Rural Research Brief: Special Challenges of the “No Child Left Behind” Act for Rural Schools and Districts

Across the country, states are concentrating efforts to meet the requirements and the spirit of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The implementation provisions and timelines are demanding and challenging for all districts. NCLB is particularly daunting, however, for rural and small districts. This paper outlines the characteristics of rural schools and districts that create special problems in implementing the legislation and summarizes the major challenges of the NCLB for these districts. Reprinted with permission from the Rural School and Community Trust (www.ruraledu.org). Lorna Jimerson is the Program Coordinator for the Policy Program of the Rural Trust

(Re)painting Self: Art Therapy and Ontological Security in Refugee Children

To be a refugee is to know loss intimately. The refugee experience can be characterized by the multidimensional loss the loss of loved ones, support networks, economic security, culture, safety, and home.1 2 The compounding of traumatic experience can have a profound effect on belief systems and identity. This paper will explore the relationship between trauma and ontological state in resettled refugee children. The philosophical concept of ontological security considers the ability create consistent expectations about the way the world operates to a stable mental state.3 The three states of ontology security and shock will be useful in exploring the impact of trauma on both social and psychological states. Art therapy can be an effective method in aiding refugee children in overcoming trauma because it addresses their ontological security. Lastly, this paper reports on two art therapy programs the Creative Workshops and the Devon Behavioral Support Team. 1 Canefe, Nicholas. 2010. To Feel at Home Abroad or No Place Like Home: Meanings of Displacement in Refugee Studies. Refuge 27 (2): 147. 2 McLellan, Janet. 2015. Religious Responses to Bereavement, Grief, and Loss Among. Journal of Loss and Trauma 20 (2): 133. 3 Jackson, R.L. 2010. Ontological Insecurity. Vol. 2. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc. 511-512

Reaching a Compromise Between Left and Right-Wing Parties

With each new headline that emerges, America becomes more and more politically polarized, and compromise between the two extremes seems more and more impossible. Adding to this struggle is the fading spirit for reaching this compromise. Unfortunately, however, with each headline that emerges, the need for respect and compromise also becomes ever more urgent. The foremost issues of our time -- immigration, health care, gun control, and social justice, to name a few -- will remain issues if there is no leeway from either side. This paper will serve as an attempt at two things. First, it will look at the current opinion among Americans on what common ground they find with those on the other end of the political spectrum. In doing so, this paper will seek to unearth lesser-acknowledged similarities among the different parties and highlight how those realizations can be used to promote greater levels of acceptance going forward. Secondly, this paper will attempt to find places in political ideologies where reaching a common ground is a possibility in the future. Through the analysis of existing surveys of the American public, as well as a closer look at the point from which specific political stances may stem, this paper will seek to provide a level of clarity surrounding the current status of American compromise, and what the future may hold

The Checkerboard Rag

Full cover checkerboard backgroundhttps://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/13729/thumbnail.jp

Archival Priorities: Ten Critical Issues for the Profession

The most striking feature of the American archival profession in recent years is its ongoing search for identity and for public acceptance as a socially significant profession. Many of the important developments in the field since the early 1980s have either derived from or eventually contributed to this quest for professional identity and recognition. At times this has stirred passionate debates over the nature of American archives, the role of archivists in society, the relationship between archives and other professions, and the education necessary for archivists, among other topics

From the Pacific Northwest to the Global Information Society: The Changing Nature of Archival Education

This essay examines the development of archival education in the United States during the past forty years, in context of the increasingly globalized archival profession of the early twenty-first century. In doing so, it presents a case study of one of the first West Coast archival education programs and its development from a regional program to an international one

A Critical Analysis of Job-Embedded Professional Learning Within a Distributed Leadership Framework

