25 Hours in Family: How Family Internships Can Help School Leaders Transform from Within

This article describes the ways in which a 25-hour internship with families who have children with disabilities impacted four doctoral students in educational leadership. We discuss the lessons we learned as a result of our experiences and provide insight into the structural components of the internship experience that were critical to enhancing our professional development. Key lessons include: (1) the realization that disability is a socially-constructed term that does not describe the talents, feelings, and aspirations of individuals with disabilities; (2) increased knowledge and strategies about how school leaders can provide support to families by listening to their hopes, dreams, and challenges; and (3) the critical need to include families in decision-making processes to ensure that the family perspective is represented. Important structural components of the internship experience included spending time with families in their homes and communities for extended periods of time. Implications for the preparation of educational leaders are discussed.     

Identifying Hidden Fund Sources Within The College's Energy Budget

Community colleges often are catalysts for economic and workforce development in localities with high unemployment or large numbers of dislocated workers. Increasingly, dislocated workers—individuals who have experienced job loss due to occupational closings, reduced workforces, or severe local economic downturns—are enrolling in educational and retraining opportunities, career counseling, and other supports offered by their local community college in partnership with federal and state assistance programs. Although benchmarks for two-year college success include providing institutional supports to address students’ academic, social, and personal adjustment needs, little research exists to help guide effective practices aimed at supporting dislocated workers’ two-year college adjustment, retention, and success. To help fill this gap, this study collected data describing 117 dislocated-worker students’ academic, social, personal-emotional, and institutional adjustment. Next we compared dislocated worker adjustment factors with those of 143 nondislocated worker students. Contrary to our expectations, the dislocated workers in our study actually reported better academic adjustment and better academic performance than other students. Also contrary to our expectations, we found no differences in adjustment needs between the two different groups on the basis of social support, goal-directedness, or barriers to employment success. We discuss implications for practice arising from our unexpected findings and present limitations of the study and directions for future research.     

Evaluating the Power of Latent Growth Curve Models to Detect Individual Differences in Change

We evaluated the statistical power of single-indicator latent growth curve models to detect individual differences in change (variances of latent slopes) as a function of sample size, number of longitudinal measurement occasions, and growth curve reliability. We recommend the 2 degree-of-freedom generalized test assessing loss of fit when both slope-related random effects, the slope variance and intercept-slope covariance, are fixed to 0. Statistical power to detect individual differences in change is low to moderate unless the residual error variance is low, sample size is large, and there are more than four measurement occasions. The generalized test has greater power than a specific test isolating the hypothesis of zero slope variance, except when the true slope variance is close to 0, and has uniformly superior power to a Wald test based on the estimated slope variance.     

Editorial

This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using information and communication technology (ICT) as a mediating artefact in the classroom compared to alternative tools with illustrations from a qualitative classroom study. The aim of the article is to describe and show the conditions that have to be satisfied if ICT is to have an advantage over alternative tools in a classroom. The main focus is on the importance of the context of the learning activities, in which the teacher plays an important part. Theories on language and learning are presented and the article concludes with reflections on the teacher’s role in the use of ICT in the classroom.     

A modular cell culture device for generating arrays of gradients using stacked microfluidic flows

Microfluidics has become increasingly important for the study of biochemical cues because it enables exquisite spatiotemporal control of the microenvironment. Well-characterized, stable, and reproducible generation of biochemical gradients is critical for understanding the complex behaviors involved in many biological phenomena. Although many microfluidic devices have been developed which achieve these criteria, the ongoing challenge for these platforms is to provide a suitably benign and physiologically relevant environment for cell culture in a user-friendly format. To achieve this paradigm, microfluidic designs must consider the full scope of cell culture from substrate preparation, cell seeding, and long-term maintenance to properly observe gradient sensing behavior. In addition, designs must address the challenges associated with altered culture conditions and shear forces in flow-based devices. With this consideration, we have designed and characterized a microfluidic device based on the principle of stacked flows to achieve highly stable gradients of diffusible molecules over large areas with extremely low shear forces. The device utilizes a benign vacuum sealing strategy for reversible application to pre-established cell cultures. We apply this device to an existing culture of breast cancer cells to demonstrate the negligible effect of its shear flow on migratory behavior. Lastly, we extend the stacked-flow design to demonstrate its scalable architecture with a prototype device for generating an array of combinatorial gradients.     

Ventilatory acclimatisation is beneficial for high-intensity exercise at altitude in elite cyclists

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between ventilatory adaptation and performance during altitude training at 2700?m. Methods: Seven elite cyclists (age: 21.2?±?1.1?yr, body mass: 69.9?±?5.6?kg, height 176.3?±?4.9?cm) participated in this study. A hypoxic ventilatory response (HVR) test and a submaximal exercise test were performed at sea level prior to the training camp and again after 15 d at altitude (ALT15). Ventilation (V_E), end-tidal carbon-dioxide partial pressure (P_ETCO₂) and oxyhaemoglobin saturation via pulse oximetry (SpO₂) were measured at rest and during submaximal cycling at 250?W. A hill climb (HC) performance test was conducted at sea level and after 14 d at altitude (ALT14) using a road of similar length (5.5–6?km) and gradient (4.8–5.3%). Power output was measured using SRM cranks. Average HC power at ALT14 was normalised to sea level power (HC%). Multiple regression was used to identify significant predictors of performance at altitude. Results: At ALT15, there was a significant increase in resting V_E (10.3?±?1.9 vs. 12.2?±?2.4?L·min^?1) and HVR (0.34?±?0.24 vs. 0.71?±?0.49?L·min^?1·%^?1), while P_ETCO₂ (38.4?±?2.3 vs. 32.1?±?3.3?mmHg) and SpO₂ (97.9?±?0.7 vs. 94.0?±?1.7%) were reduced (P?V_E at altitude as significant predictors of HC% (adjusted r²?=?0.913; P?=?0.003). Conclusions: Ventilatory acclimatisation occurred during a 2 wk altitude training camp in elite cyclists and a higher HVR was associated with better performance at altitude, relative to sea level. These results suggest that ventilatory acclimatisation is beneficial for cycling performance at altitude.     

The development of uncertainty monitoring during kindergarten: Change and longitudinal relations with executive function and vocabulary in children from low-income backgrounds

Children's ability to monitor subjective feelings of uncertainty (i.e., engage in uncertainty monitoring) is a central metacognitive skill. In the current study, we examined the development of uncertainty monitoring as well as its relations with vocabulary and executive function development in children (N = 137, 52% female) from predominately White and Latinx/Hispanic backgrounds when they were 4–6 years old and enrolled in a Head Start preschool and kindergarten between 2018 and 2019. We found that children's uncertainty monitoring improved during the kindergarten year. Children's executive function and vocabulary in preschool and vocabulary growth from preschool to kindergarten predicted uncertainty monitoring at the end of kindergarten, which sheds new light on potential mechanisms supporting children's metacognitive development.     

High School Success: A Learning Strategies Intervention to Reduce Drop-Out Rates

The Urban Review - The transition into high school is a critical time to act for students with a history of academic difficulty. In this study, researchers examined the impact of a learning...     

Growth in written academic word use in response to morphology-focused supplemental instruction

Reading and Writing - The aims of the current project were to: (1) describe average change in the use of academic words across the school year in writing and (2) examine potential predictors of...