Faculty Consensus Leads to Creative Solutions

The answers to many of the problems facing schools today are in the minds of the teachers. Half our solutions are in their minds but they have to come out through open dialogue, says Gary Kruse, principal of Evans Middle School in Ottumwa, Iowa. When faced with leading a middle school that had a history of low reading scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS), Mr. Kruse turned to the people who knew the students and the school climate best--the teachers..

English Learner Oral Language Production in Middle School Academic Classes

Because of current federal and state educational policies, oral language development is an often overlooked aspect of language and literacy use and development of English Learning (EL) students in K-12 schools in the United States. This article describes a study in which a researcher used an ecobehavioral approach to investigate the conditional probability that young adolescent EL students would produce language in content area classes as they engaged in four different instructional grouping configurations: whole class, small group, one-to-one, and individual instruction. Significant differences emerged between instructional grouping configurations in terms of EL student production of oral academic language. Overall, there was a significant probability that academic talk would not occur during whole class and individualized instruction and a significant probability that academic talk would occur during small group and one to one instruction. Reading aloud was not likely to occur during whole class, small group, and individualized instruction. However, it was significantly likely to occur during individualized instruction. Although further investigation is warranted across multiple contexts, these data suggest that EL students may engage in more academic language production if they are paired with other students during classroom instruction

Pre-pulse inhibition assessment of sound localization in mice

The purpose of my Honors Research Project was to assist Dr. Megan Klingenberg in completing part of the research in her final dissertation project. Dr. Klingenberg’s project was based off of a study done by Allen and Ison in 2010. This study tested the auditory spatial acuity of mice using pre-pulse inhibition of the startle reflex as the response for detecting the sound stimulus. The goal of Dr. Klingenberg’s AuD project was “to explore the methodological, functional, and genetic influences on sound localization using pre-pulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response in mice”. Dr. Klingenberg’s project was broken into three sections: the effect of the test chamber on acoustic startle responses, the effect that the EphA4 mutation would have on the mouse’s ability to localize sound, and the ability to use the acoustic startle response (ASR) to study efferent processing. My role in the research was to work on the first goal of the project in finding a chamber that would accurately reproduce Allen and Ison’s findings. In this reflection, I will describe the basic terms used in the experiment, the importance and benefits of working with mice in a research setting, the general procedure of the experiment, the results from the various chambers, and a brief description of my experience in the lab

Rural resilience and prosperity : the relevance of government and community networks

Dominant ‘society centred’ interpretations of social capital in Australia are inadequate to explain the economic fortunes and social prosperity of rural Australian communities. Given the continued contention over interpretations and measurement of social capital, this research sought to assess the relationship between different interpretations of social capital and rural communities’ resilience and prosperity. ¶ Utilising both quantitative and qualitative techniques to establish the relative levels of social capital in two communities of divergent growth, the primary objective was to test the association asserted between levels of social capital and prosperity and resilience in the rural Australian context. ¶ The research findings highlight three notable issues. Surveying social capital with current instruments is only effective in establishing the well being of rural communities which appears related to their resilience, not their ability to prosper. Secondly, the operational frameworks and responsibilities for social capital adopted by governments dictate the manner in, and degree to which they deem bridging and linking networks necessary and appropriate. This significantly affects the role social capital is perceived to play in communities. Lastly, while interpretations of social capital regard it as a normative factor in social life, rather than being comprised of different and dynamic elements affecting communities’ ability to prosper, the concept will remain unable to effectively contribute to the policy domain

Creating Conditions for Transforming Practicing K-12 Mainstream Teachers of English Language Learners

Critical incident reflection journal writing provides a rich source for identifying high impact components of Project Alianza, a graduate course for mainstream secondary teachers funded by a US Department of Education Title III Professional Development grant. In this narrative pilot study featuring one strand of existing data, the co-authors, who are also co-instructors and co-researchers, begin the first rounds of analysis to identify emerging key conditions and contributing factors featured within specialized graduate courses for encouraging dispositional change and professional efficacy toward English language learners (ELLs) in practicing K-12 mainstream educators. Using Mezirow’s adult transformational learning theory (1991), Kegan’s stage theory of development (1994), and Kegan and Lahey’s notion of resistance to change (2001) as a conceptual lens, the researchers conduct narrative textual analysis to consider implications for professional developers and continuing education instructors who hope to encourage the development of inclusive school and classroom environments for English language learners. This study also serves as a pilot for future study of the larger existing data pool

