Instructional Coach Leadership: Perceptions of Purpose, Practices, and Supports in Coaching for Educational Equity

There has been increased investment in instructional coach positions in public school districts in recent years. Instructional coaches are put into positions of leadership with great variation in their leadership skills, training, and support. The purpose of this study was to describe the perceived experiences of instructional coaches, including their leadership roles and tasks, the supports they need, and the challenges they face so their leadership work can be planned for and well implemented to improve educational equity for students. This study used a non-experimental, qualitative phenomenological research design. Twenty seasoned instructional coaches were interviewed. Qualitative interviewing was ideal to understand their lived experiences and perceptions of their experiences. Five themes emerged: 1.Instructional coaches are agents of change for the sake of students. 2.Instructional coaches do much more than coach. 3.Instructional coaches lead with influence by leveraging relationships. 4.Instructional coaches must attend to perception and politics daily. 5.Instructional coaches need support from their administrators. Instructional coaches recognize their service is to teachers, but they know the end result of that service is to improve outcomes for students. They see their work as critical to the implementation of district and school plans, goals, and initiatives, and ultimately critical to student achievement. To impact change, they work tirelessly to support the differentiated needs of teachers to improve learning environments for students. Educational equity matters to coaches, for they want no student to have limited opportunities or outcomes, particularly students from historically underserved groups. Ultimately, instructional coaches recognize the moral purpose of their work, improving student outcomes and educational equity. Instructional coaches are go-to staff members. Most coaches spend the bulk of their time in other duties as assigned. Those duties keep their schools progressing, as coaches fill the gaps in work that would potentially go left undone if not for the coach. They are dependable, hard workers who see the value of doing the other duties as assigned in service to teachers and as a benefit to students. Instructional coaches come to the work of coaching as established teacher leaders who often get instant credibility from their teacher peers due to their experience. But instructional coaches know that instant credibility has limits. They know they must develop and constantly maintain positive, trusting relationships with teachers. They recognize that such relationships are foundational to their leadership success. Instructional coaches know they cannot tell people what to do and expect results. Rather, they leverage relationships and use influence as their main leadership method. Instructional coaches are a minority group amongst their peers. This creates issues of perception around, What do coaches do? and How do they spend their time? Instructional coaches are well aware of these perceptions and are mindful to attend to the perception of their peers at all times. They are keen to be visible on their campuses, be helpful to everyone at all times, and maintain positive relationships so as not to lose credibility and influence. Instructional coaches need collaborative relationships with their administrators for the purpose of effectively implementing district and school change initiatives that lead to positive student outcomes. Coaches recognize they are not administrators and cannot lead change in the same way as an administrator. But with collaborative relationships with administrators, they can be a powerful team. They are grateful when they receive administrative support and seek it as their main need for ongoing success in the coaching role. This study is important because it demonstrates that instructional coaches can be linchpins of change in their schools and districts. While coaches are focused on supporting teachers and growing teacher efficacy, they are ultimately focused on student achievement outcomes and educational equity as the moral purpose of their work. This study also demonstrates that coaching time need not be purely focused on coaching tasks; rather, time in non-coaching tasks is highly beneficial to coaches\u27 work. Time spent in other duties as assigned is a political investment in relationships and influence that can constantly be leveraged to make meaningful change for the benefit of students. Ultimately, instructional coaches are quite keen about the politics of their positions and this study redefines the notion that coaches experience a lot of negative tension in their roles. Rather, they have a matter-of-fact knowledge of politics and perception as a reality they reckon with daily. Their astute understanding of the politics of their role is an asset and indicative of their leadership knowledge and skills. Instructional coaches are influential teacher leaders, and they are needed in our schools

EMBRACING AND EXTENDING THE MARGINS OF ADULT EDUCATION:EXPERIENCES OF INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION

