From a writer's perspective: Recreating images of community in multicultural children's books

The article presents profiles and perspectives from Monica Brown ,an author of bilingual children's books in the U.S. In this profile, she discusses the way contemporary Latino/a children's literature, in particular her own, intervenes in a history of exclusion in children's publishing and intervenes in the cycle of stereotypical representations in children's stories about Latinos/as. In her own perspectives, she writes about individuals who live between cultures and have a longing for remaining connected to both who are citizens of the world, whose reach is global and whose talent and intellectual and artistic contributions are boundless

Effects of Dual Targeted Therapies of Anticancer Drugs in Preclinical Models of Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer kills over 50,000 people per year in the United States. While individual drugs can be somewhat effective, the median survival remains only 25-28 months. New therapies are needed, and dual targeted inhibitors are a promising area. A total of 7 cell lines, 4 of which are presented, were treated in varying concentrations of TAK228, an mTORC1/2 inhibitor, and trametinib, a MEK1/2 inhibitor Proliferation, apoptosis, and viability assays as well as immunoblotting were performed to determine the mechanism and efficacy. Immunoblotting determined that the target of TAK228 is mTORC1/2 and that Survivin may be a mechanism for the anti-proliferative effects. The study indicates that TAK228 and trametinib are viable combination partners for the possible future treatment of PI3K mutated cancers, especially within the RAS-mutant area

PRINCIPALS\u27 EXPERIENCES REGARDING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE LEADERSHIP PREPARATION AND PRACTICES THAT PROMOTE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENTS

Culturally responsive education improves the educational success of ethnically diverse students (Gay, 2002). The research presented states the case of the need of culturally responsive leadership preparation programs that influence the practice of culturally responsive principals. Emerging evidence has found that preparation programs impact the efficacy of future school leaders (Darling-Hammond, LaPointe, Meyerson, Orr, & Cohen, 2007; Jackson & Kelly, 2002). A large body of literature points to persistent achievement gaps for children of color and especially for African American males and demands that school leadership preparation attend to issues of cultural competence (Dantley, 2005; Evans, 2007; Lopez, Magdeleno, & Mendoza Reis, 2006). The changing demographics of schools requires instructional leadership skills, advocacy skills, and specialized knowledge in what works best for students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (Ladson-Billings, 2001). Despite the rise in concern about leadership preparation for cultural diversity, the research base about such programs is thin. The guiding questions for the research are as follows: How do principal preparation programs prepare aspiring principals to be culturally responsive? How are principals prepared to practice as culturally responsive instructional leaders? How do principals practice as culturally responsive instructional leaders. Faculty of educational leadership preparation programs and culturally responsive principals from the states of Mississippi and South Carolina provided data that were analyzed with qualitative research methods, particularly the case study method. Within case analyses were conducted for each research participant. Cross-case analysis followed the within case analyses that produced emergent themes for educational leadership programs and culturally responsive principals. The emergent themes were discussed and supported Gay\u27s (2002) theory of culturally responsive teaching and learning

Comparing Growth Trajectories of Risk Behaviors From Late Adolescence Through Young Adulthood: An Accelerated Design.

Risk behaviors such as substance use or deviance are often limited to the early stages of the life course. Whereas the onset of risk behavior is well studied, less is currently known about the decline and timing of cessation of risk behaviors of different domains during young adulthood. Prevalence and longitudinal developmental patterning of alcohol use, drinking to the point of drunkenness, smoking, cannabis use, deviance, and HIV-related sexual risk behavior were compared in a Swiss community sample (N = 2,843). Using a longitudinal cohort-sequential approach to link multiple assessments with 3 waves of data for each individual, the studied period spanned the ages of 16 to 29 years. Although smoking had a higher prevalence, both smoking and drinking up to the point of drunkenness followed an inverted U-shaped curve. Alcohol consumption was also best described by a quadratic model, though largely stable at a high level through the late 20s. Sexual risk behavior increased slowly from age 16 to age 22 and then remained largely stable. In contrast, cannabis use and deviance linearly declined from age 16 to age 29. Young men were at higher risk for all behaviors than were young women, but apart from deviance, patterning over time was similar for both sexes. Results about the timing of increase and decline as well as differences between risk behaviors may inform tailored prevention programs during the transition from late adolescence to adulthood