English Language Learner Academic Engagement and Instructional Grouping Configurations

This study used and ecobehavioral approach to investigate the conditional probability that English language learning (ELL) students would engage in academic tasks in urban middle school content area classrooms within different instructional grouping configurations. These configurations included whole class, small group, one-to-one, and individual instructions. The participants in the study included 28 native Spanish-speaking students who were all identified as being English language learners (ELL). The findings on this study indicate that participants were most likely to engage in academic tasks during small group and one-to-one instruction. They were least likely to engage in academic tasks during whole class and individual instruction

Using PhotoVoice to empower K-12 teachers and students through authentic literacy engagements

PhotoVoice is a community and participatory action research method developed by Wang and Burris (1994). Rooted in grassroots empowerment education, critical feminist theory, and documentary photography, it aims to enable people with little money, power, or status to communicate needed changes to policymakers. Examples of PhotoVoice projects can be found in fields outside of education, focusing on a range of social issues including homelessness, physical ailments, mental and psychological illness, and gender discrimination. Only a handful of studies in the United States have demonstrated use of PhotoVoice with adolescents in out-of-school educational settings (Chio & Fandt, 2007; Strack, Magill, & McDonagh, 2004; Wilson, et al., 2007; Zenkov & Harmon, 2009). Similarly, an organization called The Viewfinder Project ( The Viewfinder Project, 2010) uses methods that run parallel to PhotoVoice, and provides its curriculum to those who are interested in initiating a group project in their community. The current research focus on out-of-school use of PhotoVoice-like approaches creates a gap in the research regarding the in-school literacy development opportunities inherent in PhotoVoice methods. As knowledgeable and capable community ethnographers, K-12 students, particularly historically marginalized and disempowered student populations, can use photo images and PhotoVoice methods to create powerful, visual representations that identify and elevate the significance of the local social issues to transform existing conditions in their communities

Alcohol advertising: the last chance saloon

Research has established that alcohol advertising,1-3 like that for tobacco4 and fast food,5-7 influences behaviour. It encourages young people to drink alcohol sooner and in greater quantities. From a public health perspective, advertising of alcohol should clearly be limited. The United Kingdom has opted for a system of self regulatory controls that focuses primarily on the content of advertisements, with some limitations on the channels that can be used. This is overseen by the Advertising Standards Authority, through the Committee of Advertising Practice, which represents the interests of advertisers, agencies, and media owners.As part of its alcohol inquiry, the House of Commons health select committee wanted to explore the success of self regulation. It obtained a large number of internal marketing documents from alcohol producers and their communications agencies in order to examine the thinking and strategic planning that underpin alcohol advertising and hence show not just what advertisers are saying, but why they are saying it. Here we present the key insights to emerge

Developing agency for advocacy: Collaborative inquiry-focused school change projects as transformative learning for practicing teachers. The New Educator

Many mainstream educators of English language learners (ELLs) have experienced neither adequate pre-service preparation nor appropriate in-service professional development. Yet, ELLs are one of the fastest growing student populations in the United States. While practicing teachers typically espouse the view that all students can learn, they often lack the knowledge and skills necessary to support ELLs in their academic and language development.This gap in preservice teacher education programs often leads general education teachers to rely heavily on bilingual paraprofessionals and language teachers for educating ELL students. This paper describes a 5-year professional development initiative, Project Alianza, during which the researchers provoked dissonance through texts, narratives, experiences, and encounters to push teacher participants to name and question their current assumptions, biases, beliefs, and practices. A teacher inquiry project emerged from the Analysis of participant writing suggests that a teacher inquiry project caused teachers to make changes in their beliefs and professional practices as they developed a sense of agency for educating and advocating for ELL students

Test-based Accountability Systems: Concerns for Indiana’s Multilingual Learners and Their Teachers

Indiana’s current test-based accountability system grew, in part, out of decades of federal-level educational reform initiatives. This article reviews the history of Indiana’s test-based accountability system for schools and details how the system calculates evaluative ratings for Indiana teachers and schools. Additionally, the article analyzes how the Indiana accountability system contradicts what is known about appropriate measurement of English language learners and lists psychometric and validity concerns such as valid assessment, non-random assignment, norming groups, and ceiling/bottom effects. This article calls for a system in which multiple assessments offer rich data for school and teacher evaluations