The Design and Implementation of an International Day Project to Foster Cultural Awareness and a Global Perspective in Tukwila Elementary School

The primary purpose of this project was to successfully design and implement cultural awareness and a global perspective at Tukwila Elementary School utilizing an International Day project, as there are a large number of ethnic groups and various cultures represented in the school. This provided students and parents from different cultures with an avenue to celebrate their own cultural heritage while simultaneously they learned about and celebrated the diverse cultures of the entire school community. The project had five components, which included: 1) a flag ceremony that included forty-nine different flags; 2) cultural dances (performed by students, parents, and community members); 3) a potluck lunch that represented over 150 different cultural foodstuffs; 4) traditional cultural attire worn by students, staff, parents and community members; and finally, 5) student presentations offered by individual students or student groups. Due to the wide cultural diversity in the Tukwila Elementary School, this project improved cultural sensitivity among the staff, students and wider community and provided a tangible way to connect various cultures and bridge intercultural differences

International School Director Turnover as Influenced by School Board/Director Relationship

In recent years, public school superintendents have faced increased demands from rigorous federal and state accountability standards. Yet, researchers have reported that academic improvement does not happen by chance but rather through effective leaders with ample time to implement broad, sustainable reform. The purpose of this study was to examine the self-reported causes of turnover of international school directors, specifically, whether the relationship between the school board and the international school director is linked to length of tenure of the international director. The theoretical framework that addresses superintendent turnover as influenced by internal board dynamics, including school board/superintendent relationship, is the Decision Output Theory (Wirt & Kirst, 2005). Descriptive data seem to indicate the quality of relationship between the international school director and the school board as a possible factor for international school directors to leave their previous position. There was a correlation between quality of relationship and length of tenure, rs (120) = -.419, p \u3c .001. There seems to be evidence that when the top administrator leaves, the entire organizational structure is affected, regardless of the professional setting. It seems evident that the understanding of building a positive relationship between the international school director and school board, founded on trust and respect, is one that has a far-reaching impact on the length of tenure. KEYWORDS: Wirt and Kirst, Decision Output Theory; superintendent turnover, length of tenure; leadership turnover, length of tenure; international school director turnover, length of tenure

Needs or rights? A challenge to the discourse of special education

It is nearly 30 years since Mary Warnock's Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Handicapped Children and Young People introduced the phrase ‘special educational needs’ into the UK education system. In this article, Katherine Runswick-Cole, Research Associate at Manchester Metropolitan University, and Nick Hodge, Principal Lecturer in Research Development at Sheffield Hallam University, argue for the abandonment of the ‘special needs’ discourse, claiming that it has, in fact, led to exclusionary practices within education. Building on the work of early years educators in Reggio Emilia schools in Northern Italy, the authors advocate for the adoption of the phrase ‘educational rights’ and suggest that the positive impact of such a linguistic turn would be significant for the lives of young people currently described as having ‘special educational needs’ and for children's rights

Impact of In-Service Professional Development Programs for Early Childhood Teachers on Quality Ratings and Child Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis

High pedagogical quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is related to developmental outcomes in young children. This review summarizes findings from (quasi)-experimental studies that evaluated in-service training effects for ECEC professionals on external quality ratings and child development. The aggregation of findings at teacher level (including 36 studies with 2,891 teachers) revealed a medium in-service training effect on process quality (effect size [ES] = 0.68, SE = 0.07, p < .001). Furthermore, a subset of nine studies (including 486 teachers and 4,504 children) that provided data on both quality ratings and child development were analyzed, and they showed a small effect at child level (ES = 0.14; SE = 0.02, p < .001) and a medium effect at the corresponding classroom level (ES = 0.45, SE = 0.11, p < .001). Variance in effect sizes at child level was significantly related to in-service effects on quality ratings (53% explained variance). The results show that quality improvement is a key mechanism to accelerate the development of young children

Understanding Early Elementary Children's Conceptual Knowledge of Plant Structure and Function through Drawings

This study examined children's drawings to explain children's conceptual understanding of plant structure and function. The study explored whether the children's drawings accurately reflect their conceptual understanding about plants in a manner that can be interpreted by others. Drawing, survey, interview, and observational data were collected from 182 students in grades K and 1 in rural southeastern United States. Results demonstrated the children held a wide range of conceptions concerning plant structure and function. These young children held very simple ideas about plants with respect to both their structure and function. Consistent with the drawings, the interviews presented similar findings