Using Life-Story Research in Gifted Education

In this article I discuss a promising approach to the problem of gifted underachievement, the research tradition of life story, and I examine the nature of constructed narratives and explain the narrative methods used to conduct this study. I include portions of one constructed narrative to illustrate the narrative product of life story research

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

School-University Partnership for Implementation of Common Core State Standards

Abstract The value and importance of partnerships between public schools and universities is more evident now than ever. This paper highlights the design, implementation, and initial results of a partnership between teachers and administrators from a high-needs, high-poverty high school, and university teacher education and arts and sciences faculty to address school improvement plans that incorporated Common Core State Standards (CCSS) at the preservice and in-service levels of teacher education. This effort is part of a continuing federally funded Teacher Quality Partnership project. Keywords: School-University Partnership, Common Core State Standards, teacher education, secondary learners, Universal Design for Learning Fairly or unfairly, teachers and teacher education programs have been criticized for the many perceived deficiencies of public schools in the United States. Much of the recent criticism is based on student test scores in national report cards (e.g., Institute for Education Sciences, 2013), which direct blame for failures at teachers and the university programs that produce them. Indeed, statistics on the efficacy of many secondary schools, in particular, are not encouraging, and are worst in high-poverty areas where the most experienced teachers tend to be the lowest in quality The National Assessment of Educational Progress (Institute for Education Sciences, 2013) reported that only 34% of 8 th graders tested at or above proficient in reading, In survey of over 1500 17-year olds, To examine the relationship between gains in student achievement and teacher preparation, At least part of the problem may be the structurally rigid nature of the secondary school classroom with regard to the processes of planning, adapting, and individualizing instruction, especially for students who learn differently. © Center for Promoting Ideas, USA www.ijhssnet.com 13 Since the primary role of the secondary teacher has been to deliver content, classrooms often consist of teacher lectures, with few interactions between teacher and students or students with their peers, and a great deal of independent seatwork. With the advent of Common Core State Standards (CCSS), however, new as well as veteran secondary teachers must dramatically change the way they plan and teach content. Rather than citing statistics and casting further blame on teachers, schools, and teacher preparation programs, Secretary of Education Duncan suggested that there might be an underlying systemic issue contributing to poor performance in schools: Compared to other important professions, teacher salaries are far too low to attract and retain top college students into the field and barely sufficient for existing teachers to raise families, buy a home, and maintain a middle class lifestyle. Many teachers must work side jobs or rely on their spouses to make ends meet. Something is radically wrong with that picture. Good teachers often must leave the classroom-leave what they love most and what they do best-to acquire more responsibility, advance professionally, and increase earnings. Many simply leave the field… We need to radically change society's views of teaching from the factory model of yesterday to the professional model of tomorrow, where teachers are revered as the thinkers, leaders and nation-builders they truly are (Duncan, 2012). He further suggested that teacher evaluation tied only to test scores creates a situation where "instead of a safety net beneath our children and teachers, test-based accountability has become a sword hanging overhead" Indeed, such systemic issues may compound problems of poor student performance by contributing to low morale among teachers. The 28 th annual MetLife Survey of the American Teacher indicated that nationally, only 44% of teachers reported being "very satisfied" with their jobs. This was down from 59% just three years before. About 29% of teachers said they were likely to leave teaching within five years (up from only 17% in 2009). Perhaps some of the low morale comes from only 43% of teachers believing that student achievement is likely to increase in the next five years, despite their efforts (Heitin, 2012). Still, regardless such gloomy reports, it stands to reason that not all schools are the same and not all teacher preparation programs are equivalent, nor does each institution contribute equally to large-scale outcomes. Disaggregation of the data on teacher preparation uncovers some favorable results. For instance, a recent set of studies on "portals" for entering the teaching profession shows that teachers with some pedagogical training (those from traditional university programs and Teach For America) tend to have higher student achievement outcomes when compared to teachers who entered the profession without pedagogical training. In fact, Berry (2010) pointed out that new teachers with limited or no pedagogical training actually tended to lower student achievement scores, at least initially. Thus, the enhancement of pedagogical knowledge and experience, coupled with shifts in educational paradigms, may significantly shape the development of exemplary efforts among schools and university programs that substantively affect the performance of students. This article, then, documents the design, implementation, and initial results of one demonstration partnership intended to enhance the competence of secondary preservice as well as inservice teachers regarding the application of CCSS. Program Development The design team of the Secondary Teacher Education Reform Initiative of the Teacher Quality Partnership Grant (TQP) at East Carolina University (ECU) began work by recognizing the nearly unprecedented paradigm shift in U.S. schools represented by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). To date, forty-five states, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) have adopted the CCSS (corestandards.org).This paradigm shift has necessitated a change in how teacher educators must prepare teachers to work in schools, beginning with a frank examination of practices by both university faculty and secondary school partners. The primary goals of the ECU Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) grant are strengthening both prospective and experienced teachers' knowledge and pedagogical bases, and improving student achievement. The goals are specifically addressed through new teacher induction, revisions to clinical practice, new teacher mentoring, and curriculum reform across disciplines. Within these broad goals, our research and development efforts pay significant attention to the implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS, 2010a(CCSS, , 2010b in teacher preparation programs and partnering schools. Humanities and Social Science Vol. 4, No. 7(1) Because the original TQP grant proposal was written for elementary and middle grades, plans for that part of the project were well defined, but activities for secondary reform were initially just sketched out. A large part of the planning process took place during spring of 2012 by a carefully constructed design team including specialists from educational foundations, educational psychology, curriculum and instruction, and special education. International Journal o

