The Mississippi Community College Story: From Humble Beginnings to Extraordinary Outcomes

ABSTRACT

Mississippi has the oldest state-wide system of public 2-year colleges in the USA. The story of the creation of the community college system in Mississippi is both complex and powerful. Founded upon the combination of the needs of rural students, the challenge of poor transportation, and a serendipitous conference side-trip, the college system has faced and overcome many challenges. During the systems infancy, there was a struggle to define what role the colleges were to play in society, which is a struggle that continues today. Beginning as an outgrowth of a state K-12 system with agricultural roots, the system became an independent higher education entity that supported all the people of the state. The colleges of Mississippi experienced all of the transitional challenges common to the community college movement and navigated these challenges against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving view of segregation and race relations. The purpose of this paper is to present a concise picture of the history and development of the community college movement in Mississippi.     

Use and relationships among effective practices in co-taught inclusive high school classrooms

Opportunities to respond (OTR) and specific praise are two practices that may be particularly beneficial to students learning in secondary inclusive classrooms. Yet, there is relatively little research on effective inclusion practices involving secondary students with learning disabilities (LD) or studies at the secondary level. This study sought to extend the existing research by evaluating the relationship between rates of OTR and specific praise in co-taught high school core classrooms on student on-task behaviour and class engagement. This study was part of a larger study conducted during the 2010–2011 school year. First, core academic classrooms were observed and data were collected on OTR, praise, and student behaviour. OTR information was collected using an audio recording device. Class audio recordings were divided into 15-minute intervals of whole group instruction and coded for OTR, specific praise, and non-specific praise. Observation data on student behaviour and class engagement that corresponded with each 15-minute interval were identified. Results indicate low levels of teacher use of OTR and praise statements and few significant relationships found between the variables of interest. Implications for practice and future research directions are also presented.     

Freedom of information spreads to Europe

Europe is gradually embracing freedom of information principles while at the same time restricting dissemination of information generated by public agencies through electronic databases. Both Britain and Germany are moving to adopt freedom of information laws, and the European Commission has published a regulation allowing access to European institution materials. These developments are important for the rest of the world, including the United States, because the Internet is already becoming a vast virtual library facilitating global access to statutes, court decisions, and administrative agency decisions that make up the raw ingredients of a rule of law. Meanwhile, however, the European Commission issued a directive limiting certain uses of electronic databases, broadly enough drafted to include electronic repositories of primary legal information. This kind of state-sponsored monopoly over public information is inimical to a rule of law and democratic values. Europeans and Americans should work to realize the increased transparency promised by the freedom of information developments, and work to minimize the extent to which the database directive and similar proposals on this side of the Atlantic restrict redissemination of primary legal information.     

Effect of a health-improvement pilot programme for older adults delivered by a professional football club: the Burton Albion case study

Older adults are a priority within policy designed to facilitate healthy lifestyles through physical activities. Golden Goal is a pilot programme of physical activity-led health improvement for older adults, 55?years and older. Activities were delivered at Burton Albion Football Club. Sessions involved weekly moderate to vigorous intensity exercise sessions including exer-gaming (exercise-orientated video-games), indoor bowls, cricket, new age curling, walking football, and traditional board games and skittles. Secondary analysis of data collected through the original programme evaluation of Golden Goal investigated the impact of the intervention on participants. Older adults completed self-reports for demographics, health screening/complications and quality of life. Attendees, n?=?23 males (42.6%) and n?=?31 females (57.4%) with a mean age of 69.38 (±5.87) (n?=?40), ranging from 55–85?years took part. The mean attendance was 7.73 (±3.12) sessions for all participants, (n?=?51). Older adults with two or more health complications (n?=?22, 42.3%) attended fewer sessions on average (6.91?±?3.322) compared to those reporting less than two health complications (8.65?±?2.694). Self-rated health was higher for women (87.32?±?9.573) vs. men (80.16?±?18.557), although this was not statistically significant (U?=?223.500, p?=?0.350). Results support the potential of football-led health interventions for recruiting older adults, including those reporting health problems.     