Adult educators, working in non-traditional interdisciplinary settings, sit at the confluence of where the margins of several disciplines meet to exchange ideas on how to advance theory and practice to facilitate adult learning. This paper uses two case studies of how adult educators work in interdisciplinary non-traditional adult education organizational settings—a state-level family literacy initiative and an interdisciplinary online adult patient education research and development program—to improve programs that facilitate adult learning. The paper concludes with a discussion of barriers to and strategies for integrating adult education principles into mainstream programs

Working With Interdisciplinary Teams Of Boundary Spanners: The Challenges And Potential For Adult Education

Innovative research and development for holistic adult on-line health education (eHealth) is increasingly conducted by interdisciplinary teams of boundary spanners in grant-funded academic institutes. Typically, these teams include fields that represent the whole person with an illness in their social and technological context: medicine, nursing, social and counseling psychology, social work, systems engineering, and the communications and information sciences. However, adult education does not typically sit at these collaborative research tables. This paper uses a case example of a sole adult educator working in such a setting to explore how adult education fits into this new boundary-spanning field of practice and scholarship

Depression and anxiety and their association with healthcare utilization in pediatric lupus and mixed connective tissue disease patients: a cross-sectional study

Background Depression and anxiety adversely affects outcomes in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and healthcare utilization is high for pediatric SLE. We aimed to characterize the prevalence of depression and anxiety in pediatric SLE, and their association with healthcare utilization. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of pediatric SLE and mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) subjects and healthy controls aged 8 years and above. We used the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) and the Screen for Childhood Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED) to identify depression, suicidal ideation and anxiety symptoms, respectively. We compared symptom prevalence in SLE/MCTD and healthy subjects using logistic regression. For SLE/MCTD subjects, we calculated the rate of annual outpatient visits [rheumatology/nephrology, primary care provider (PCP) and emergency department], hospitalizations and rheumatology/nephrology telephone consultations in the preceding year. We compared these outcomes in those with and without depression and anxiety using negative binomial regression. Results We identified depression symptoms in 10 (20%) SLE/MCTD and 4 (8%) healthy subjects, representing a trend towards increased prevalence in unadjusted analysis (OR = 2.9, 95% CI 0.8-9.9, p = 0.09). Adjusted analysis did not show a significant difference; however, non-white race was a statistically significant independent risk factor for depression symptoms compared to white race (OR = 5.4, 95% CI 1.1-27.2, p = 0.04). We identified anxiety symptoms in 11 (22%) SLE/MCTD and 13 (26%) healthy subjects, which was not statistically different. Suicidal ideation was present in 7 (14%) SLE/MCTD and 2 (4%) healthy subjects, which was a statistically significant difference (OR = 5.4, 95% CI 1.02-28.3, p = 0.047). Of the 34% of SLE/MCTD subjects with any symptoms, only 24% had previous mental health care. Those with depression symptoms had a statistically significant lower rate of visits to the PCP (IRR = 0.38, 95% CI 0.19-0.76, p \u3c 0.001). Anxiety symptoms were not associated with the healthcare utilization outcomes. Conclusions Depression and anxiety symptoms were prevalent, and suicidal ideation significantly more common in SLE/MCTD than in healthy subjects. Non-white race was an independent risk factor for depression. Despite prevalent symptoms, there were poor rates of prior mental health treatment, and less frequent PCP visits among those with depression symptoms. Further investigation of barriers to mental health care and interventional strategies for symptomatic youth with SLE/MCTD is needed

Vector Mosquito Surveillance Using Centers For Disease Control and Prevention Autocidal Gravid Ovitraps In San Antonio, Texas