School and student alienation: Perceptions of secondary students with and without disabilities

This study had two purposes. The first was to investigate and gather student perceptions (e.g., authoritarian, relevancy of the curriculum, teacher expectations, amount of student autonomy, student placement, school ethnic composition, parental interest, race/ethnicity) within the secondary school environment associated with their feelings of alienation from their school. The second purpose was multifaceted and involved: (1) the identification of the levels of powerlessness, normlessness, meaninglessness, and social isolation/estrangement experienced by different students, and (2) the analysis of individual student characteristics (e.g., gender, student placement, perceived ability, race/ethnicity, perceived social status) that may contribute to school alienation; The participants in this study (N = 222) were a subsample of secondary students from a large, urban, metropolitan school district located in the Southern portion of the United States. The students were selected from special and general education classrooms in two high schools. All students completed the School Factors Questionnaire, Student Factors Questionnaire, and a demographic survey; Student responses on the two questionnaires (School Factors Questionnaire and Student Factors Questionnaire) were analyzed. The results for the School Factors Questionnaire indicated that: (1) regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, or student placement, students reported liking school more than they reported not liking school, (2) there were no major differences in the responses given by students at a predominantly African-American versus a predominantly White school, (3) there were no major differences in the responses given by male and female students, (4) the responses from students with disabilities were a little less optimistic than those of the students in general education; The results from the Student Factors Questionnaire indicated that: (1) alienation was affected by gender indicating that male students experienced more meaninglessness and normlessness, (2) alienation was affected by student placement indicating that students in special education experienced more powerlessness, normlessness, and estrangement than students in general education, (3) alienation was affected by perceived ability indicating that the students in the below average ability group experienced more normlessness and estrangement than students in the average and above average ability groups and the students in the average ability group experienced more powerlessness than students in the above and below average ability groups, (4) alienation was affected by race/ethnicity indicating that White students experienced more meaninglessness than African-American students, (5) alienation was affected by perceived social status indicating that students with below average status experienced more powerlessness, meaninglessness, and estrangement than the students in the average and above average status groups

A Content Analysis of Educators’ Perceptions of Anti-Black Bias: Implications for Black Students

Recent research and scholarship have highlighted anti-Black bias in today’s schools. This study explored the perceptions that in-service educators had regarding the ways anti-Black bias is represented in schools. This basic qualitative study included one open-ended question that investigated school personnel’s perspectives regarding how anti-Black bias is represented in the schools. A qualitative content analysis was performed on the open-ended question. Participants included 18 in-service educators enrolled in a summer multicultural special education course that is a required course in the department’s special education master’s program. Results from the content analysis yielded 47 unique statements from 18 responses. From the 47 unique statements, four main categories were established that described anti-Black bias in school: normalizing Whiteness, denial of opportunity, over disciplining, and teacher labeling. Implications for educators and administrators are discussed

Reporting back environmental exposure data and free choice learning.

Reporting data back to study participants is increasingly being integrated into exposure and biomonitoring studies. Informal science learning opportunities are valuable in environmental health literacy efforts and report back efforts are filling an important gap in these efforts. Using the University of Arizona's Metals Exposure Study in Homes, this commentary reflects on how community-engaged exposure assessment studies, partnered with data report back efforts are providing a new informal education setting and stimulating free-choice learning. Participants are capitalizing on participating in research and leveraging their research experience to meet personal and community environmental health literacy goals. Observations from report back activities conducted in a mining community support the idea that reporting back biomonitoring data reinforces free-choice learning and this activity can lead to improvements in environmental health literacy. By linking the field of informal science education to the environmental health literacy concepts, this commentary demonstrates how reporting data back to participants is tapping into what an individual is intrinsically motivated to learn and how these efforts are successfully responding to community-identified education and research needs