Gene–environment interplay linking perceived parental supervision and peer drunkenness with Chinese adolescent alcohol initiation

Following 602 Chinese twin pairs (48% male, all Han ethnicity) from primarily lower-than-average socioeconomic status families from early to mid-adolescence (M_s = 12 and 15 in 2006 and 2009), this study investigated gene–environment interplay between perceived parental supervision, peer drunkenness, and adolescent alcohol initiation. For alcohol initiation, shared environmental influences were initially negligible but became substantial. Genetic factors largely explained the links between both correlates with alcohol initiation. Parental supervision amplified genetic risks for alcohol initiation in early adolescence but suppressed it in mid-adolescence. Peer drunkenness augmented genetic and environmental influences at both times. Peer drunkenness showed stronger links and moderating potential than parental supervision. Chinese adolescents show dynamic gene–environment interplay patterns involving parent–child and peer processes in alcohol initiation.     

The physiological load imposed on basketball players during competition

In this study, the intensities of activity and movement patterns during men's basketball were investigated by videoing the movements and monitoring the heart rate and blood lactate responses of eight elite players during competition. The results are expressed according to ‘live time’, which is actual playing time, and ‘total time’, which includes live time as well as all stoppages in play. The mean (± s.d.) frequency of all activities was 997 ± 183, with a change in movement category every 2.0 s. A mean total of 105 ± 52 high‐intensity runs (mean duration 1.7 s) was recorded for each game, resulting in one high‐intensity run every 21 s during live time. Sixty percent of live time was spent engaged in low‐intensity activity, while 15% was spent in high‐intensity activity. The mean heart rate (HR) during live time was 169 ± 9 beats min^‐l (89 ± 2% peak HR attained during laboratory testing); 75% of live time was spent with a HR response of greater than 85% peak HR. The mean blood lactate concentration was 6.8 ± 2.8 mM, indicating the involvement of glycolysis in the energy demands of basketball. It is concluded that the physiological requirements of men's basketball are high, placing considerable demands on the cardiovascular and metabolic capacities of players.     

VAM on trial: judging science in teacher evaluation lawsuits

ABSTRACT

Value Added Modeling (VAM) is a statistical technology used to evaluate teacher effectiveness. While it was heralded for years as the next big innovation in education reform, VAM has become an object of legal scrutiny since it was implemented in dozens of states across the U.S. Building on STS findings about science and the law, this paper considers the lawsuits involving VAM as an opportunity to analyze the contestation of expertise in court. It finds that not only is there a great deal of variation in terms of how expertise gets constructed in legal settings, leading to very different outcomes, but also that judges’ assessments of VAM are conducted such that they are implicitly adjudicating what constitutes proper science. Contrary to the idea that judges conform to criteria for evaluating expertise imposed by the scientific community limiting themselves to the inclusion or exclusion of expertise, in the case of VAM the legal system is asserting its own vision of how science should operate and thus making judgments about what counts authentically as science.     

Aligning experiences: comparing and contrasting K12 and post-secondary space,resources, and services to smooth the college transition

Abstract

In this study, researchers used basic qualitative research to understand the spaces, resources, and services available to K12 students in their school libraries. Using observation and semi-structured interviews with K12 teacher librarians, this research allowed for a comparison of the K12 and post-secondary environments through which the authors were able to identify similarities and differences in function and service. In this article, the authors explore strategies to ease the transition of K12 students to the college environment, including collaboration between post-secondary and K12 libraries, robust orientation programs, and alignment of information literacy initiatives. This article adds to the body of college readiness literature and suggests avenues for future research.     

Self-regulation of motivation when learning online: the importance of who, why and how

Successful online students must learn and maintain motivation to learn. The Self-regulation of Motivation (SRM) model (Sansone and Thoman 2005) suggests two kinds of motivation are essential: Goals-defined (i.e., value and expectancy of learning), and experience-defined (i.e., whether interesting). The Regulating Motivation and Performance Online (RMAPO) project examines implications using online HTML lessons. Initial project results suggested that adding usefulness information (enhancing goals-defined motivation) predicted higher engagement levels (enhancing experience), which in turn predicted motivation (interest) and performance (HTML quiz) outcomes. The present paper examined whether individual interest in computers moderated these results. When provided the utility value information, students with higher (relative to lower) individual interest tended to display higher engagement levels, especially when usefulness was framed in terms of personal versus organizational applications. In contrast, higher engagement levels continued to positively predict outcomes regardless of individual interest. We discuss implications for designing optimal online learning environments.