Do pupils from low-income families get low-quality teachers? Indirect evidence from English schools

Gaps between the educational attainment of pupils from higher and lower income families are widespread and persistent. Teacher quality is amongst the most important school-based determinants of pupil attainment, making the allocation of teachers to pupils a potentially important reason for this attainment gap. We use a range of well-evidenced indicators of teacher quality from the School Workforce Census and the Teaching and Learning International Survey to investigate the extent of social inequalities in access to teacher quality in England. Looking at the allocation of teachers between schools, we find that disadvantaged pupils are more likely to have unqualified, inexperienced or out-of-subject teachers. We present evidence that this reflects both demand from early-career teachers to work in such schools and a greater supply of vacant positions in these schools, due to poor staff retention. We find some evidence of an inequitable allocation of teacher quality to classes within schools, though this is limited to our teacher experience indicator. This is in part due to teachers with more experience at a specific school being better able to influence their allocation to less disadvantaged classes. Implications for policy are discussed.     

Interview Experiences and Diversity Concerns of Counselor Education Faculty From Underrepresented Groups

The authors used transcendental phenomenology to explore the campus interview experiences and diversity concerns of counselor education faculty from underrepresented populations. Six themes were identified: issues of integrity, disappointment in the counseling profession, importance of authenticity, intersectionality of major identity markers, competence, and supportive experiences. Findings suggest that culturally competent search committees should be aware of biases and policies promoting institutional and systemic discrimination.     

Promoting intercultural friendship among college students

This study assessed the efficacy of a semester-long buddy project in facilitating intercultural friendship development. Results of pre-, post-, and follow-up surveys show significant improvements in knowledge and attitude; correlations between post-project knowledge, attitude, and interest in continued contact; and correlations between interest in continued contact and actual contact in the follow up. The majority of the participants evaluated the project as effective for friendship formation. Of the follow-up respondents, 23% developed friendships with their former buddies. The project serves as an example for assignments with the potential for friendship development, which is essential for optimal intergroup contact.     

Learning to Lead: an Approach to Mathematics Teacher Leader Development

This paper describes a partnership between a university and an urban school district, formed with a goal of preparing mathematics teacher leaders to conduct professional development (PD) at their schools. The university and district partners worked together to achieve the district’s mission of providing every student with high-quality instruction and equitable learning opportunities in mathematics by building the district’s capacity to conduct school-based PD for mathematics teachers. Given the power of school-based subject-specific PD for improving instructional quality, we worked with Teacher Leaders from participating schools to prepare and support them to lead PD workshops at their schools. In this paper, we examine how Teacher Leaders learn and adapt key elements of a PD model over three school years through the lenses of Prediger et al.’s Three-Tetrahedron-Model (2019) and the university’s Learning to Lead model. Over 3 years, we see that Teacher Leaders use the key structures of the PD model; make adaptations in response to school goals, interests, and priorities; and gain confidence in their work with colleagues. By viewing the adaptations through the lens of pedagogies of practice as well as the relationships illustrated by the 3-T model, this work offers insights into the complexities of teacher leadership development.

     

Parent Support for Children’s Physical Activity: A Qualitative Investigation of Barriers and Strategies

Purpose: Parents play an important role in supporting children’s physical activity (PA) behavior. Parent PA support is a behavior unto itself that has been examined within the framework of an adapted theory of planned behavior (TPB). The primary purpose of this research was to identify key barriers to parent PA support to understand perceptions of control in relation to parent PA support. The second purpose of this research was to identify potential strategies to enhance parent PA support via enhanced perceived behavioral control. Method: Focus groups were conducted with parents (N = 21) of children aged 5 to 11 years old. A deductive content analysis was employed to analyze the data guided by an adapted TPB. Results: Themes related to barriers included parents’ motivation, affective experiences in providing PA support, and control factors (e.g., cost, time, safety concerns, screen). Themes related to potential strategies included opportunities for participation and improved affective experiences for parents, community parenting, and self-regulatory strategies. Conclusion: The identification of specific barriers to parent PA support can guide the development of interventions to facilitate parent PA support. Informational, programming, and self-regulatory training interventions may be useful in enhancing parent support.     

