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Education and training in global health and social justice is crucial to ensuring the next generation of health professionals are poised to tackle the pressing issues of our time. To develop and implement an intensive summer course on global health and social justice for high school students at the University of Southern California. This paper reviews the course aims and curriculum, its implementation both onsite and online, and reports on student course evaluations and long-term student outcomes. Student satisfaction with the program was extremely high, which endured when the course went virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most popular elements of the course included interactive, game-based activities and guest speakers. Many students reported that the course motivated them to pursue higher education and careers in global health or related fields. More universities should consider offering summer programs or other extension programs targeting high school students in order to meet the increasing demand for global health education. Recommendations for implementing global health courses for younger learners include having an interdisciplinary focus with a range of topics and diverse perspectives; provision of scholarships to allow low-income students and students from abroad to participate; prioritizing the integration of active learning and experiential educational opportunities; and incorporating debriefing and reflection as integral parts of learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era of expanding global educational privatization and shifting policies on how to fund educational facilities in many states in the US, this study engages the lenses of critical policy analysis and fiscal sociology to examine educational privatization in the school facilities industry in California. Employing critical policy document analysis to examine approximately 40 primary and secondary source documents including propositions, bills, government and education codes, facilities reports, and state public debt data, this paper addresses the following research question: How have education finance policies shaped the system of school district facilities financing over time, specifically with regard to the field of private actors involved in the school facilities industry? This paper examines the historical policy context for privatization in school district facilities financing, evaluating how policies have evolved, been implemented, and affected stakeholders over time in the broader neoliberal context. Findings indicate that policies promoting privatization in education finance impact school districts’ abilities to provide equitable facilities to their students. Also, the complex and intermittent process of financing school facilities has facilitated the rise of specialized private actors in the school facilities industry that has now organized to engage in private-sector policy setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Textbooks are a widely used educational intervention that can affect student achievement, and the marginal cost of choosing a more effective textbook is typically small. However, we know little about how textbooks get from the publisher to the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ways mathematics textbook adoption practices vary and predict adoption decisions. We use interviews with district leaders in a stratified random sample of 34 California school districts. We find isomorphic, highly formalized adoption processes in most districts. However, we observe some differences along dimensions of district size, technological interest/infrastructure, and English learner concentration. We recommend states produce and update lists of high-quality materials early and often, and that they use a highly rigorous evaluation process. We also recommend states experiment with encouraging similar districts to partner on textbook evaluation and adoption to respond to district demands for information and capacity building around curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term English learners (LTELs) are frequently characterized as struggling with academic reading in English. This paper moves beyond broad generalizations about this population's English-reading practices to a situated analysis of one ‘LTEL’ – Lizbeth Sanchez's – making meaning in her sophomore biology classroom. This analysis of Lizbeth's reading practices reveals that she successfully navigates the primary reading practices through which she was expected to acquire new disciplinary knowledge. Although the examined reading practices were fundamental to academic success in her biology classroom, they are distinct from those predominantly portrayed asacademic readingon standardized tests and in the research literature. Nevertheless, these findings provide an important counter-narrative about a population that is frequently represented as lacking both academic and linguistic ability. In addition, they illustrate the significance of how academic reading is conceptualized for recognizing and building upon the abilities of ‘struggling readers.’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from ethnography of communication and language socialization approaches, this paper examines classes on bullying held for Sikh middle school students at a Sikh religious institution in California. Sikh educational programs play an important role in socializing youth into Sikh teachings, practices, and community perspectives. Due to one practice in particular, wearing adastaar(turban), some Sikh youth have been harassed by their non-Sikh peers. After discussing the significance of the dastaar in Sikh life, this paper analyzes interactions in classes on bullying in which Sikh youth enacted role-plays provided by the teachers. In the discussions that followed the role-plays, teachers and students evaluated the actions of the bullying victim and weighed the consequences of a wide range of interactional moves in reacting to harassment. Participants’ assessments of bullying-response strategies reveal the tensions and challenges that Sikh youth face in managing the process of religious identification in their everyday lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a deep dive case study of the California Mini-Corps Program within the context of an Hispanic Serving Institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the way in which psychologists classified immigrant children as feebleminded through the use of intelligence testing and how state organisations consequently segregated them from public schools based on the scientific evidence. First, I show the way in which the psychologist Lewis Terman utilised intelligence testing to identify immigrant children deemed feebleminded. I focus closely on a survey and on his methodology and analysis. I then discuss the possibilities of education for the feebleminded and the segregation of immigrant children from regular classroom of public schools. Through his survey, Terman concluded that the exceptionally high ratio of feebleminded children in the tested region was caused by the large population of immigrant children, although the selection of the sample was often subjective, leading to “miscalculation” in his analysis. Terman’s survey was influential in terms of segregating feebleminded children by stating their incurability; possibilities of education for the feebleminded were thus denied. At his suggestion, special classes and schools, along with a home for the feebleminded, were established. Terman’s psychological survey was a cue for psychologists to enter the school system. The State Board of Education was not only attempting to discover the percentage of feebleminded children but also trying to apply psychology to school training. With the cooperation of the Board, the training of teachers for the feebleminded proceeded. