Developmental Trajectories of Acculturation: Links With Family Functioning and Mental Health in Recent‐Immigrant Hispanic Adolescents

The present study was designed to examine acculturative changes, and their effects on mental health and family functioning, in recent‐immigrant Hispanic adolescents. A sample of 302 Hispanic adolescents was assessed five times over a 2½‐year period. Participants completed measures of Hispanic and U.S. practices, collectivist and individualist values, and ethnic and U.S. identity at each time point. Baseline and Time 5 levels of mental health and family functioning were also assessed. Latent class growth analyses produced two‐class solutions for practices, values, and identifications. Adolescents who increased over time in practices and values reported the most adaptive mental health and family functioning. Adolescents who did not change in any acculturation domain reported the least favorable mental health and family functioning.     

The many voices of the English classroom

In the field of English much attention has been focused on the teaching and assessment of isolable, decontextualised skills. This paper contests such versions of English, insisting on the continuing need to conceptualise the English classroom as a social space where a number of voices meet. It places the particular accounts of two English teachers and their classrooms within a tradition that pays attention to the subjectivities, cultures and histories of school students and to the relationships that are built up over time.     

Examining organizational learning in schools: The role of psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning

This study draws upon theory and methods from the field of organizational behavior to examine organizational learning (OL) in the context of a large urban US school district. We build upon prior literature on OL from the field of organizational behavior to introduce and validate three subscales that assess key dimensions of organizational learning that build upon and extend prior education research: psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning. Data from 941 teachers across 60 schools in this urban district suggest that organizational learning is an underlying condition which is expressed by teacher perceptions of subfactors of psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning. Implications for adopting the conceptual framework and methods employed in this research for studying organizational learning and school change are discussed.     

Measuring argumentative reasoning: What's behind the numbers?

The aim of this paper is to develop a more thorough, empirically-based understanding of the differences in measurement of written argumentation when alternative scoring frameworks are employed. Reflective compositions of 127 elementary school children were analyzed using analytic and holistic scales. The scales were derived from Argument Schema Theory, an explicit model of argumentation development. We investigated the relationships among the different scales, as well as their relative reliability and efficiency. The scores derived using analytic and holistic methods have adequate reliability. Although less efficient, analytic scoring allows for gathering more sensitive and detailed information about the differences in student performance. The results suggest that the choice of an analytic framework for measuring argumentation should not be arbitrary, as each scoring method taps into distinct facets of the construct.     

Health information in Italian public health websites: moving from inaccessibility to accessibility

AIMS: In January 2004, the Italian government passed new legislation designed to give people with disabilities access to online services. Starting from the new legislation requirements, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether Italian Local Health Authorities websites are accessible to users with different abilities. METHODS: One hundred and seventy websites were analysed evaluating their compliance to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Priority 1 guidelines via a combination of appropriate accessibility testing methods. This review was carried out twice: the first time it took place between the end of 2003 and May-June 2004. The same survey was repeated again in December 2004, after the issuing of the draft of the Implementation Regulations for The Stanca Law in July 2004. In this second survey, all the websites analysed before were checked again to establish if some measures to make those sites accessible were taken. RESULTS: Seventy-six per cent of the analysed websites fail to satisfy the most basic W3C requirements, but Italian Local Health Authorities websites are likely to present significant improvements to access for some disabled user groups: the number of accessible websites increased consistently between the first and the second review. CONCLUSIONS: It seems that awareness of web accessibility issues is increasing among developers of health information websites because of law enforcement. Recommendations for future research and development are offered.