The Profile of Multiple Language Proficiencies: A Measure for Evaluating Language Samples of Deaf Children

This article reports the process of creating a developmental measure that assesses the multilingual capabilities of deaf children and the problems that were encountered. Because deaf children may be using more than one method of communication (e.g., sign language skills and spoken language skills), it is important to evaluate their skills as completely as possible. In a pilot study, we used a nominal scale that assessed language skills based on a single continuum, with good English and good American Sign Language (ASL) skills as its two extremes and approximately equal skills in both as the midpoint. In the main study, a more complete measure was created, the Profile of Multiple Language Proficiencies (PMLP). The PMLP uses a single scale that represents the different stages of language development that can be observed in both English and ASL. The PMLP showed reasonable initial reliability and has good promise as an easy-to-use measure of developing language skills in children who use multiple modalities of communication. Using the PMLP as a prototype, we discuss some of the issues that influence the reliability and validity in evaluating such a scale and how these can be overcome or avoided.     

Infants of depressed mothers show "depressed" behavior even with nondepressed adults

To determine whether the "depressed" behavior (e.g., less positive affect and lower activity level) of infants noted during interactions with their "depressed" mothers generalizes to their interactions with nondepressed adults, 74 3-6-month-old infants of "depressed" and nondepressed mothers were videotaped in face-to-face interactions with their mothers and with nondepressed female strangers. "Depressed" mothers and their infants received lower ratings on all behaviors than nondepressed mothers and infants. Although the infants of "depressed" versus nondepressed mothers also received lower ratings with the stranger adult, very few differences were noted between those infants' ratings when interacting with their mother versus the stranger, suggesting that their "depressed" style of interacting is not specific to their interactions with depressed mothers but generalizes to their interactions with nondepressed adults as early as 3 months of age.     

Catching sight of talk: Glimpses into discourse groups

This article reports on a study conducted in a graduate teacher research class with elementary and secondary classroom teachers. Wanting to create a collaborative environment in which their students could use language to support each other's learning, the instructors formed discourse groups. The article introduces a theoretical framework for discourse groups and using examples from the groups, presents a methodology for analyzing the social practices reflected in the teachers’ talk. It concludes with a discussion of the nature of the discourse that supported (and in some cases did not support) the re-storying of teachers’ knowledge.     

The importance of adjusting for pupil background in school value-added models: A study of Progress 8 and school accountability in England

In the UK, USA and elsewhere, school accountability systems increasingly compare schools using value-added measures of school performance derived from pupil scores in high-stakes standardised tests. Rather than naïvely comparing school average scores, which largely reflect school intake differences in prior attainment, these measures attempt to compare the average progress or improvement pupils make during a year or phase of schooling. Schools, however, also differ in terms of their pupil demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and these factors also predict why some schools subsequently score higher than others. Many therefore argue that value-added measures unadjusted for pupil background are biased in favour of schools with more ‘educationally advantaged’ intakes. But others worry that adjusting for pupil background entrenches socioeconomic inequities and excuses low-performing schools. In this article we explore these theoretical arguments and their practical importance in the context of the ‘Progress 8’ secondary school accountability system in England, which has chosen to ignore pupil background. We reveal how the reported low or high performance of many schools changes dramatically once adjustments are made for pupil background, and these changes also affect the reported differential performances of regions and of different school types. We conclude that accountability systems which choose to ignore pupil background are likely to reward and punish the wrong schools and this will likely have detrimental effects on pupil learning. These findings, especially when coupled with more general concerns surrounding high-stakes testing and school value-added models, raise serious doubts about their use in school accountability systems.     

Enhanced use of educational accountability data to monitor educational progress of Australian students with focus on Indigenous students

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - In Australia, under the National Assessment Plan, educational accountability testing in literacy and numeracy (NAPLAN) is undertaken with all...     

Relationships between childhood abuse and neglect experience and HIV risk behaviors among methadone treatment drop-outs

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between childhood abuse/neglect experiences (sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and child neglect) and adult life functioning among Methadone Maintenance Treatment Program (MMTP) drop-outs. METHOD: 432 subjects who dropped out of MMTP were recruited in New York City in 1997-1999. Adult life functioning was measured by HIV drug and sex risk behaviors, Addiction Severity Index (ASI) composite scores, and depression. The chi(2) tests, t tests, correlation, and multiple logistic regressions were performed to examine the relationships between abuse experiences and adult life functioning. RESULTS: The prevalence of child abuse/neglect history was high among MMTP drop-outs: sexual abuse-36%; physical abuse-60%; emotional abuse-57%; child physical neglect-66%; all four experiences-25%. As assessed via ASI composite scores, those who had been abused in childhood had significantly more medical, legal, relationship, and psychological problems than those who had not. Overall, several significant associations were found between the abuse experiences and HIV risk behaviors. Those who had experienced child neglect were more likely to be HIV positive. In multivariate analyses, childhood physical abuse was a significant predictor of having multiple sex partners while depression was significantly related to injection drug use in adulthood (p<.05). There were trends for the relationships between childhood sexual abuse and HIV sex risk behavior (p<.10) and between gender and injection drug use (p<.10). CONCLUSIONS: The findings support a need for drug treatment programs that include specialized therapies for those who suffered childhood abuse and neglect experiences.     

Moving Beyond Collaboration: Re-describing research relationships with classroom teachers

Drawing on my own difficult experience as a well-intentioned educational researcher working in collaboration with an elementary school teacher, this article highlights some of the dilemmas and complexities of collaboration with classroom teachers. Specifically, I raise questions about a previously underexplored yet surprisingly powerful factor in collaborative educational research: the language we use to talk about research relationships. I offer an interpretation of a recent 'collaborative' study that positions our difficulties as a conceptual-language problem rooted in our severely limited vocabulary for discussing and understanding research relationships. I conclude the article with a call for the development of a richer, fuller range of terms to describe research currently labeled 'collaborative'.     

Preservice teachers,caring communities,and parent partnerships: Challenges and possibilities for early childhood teacher education

Abstract

The creation of caring classroom communities and a heightened focus on the central importance of partnerships between teachers and parents are two significant features of the revised guidelines for developmentally appropriate practices [Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs, revised ed., National Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington, DC]. This article reports findings from a study of preservice primary grade teachers’ understandings of caring in which participants developed negative, adversarial beliefs about parents during their initial field placement period. The findings in this study indicate that in order to prepare preservice teachers to meet our expectations for high quality early childhood teaching practices, we must create teacher education programs and coursework specifically aimed at developing commitments to caring community and to parent partnership.