Leadership style and professional learning have been linked to student achievement. Studies have linked leadership styles such as distributed leadership to job-embedded professional learning. However, research is mixed when these two constructs are related to student achievement. This study evaluated the relationship between distributed leadership and jobembedded professional learning. This study also evaluated relationships among jobembedded professional learning, distributed leadership, and third-grade achievement scores. The study involved third grade mathematics teachers and school administrators in 46 elementary schools in the state of Georgia. Pearson’s bivariate correlation test was used to explore the relationship between job-embedded professional learning and distributed leadership. A hierarchical multiple regression was used to examine the relationships among job-embedded professional learning, distributed leadership and achievement while controlling for ability level and socioeconomic status. To further examine the relationships between the constructs, qualitative analyses were conducted. Six teachers and administrators were interviewed. Although variations of the constructs were being implemented, participants had limited knowledge of the meaning of the constructs; their analysis of effectiveness was based on perception rather than data. The finding in extant research that job-embedded professional learning is more effective within a distributed leadership framework was supported by this study. Additionally, responses of interviewed school personnel revealed a relationship between these constructs. However, an inverse relationship was found between schools these constructs in schools with low socio-economic status and low levels of distributed leadership. On the other hand, the study did not reveal relationships among distributed leadership, job-embedded professional learning and student achievement

Environmental Influences on Tree-driven Karst Bedrock Physical Weathering

The role of tree roots as stressors that contribute to physical weathering processes and thus soil generation remains an open question in critical zone science. While evidence suggests roots may be able to damage rock by accessing pre-existing fractures, where they can expand due to water uptake or generate forces on rock in response to wind gusts, these processes have not been investigated in temperate karst regions until now. I monitored forces at the root-rock interface for an American elm and Hackberry tree between September 2019 and May 2020. I used piezoelectric force sensors to determine if differences in species, tree size, the distance of roots from the tree, wind or precipitation conditions affected the frequency or magnitude of forces exerted by tree roots onto bedrock. I analyzed meteorological conditions in addition to root forces to examine the environmental controls on diurnal cycles of forces exerted on the bedrock and to identify how roots responded to wind gusts and rainfall events. Roots of both species exerted higher daily forces between the hours of 10:30 and 23:00, reaching daily maximum forces between 15:00 and 18:00, and exerting forces for approximately an extra hour during the fall and spring compared to the winter. I determined that temperature’s impact on vapor pressure deficit, which controls the rate of transpiration, was the primary driver of the timing of daily forces. Precipitation led to periods of higher forces, as the roots expanded due to water-uptake as well as reduced tree transpiration from lower VPD and solar radiation during rainfall events. Roots of greater size exerted increasing fluctuations in forces onto the bedrock in response to wind gusts and rainfall. American elm roots exerted forces on the bedrock more frequently during windy periods compared to the Hackberry roots. Variations in the root response to wind and precipitation events are hypothesized to be linked to contrasting rooting strategies between species and the specific functional role of individual roots in supporting the tree. My findings suggest that in warmer conditions, with more intense rainfall events, roots will exert greater forces on bedrock due to 1) increased temperature-controlled vapor pressure deficit and, 2) heavy rainfall-induced forces due to water uptake. These projected increase in forces suggest that in the karst landscape of Northwest Arkansas, tree roots may accelerate the physical weathering of bedrock

The Influence of Inhibited Expression of Anger, Perceived Control by Partner, and Withdrawal Cognitions on the Association between Conflict and Relationship Dissolution

Although there has been a large amount of attention on partners' behavior during conflict and its connection with relationship dissolution, little is known about the individuals' internal experiences during conflict that are associated with relationship instability. The current study investigated whether three internal experiences, the suppression of anger, perceived control by partner, and thoughts about withdrawal, play roles in the relation between conflict and dissolution of couple relationships. The study used assessment data from 69 couples who sought therapy at an outpatient therapy clinic, serving an ethnically and socio-economically diverse population. Analyses tested the main effects of the internal experience variables and their interactions with level of relationship conflict as predictors of steps taken toward relationship dissolution. Findings indicated that the internal experience variables did not play the anticipated moderating role, but they were found to be partial mediators in the relation between conflict and relationship dissolution