PUBLICATION OUTLETS FOR SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY FACULTY: 2010 to 2015

Many school psychology faculty are required to publish for purposes of retention and promotion. It is useful to have an understanding of the different outlets for scholarly publications. In the present study, we investigated the peer‐reviewed journals in which school psychology faculty were published between 2010 and 2015, the number of articles in each journal, and the acceptance rates and impact estimates for each journal. We identified school psychology faculty using the National Association of School Psychologists website and conducted a search of the publications using EBSCO databases. Results indicated that there were a total of 3,675 articles and a total of 832 peer‐reviewed journals in which school psychology faculty were published during the 6‐year span. Among the peer‐reviewed journals, Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology Quarterly, School Psychology Review, and Journal of School Psychology were the journals in which school psychology faculty members most frequently published. Acceptance rates ranged from less than 5% to 98%, with an average of 29.7%. H‐indexes ranged from 1 to 890, with an average of 52. These results illustrate the variety of journals that publish works from school psychology faculty and the need for school psychology faculty and other authors to consider a variety of options when seeking publication.     

Library Cartography: Mapping Workflow Processes in an Academic Library

This article will introduce and illustrate process mapping as a valuable tool in the academic library setting. Commonly used in the business world, process mapping is the practice of gathering information regarding a specific workflow and diagraming it visually, usually in the form of a flowchart. This representation can then be analyzed for process improvement. In addition to helping assess current workflow efficiency, process mapping is a valuable way for employees throughout the library to see how they are contributing to essential processes. Process mapping can also help to identify areas where departments can work to further collaborate and can contribute to knowledge management and continuity. This article will highlight the valuable benefits of process mapping and document the authors’ experience focusing this activity on the operations at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s J. Murrey Atkins Library.     

Early social communication development in infants with autism spectrum disorder

Social-communication differences are a robust and defining feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but identifying early points of divergence in infancy has been a challenge. The current study examines social communication in 9- to 12-month-old infants who develop ASD (N = 30; 23% female; 70% white) compared to typically developing (TD) infants (N = 94, 38% female; 88% white). Results demonstrate that infants later diagnosed with ASD were already exhibiting fewer social-communication skills using eye gaze, facial expression, gestures, and sounds at 9 months (effect size: 0.42–0.89). Moreover, three unique patterns of change across distinct social-communication skills were observed within the ASD group. This study documents that observable social-communication differences for infants with ASD are unfolding by 9 months, pointing to a critical window for targeted intervention.     

Working Memory and Reading Difficulties: What We Know and What We Don’t Know About the Relationship

This paper examines the role of Working Memory (WM) in developmental reading problems, considering: 1) The operationalization of WM; 2) The unique contribution of WM to reading; 3) Domain-general or -specific explanations of decoding and reading comprehension deficits; and 4) The capacity of WM constructs to distinguish between reading disabilities and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is concluded that: 1) Significant problems operationalizing working memory measures remain; 2) No clear unique role for WM is evident in longitudinal studies of reading acquisition; 3) Existing evidence concerning the domain-specificity or generality of WM problems is hard to interpret given problems in identification and sampling of poor readers and operationalization of WM constructs; 4) Further work is required to specify the nature of WM problems in samples of poor readers, as distinct from other co-occurring problems such as ADHD. Additional research is suggested to address these issues more fully.     

The instrumentation of test-based accountability in the autonomous dutch system

ABSTRACT

Test-based accountability or ‘TBA,’ as a core element of the pervasive Global Education Reform Movement (GERM), has become a central characteristic of education systems around the world. TBA often comes in conjunction with greater school autonomy, enabling governments to assess ‘school quality’ (i.e. test results) from a distance. Often, quality improvement is further encouraged through the publication of these results. Research has investigated this phenomenon and its effects, much of it focusing on Anglo-Saxon cases. This paper, drawing on expert interviews and key policy documents, couples a policy borrowing with a policy instruments approach to critically examine how and why TBA has developed in the highly autonomous Dutch system. It finds that TBA evolved incrementally, advancing towards higher stakes for schools and boards. Further, it argues that school autonomy has been central to the development of TBA in two ways. Firstly, following a period of decentralisation that increased school(board) autonomy, the Dutch government saw a need to strengthen accountability to ensure education quality. This was influenced by international discourse and accelerated by a (politically exploited) national ‘quality crisis’ in education. Secondly, the traditionally autonomous Dutch system, shaped by ‘Freedom of Education’, has at times conflicted with TBA, and has played a significant role in (re)shaping global policy and in mitigating the GERM.     

