Indexing response to intervention: a longitudinal study of reading risk from kindergarten through third grade

In this study, response to intervention and stability of reading performance of 41 kindergarten children identified as at risk of reading difficulty were evaluated from kindergarten through third grade. All students were assessed in the fall of each academic year to evaluate need for intervention, and students who fell below the 30th percentile on criterion measures received small-group supplemental intervention. Measures included a combination of commercial normative referenced measures and specific skill and construct measures to assess growth or change in reading risk status relative to 30th percentile benchmarks. Results indicated that consistent with the findings of prior research involving students with comparable entry-level performance, the majority of children identified as at risk in the beginning of kindergarten responded early and positively to intervention. On average, absolute performance levels at the end of kindergarten positioned students for trajectories of later reading performance that exceeded the 50th percentile on the majority of measures. Moreover, changes in risk status that occurred early were generally sustained over time. Only oral reading fluency performance failed to exceed the 30th percentile for the majority of students.     

Reinstatement after counterconditioning

Reinstatement after counterconditioning was examined in three experiments with rats. The rats received CS-shock pairings in Phase 1 and then CS-food pairings in Phase 2. When unsignaled shock was presented after appetitive conditioning, fear performance to the CS replaced food performance. This reinstatement effect depended on initial pairings of the CS and shock in Phase 1. It also depended on shock exposure occurring in the test context. The results parallel previous data obtained after extinction. Counterconditioning and extinction yield several parallel effects (spontaneous recovery, renewal, and now reinstatement) which suggest that Phase 2 does not destroy the learning acquired in Phase 1.     

Beginning reading intervention as inoculation or insulin: first-grade reading performance of strong responders to kindergarten intervention

This study examined the first-grade reading progress of children who participated in an intensive beginning reading intervention in kindergarten. Specifically, the study investigated whether kindergarten intervention could prevent first-grade reading difficulties, or produce an "inoculation" effect, for some children under certain instructional conditions. Participants included children at risk for developing reading difficulties who received a 7-month beginning reading intervention in kindergarten. In October of first grade, 59 children who had achieved criterion levels on measures of phonological awareness and alphabetic knowledge were randomly assigned to one of two types of first-grade reading instruction: (a) code-based classroom instruction and a supplemental maintenance intervention, or (b) only code-based classroom instruction. February posttest measures assessed oral reading fluency, word reading, nonword reading, and comprehension. Between-group analyses indicated that instructional groups did not differ on any posttest measure. The students' absolute levels of achievement were compared to national and local normative samples. These results indicated that between 75% and 100% of students in both conditions attained posttest levels and demonstrated growth comparable to their average-achieving peers. These results support the hypothesis that strong responders to kindergarten intervention can experience an inoculation effect through the middle of first grade with research-validated classroom reading instruction.     

Service-learning informing the development of an inclusive ethical framework for beginning teachers

A social-cultural theory of difference informed the development of a university unit on inclusive education with a focus on broadening students’ experience and understanding about the backgrounds and values of people in society. One of the aims of the unit was to “develop and work within legal and ethical frameworks that promote diversity, equity and inclusive education”. This paper will report on pre-service teacher reflections in Service-learning Program Logs associated with a university unit on inclusive education in Queensland, Australia. Service-learning requires students to become involved in their community in order to utilise knowledge learned at university. The programme involves reciprocal relationships with organisations in which the service reinforces and strengthens the learning in the academic unit on inclusive education, and the learning reinforces and strengthens the service. Analysis of data presented in this paper informed the development of set of principles of an inclusive ethical framework. We suggest that these principles could be further developed in teacher education programmes to progress inclusive practices in schools.     

A Five-Year Follow-Up: Teachers�� Perceptions of the Benefits of Home Visits for Early Elementary Children

The purpose of this study was to replicate previous research about teachers?? perceived benefits of home visits to determine if they remained stable. Furthermore, the investigation sought to find out whether home visits impacted variables often associated with improved school success (i.e., school attendance, academic performance, parent engagement). Participants were 29 kindergarten through second grade teachers in a rural, Midwestern school district who conducted home visits at the beginning of the school year. Seventeen of the teachers participated in the earlier study. Revised surveys were completed. Results are consistent with those of the previous study. Specifically, teachers reported these positive effects: beneficial relationships and better communication with parents, more appreciation of the influence of the child??s home environment related to school performance, and a better understanding the child??s behavior in school. In addition, teachers identified a connection between the home visits and variables related to school success. Thus, teachers?? perceptions reinforced the importance of conducting home visits.     

Enhancing environmental educators' evaluation competencies: insights from an examination of the effectiveness of the My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant (MEERA) website

To conduct evaluations that can benefit individual programs as well as the field as a whole, environmental educators must have the necessary evaluation competencies. This exploratory study was conducted to determine to what extent a self‐directed learning resource entitled My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant (MEERA) can enhance environmental educators' evaluation competencies. The multiple case studies relied on data from eight environmental educators with limited evaluation experience who used MEERA to evaluate one of their programs. Results suggest that MEERA can (1) increase environmental educators' perceived evaluation competencies, (2) help environmental educators produce quality evaluation outputs, and (3) foster their use of evaluation results. Perceived benefits of using MEERA included obtaining evidence of program success, insights into how to improve programs, and alternative ways of thinking about programs. Perceived challenges included varying difficulties with evaluation tasks such as prioritizing evaluation questions and designing data collection instruments and, in line with this, desiring personal expert assistance for context‐specific advice and reassurance. This research contributes to expanding understanding of how to enhance environmental educators' evaluation competencies and practices.     

Generating and Framing Content: Strategic Multi-Platform Content Marketing in Academic Libraries

This column is adapted from a presentation given at the 2018 Library Marketing and Communications Conference. In it, we describe our marketing team’s approach to developing sustainable marketing practices with our library’s strategic goals in mind. In an effort to create reusable, platform-flexible content, we developed social media posts that highlighted concepts from the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy. Our success on social media inspired us to consider how this content could be implemented on additional platforms. With this column, we invite you to engage with new ways of developing content for use on multiple marketing platforms.     

The relations of proper character introduction to narrative quality and listening comprehension for young children from high poverty schools

The present study explored the types and frequency of literate language features in children’s narratives, and the relation of literate language and proper character introduction to children’s oral language skills in a sample of 184 prekindergarten, kindergarten, and first grade students from high-poverty schools. Using hierarchical regression, the results showed that literate language features were not predictive of listening comprehension or narrative quality outcomes. In contrast, children’s skill in properly introducing characters significantly accounted for variance in all outcome measures (narrative comprehension, narrative quality, and listening comprehension) above and beyond the control variables (age, total number of words, and mean length of utterance) and literate language features (adverbs, conjunctions, mental and linguistic verbs, and elaborated noun phrases). These results indicate that the child’s retell and language comprehension skills may develop concurrently with proper character introduction.     

Mapping the terrain: Teach For America,charter school reform,and corporate sponsorship

In this paper we illustrate the relationships between Teach For America (TFA) and federal charter school reform to interrogate how policy decisions are shaped by networks of individuals, organizations, and private corporations. We use policy network analysis to create a visual representation of TFA’s key role in developing and connecting personnel, political support, and financial backing for charter reform. Next we examine how the networks unfold at a local level by zooming in on a case study of New Orleans. By mapping out these connections, we hope to provide a foundation for further investigation of how this network affects policies.