The preparation of school psychologists for crisis intervention

School psychologists (N = 276, 81% return rate) were surveyed regarding the following aspects of crisis intervention: (a) university preparation, (b) continuing professional development, and (c) current involvement with school crisis plans and crisis teams. Of those receiving university training, 58% believed they were minimally prepared or not at all prepared to deal with school crises. Only 2% reported being well prepared or very well prepared. Data analyses indicated increased university training in recent years, particularly with practicum/internship experiences related to crisis intervention. Approximately 81% of school psychologists participated in local training for crisis intervention as part of continuing professional development. Although 91% of school psychologists worked in districts with crisis plans in place, only 53% participated on crisis teams. Suicide, violence, and school district crisis plans were recommended as high priority topics for future academic training. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Early Effects of North Carolina’s Comprehensive Articulation Agreement on Credit Accumulation Among Community College Transfer Students

Research in Higher Education - Community college transfer pathways, whereby students begin their postsecondary enrollment at a 2-year institution, are an increasingly popular option for students...     

“Feeling like a Scientist”: Factors Affecting Students’ Selections of Technology Tools in the Science Classroom

Journal of Science Education and Technology - This research looked at the choices that children make in the classroom when offered manual and technological options to measure scientific variables....     

University research centers as knowledge translation platforms: leveraging structure,support and resources to enhance multisectoral collaboration and advocacy

Tertiary Education and Management - Knowledge Translation Platforms (KTPs) have drawn attention as multidisciplinary institutional structures that broker evidence to policy and practice. University...     

Birth order and parental and sibling involvement in sex education. A nationally-representative analysis

This analysis set out to identify associations between birth order and sexual health outcomes, focusing on family involvement in sex education and early sexual experiences. The third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles is a stratified probability sample survey of 15 162 men and women aged 16–74 in Britain. Logistic regression was conducted to identify odds ratios for the association between birth order and sexual health outcomes. Multiple logistic regression was performed adjusting for socio-demographic factors and sibling number. Middle-born and last-born men had lower odds of reporting ease talking to parents about sex around age 14 and learning about sex from their mothers. Last-born women had lower odds of reporting a parental main source of sex education or having learned about sex from their mother. Findings represent an exploratory analysis in an under-researched area, and provide the basis for further research on the association between birth order and parental involvement in sex education, as well as the role and impact of sex education provided by older siblings.     

A Multivariate Generalizability Analysis of Data from a Performance Assessment of Physicians' Clinical Skills

Although multivariate generalizability theory was developed more than 30 years ago, little published research utilizing this framework exists and most of what does exist examines tests built from tables of specifications. In this context, it is assumed that the universe scores from levels of the fixed multivariate facet will be correlated, but the error terms will be uncorrelated because subscores result from mutually exclusive sets of test items. This paper reports on an application in which multiple subscores are derived from each task completed by the examinee. In this context, both universe scores and errors may be correlated across levels of the fixed multivariate facet. The data described come from the United States Medical Licensing Examination^® Step 2 Clinical Skills Examination. In this test, each examinee interacts with a series of standardized patients and each interaction results in four component scores. The paper focuses on the application of multivariate generalizability theory in this context and on the practical interpretation of the resulting estimated variance and covariance components.     

Improving data systems about juvenile victimization in the United States

OBJECTIVE: To suggest improvements to 13 data sets and systems that collect information about juvenile victimization in United States. METHOD: The suggestions were gathered from a variety of sources, including data system users and administrators, as well as a special meeting convened on the topic by the National Consortium on Children, Families and the Law in Washington, DC (December 2000). RESULTS: Key areas of improvement were identified for each of 13 US data systems and possible solutions were identified. CONCLUSIONS: This paper suggests three broad categories of improvements that apply to a number of data systems. First, data systems could expand the coverage of the systems to include more jurisdictions or other segments of the population. Second, in order to be more comprehensive and specific to child victimization, the systems need to create more specific data items, questions, or response categories. Finally, the data systems need to be modified to provide continuity and interrelationships among systems, either by using uniform definitions, or integrating data systems to facilitate the tracking of children across systems.     

When Is Teleconsultation Acceptable to School Psychologists?

ABSTRACT

School psychologists report a desire to increase consultation with teachers but are limited by competing job demands. Consultation via videoconference (i.e., teleconsultation) offers one possible means of increasing consultant availability to teachers, but little is known about the acceptability of this technology in actual practice. In this exploratory study, we conducted an online survey to assess the conditions under which school consultants would use teleconsultation to assist teachers remotely. Sixty-two school psychology practitioners, trainers, and trainees completed a choice-based conjoint survey designed to assess teleconsultation acceptability in the context of varying commute times, consultee comfort levels, and student problem severities. Findings suggest important differences in teleconsultation acceptability in the context of real-world tradeoffs. Implications of these results are discussed, as well as the potential for using conjoint analysis to better understand technology decisions among school consultants.     

Stability and change in ethnic labeling among adolescents from Asian and Latin American immigrant families

An important question for the acculturation of adolescents from immigrant families is whether they retain ethnic labels that refer to their national origin (e.g., Mexican, Chinese) or adopt labels that are dominant in American society (e.g., Latino, Asian American, American). Approximately 380 adolescents from Asian and Latin American immigrant families selected ethnic labels during each of the 4 years of high school (age span = 14.87–17.82 years). Results indicated no normative trend either toward or away from identifying most closely with pan-ethnic or American ethnic labels. Significant numbers of adolescents changed their ethnic labels from year to year, however and these changes were associated with fluctuations in adolescents' ethnic affirmation and exploration and proficiency in their heritage languages.