Responsibility at the Core of Public Education: Students, Teachers, and the Curriculum

The intent of this chapter is to inform, rather than prescribe reform, by directing attention to education’s core, where teaching and learning engage the curriculum. Behind the churn of policy talk, and central to the constitutional mandates creating mass compulsory schooling, lies the fundamental core of education: teachers, students, and the curriculum. At this level, we selectively consider evolving educational practices and educators’ successes, failures, and challenges in providing quality education for all students. First, we describe the mission and responsibilities of public education, the purpose for which the system was created, emphasizing its vastness and diversity. Contextualizing thusly, we turn to the fundamental core of education—students, teachers, curriculum, and the interactions among them. We open with student diversity in terms of race and ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status, and capabilities, and how varying circumstances in relation to these attributes have affected access and outcomes. We follow with the composition and qualifications of the teaching workforce, noting problems of cultural incongruity between the largely white, middle class teacher population and the diverse student body, the challenges of classroom management, and the importance of relationship building. Next, we highlight curriculum, including curriculum diversity and breadth, implications of tested versus untested curriculum, tracking, assessment practice, and teachers as curriculum generalists versus specialists. We consider how students connect to the curriculum, their motivation and engagement, and their experiences with pacing and rigor. Finally, we take on the full triad, using issues of tracking and the hidden curriculum to illustrate contemporary problems of practice.https://inspire.redlands.edu/oh_chapters/1008/thumbnail.jp

Modulation of immune responses by targeting CD169/Siglec-1 with the glycan ligand

A fundamental role in the plant-bacterium interaction for Gram-negative phytopathogenic bacteria is played by membrane constituents, such as proteins, lipopoly- or lipooligosaccharides (LPS, LOS) and Capsule Polysaccharides (CPS). In the frame of the understanding the molecular basis of plant bacterium interaction, the Gram-negative bacterium Agrobacterium vitis was selected in this study. It is a phytopathogenic member of the Rhizobiaceae family and it induces the crown gall disease selectively on grapevines (Vitis vinifera). A. vitis wild type strain F2/5, and its mutant in the quorum sensing gene ΔaviR, were studied. The wild type produces biosurfactants; it is considered a model to study surface motility, and it causes necrosis on grapevine roots and HR (Hypersensitive Response) on tobacco. Conversely, the mutant does not show any surface motility and does not produce any surfactant material; additionally, it induces neither necrosis on grape, nor HR on tobacco. Therefore, the two strains were analyzed to shed some light on the QS regulation of LOS structure and the consequent variation, if any, on HR response. LOS from both strains were isolated and characterized: the two LOS structures maintained several common features and differed for few others. With regards to the common patterns, firstly: the Lipid A region was not phosphorylated at C4 of the non reducing glucosamine but glycosylated by an uronic acid (GalA) unit, secondly: a third Kdo and the rare Dha (3-deoxy-lyxo-2-heptulosaric acid) moiety was present. Importantly, the third Kdo and the Dha residues were substituted by rhamnose in a not stoichiometric fashion, giving four different oligosaccharide species. The proportions among these four species, is the key difference between the LOSs from both the two bacteria. LOS from both strains and Lipid A from wild type A. vitis are now examined for their HR potential in tobacco leaves and grapevine roots