Cases of Censorship in Public Libraries: Loudoun County,VA

ABSTRACT

In 1998, a group of adult library patrons and individuals in Loudoun County, Virginia, brought a suit against library trustees, board members, and the director of the county’s public library, claiming that the library’s use of Internet blocking software was an infringement on their First Amendment rights, leading to the federal court case Mainstream Loudoun v. Board of Trustees of the Loudoun County Library (1998). Using an in-depth case study approach and going beyond a review of the court documents, the author uses a series of qualitative interviews with individuals connected to the court case to gather more in-depth information regarding events surrounding this case of censorship in public libraries and investigate the phenomenon of librarians acting as censors themselves.     

Predicting Children's Achievement from Teacher Judgements: An Alternative To Standardized Testing

A simple instrument, the Developmental Rating Scale (DRS), was constructed to provide a vehicle for teachers to express their judgements about the academic development of children. Different teachers used this instrument to assess the academic development of the same children at the beginning of pre-kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. Teachers also assessed children using the Developmental Profile II (DPII), a widely used commercial test, at the beginning of pre-kindergarten and first grade; and they reported the level at which the children were achieving in reading comprehension and math at the end of first and second grades. Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) total reading and total math scores were obtained on a subsample of the children at the end of second grade. Although the DPII is purported to consist of five dimensions, corresponding to five different developmental areas, and the DRS, modeled after the DPII, used the same five dimensions, factor analysis indicated that both instruments consisted of one global dimension, not five. The DPII was not a meaningful predictor of any of the achievement variables. The DRS had high correlations with all achievement variables, indicating that from pre-kindergarten through second grade teacher judgements are superior to at least one commercial, standardized test for predicting later achievement.     

Non-traditional students and critical pedagogy: transformative practice and the teaching of criminal law

This article explores the practical implication of adopting critical pedagogy, and more specifically critical legal pedagogy, in the teaching of non-traditional students in higher education context. It is based on the teaching of criminal law at Birkbeck School of Law, addressing learning tasks which have been designed to enhance students’ learning experience. The proposition put forward in this article suggests that exactly because many of the non-traditional, mature students do not intend to pursue an ad hoc legal profession, the teaching approach should be geared towards widening the social context of learning and the acquisition of transferable skills, but mainly towards fostering students’ social ‘transformation’.     

III. ATTACHMENT AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN INSTITUTIONAL CARE: CHARACTERISTICS AND CATCH UP

Attachment has been assessed in the extreme environment of orphanages, but an important issue to be addressed in this chapter is whether in addition to standard assessment procedures, such as the Strange Situation, the lack of a specific attachment in some institutionalized children should be taken into account given the limits to the development of stable relationships in institutionalized care. In addition, this chapter discusses disinhibited or indiscriminately friendly behavior that is often seen in institutionalized children. Enhanced caregiving quality alone appears to be insufficient to diminish indiscriminate behavior, at least in some children, as evidenced by the persistence of indiscriminate behavior in children adopted out of institutions into adoptive families. We suggest that the etiology and function of indiscriminate, “friendly” behavior may be different for institutionalized versus not‐institutionalized children. In the first case it may reflect a distortion or disruption of early attachment relationships; in the latter case it is likely to result from the lack of expected input in the form of contingent interactions with a stable caregiver in early life. We try to delineate infant and caregiver characteristics that are associated with secure attachment in institutional settings, given the inevitable fact that large numbers of infants worldwide are being raised, and will be raised, in contexts of institutional care. We conclude that much further study is needed of the development of children's attachments following adoption out of an institutional setting.     

The effectiveness and retention of teachers with prior career experience

As schools and districts seek to recruit teachers, individuals in non-teaching professions are an appealing possible pool. These potential teachers come with work experience and may have expertise that would serve them well in the classroom. While there has been substantial rhetoric assailing the virtues of teachers with prior professional experience, no research that we know of has assessed the effectiveness of these teachers in terms of student learning. This study uses data from New York City to assess the relative effectiveness and retention of career-switchers. It provides some evidence that these teachers are no more effective than other new teachers, and, in fact, they appear to be less effective at raising math scores of elementary and middle school students. There is little difference in overall transfer or leave rates between teachers with prior experience and other teachers, although career-switchers from college recommended programs do appear more likely to transfer schools.     

Improving Museum Docents' Communication Skills

This article presents the results of a study evaluating a program to help museum docents improve accessibility for visitors with communication challenges (such as hearing, language and/or speech disorders). This was done by adapting docent presentations. The docents' speech patterns were evaluated before and after a training program, and showed significant improvements in the rate, duration, and use of pauses in their speech. There also was significant improvement in ensuring that view of their faces remained unobstructed—important for people with communication disorders—in order to facilitate the consistent visibility of their facial expressions and visual cues. The training was found to be effective in adjusting the docents' presentations so that the museum experience would be improved for visitors with communication challenges.     

Leptotrichia hongkongensis sp. nov., a novel Leptotrichia species with the oral cavity as its natural reservoir

A straight, non-sporulating, Gram-variable bacillus (HKU24T) was recovered from the blood culture of a patient with metastatic breast carcinoma. After repeated subculturing in BACTEC Plus Anaerobic/F blood culture broth, HKU24T grew on brucella agar as non-hemolytic, pinpoint colonies after 96 h of incubation at 37 °C in an anaerobic environment and aerobic environment with 5% CO2. Growth was enhanced with a streak of Staphylococcus aureus. HKU24T was non-motile and catalase-negative, but positive for alkaline phosphatase, β-glucosidase, and α-glucosidase. It hydrolyzed phenylphosphonate and reduced resazurin. 16S rRNA, groEL, gyrB, recA, and rpoB sequencing showed that HKU24T occupies a distinct phylogenetic position among the Leptotrichia species, being most closely related to Leptotrichia trevisanii. Using HKU24T groEL, gyrB, recA, and rpoB gene-specific primers, fragments of these genes were amplified from one of 20 oral specimens. Based on phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, we propose a new species, Leptotrichia hongkongensis sp. nov., to describe this bacterium.     

South African Deaf education and the Deaf community

In a special section of the american Annals of the Deaf, Deaf education and the Deaf community in South Africa are discussed. The special section is organized into 7 segments: a historical overview to establish context, the educational context, educators and learners, postgraduate education and employment, perspectives of Deaf children and their parents, sport and the arts, and spiritual lives and mental health. Throughout the entire section, however, the central focus is on the overall foundation (or lack thereof) of education for Deaf learners in South Africa.