Transforming American High Schools: Possibilities for the Next Phase of High School Reform

The next phase of high school reform is ripe with possibilities. Over the last 3 decades, educational research has identified a number of promising and effective high school models. Research demonstrates the benefits of career academies and early college schools. Schools that offer small, personalized environments; comprehensive approaches to schoolwide instruction and operations; and integrated opportunities to experience career and college have exhibited positive impacts on labor market outcomes, student achievement, or high school graduation. Guided by advances in research of high school reform and recent education policy, leaders and funders of reform and educational innovations should seek to further integrate structural arrangements and instructional practices with local employers and higher education institutions. Reforms should also search for ways to accelerate rapid and dramatic improvements in school performance.     

Development of a Curriculum for Long-Term Care Nurses to Improve Recognition of Depression in Dementia

There is increasing recognition of the severe consequences of depression in long-term care residents with dementia. Most health care providers are unprepared to recognize and to manage the complexity of depression in dementia. Targeted educational initiatives in nursing homes are needed to address this growing problem. This paper describes the development of competencies, learning objectives, and learning outcomes for a curriculum on depression in dementia for nurses working in nursing home settings. This work provides the foundation for a curriculum to improve learning for nurses and, ultimately, to advance health care outcomes for residents with cooccurring depression and dementia.     

Por los ojos de madres: Latina mothers’ understandings of college readiness

In this study, data from six focus groups with 30 Latina mothers in South Texas were analyzed utilizing a “funds of knowledge” approach to uncover their understandings of college readiness and their role in ensuring their children are college ready. Findings indicate that Latina mothers perceived college readiness in a holistic fashion, similar to the concept of educación, in that being college ready encompasses academic preparation and other particular personal attributes that ensure success in college. Mothers also believed they had a shared responsibility in college readiness efforts by providing emotional, financial, and moral support while school personnel and students were responsible for other aspects. Such findings are crucial given that current college readiness research does not explicitly consider the role of parents in college readiness efforts or how parents perceive this notion.     

Using Design-Based Latent Growth Curve Modeling With Cluster-Level Predictor to Address Dependency

The authors compared the effects of using the true Multilevel Latent Growth Curve Model (MLGCM) with single-level regular and design-based Latent Growth Curve Models (LGCM) with or without the higher-level predictor on various criterion variables for multilevel longitudinal data. They found that random effect estimates were biased when the higher-level predictor was not included and that standard errors of the regression coefficients from the higher-level were underestimated when a regular LGCM was used. Nevertheless, random effect estimates, regression coefficients, and standard error estimates were consistent with those from the true MLGCM when the design-based LGCM included the higher-level predictor. They discussed implication for the study with empirical data illustration.     

The Asian Games and Diplomacy in Asia: Korea–China–Russia

In this article, I will look at the impact of sport on relations between states. In particular, I will study the role that sport has played in enhancing (or damaging) diplomacy in international relations. I will look especially at the role that the Olympics and the Asian Olympics have played in promoting diplomatic breakthroughs between countries. My cases focus on the use of sports diplomacy to foster the end of the Cold War in Asia, studying the breakthroughs between Korea, China and Russia. I will then look at the Beijing Games of 2008 and Guangzhou Asian Games of 2010.     

Children-Adult Comparisons of VO2 and HR Kinetics during Submaximum Exercise

Abstract

Oxygen uptake (VO₂) and heart rate (HR) kinetics for submaximum exercise were compared in prepubescent boys (mean age ± SD = 10.2 ± 1.28 years, N = 21) and adult men (30.0 ± 5.64 years, N = 21). Standard open circuit spirometric techniques were used to determine _VO2 and a bipolar ECG was used to measure HR. The kinetics of VO₂ and HR were determined for each subject using graphic procedures. Subjects performed submaximum exercise on the bicycle ergometer at an intensity of 42 ± 1.3% (mean ± SE) of VO₂ max for the children and 39 ± 0.7% of VO₂ max for the adults (p = .07). There were no group differences in VO₂ t1/2 (children t1/2 = 18.5 ± 0.75 secs and adults t1/2 = 17.4 ± 0.39 secs, p = .18) and HR t1/2 (children t1/2 = 11.4 ± 1.86 secs and adults t1/2 = 13.6 ± 1.66 secs, p = .38). These data suggest that children and adults do not differ in cardiorespiratory adjustments during low intensity exercise. This is in contrast to suggestions of other investigators that children have a faster cardiovascular adjustment to exercise.     

Active video games in fully immersive virtual reality elicit moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and improve cognitive performance in sedentary college students

Background:Active video games are a new method for increasing physical activity(PA).Fully immersive virtual reality(VR)is a hardware device on which an active video game can run.Active(video games in)VR(AVR),might increase immersion,game engagement,and moderate-to-vigorous PA(MVPA),thereby yielding greater exercise-related benefits,e.g.,cognitive performance.Methods:We examined the induction of MVPA via an AVR and a sedentary VR(SVR)as well as the effects of VR play on cognitive performance,which was monitored using 2 different methods.Each of 29 sedentary college students attended three 20-min laboratory sessions(AVR,SVR,or control)in a randomized order;during the control session,they sat quietly doing nothing.A fully immersive headset was used for the 2 video game sessions.We monitored and computed participants’PA using hip-wom accelerometers(wGT3 x-bt;ActiGraph,Pensacola,FL,USA)and a heart rate band(Polar H7;Polar,Kempele,Finland).After each session,the participants completed a mnemonic similarity test(MST)to measure recognition memory.They also filled out a motion sickness questionnaire and an abbreviated game experience questionnaire.Results:The AVR session induced a significantly greater heart rate and more time spent in MVPA than did either of the other 2 sessions regardless of the PA monitoring method.AVR elicited greater game experience questionnaire-assessed sensory and imaginative immersion,challenge,and positive affect than did SVR.The mnemonic similarity test recognition score was marginally higher post-AVR session than it was post-SVR session.Conclusion:AVR elicited MVPA without a significant increase in motion sickness and induced a better game experience and better borderline cognitive performance than did SVR.     

Labor force experience and earnings: Women with children

Married women with children are observed to earn less than men, and less also than women without children. Differences in the hourly wage rates of individuals of the same age and with the same educational attainment may reflect, in part, differences in labor force experience. While interruption in the work experience of women is recognized as an important cause of lower current wage rates, less attention has been directed to the impact of child-related reductions in hours worked when women are in the labor force. This paper examines the impact of hours worked in all past periods on the current wage rate. Our model, in which the ‘intensity’ of an individual's work experience in any period can vary from 0 (no work) to 100% (full-time work), is contrasted with the standard human capital earnings function, in which intensity is assumed to be 100% in every period subsequent to the completion of school. Using a new data set, both models are estimated for a sample of working mothers. Contrasting the wages of the women in this sample with the wages of their husbands, we find that differences in the intensity of prior work experience account for approximately half of the observed sex-related wage gap.     

Junior high school science teacher preparation,teaching behavior,and student achievement

The findings challenge both practices and prejudices in junior high school science teacher preparation.