Interdistrict Choice and Teacher Beliefs: Implications for Educational Expectations, Equity, and Policymaking

Interdistrict choice, which allows families to choose between schools outside of their districts of residence, is currently serving more students than any other choice program in the United States. Yet, despite this popularity, there is a pressing need for more research on how interdistrict choice may affect educational equity within U.S. public schools. Drawing on the analytic framework of educational racial contract, this study examines the issue of teacher beliefs in the context of interdistrict choice at a large, urban high school in Arizona, where market-based school choice programs have been continually expanded for nearly three decades. Data were collected through a survey of 112 teachers, who rated their in- district and out-of-district students based on their perception of three developmental skill categories: 1) academic, 2) communication, and 3) behavior. Results speak to negative teacher beliefs about the educability of Students of Color and hold significant implications for teachers’ academic expectations, educational equity, and future policy decisions

Social Networks and Friendships at School: Comparing Children With and Without ASD

Self, peer and teacher reports of social relationships were examined for 60 high-functioning children with ASD. Compared to a matched sample of typical children in the same classroom, children with ASD were more often on the periphery of their social networks, reported poorer quality friendships and had fewer reciprocal friendships. On the playground, children with ASD were mostly unengaged but playground engagement was not associated with peer, self, or teacher reports of social behavior. Twenty percent of children with ASD had a reciprocated friendship and also high social network status. Thus, while the majority of high functioning children with ASD struggle with peer relationships in general education classrooms, a small percentage of them appear to have social success

Exploring the Social Impact of Being a Typical Peer Model for Included Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Photograph of volunteers, with an owl, in the new Education Building, at the Oklahoma City Zoo

Family Coaching as a delivery modality for evidence-based prevention programs.

Family Coaching is proposed as a new delivery format for evidence-based prevention programs (EBPPs). Three recent developments in health promotion support the potential efficacy of Family Coaching: (1) renewed interest in integrated prevention programs for multiple risk factors and behavior changes, (2) broad and long-term impacts of family-based interventions, and (3) popular acceptance of "coaching" as a nonstigmatizing, goal-focused intervention strategy. Family coaches are community members and paraprofessionals trained in common elements of EBPP. Family Coaching has specific goals, is short term, and has definable outcomes. Coaches frame the program's goals to be consistent with the family's values, normalize the family's experience, assess their strengths, and help the family set goals and develop skills and routines to problem solve challenging situations. Broad dissemination of EBPP will be facilitated with delivery formats that are flexible to meet families' priorities and providers' desires and capacities to tailor programs to local contexts

Beginning Teacher Support Model: Elementary Teachers’ Resilience and Retention in Arizona

In the United States, beginning teacher retention rates are extraordinarily low; only 50% of teachers remain in the classroom after five years. In particular, the State of Arizona has been recruiting significant numbers of teachers from out of state and attempting to retain them with minimal success. This persistent problem has led the neediest of students to have teachers with lower levels of professional experience, leaving those students with continually lower achievement gains. Drawing on integrated action research and grounded theory methodology, this study’s took place in a large kindergarten to eighth grade elementary school district located in a high-poverty neighborhood in Arizona. The study invited six new teachers in their first year of teaching to explore innovative strategies to increase these teachers’ retention in the profession. The ultimate goal was to understand how such support might alter a beginning teacher’s perceptions of their own persistence and resilience in dealing with the challenges of first-year teaching, thereby reducing beginning teacher attrition. The study finds that teachers must be nurtured and cared for in order for them to fully devote their time and energy to effectively care for the students in their classroom. Increasing self-awareness and resiliency has the potential to create a ripple effect to retain more beginning teachers, as they become more likely to persevere, ask for help, connect with others, and achieve a healthy life/work balance while positively impacting students and their community

Adapting Current Strategies to Implement Evidence-Based Prevention Programs for Paraprofessional Home Visiting.

This paper describes a strategy for using evidence-based interventions (EBI) that does not require replication and fidelity. Eight parents, identified as positive role models, conducted home visits for 101 low-income Latina and Korean pregnant women. The home visitors, called mentor mothers (MM), were trained in 10 of the practice elements common to 80% of child-focused EBI and how to apply these skills to support mothers in obesity prevention, to increase the duration of breastfeeding, and to reduce depression. MM reported the content and skills utilized on each home visit on mobile phones. Each MM made an average of 153 home visits (SD = 173.3), with 28 of these visits being phone contacts. Body mass index (BMI) at 6 months was significantly associated with the frequency of MM focused on coping with depression (r = .24), but was not related to practice elements used by MM. The duration of breastfeeding was significantly related to the frequency with which MM focused on the topic of breastfeeding (r = .28) and parenting (r = .3), and MM use of attending (r = .24) and relaxation (r = .27). Depression was significantly correlated with the frequency of addressing depression (r = .27), but not to practice elements. MM did use different strategies in the first 150 visits compared to their last 150 visits, reflecting data-informed supervision. Evidence synthesized from EBI was used as a novel training method, with real-time monitoring and data-informed supervision providing evidence of iterative quality improvements in MM behaviors over time, as well as a way for linking implementation processes to outcomes