Teacher Absenteeism in a Metro-Atlanta School District

There is a well-established research base linking teacher absenteeism and students’ academic outcomes. This research was undertaken in partnership with a metro-Atlanta school district to understand leave-taking patterns of teachers within the district better. C. Kevin Fortner and Kate Caton examined leave-taking behaviors across the district, by school, and by cluster to identify patterns of teacher absenteeism based on calendar timing and teacher characteristics. We used several types of regularly-collected administrative teacher data, including teacher-level daily absence data and teacher demographic and employment characteristics for the 2012 through 2019 school years. This work identified total absences, discretionary absences, spells of five or more consecutive days absent, and chronic absenteeism. It also identified teachers with perfect attendance. We use descriptive statistics and regression analyses to analyze the data. Our findings indicate that overall teacher attendance rate in the district is high at about 93% and remains consistent over time throughout the time period. The district-wide aggregation of data, however, masks patterns of teacher absenteeism when we disaggregated the data into smaller units such as individual school buildings or grade level (elementary, middle, or high school grades). Regression analysis explains little of the overall variation in absences, though some characteristics of teachers and their students are predictive of teacher attendance. The characteristics that most strongly predicted absenteeism were teacher experience level and gender. These findings indicate that teachers newer to their positions may feel more pressure to avoid absences, and the gender-based differences in absences, which are well-documented across industries, might be mitigated through interventions that address out-of-work burdens such as family care. This research does not address the potential trade-off between the student benefits of having teachers more often in their classrooms and the negative impacts of burnout and stress on teachers that strong interventions to minimize teacher absences may increase

The profile of pragmatic language impairments in children with ADHD: A systematic review

This systematic review synthesizes the empirical literature examining pragmatic language in children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Using a taxonomy of pragmatic language, we compared the pragmatic language profiles of children with ADHD to those of typically developing (TD) children and children with autism. Three databases were searched up to October 2019: PsychInfo; PubMed; and CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts. We included 34 studies reporting on 2,845 children (ADHD = 1,407; TD = 1,058; autism = 380). Quality and risk of bias assessments included sample size and representativeness; measure reliability and validity; and missing data management. Children with ADHD were found to have higher rates of pragmatic difficulties than their TD peers. Specific difficulties were identified with inappropriate initiation, presupposition, social discourse, and narrative coherence. Children with ADHD appear to differ from those with autism in the degree of their pragmatic language impairments. General language skills contribute to, but do not explain, pragmatic difficulties in samples of children with ADHD. Though the extant evidence is limited, a preliminary profile of the pragmatic language impairments in children with ADHD is indicated. This supports a call for evidence-based interventions that include pragmatic language skills training

Metacognitive monitoring and control processes in children with autism spectrum disorder: Diminished judgement of confidence accuracy

Metacognition consists of monitoring processes (the ability to accurately represent one’s own mental states) and control processes (the ability to control one’s cognitive processes effectively). Both processes play vital roles in self-regulated learning. However, currently it is unclear whether these processes are impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This study aimed to assess metacognition in thirty-two children with ASD, and 30 IQ-/age-matched neurotypical children, using a judgment of confidence task. It was found that children with ASD showed diminished accuracy in their judgments of confidence, indicating metacognitive monitoring impairments in ASD. Children with ASD also used monitoring to influence control processes significantly less than neurotypical children, despite little evidence of impairments in overall control ability

The association between past and future oriented thinking: Evidence from autism spectrum disorder

A number of recently developed theories (e.g., the constructive episodic simulation, self-projection, and scene construction hypotheses) propose that the ability to simulate possible future events (sometimes referred to as episodic future thinking, prospection, or foresight) depends on the same neurocognitive system that is implicated in the recall of past events (episodic memory). In this paper, we argue that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) offers an ideal test of such theories, given that it is a developmental disorder that is characterized by impairments in episodic memory. Each of these theories would predict concomitant impairments in episodic future thinking among individuals with ASD. We review evidence concerning episodic future thinking in ASD, as well as studies of prospective memory (remembering to do something in the future), planning, navigation, and theory of mind, which some theories suggest also rely on the same mechanism as episodic future thinking

Brief Report: Testing the Psychometric Properties of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS) and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Anxiety is a prevalent and impairing co-morbidity among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet assessment measures, including screening tools, are seldom validated with autism samples. We explored the psychometric properties of the child and parent reports of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS) and the Screen for Anxiety Related Disorder-71 (SCARED-71) with 49 males with ASD (10–16 years, 63% co-occurring anxiety). Both measures had excellent internal consistency and fair-good parent–child agreement. The SCAS has a higher proportion of items evaluating observable behaviors. Predictive power of the measures did not differ. Higher cut-points in the parent reports (SCARED only) and lower cut-points in the child reports may enhance prediction in this sample. Choice of measure and cut-points should be considered alongside intended purpose

Inter-Relationship between Testicular Dysgenesis and Leydig Cell Function in the Masculinization Programming Window in the Rat

The testicular dysgenesis syndrome (TDS) hypothesis proposes that maldevelopment of the testis, irrespective of cause, leads to malfunction of the somatic (Leydig, Sertoli) cells and consequent downstream TDS disorders. Studies in rats exposed in utero to di(n-butyl) phthalate (DBP) have strongly supported the TDS concept, but so far no direct evidence has been produced that links dysgenesis per se to somatic cell dysfunction, in particular to androgen production/action during the ‘masculinization programming window’ (MPW; e15.5–e18.5). Normal reproductive tract development and anogenital distance (AGD) are programmed within the MPW, and TDS disorders arise because of deficiencies in this programming. However, DBP-induced focal testicular dysgenesis (Leydig cell aggregation, ectopic Sertoli cells, malformed seminiferous cords) is not evident until after the MPW. Therefore, we used AGD as a read-out of androgen exposure in the MPW, and investigated if this measure was related to objectively quantified dysgenesis (Leydig cell aggregation) at e21.5 in male fetuses exposed to vehicle, DBP (500 or 750 mg/kg/day) or the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone (Dex; alone or plus DBP-500) from e15.5–e18.5 (MPW), e13.5–e20.5 or e19.5–e20.5 (late window). Dysgenesis was found only in animals exposed to DBP during the MPW, and was negatively correlated (R2 = −0.5) with AGD at e21.5 and at postnatal day 8, irrespective of treatment period. Dysgenesis was also negatively correlated (R2 = –0.5) with intratesticular testosterone (ITT) at e21.5, but only when treatments in short windows (MPW, late window) were excluded; the same was true for correlation between AGD and ITT. We conclude that AGD, reflecting Leydig cell function solely within the MPW, is strongly related to focal dysgenesis. Our results point to this occurring because of a common early mechanism, targeted by DBP that determines both dysgenesis and early (during the MPW) fetal Leydig cell dysfunction. The findings provide strong validation of the TDS hypothesis