Madison County Public Schools

ABSTRACT This study investigated the effects of a Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) intervention on the quality of written explanations for additive problem-solving and reasoning, as well as on mathematical writing strategy use for students with learning difficulties. Participants were three third- and fourth-grade students identified with learning difficulties in mathematics and writing. A special education teacher implemented the individualized intervention across 15 lessons, during which she explicitly taught PRISM✓, a mathematical writing strategy, to help students plan, organize, and compose structured written explanations of their additive problem-solving and reasoning. A multiple-probe design across students was used to examine the effects of the intervention. The results indicated that, compared to the baseline, two of the three students produced higher-quality responses to describe their additive problem-solving and reasoning, including precise vocabulary and using more steps of the strategy during the intervention phase. The other student, who demonstrated significant writing difficulties, made immediate improvements in mathematical writing quality when a speech-to-text device was introduced. While the effects of the intervention were maintained four weeks after the intervention, students’ mathematical writing quality was lower in the generalization probes. The findings highlight the importance of combining explicit strategy instruction, self-regulation, visual representation, and mathematics vocabulary support to strengthen students’ written mathematical reasoning.

The Student Engagement Instrument (SEI) is a self-report measure of cognitive and affective engagement with school. Prior SEI validation studies have focused primarily on construct validity through analyses of internal consistency, factor analysis, and measurement invariance. Results are presented here from a two-pronged study of the criterion validity of SEI scores. Using a middle school sample ( N = 35,900), concurrent validity was assessed through analyses of group differences in SEI scores across student subgroups expected to differ in cognitive and affective engagement levels: behaviorally disengaged versus non-disengaged, high-risk versus low-risk disability status, and high versus low academic achievement. Next, through multiple logistic regression analyses, the 4-year predictive validity of SEI scores for on-time graduation and dropout was assessed in a cohort of first-time ninth graders ( N = 11,588). Nearly all SEI factors demonstrated directionally consistent associations with each criterion, including considerable long-term predictive associations with both dropout and on-time graduation.

This article compares perspectives on access to health care issues in 12 rural counties in the mountain region of North Carolina from three sources: 1) meetings with 38 health providers; 2) a survey of 1059 households; and 3) relevant health and population statistics. The main provider concerns were: 1) transportation to care; 2) dental services; 3) lack of resources for small populations; 4) population-based issues; and 5) negative perceptions about local health care. These concerns were compared to results from the survey and health statistics and similarities and differences among the three sources of information were noted. Comparisons were not made to validate or discredit any of the three sources of information, but rather to provide a rounded picture of access to care problems in a rural area. Results are discussed in terms of their policy implications, such as the degree of congruence between health professionals' perceptions and other information, the need to provide better transportation to care, and the issues of providing care to the elderly and Hispanics.

Winconsin high school wrestlers were surveyed 1 year before (90W) and 2 years after (93W) a new program was implemented to restrict weight loss for competition. The Wisconsin wrestling minimal weight program (WMWP) included a minimal weight limit determined from percent body fat and a nutrition education program. A retrospective survey of wrestlers was conducted, with schools stratified to reflect school size and quality of the wrestling program. Respondents surveyed in 1990 included 713 wrestlers from 45 schools; 368 wrestlers from 29 of the same schools responded to an identical survey in 1993. Measures of weight-cutting practices, weight-loss methods, bulimic behaviors, and nutritional knowledge. The most weight lost (MWL), the weight lost to certify (WLC), the weekly weight cycled (WWC), the longest fast (LF), and the frequency of cutting weight (FCW) all decreased significantly (chi 2, p < 0.05) among 93W wrestlers compared with 90W wrestlers. The results for the 90W group are as follows: MWL, 3.2 kg +/- 2.6; WLC, 2.8 kg +/- 2.8; WWC, 1.9 kg +/- 1.5; LF, 20.5 hours +/- 17.2; FCW, 6.2 +/- 6.4. The results for the 93W group are as follows: MWL, 2.6 kg +/- 2.6; WLC, 2.4 kg +/- 2.9; WWC, 1.6 kg +/- 1.4; LF, 16.5 hours +/- 15.6; FCW, 4.7 +/- 6.7. Weight-loss methods, including restricting food or fluids and use of rubber suits, declined significantly (chi 2, p < 0.05). Wrestlers exhibiting more than one of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R)-related bulimic behaviors decreased by 11% (chi 2, p < 0.05), but those exhibiting all five (1.6%) remained the same. The results suggest that the WMWP appeared to reduce unhealthy weight-loss behaviors among high school wrestlers. Other states should be encouraged to institute similar programs as recommended by the American Medical Association and the American College of Sports Medicine.

Abstract In this article, we describe an investigation in which a teacher taught four students with moderate mental retardation to read sight words using a progressive time‐delay procedure. Definitions of the target words were presented incidentally in the consequent statement. Through the small‐group arrangement, students had the opportunity to learn through observation the other students' target words and incidental information. All students acquired their target words and at least 50% of the incidental and observational words and definitions to which they were exposed. We interpret these data as suggesting that teachers should systematically include related nontargeted information in their instruction and provide opportunities for observational learning to occur.

No abstract available for this article.

The unique yet common needs of disabled students are highlighted in this article, and school counselors are challenged to humanistically encourage these students through expanded developmental programming.

Interest continues to mount on the controversial topic of corporal punishment, but few concrete guidelines exist in most states. This article discusses the ques tions each educator must ask in regard to corporal punishment.

Intra-occupational status, i.e., status relationships among positions within a given occupation, is anem piricaUy documented construct. Perrucci (10) found such relationships among engineers, as did Mason and Gross (8) among school superintendents and Smith (11) among the professional staff in a large educational re search center. Similar intra-occupational status relationships have been informally observed among teaching positions. Meltzer (9) noted a status difference between elementary and high school teachers, betweenteach ers of academic and non-academic subjects, and between teaching positions in neighborhoods of varying socio-economic levels. Seniority and student ability were teacher status variables noted byHavighurst and Neugarten (4) . Similar observations have been made by Lieberman (7 ), Hodgkinson (5), and Stub (12) .With the exception of a study by Becker (1), however, which suggested that socio-economic level of the school neigh borhood may be a significant variable for status among teachers, little has been done to document the existence of these teacher intra-occupational status differences or to study their impact on the institution. THIS STUDY(3) investigated teachers'perceptions of intra-occupational status relationships among el ementary, junior high, and senior high school teach ing positions in one school system. Status was de fined as the aUocation of variable amounts of au thority, income, rights, and privileges to the dif ferent positions in a social system such that posi tions come to be ranked in a vertical hierarchy o f desirability. Six questions were investigated: 1. Do teachers perceive other teachers as supporting intra-occupational status dif ferences among elementary, junior high, and senior high school teaching positions ? 2. Do teachers perceive the community as supporting intra-occupational status dif ferences among elementary, junior high, and senior high school teaching positions? 3. Do teachers support the differential dis tribution of statusful symbols of employ ment among elementary, junior high, and senior high school teaching positions? 4. Are male teachers both more perceptive and more supportive of a teacher intra occupational status system than are fe male teachers? 5. Are older teachers both more perceptive and more supportive of a teacher intra occupational status system than younger teachers? 6. Do teachers who have been assigned to elementary, junior high, or senior high school teaching positions differ from one another in their perceptions and support of a teacher intra-occupational status system among those positions?