Case Study of an SEL Coach and Instructional Specialist: Understanding a New Role

As social and emotional learning (SEL) moves to the forefront of elementary education, new roles are emerging: SEL coaches and instructional specialists. While these new roles may mirror literacy coaches in many ways, there is still much that is unknown. Therefore, this exploratory qualitative case study documents how a district-based SEL instructional specialist/coach describes her role and the impact of her work. Analyses focus on semi-structured interviews and artifacts, such as her formal role description and weekly sample schedules. Findings illustrate three main ways of synthesizing and integrating a multitude of professional SEL responsibilities: 1) through building relationships and ongoing communication; 2) through adopting a “blended” mindset to see the overlap across equity, behavioral, and SEL work; and finally, 3) through continual personal/professional learning. The case ends with comparisons to literacy coaching literature and practices, as well as implications for future research, policies, and practices related to SEL educators specifically

Selection of reproductive health end points for environmental risk assessment.

In addition to the challenges inherent in environmental health risk assessment, the study of reproductive health requires thorough consideration of the very definition of reproductive risk. Researchers have yet to determine which end points need to be considered to comprehensively evaluate a community's reproductive health. Several scientific issues should be considered in the selection of end points: the severity of the outcomes, with a trade-off between clinical severity and statistical or biological sensitivity; the relative sensitivity of different outcomes to environmental agents; the interrelationship among adverse outcomes; the baseline frequency of the adverse outcome; evidence from reproductive toxicology; and specificity of reproductive effects from the environmental agent. Simultaneously, practical concerns should be addressed: frequency of occurrence of an event and consequent statistical power to evaluate changes; frequency of prerequisites (e.g., pregnancy) that are necessary to be at risk; time and money resource requirements for measuring the outcome; amenability of the end point to retrospective measurement; and burden of measurement on the population being studied. In this article, we discuss these scientific and practical considerations and recommend that reproductive risk assessment include measures of fecundability (menstrual function, time to pregnancy), fetal loss (clinically recognized miscarriage), and infant health (birth weight, gestational age). Additional methodological research is needed to refine the array of reproductive health measures that need to be examined as a consequence of environmental exposures

Reported response rates to mailed physician questionnaires.

OBJECTIVE: To examine response rate information from mailed physician questionnaires reported in published articles. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Citations for articles published between 1985 and 1995 were obtained using a key word search of the Medline, PsychLit, and Sociofile databases. STUDY DESIGN: A 5 percent random sample of relevant citations was selected from each year. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS: Citations found to be other than physician surveys were discarded and replaced with the next randomly assigned article. Selected articles were abstracted using a standardized variable list. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The average response rate for mailed physician questionnaires was 61 percent. The average response rate for large sample surveys (> 1,000 observations) was 52 percent. In addition, only 44 percent of the abstracted articles reported a discussion of response bias, and only 54 percent reported any type of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: (1) Response rates have remained somewhat constant over time, and (2) researchers need to document the efforts used to increase response rates to mailed physician questionnaires

Direct observation of neighborhood attributes in an urban area of the US south: characterizing the social context of pregnancy

BACKGROUND: Neighborhood characteristics have been associated with poor maternal and child health outcomes, yet conceptualization of potential mechanisms is still needed. Census data have long served as proxies for area level socioeconomic influences. Unique information captured by neighborhood inventories, mostly conducted in northern US and Canadian urban areas, has shown important aspects of the community environment that are not captured by the socioeconomic and demographic aggregated individual statistics of census data. In this paper, we describe a neighborhood data collection effort tailored to a southern urban area. METHODS: This study used data from the Pregnancy, Nutrition and Infection (PIN) prospective cohort study to describe neighborhoods where low- and moderate-income pregnant women reside. Women who participated in the PIN study and who resided in Raleigh, NC and its surrounding suburbs were included (n = 703). Neighborhood attributes captured by the inventory included litter, housing condition, road condition, and social interactions that informed theoretical constructs of physical incivility, territoriality and social spaces. US Housing and Population Census 2000 data at the block group level were also assessed to identify the unique contribution of directly observed data. We hypothesize that neighborhood environments can influence health through psychosocial mediated pathways that lead to increased stress, or through disadvantage leading to poor neighborhood resources, or by protective attributes through increased social control. RESULTS: Findings suggest that directly observed neighborhood attributes distinguished between different types of areas in which low-income pregnant non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black women lived. Theoretically informed scales of physical incivilities, territoriality and social spaces were constructed and found to be internally consistent. Scales were weakly associated indicating that these constructs capture distinct information about these neighborhoods. Physical incivilities, territoriality and social spaces scales were poorly explained by traditional census variables used to proxy neighborhood environment. CONCLUSION: If neighborhoods influence health through psychosocial mediated pathways then careful detailing of neighborhood attributes that contribute to stress or deterioration, beyond traditional socioeconomic status, are needed. We believe that measuring physical incivility, territoriality and social spaces as expressions of underlying issues of maintenance and social communication make important contributes to this field

Radon and childhood cancer

British Journal of Cancer (2002) 87, 1336–1337. doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6600671 www.bjcancer.co

The relationship between water intake and foetal growth and preterm delivery in a prospective cohort study

Abstract Background Interpretation of previous associations between water intake and adverse birth outcomes is challenging given that amount and type of water consumed can be non-specific markers of exposure or underlying behavioural characteristics. We examined the relationship between water intake measures and adverse birth outcomes in participants from three study sites in the United States. Methods Using a prospective cohort study, we examined daily intake of bottled, cold tap, total tap, and total water in relation to birth weight and risk of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) among term births and risk of preterm delivery. Results Based on water consumption data collected between 20-24 weeks of gestation, the adjusted mean birth weight was 27 (95% confidence interval [CI]: -34, 87), 39 (95% CI: -22, 99), and 50 (95% CI: -11, 110) grams higher for the upper three total water intake quartiles (> 51-78, > 78-114, and > 114 ounces/day) compared to the lowest quartile (≤ 51 ounces/day). Adjusted birth weight results were similar for bottled water, cold tap water, and total tap water intake. An exposure-response gradient was not detected for either preterm delivery or SGA with increasing total water intake and total tap water intake, but adjusted relative risks for all three upper quartiles were below 1.0 (range: 0.6-0.9) for SGA. Conclusion These data suggest that high water intake may be associated with higher mean birth weight following adjustment for confounding

Employment, job strain, and preterm delivery among women in North Carolina.

OBJECTIVES: A population-based case-control study was conducted in central North Carolina to assess the relationship between occupational stress and preterm delivery. METHODS: Four hundred twenty-one women delivering infants before 37 weeks' gestation and 612 women delivering infants at term were interviewed a median of 6 months after delivery. Exposure information was collected for all jobs held for at least 1 month during pregnancy. RESULTS: Work in a "high strain" job (i.e., high demand and low control) was not associated with increased risk of preterm delivery compared with work in "low strain" jobs (all other combinations of job demand and control). Narrowing the exposure window to the third trimester did not modify the results. However, women who worked at a high-strain job full-time (odds ratio [OR] = 1.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.9, 2.0) or for 30 or more weeks (OR = 1.4, CI = 1.0, 2.2) had a modestly increased risk. Several analyses suggested that Black women were at greater risk from job strain than White women. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that chronic exposure during pregnancy to work characterized by high demand and low control may be modestly associated with preterm delivery