Macomb Community College

The purpose of this randomized controlled trial was to examine the effects of a multitiered system of language support (MTSLS) on kindergarteners' narrative retelling, personal stories, writing, and expository language. Participants were 686 kindergarten students from four school districts in the United States. Twenty-eight classrooms were randomly assigned to treatment (n = 337 students) or control (n = 349 students) conditions. The treatment group received 14 weeks of oral narrative language instruction using Story Champs, a multitiered language program. Classroom teachers delivered large group (Tier 1) instruction for 15-20 min a day for 4 weeks. After this short-duration whole-class instruction, speech-language pathologists began small group Story Champs (Tier 2) intervention with a random sample of students who did not make adequate progress from the large group instruction (n = 49). These students received Tier 2 intervention for 20 min twice a week in addition to continued Tier 1 instruction. Results indicated that the students in the treatment group had significantly higher scores on all outcome measures compared to the students in the control group. Analyses of outcomes from the 49 students who received Tier 2 intervention compared to a matching sample of at-risk control students revealed that the treatment group had significantly higher scores on narrative retells, personal stories, and expository retells. When compared to matched average-performing and advanced-performing control peers, the students who received Tier 2 intervention had significantly higher narrative retell scores and no longer had significantly lower personal story, expository, or writing scores. This effectiveness study demonstrated that MTSLS can lead to meaningful improvements in kindergarteners' oral and written language skills, even helping at-risk students catch up to high-achieving peers.

The okapi (Okapia johnstoni), native to the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a large, solitary, and diurnal forest-dwelling ungulate highly sensitive to captive conditions. The captive population demonstrates persistent health problems, reproductive abnormalities, and several potentially abnormal repetitive behaviors. This study reports on locomotion and pacing in adult male and female okapis. Commonly, data on repetitive behavior have been derived from surveys. Although insightful, the results are often highly generalized and provide little information about the true preponderance and nature of such behavior in a population. In this study, direct observations determining how often and when a behavior of interest occurs are paired with information on factors (intrinsic and extrinsic) that can impact a nonhuman animal's propensity to perform repetitive behavior. More than half of the North American okapi population comprised the study population. Each animal was studied for 2 summer and winter seasons. Factors predictive of pacing in both males and females included 3 housing and habitat factors and 4 management factors. Patterns of locomotion and the rate and pattern of pacing in males when compared with females suggested different mechanisms may be driving these behaviors in the different sexes and that a sex-specific management strategy would benefit this species.

While many institutions provide centralized technology support for faculty, there is a lack of centralized professional development opportunities that focus on simultaneously developing instructors’ technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) in higher education. Additionally, there are few professional development opportunities for faculty that continue throughout the practice of teaching with technology. We propose a model of continuing professional development that provides instructors with the ability to meaningfully integrate technology into their teaching practices through centralized support for developing TPACK. In doing so, we draw upon several theoretical frameworks and evidence based practices.

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework was named in the supporting documents for the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as a means of helping all students, especially those with disabilities, to meet and exceed the rigorous expectations. This article will describe the principles of UDL, show how educational teams use the framework to design instruction to teach the CCSS with examples from science and English language arts, and finally explore how the implementation of UDL provides an opportunity for speech-language pathologists to play a critical role in school improvement and instructional design and support.

Abstract The future of noncredit workforce education programs looks bright but organizational, funding, and accountability issues remain.

Abstract This chapter describes the evolution of the workforce development mission and its current crisis in the face of changing training demands, shriveling government support, and rising competition. Two alternative future paths are outlined: a baccalaureate degree‐oriented new vocationalism and a renewed emphasis on serving the training needs of low‐income adults.

\n We report on a discovery of unexpected activities in two X-ray bright\ndwarf novae. GZ Cnc showed an anomalous clustering of outbursts in\n2002, in contrast to a low outburst frequency in the past record.\nThe activity resembles an increased activity seen in some intermediate\npolars or candidates.\nWe identified NSV 10934, X-ray selected high-amplitude variable star,\nas a dwarf nova with unusually rapid decline. The outburst characteristics\nmake NSV 10934 a twin of recently discovered intermediate polar (HT Cam)\nwith dwarf nova-type outbursts. We propose that these activities\nin X-ray strong dwarf novae may be a previously overlooked manifestation\nof outburst activities in magnetic cataclysmic variables.\n\n \n