Perspectives in Implementing a Pragmatic Pediatric Primary Care–Based Intervention Trial

The 2013 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concluded that behavioral interventions are effective in reducing initiation of smoking in youth, recommending primary care clinicians provide education or brief counseling to prevent initiation, and that there are promising trends toward behavioral interventions improving cessation in this population. Our primary care–based intervention RCT conducted between 2000 and 2004, Air It Out, informed these USPSTF recommendations. Our trial was designed to determine whether a pediatric primary care practice–based smoking prevention and cessation intervention would be effective in increasing abstinence rates among adolescents under usual clinic conditions, to inform clinical practice. Therefore, the trial was designed to be largely a pragmatic trial. In this paper, we describe where each of the Air It Out study components falls along the pragmatic–explanatory continuum regarding participant eligibility criteria, intervention and comparison condition design, follow-up and outcomes, compliance and adherence assessments, and analysis. Such an assessment assists researchers by providing a framework to guide decisions regarding study design and implementation. We then share a few principles and lessons learned in developing and implementing the primary care–based intervention trial, focusing on study setting selection, engaging providers who will be delivering the intervention and the target population who will be receiving it in designing the trial and interventions to be tested, and the need to carefully plan recruitment and retention procedures. The hope is to increase the number of well-designed studies that can be included in the evidence reviews to guide future USPSTF recommendation statements

Effect of a pediatric practice-based smoking prevention and cessation intervention for adolescents: a randomized, controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this work was to determine whether a pediatric practice-based smoking prevention and cessation intervention increases abstinence rates among adolescents. METHODS: Eight pediatric primary care clinics were randomly assigned to either intervention or usual care control condition. The provider- and peer-delivered intervention tested was based on the 5A model recommended by the US Public Health Service clinical practice guidelines and the American Academy of Pediatrics and consisted of brief counseling by the pediatric provider followed by 1 visit and 4 telephone calls by older peer counselors aged 21 to 25 years. A consecutive sample of patients aged 13 to 17 years scheduled for an office visit was eligible regardless of smoking status. Of 2711 patients who agreed to participate, 2709 completed baseline assessments, and 2700 (99.6%) and 2690 (99.2%) completed 6- and 12-month assessments, respectively. RESULTS: Compared with the usual care condition, nonsmokers who received the provider- and peer-delivered intervention were significantly more likely to self-report having remained abstinent at 6-month and 12-month follow-up; smokers who received the provider- and peer-delivered intervention were more likely to report having quit at the 6-month but not the 12-month follow-up. A number of adolescent characteristics (eg, age, peer smoking, tobacco dependence, and susceptibility) were found to be predictive of abstinence at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: A pediatric practice-based intervention delivered by pediatric providers and older peer counselors proved feasible and effective in discouraging the initiation of smoking among nonsmoking adolescents for 1 year and in increasing abstinence rates among smokers for 6 months

Smoking prevention and cessation intervention delivery by pediatric providers, as assessed with patient exit interviews

OBJECTIVE: The goal was to evaluate the degree to which a smoking prevention and cessation intervention was delivered by providers to adolescents in the pediatric office setting. METHODS: Eight pediatric clinics in central Massachusetts were assigned randomly to either a special intervention (brief pediatric provider-delivered intervention plus peer counseling) or the usual care condition. Subjects (n = 2710) were adolescents 13 to 17 years of age, both smokers (smoked in the past 30 days) and nonsmokers/former smokers. The degree to which smoking prevention and treatment interventions were delivered by providers was assessed through patient exit interviews with adolescents after their clinic visits; interviews assessed the occurrence of 10 possible intervention steps. RESULTS: The percentage of providers engaging in the smoking interventions differed significantly between the special intervention and usual care conditions, according to adolescent reports in the patient exit interviews. For nonsmokers/former smokers, overall patient exit interview scores were 7.24 for the special intervention condition and 4.95 for the usual care condition. For current smokers, overall patient exit interview scores were 8.40 and 6.24 for the special intervention and usual care conditions, respectively. Intervention fidelity of special intervention providers was 72.2% and 84.0% for nonsmokers/former smokers and current smokers, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric providers who receive training and reminders to deliver a brief smoking prevention and cessation intervention to adolescents in the context of routine pediatric primary care practice can do so feasibly and with a high degree of fidelity to the intervention protocol

A comparison of the psychometric properties of the hooked on nicotine checklist and the modified Fagerstrom tolerance questionnaire

We compared the psychometric properties of the Hooked on Nicotine Checklist (HONC) and the Modified Fagerstrom Tolerance Questionnaire (MFTQ). Adolescent current smokers (n = 215) completed both instruments three times, at baseline and 6- and 12-month follow-up. Internal consistency of the HONC was high (alpha = 0.92), as was its stability over the follow-up interval (intraclass correlation (ICC) = 0.93 over 6 months and 0.91 over 1 year). Internal consistency of the MFTQ was acceptable (alpha = 0.83), and its stability over the follow-up interval was similar to that reported previously (ICC = 0.79 at 6 months and 0.76 at 1 year). The HONC predicted smoking at both follow-up points, while the MFTQ did so only at 6 months. The HONC compared favorably with the MFTQ in all respects. The most important advantage of the HONC is that it is measuring a clearly defined concept, diminished autonomy over tobacco, which begins when the sequelae of tobacco use present a barrier to quitting