THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PROGRAM QUALITY INDICATORS AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN A BRAIDED PREKINDERGARTEN PROGRAM

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between prekindergarten classroom quality indicators and student achievement at the prekindergarten level. Pre-existing data on prekindergarten classroom quality measures and student achievement was utilized. Quality indicators were assessed using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008) and student achievement was measured by the end of year results on the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) (Invernizzi, Meier, Swank, & Juel, 2004) and the Bracken School Readiness Assessment end of year results (Bracken, 2007). A quantitative ex post facto correlational research design was employed to identify relationships between program quality and student achievement among the prekindergarten classrooms. An ex post facto design was chosen because the circumstances of conducting the research did not allow for an experiment. The classrooms in this study site were rated overall as high in quality. The findings indicate that quality in classrooms established by high scores in the Emotional Support and Classroom Organizational domains, paired with scores in the middle to high range in the Instructional Support domain have no statistical correlation between high achievement related to PALS and Bracken scores, with the exception of one subgroup. For students that receive Public Assistance, there was a statistical significance in their end results for PALS and Bracken, indicating a positive relationship between classroom quality and student achievement. It is vitally important to develop prekindergarten programs that can be easily replicated. Replicating successful programs would save time, money, and effort. Practitioners can increase and standardize structural quality factors such as length of day, credentialing requirements of staff, and the maintenance of an organized system of in-service training and systematic curriculum oversight, while ensuring the presence of process quality, This focus will create prekindergarten programs that offer the most at risk students the highest quality possible

A new apparatus for central fixation training and a preliminary investigation of a new entoptic phenomenon

All visual stimuli may be studied as masking stimuli; the observed complexities of masking indicate that it involves much or all of the visual system. Therefore. an understanding of visual masking may generate a profound understanding of vision. ---George Sperling--

Evidence for dental and dental specialty treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea. Part 1: the adult OSA patient and Part 2: the paediatric and adolescent patient

Until recently, obstructive sleep apnoea was a largely unknown condition. Because of the well-publicised death of some high-profile people resulting from untreated obstructive sleep apnoea, now mostly everyone has heard of the condition. Following diagnosis, several medical treatment modalities are available to patients. However, the role that dentistry and its various specialties can play in successful treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea should not be overlooked. The common causes for adult and paediatric obstructive sleep apnoea will be presented as well as a review of the more successful forms of dental treatment. Finally, a summary of the current evidence regarding obstructive sleep apnoea treatment will be presented.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/79355/1/j.1365-2842.2010.02136.x.pd

World War II Pearl Harbor Survivors Oral History Project

Interview with John W. Flemmons, Jr., a United States Navy veteran from Lubbock, Texas, regarding his experiences and memories of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor of December 7, 1941 while aboard the target battleship USS Utah

World War II Pearl Harbor Survivors Oral History Project

Interview with John W. Flemmons, Jr., a United States Navy veteran from Lubbock, Texas, regarding his experiences and memories of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor of December 7, 1941 while aboard the target battleship USS Utah