Cultural‐competence considerations for contemporary school‐based threat assessment

Threat‐assessment procedures are advanced for their utility in reducing racial disparities in punitive and exclusionary school discipline outcomes. Generally unexamined, however, is bias in who gets referred for school‐based threat assessment and under what circumstances. Cultural‐competence considerations hold promise for addressing sources of bias in the evaluation of threats made in the school setting. Using a quantitative approach, this systematic literature review examines the degree to which contemporary cultural‐competence considerations are embedded in 24 school‐based threat‐assessment articles published between 2007 and 2017. Results indicate generally poor coverage of considerations for cultural competence both within and across threat‐assessment articles. An analysis of change in cultural‐competence considerations by year of publication suggests that more recently published threat‐assessment literature has generally not integrated concurrent advancements in concepts of cultural competence. Preliminary guidance for incorporating contemporary cultural‐competence considerations into school‐based threat‐assessment procedures are provided.     

Psychometric stability of nationally normed and experimental decoding and related measures in children with reading disability

Achievement and cognitive tests are used extensively in the diagnosis and educational placement of children with reading disabilities (RD). Moreover, research on scholastic interventions often requires repeat testing and information on practice effects. Little is known, however, about the test-retest and other psychometric properties of many commonly used measures within the beginning reader population, nor are these nationally normed or experimental measures comparatively evaluated. This study examined the test-retest reliability, practice effects, and relations among a number of nationally normed measures of word identification and spelling and experimental measures of achievement and reading-related cognitive processing tests in young children with significant RD. Reliability was adequate for most tests, although lower than might be ideal on a few measures when there was a lengthy test-retest interval or with the reduced behavioral variability that can be seen in groups of beginning readers. Practice effects were minimal. There were strong relations between nationally normed measures of decoding and spelling and their experimental counterparts and with most measures of reading-related cognitive processes. The implications for the use of such tests in treatment studies that focus on beginning readers are discussed.     

Art appreciation for the young

Is art appreciation included in your curriculum? Are the youngsters in your class exposed to Renoir, Degas, and Monet? Children are never too young to be introduced to culture and the arts, and once that appreciation is acquired it is a gift of knowledge that will last a lifetime.     

The second deficit: An investigation of the independence of phonological and naming-speed deficits in developmental dyslexia

An increasing body of dyslexia researchdemonstrates, in addition to phonologicaldeficits, a second core deficit in theprocesses underlying naming speed. Thehypothesized independence of phonologicalawareness and naming-speed variables inpredicting variance in three aspects of readingperformance was studied in a group of 144severely-impaired readers in Grades 2 and 3. Stepwise regression analyses were conducted onthese variables, controlling for the effects ofSES, age, and IQ. Results indicated thatphonological measures contribute more of thevariance to those aspects of reading skill thatinvolve decoding or word attack skills;naming-speed measures contribute more to skillsinvolved in word identification. Subtypeclassification findings were equally supportiveof the independence of the two deficits: 19%of the sample had single phonological deficits;15% had single naming-speed deficits; 60% had double-deficits; and 6% could not be classified. The implications of these findingsfor diagnosis and intervention are discussed.     

Expanding the Understanding of the Categories of Dysconscious Racism

Dysconscious racism is generally defined as the unquestioned acceptance of culturally dominant norms and privileges, with three categories used to describe college students’ reasoning for enduring racial inequity. These range from the historical determinism of slavery to racially exploitive standards inherent in American society. However, few studies have fully utilized these categories. This article has sought to encourage a renewed interest into the student categories by considering them as more of a progressive, developmental continuum.     

Effects of Posture and Muscular Exercise on the Electrocardiogram

Abstract

The present study was designed to assess the influence of athletics on educational attainment. It tested Spady's (1970) contention that high school athletes were deficit in the academic skills necessary for later success in college because athletics were their only form of extracurricular involvement. A 1975 Maryland sample (N = 239) and a 1977 Pennsylvania sample (N = 403) of male and female high school students were categorized into athlete-only and athlete-service groups and then compared on Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores. Comparisons were also made to the national average for males and females. Results from both samples supported Spady's contention for males, but not for females. Athlete-only males were significantly lower (p ≤ .01) than the 1975 and 1977 male national averages. By contrast, athlete-service males were significantly higher than the 1975 male national average. The findings are discussed in terms of the influence exerted by significant others (e.g., parents, coaches) to encourage athletic participation exclusively, often at the expense of other extracurricular activities that may foster positive academic attitudes and expectations.