Retell as an Indicator of Reading Comprehension

The purpose of this narrative synthesis is to determine the reliability and validity of retell protocols for assessing reading comprehension of students in grades K–12. Fifty-four studies were systematically coded for data related to the administration protocol, scoring procedures, and technical adequacy of the retell component. Retell was moderately correlated with standardized measures of reading comprehension and, with older students, had a lower correlation with decoding and fluency. Literal information was retold more frequently than inferential, and students with learning disabilities or reading difficulties needed more supports to demonstrate adequate recall. Great variability was shown in the prompting procedures, but scoring methods were more consistent across studies. The influences of genre, background knowledge, and organizational features were often specific to particular content, texts, or students. Overall, retell has not yet demonstrated adequacy as a progress monitoring instrument.     

First‐Generation Undergraduate Students' Social Support,Depression, and Life Satisfaction

First‐generation undergraduate students face challenging cross‐socioeconomic cultural transitions into college life. The authors compared first‐ and non‐first‐generation undergraduate students’ social support, posttraumatic stress, depression symptoms, and life satisfaction. First‐generation participants reported less social support from family and friends, more single‐event traumatic stress, less life satisfaction, and marginally more depression symptomatology than non‐first‐generation participants, but significant generation–gender interactions showed first‐generation women doing worse and first‐generation men doing better than others.     

Assessing Use and User Needs for Content Management Systems in the Canadian Federal Public Sector

Canadian public sector organizations require users to make use of content management systems. Symptoms of low adoption include misuse and inefficient workarounds. This research project, through the use of a survey, investigates perspectives of end users in the Canadian public sector; it focuses on assessing users' needs and incorporating their feedback. A goal for this research was to explore and interpret the challenges related to needs assessment in content management projects.     

Sexual Minority Health: A Bibliography and Preliminary Study of the Book Literature

The literature on health in people who identify as sexual minorities is scattered in many types of resources and disciplines. To help address the need for relevant, well-organized information for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and health care providers, this study first identified books published in a ten-year period and then examined the topics, the number of books published per year, most prolific authors, and primary publishers. A wide range of publishers published a relatively small number of books (521). Most were about mental health or relationships and 24% were personal accounts. There were many subject deficiencies in the published book corpus.