Comparison of physiological responses to graded exercise test performance in outrigger canoeing

The aim of this study was to establish a graded exercise test protocol for determining the peak physiological responses of female outrigger canoeists. Seventeen trained female outrigger canoeists completed two outrigger ergometer graded exercise test protocols in random order: (1) 25 W power output for 2 min increasing by 7.5 W every minute until exhaustion; and (2) 25 W power output for 2 min increasing by 15 W every 2 min to exhaustion. Heart rate and power output were recorded every 15 s. Expired air was collected continuously and sampled for analysis at 15-s intervals, while blood lactate concentration was measured immediately after and 3, 5, and 7 min after exercise. The peak physiological and performance variables examined included peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak), minute ventilation, tidal volume, ventilatory thresholds 1 and 2, respiratory rate, respiratory exchange ratio, heart rate, blood lactate concentration, power output, performance time, and time to VO2peak. There were no significant differences in peak physiological responses, ventilatory thresholds or performance variables between the two graded exercise test protocols. Despite no significant differences between protocols, due to the large limits of agreement evident between protocols for the peak physiological responses, it is recommended that the same protocol be used for all comparison testing to minimize intra-individual variability of results.     

Examination of the Six Minute Walk Test to Determine Functional Capacity in People with Chronic Heart Failure: A Systematic Review

Purpose: To evaluate the reliability and validity of the six-minute walk test (6MWT) with respect to its ability to predict functional capacity in patients with chronic heart failure. Methods: A systematic review was performed via 8 databases to assess relevant English language full-text articles published from January 1, 1980 to October 31, 2009. Participant characteristics, interventions, reliability, validity, and predictive value for each article with respect to functional capacity as defined by peak VO₂ levels were extracted and compared. Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS) scores were determined for each study. Results: Fourteen studies met the selection criteria. Comparison of the studies investigating reliability shows that the 6MWT has good reproducibility. The 6MWT demonstrates moderate correlation with peak VO₂ levels, and ability to predict VO₂ (functional capacity) dependent on distance walked. Cut-off distances vary from 300 to 490 meters depending on the study; if total distance walked remains equal or less than these values, the 6MWT retains its strong predictive value. Conclusion: The 6MWT has good reliability, moderate validity, and a significant ability to predict functional capacity in patients with CHF who do not walk greater than 490 meters.Key Words: six-minute walk test, chronic heart failure, functional capacity, peak VO₂     

A GLOBE Collaboration to Develop Land Cover Data Collection and Analysis Protocols

Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) is an international environmental education and science partnership which coordinates the work of students (aged 5 to 18), teachers and scientists from 48 countries on five continents to study and better understand the global environment. Accurate ground reference data is fundamental to the use of remotely sensed data for land cover classification and mapping. Because very little ground reference data has been collected, the accuracy of many land cover maps may be questioned, thus accurate land cover ground reference data is an important need that could be addressed through GLOBE scientist-student collaboration. If earth systems scientists are to use student data, it is important that those data be as accurate as possible to ensure reliability of research results. Thus a key question for this research is whether student collected data are accurate enough to support rigorous scientific investigations. This paper describes results of the GLOBE Science-Education Team on Data Validation and Accuracy Assessment's collaboration with teachers and students to: (1) design and test the pre-protocol learning activities; (2) test the protocols intended to guide the collection and analysis of data; and (3) implement the learning activities and protocols to determine the relative accuracy of student collected versus professionally collected land cover data. To ensure the most accurate classification of land cover possible, a new international hierarchical land cover classification system, the Modified Unesco Classification (MUC) system was developed. GLOBE Data Collection Protocols and methods were designed and implemented to test the accuracy of student collected reference data were designed and implemented. Students who collected land cover reference data using GLOBE protocols, obtained data which are at least as accurate as that collected by professionals.