus climates and misunderstanding of their views. The present study used a large, multi-institutional sample to explore predictors of non-atheist college students’ appreciative attitudes toward atheists. Substantial differences were found across identities; secular and spiritual worldview groups hold the most positive views, whereas Christians and Muslims have the most negative attitudes. Interactions with worldview diversity—but not general religious/spiritual engagement—consistently predict more positive attitudes, and these relationships sometimes vary based on students’ own worldviews. These results suggest that colleges and universities can create more inclusive environments for atheists, who constitute a sizable minority group on today’s college campuses.     

Incorporating oximeter analyses to investigate synchronies in heart rate while teaching and learning about race

In this paper, we look closely at two events selected through event-oriented inquiry that were part of a classroom presentation on race. The first event was a provocative discussion about Mark Twain’s (Pudd’nhead Wilson, Harper, New York, 1899) and passing for being White. The other was a discussion on the use of the N-word. Grounded in authentic inquiry, we use ethnographic narrative, cogenerative dialogues, and video and oximeter data analyses as part of a multi-ontological approach for studying emotions. Statistical analysis of oximeter data shows statistically significant heart rate synchrony among two of the coteachers during their presentations, providing evidence of emotional synchrony, resonance, and social and emotional contagion.