Student- and instruction-level predictors of narrative writing in third-grade students

This study examined the student-level and instruction-level predictors of narrative writing fluency and quality. Participants included 120 third-grade students from 13 classrooms. Student predictors included measures of reading, handwriting, spelling, IQ, grammatical understanding, and gender. Instructional predictors focused on the amount of time allocated to teaching basic writing skills and planning skills. Significant predictors of compositional fluency included gender, advanced planning ability, and handwriting fluency, while significant predictors of compositional quality included gender, compositional fluency, Full-scale IQ, word reading ability, and grammatical understanding. There were no main effects of instructional variables; however there were two student by instruction interactions. Implications of the study highlight the importance of student characteristics in writing achievement, as well as considering the need for differential instruction based on student needs.     

Biological Inquiry: A New Course and Assessment Plan in Response to the Call to Transform Undergraduate Biology

We transformed our first-year curriculum in biology with a new course, Biological Inquiry, in which >50% of all incoming, first-year students enroll. The course replaced a traditional, content-driven course that relied on outdated approaches to teaching and learning. We diversified pedagogical practices by adopting guided inquiry in class and in labs, which are devoted to building authentic research skills through open-ended experiments. Students develop core biological knowledge, from the ecosystem to molecular level, and core skills through regular practice in hypothesis testing, reading primary literature, analyzing data, interpreting results, writing in disciplinary style, and working in teams. Assignments and exams require higher-order cognitive processes, and students build new knowledge and skills through investigation of real-world problems (e.g., malaria), which engages students’ interest. Evidence from direct and indirect assessment has guided continuous course revision and has revealed that compared with the course it replaced, Biological Inquiry produces significant learning gains in all targeted areas. It also retains 94% of students (both BA and BS track) compared with 79% in the majors-only course it replaced. The project has had broad impact across the entire college and reflects the input of numerous constituencies and close collaboration among biology professors and students.     

The co-evolution of e-government and public libraries: Technologies,access, education,and partnerships

While many studies have discussed the impacts of electronic government (e-government) on public libraries, little research has considered the extent to which the current federal government's implementation of e-government relies on the public technology access, training, and support provided by public libraries. A range of data and policy materials are drawn upon in order to illuminate the co-evolution of public libraries and e-government. Beginning with a discussion of the development of e-government and its impacts in public libraries, the access, goals, and challenges of e-government are detailed as they relate to libraries, and the areas in which current implementations of e-government would not be possible without public libraries. Based on the explorations of the co-evolution of e-government and public libraries, key policy issues are offered that require reconceptualization in order to better support the interrelationship between e-government and public libraries.     

Experimenting with global governance: understanding the potential for generational change

The appropriate role for the United Nations in international dispute resolution is a matter of high profile discussion and controversy. This paper begins with this ambivalence about the appropriate role for the United Nations in the world and examines several sets of issues that relate to the future of support for the UN within the US and the prospects for global governance more generally. First, we briefly review two thematic strands in previous and contemporary scholarship:(1) arguments for increased global governance in contemporary world affairs, driven by perceptions of the changing nature of the political, social, economic and military challenges in the contemporary world system. This debate is also put in the context of the relevance of public support for global governance institutions; and (2) why it is valuable to study how the current generation of adolescents perceive issues of global governance and the impact that their views may have on that nexus in the coming years. We then move to an analysis of data generated from an experimental study of American adolescents and their attitudes toward global governance.