Mosquito surveillance in large urban areas of the southern USA that border Mexico has become increasingly important due to recent transmission of Zika virus and chikungunya virus in the Americas as well as the continued threat of dengue and West Nile viruses. The vectors of these viruses, Aedes aegypti, Ae. albopictus, and Culex quinquefasciatus, co-occur in residential areas, requiring vector control entities to deploy several different trap types, often expensive and labor-intensive, to surveil these ecologically different species. We evaluated the use of a single trap type, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention autocidal gravid ovitraps (AGOs), to monitor all 3 vector species across residential neighborhoods in San Antonio, TX, over 12 wk (epiweeks 24–35). Mosquito abundance was highest early in our surveillance period (epiweek 25) and was driven largely by Cx. quinquefasciatus. The AGOs collected significantly more Cx. quinquefasciatus than both Aedes species, with more Ae. aegypti collected than Ae. albopictus. The average number of Ae. aegypti captured per trap was consistent across most neighborhoods except for 2 areas where one had significantly the highest and the other with the lowest mosquitoes collected per trap. The average number of Ae. albopictus captured per trap varied with no clear pattern, and Cx. quinquefasciatus were trapped most often near forested hill country neighborhoods. These results indicate that AGOs are appropriate for detecting and tracking the relative abundance of Ae. aegypti, Ae. albopictus, and Cx. quinquefasciatus across a large and diverse urban landscape over time and therefore may be an inexpensive and streamlined option for vector surveillance programs in large cities

A Standardized Patient Counseling Rubric for a Pharmaceutical Care and Communications Course

Objective. To restructure a required pharmaceutical care and communications course to place greater emphasis on communication skills and include a high-stakes assessment. Design. A standardized counseling rubric was developed for use throughout the pharmacy curriculum and the counseling laboratory practicals were changed to high-stakes assessments. Assessment. An annual mid-semester and end-of-semester high-stakes patient-counseling objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) conducted prior to and after revision of the course and counseling rubric documented improvements in students’ scores. Performance on the post-course annual assessment patient counseling OSCE improved compared to that on the pre-course (p,0.001). Conclusion. The 2010 course revision improved students’ medication counseling abilities and readiness to practice. Major course revisions should be undertaken only after input from all stakeholders and with data to support the need for change

Screening volatile organics by direct sampling ion trap and glow discharge mass spectrometry

Two different types of direct sampling mass spectrometers are currently being evaluated in our laboratory for use as rapid screening tools for volatile organics in a wide range of environmental matrices. These include a commercially available ITMS ion trap mass spectrometer and a specially designed tandem source glow discharge quadrupole mass spectrometer. Both of these instruments are equipped with versatile sampling interfaces which enable direct monitoring of volatile organics at part-per-billion (ppb) levels in air, water, and soil samples. Direct sampling mass spectrometry does not utilize chromatographic or other separation steps prior to admission of samples into the analyzer. Instead, individual compounds are measured using one or more of the following methods: spectral subtraction, selective chemical ionization, and tandem mass spectroscopy (MS/MS). For air monitoring applications, an active sniffer'' probe is used to achieve instantaneous response. Water and soil samples are analyzed by means of high speed direct purge into the mass spectrometer. Both instruments provide a range of ionization options for added selectivity and the ITMS can also provide high efficiency collision induced dissociation MS/MS for target compound analysis. Detection limits and response factors have been determined for a large number volatile organics in air, water, and number of different soil types. 4 refs., 14 figs., 3 tabs

Investigating the delivery of health and nutrition interventions for women and children in conflict settings: a collection of case studies from the BRANCH Consortium.

Globally, the number of people affected by conflict is the highest in history, and continues to steadily increase. There is currently a pressing need to better understand how to deliver critical health interventions to women and children affected by conflict. The compendium of articles presented in this Conflict and Health Collection brings together a range of case studies recently undertaken by the BRANCH Consortium (Bridging Research & Action in Conflict Settings for the Health of Women and Children). These case studies describe how humanitarian actors navigate and negotiate the multiple obstacles and forces that challenge the delivery of health and nutrition interventions for women, children and adolescents in conflict-affected settings, and to ultimately provide some insight into how service delivery can be improved

Phase 1 doseâ finding study of metformin in combination with concurrent cisplatin and radiotherapy in patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell cancer

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153201/1/cncr32539.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153201/2/cncr32539_am.pd