Social class (in)visibility and the professional experiences of middle-class novice teachers

This article focuses upon the classed and early professional experiences of middle-class novice teachers in England experiencing and contemplating working in schools serving socio-economically disadvantaged communities. Through an examination of the visibility and invisibility of social class in education set within an increasingly unequal and changed social landscape, the article reports upon research which seeks to better understand the class identities of these teachers. Evidence is presented of the key, yet complex, role that social class occupies within the working lives of new teachers and reveals the different ways in which teachers respond to the classed dimensions of their early professional experiences. It is concluded that the fundamentally important role that social class plays in terms of shaping early professional experiences in teaching suggests the need not only for a commensurately enhanced focus as part of early professional development, but also for attention that is sensitively attuned to the class identities of teachers

Extended schools in England : emerging rationales

Schools in many countries are beginning to take on extended roles, working with families and communities as well as with students. However, the rationales underpinning such developments are often unclear. This paper reports on case studies of 20 schools developing new roles as part of the national extended services initiative in England. It reports in detail on two of these schools, exploring the rationales for their extended roles elicited in the course of a theory of change- based evaluation. It finds that schools saw no contradiction between their traditional and extended roles because they saw students’ academic attainments as shaped by a wide range of personal, family and community factors. It argues that the schools’ rationales were coherent, but by no means fully articulated and concludes that dialogue between practitioners, policy makers and researchers is necessary to develop these rationales further

Increasing Youth Safety and Responsible Behavior Online: Putting in Place Programs that Work.

Hundreds of programs are being developed to promote safe and responsible online behavior among youth. They are being successfully marketed and eagerly adopted because of their appealing content, exciting graphics, engaging games, catchy phrases and cool characters. But that is not enough. The bottom line for everyone to remember -- funders, program developers, communities, schools, and families -- is that these programs need to actually work. They need to change youth attitudes and inspire youth to make smart and ethical choices about how they behave online. If programs are not doing this, then no matter how beautiful the graphics or sophisticated the video production, time and money are being wasted. Children are not safer and parents and teachers may wrongly conclude that they have successfully addressed the problems. Unfortunately, right now, we have no information that Internet safety programs work. Or which ones are most likely to work. We see parents and schools excited about the material. We hear stories about kids who did something important after seeing a program. But prevention and education experts know that “feelings” and stories can be very misleading. We’ve made such mistakes before—particularly in trying to prevent youth drug and alcohol abuse. There are striking parallels in our eagerness to educate youth about Internet safety and the rushed and ultimately disastrous efforts to prevent drug problems in the 1970s and 80s (see Box 1). It is critical that we avoid making the same mistakes. Rigorous, scientific evaluation is necessary to tell us what works. And it is crucial to have this information before programs are disseminated widely. Those unfamiliar with program evaluation might be unsure about why it is so necessary or worry that it will stifle innovation. There can be confusion about how to organize an evaluation. Evaluation can be expensive and it does take time to complete. But lower costs and speedy dissemination are questionable benefits when there is no evidence whatsoever that a program is helping youth. With this paper, we hope to inspire the Internet safety field to make evaluation an integral part of program development, and consumers to insist on information about effectiveness. We make a case for evaluation, try to de-mystify the process, respond to common concerns or questions about evaluation, and propose some steps to ensure that our programs help youth stay safe online

The Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Cases.

Of all crimes against children, sexual abuse has arguably captured the greatest share of attention from child advocates, professionals, policymakers, and the general public. During the 1980’s, increasing numbers of victims were identified each year (American Association for the Protection of Children, 1988) and concerns about this crime intensified. However, a dramatic shift in child sexual abuse trends has occurred. Data from child protective services (CPS) agencies across the country indicate that the increases of the 1980’s were followed by an extensive period of marked declines in the 1990’s. Unfortunately, little effort has been expended to uncover the reasons why fewer cases of child sexual abuse have been identified each year. The decline in child sexual abuse cases is being highlighted as a part of OJJDP’s Crimes Against Children Series to illustrate the importance of tracking and investigating trends in child victimization. This Bulletin uses data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) and the Annual Fifty State Survey conducted by Prevent Child Abuse America to present evidence about the decline in reported and substantiated child sexual abuse cases since the early 1990’s. Several explanations for the decline are considered, and corresponding policy implications are discussed

Editor’s Notebook: Ten Years of The Goose

Editorial introduction to The Goose Volume 14, Issue 2 (2015): Tenth Anniversary Issue

Updated Trends in Child Maltreatment, 2006.

New data released by the federal government show continuing national declines in sexual and physical abuse in 2006, but no decline in neglect. The data detailed in the attached table and figure, come from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), which aggregates and publishes statistics from state child protection agencies. The most recent data from NCCANDS were released in April, 2008 and concern cases of child maltreatment investigated in 2006

Explanations for the Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Cases.

Discusses the decline in the number of sexual abuse cases substantiated by child protective service agencies between 1992 and 2000. This OJJDP Crimes Against Children Bulletin explores the strengths and weaknesses of six possible explanations for the decline by using data from a number of different sources: aggregate data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System; detailed child protective service data from Illinois, Minnesota, Oregon, and Pennsylvania; and self-report data from the National Crime Victimization Survey and from schoolchildren in Minnesota

Editor\u27s Notebook

Editorial introduction to The Goose Volume 13, Issue 1 (2014)

Internet-Facilitated Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.

This bulletin summarizes findings from the Internet‐Facilitated Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (IF‐CSEC) component of the 2006 Second National Juvenile Online Victimization study. Following are some key findings from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention‐sponsored study: • An estimated 569 arrests for IF‐CSEC were made in the United States in 2006; more than half of the arrests involved the offender marketing and selling child pornography. • Most offenders (83%) purchased child pornography or sex with a minor, but an important minority (17%) profited from the exploitation. Profiteers appeared to be more seasoned offenders who were involved in larger, organized networks of criminals, such as prostitution and human trafficking rings. • Many offenders (39%) were acquaintances of the IF‐CSEC victims, 23% were family members, and 17% were people the victims had met online. The rest were mostly pimps. • Compared with victims of Internet sexual crimes that do not involve a commercial aspect, a greater per‐ centage of IF‐CSEC victims, as part of the current crime, were assaulted, given drugs or alcohol, and were the subject of child pornography

Youth Internet Safety Study (YISS): Methodology Report.

The Youth Internet Safety Surveys (YISS‐1, YISS‐2, and YISS‐3) were conducted in order to quantify and detail youth experiences with unwanted or problematic Internet experiences including sexual solicitations, harassment, and unwanted exposure to pornography on the Internet. YISS‐3 collected additional information about youth produced sexual images (YPSI) or “sexting.” The YISS‐1, YISS‐2 and YISS‐3 studies were conducted in 2000, 2005 and 2010, respectively, providing important comparative information on changes in the numbers of youth reporting unwanted or problematic Internet experiences at 5‐year intervals since 2000. This is a critical timeframe for observation given the sharp rise in the use of Internet and new technologies by youth from 2000‐2010 1 . The YISS were conducted via telephone surveys with separate national samples of 1500 youth Internet users, ages 10 to 17, and their parents. A sample size of 1,500 was pre‐determined based upon a maximum expected sampling error of +/‐2.5% at the 5% significance level. Human subject participation in the YISS studies were reviewed and approved by the University of New Hampshire Institutional Review Board (IRB) and conformed to the rules mandated for research projects funded by the U.S. Department of Justice