Addressing the Challenges and Needs of English-Speaking Caribbean Immigrant Students: Guidelines for School Counselors

Caribbean students are among the distinct immigrant groups in U.S. public schools with particular needs to be addressed by school counselors. This article discusses the challenges Caribbean immigrant students face that create obstacles to their academic and personal/social success. Guidelines for school counselors are outlined, which can be used to meet the needs of Caribbean immigrant students and promote their healthy adjustment.     

Between the Structural and the Personal: Situated Sense-Makings of “Race” This research was supported by a grant from the MOSAIC Multicultural Center at San Jose State University.

Using a critical intercultural communication perspective and cultural studies interviewing method, this study traces individuals’ subjective sense-makings of diversity through the trope of “race.” Such sense-makings represent the key (and taken-for-granted) locus of the structural and personal where social actors live out the constructions of diversity and race in deeply felt ways. Our study reveals how individuals articulate and understand race via raceless diversity encodings (whereby race is seemingly stripped of its power inequalities, and all racial/ethnic groups are made equal) and racial pivoting (whereby participants both discursively pull away from and move toward race to suit their individual experiences).     

The contributions of parental management language to executive function in preschool children

This study investigated relations between preschoolers’ emergent executive function skills and their interactions with parents, with particular focus on the verbal utterances parents use to guide children's behavior (i.e., management language). Parent–child dyads (n = 127) were videotaped during a structured play task and the frequency of two types of management language, Direction (high control) and Suggestion (low control), was observed. Children's executive function was assessed using the Head–Toes–Knees–Shoulders (HTKS) task. Latent growth modeling was used to investigate relations between management language and the development of children's executive function. Direction language (i.e., commands) was negatively associated with children's age three executive function but not significantly related to the rate of executive function development over time. Conversely, Suggestion language (i.e., questions and statements that offer children some degree of choice) was positively related to executive function at age three but negatively related to growth. The potential importance of management language as a parenting behavior that contributes to various aspects of children's self-regulation during preschool and kindergarten is discussed.     

Task-Specific Self-Evaluation as a Measure of Achievement Motivation

The validity of an internalized self-reinforcement paradigm as a model of achievement motivation was investigated with a sample of 230 ninth grade black pupils of an inner-city public school located in a midwestern metropolitan area. If achievement behavior is controlled and sustained by covert internal evaluations of performance, then students who more frequently report positive self-evaluations during some specific school-like task may be predicted to: a.) have higher grade point averages than students who less frequently report self-evaluations of task performance; b.) have lower rates of absence from school than students who less frequently report positive self-evaluations of task performance; c.) have greater levels of expected task performance than students who less frequently report positive self-evaluations of performance; d.) have greater expectations that they will be able to positively evaluate themselves for task performance than students who less frequently report positive self-evaluations; e.) have greater congruence between self-established standards and actual performance. Analyzed by 2-way analysis of variance (self-evaluation x sex), the data supported each of the predictions. The results were interpreted to support the conception of self-evaluations of task performance as a model of achievement motivation. In the absence of external rewards, the student sustains his academic behavior by the quality of the covert self-evaluations of his own performance. The positive or negative value of these evaluations depends on self-established standards. Students who tend to evaluate themselves negatively may do so as a function of arbitrarily high standards. Their performance on academic tasks will be less well sustained and their functioning at consequently lowered levels of achievement. The paper-and-pencil self-reports used in the study yielded results comparable to the elaborate laboratory instrumentation of previous studies.     

Using iPad tablets for self‐modeling with preschoolers: Videos versus photos

As technology becomes more accessible and acceptable in the preschool setting, teachers need effective strategies of incorporating it to address challenging behaviors. A nonconcurrent delayed multiple baseline design in combination with an alternating treatment design was utilized to investigate the effects of using iPad tablets to display video self‐modeling and activity photos for three preschoolers during circle time. During baseline, all three children demonstrated low levels of engagement and high levels of off‐task behavior compared to peers. The intervention phase consisted of alternating between showing the child the self‐video and photos prior to circle time. A child preference phase was conducted whereby each child self‐selected the video or photo prior to circle time. For all three children both videos and photos led to increased engagement and decreased off‐task behaviors. During the child preference phase, all three children selected the video most frequently. Social validity data demonstrated teacher and child preference for the video self‐modeling condition.     

Disaggregated Effects of Device on Score Comparability

The use of tablets for large‐scale testing programs has transitioned from concept to reality for many state testing programs. This study extended previous research on score comparability between tablets and computers with high school students to compare score distributions across devices for reading, math, and science and to evaluate device effects for gender and ethnicity subgroups. Results indicated no significant differences between tablets and computers for math and science. For reading, a small device effect favoring tablets was found for the middle to lower part of the score distribution. This effect seemed to be driven by increases in performance for male students when testing on tablets. No interactions of device with ethnicity were observed. Consistent with previous research, this study provides additional evidence for a relatively high degree of comparability between tablets and computers.     

Embedded Field Test Item Statistics: Can They Be Trusted for Estimating Student Proficiency?

Assessment items are commonly field tested prior to operational use to observe statistical item properties such as difficulty. Item parameter estimates from field testing may be used to assign scores via pre-equating or computer adaptive designs. This study examined differences between item difficulty estimates based on field test and operational data and the relationship of such differences to item position changes and student proficiency estimates. Item position effects were observed for 20 assessments, with items in later positions tending to be more difficult. Moreover, field test estimates of item difficulty were biased slightly upward, which may indicate examinee knowledge of which items were being field tested. Nevertheless, errors in field test item difficulty estimates had negligible impacts on student proficiency estimates for most assessments. Caution is still warranted when using field test statistics for scoring, and testing programs should conduct investigations to determine whether the effects on scoring are inconsequential.     

Using a hypertext environment for teaching process writing: An evaluation study of three student groups

The present research consisted of a comprehensive evaluation of a hypertext model for teaching process writing at the junior high and high school level. Interests were to determine how two teachers and three different age groups of students used and reacted to the model, specifically, its embedded design features of model stories, note cards, idea buttons, mini-lessons, branching buttons, and cut-and-paste-tools. Results showed applications of the embedded features to vary based on teacher attitudes, feature attributes (e.g., ease of use and appeal), and student characteristics. Older students made more usage of many of the features, but were less positive about the hypertext model given their greater involvement with completing writing assignments rather than with exploring new forms of writing. The implications of the results are discussed regarding the instructional design and classroom implementation of new technologies for teaching process writing strategies.This study was conducted as a doctoral dissertation completed by the first author at the University of Memphis under the supervision of the second and third authors.