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Twenty-six of 89 submitted abstracts were selected for podium presentation at the 32nd annual meeting of the Association for Surgical Education, held in San Diego, California. Based on popular themes, 10 abstracts were chosen for publication under the auspices of the Alliance for Clinical Education. These abstracts have been modified to succinct, self-contained works that can be understood by those who have not attended the meeting or are from non-surgical disciplines. The first 4 abstracts involve learning about and teaching nontechnical skills in the operating room. First is an ethnographic study exploring surgeons’ responses to intraoperative challenge. The second is an ASE Paper of Distinction, reporting a needs assessment for teaching conflict resolution in the operating room. The third abstract regards the theme of motivating learners in the operating room, and the final abstract in this group, another ASE Paper of Distinction, provides recommendations for training assessors of nontechnical skills. The concept of risk taking and risk management in surgery is explored in the fifth abstract. The next 3 abstracts involve facets of focused simulated-skills training. A novel simulation model for casting is presented, and the link between focused skills training and patient outcome is examined via meticulous video analysis of microsurgical technique. The efficacy of a large-scale, telesimulation program for teaching laparoscopic skills was demonstrated. The final 2 abstracts examine teaching methods on the surgery clerkship. A method for eliciting and exploring issues of professionalism is presented, and the rationale for multimedia slide design receives further support. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This position paper observes the impact of Proposition 227, California's "English for the Children" initiative, on the professional development of teachers of English Learners. It draws on information I obtained while working as an evaluator of the California Teacher Institutes (CTIs), a network of institutes aimed to enhance teacher effectiveness in working with linguistically-diverse students. I use the lens of educational anthropology, specifically the idea of cultural dialogue, to frame my interest in the ideological construction of literacy and the production of teacher knowledge in these institutes. I leverage the attention given to academic language in the CTIs as an example of the ideology attendant to literacy discourse in post-227 California, arguing that the seemingly non-controversial themes of needs, access, and language served to normalize the state's assimilationist approach to language policy, planning, and teacher preparation. My hope is that making visible the hidden curriculum of this professional development effort in California will encourage teachers and teacher educators to examine institutionalized literacy beliefs and practices at their own sites and to become teacher thinkers and challengers who actively encounter, question, and reconstruct the cultural dialogue of English Learner literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

San Francisco, since its global takeoff in the Gold Rush Days and long-standing trafficking in Bohemian, socialist, queer, and left-leaning energies in and beyond the Beat era of the 1960s, has a complicated global/local history of trying to disentangle its city-space and urban imaginary from the Greco-Roman will-to-supremacy that would turn California into a frontier settlement of Asian/Pacific domination and US-framed empire. Forces of social becoming like the Beats and post-Beat hippies as well as more experimental authors like Jack Spicer, Maxine Hong Kingston, Frank Chin, and Bob Kaufman helped to forge a different literary-social vision of San Francisco and the Pacific Rim city as a porous community of transnational innovation and outer-national becoming. This paper will invoke some literary and film texts from Howl and Tripmaster Monkey to Vertigo to Margaret Cho stand-up performances as well as some geopolitical studies, such as Gray Brechin's Imperial San Francisco and City Light Press's Reclaiming San Francisco to substantiate this double vision of San Francisco as global/local US site of (a) imperial ratification and (b) counter-orientalist deformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current Korean code, the site classification and the corresponding site coefficients were determined similar to the UBC 1997, which were revised based on the results from the investigation of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquakes in the western United States. Since the site effects are directly dependent on the local site conditions, the use of site coefficients derived from earthquake records which occurred in different site conditions may mislead the earthquake ground motion. Therefore, it is important to compare the local site conditions in Korea to those in the western United States and assess their effects on site coefficients, for the reliable estimation of earthquake ground motions in Korea. In this paper, site response analyses were performed based on equivalent linear technique using the shear wave velocity profiles of 162 sites collected around the Korean peninsula. The site characteristics, particularly the shear wave velocities and the depth to the bedrock, are compared to those in western United States. The results showed that the site-response coefficients based on the mean shear velocity of the top 30 m (VS30) suggested in the current code underestimates the motion in short-period ranges and overestimates the motion in mid-period ranges. Also the current Korean code based on UBC is required to be modified considering site characteristics in Korea for the reliable estimation of site amplification. From the results of numerical estimations, new regression curves were derived between site coefficients (Fa and Fv) and the fundamental site periods, and site coefficients were grouped based on site period. The standard deviations of the proposed method were reasonable compared to site classification based on VS30. Finally, new site classification system was tentatively recommended based on site periods for regions of shallow bedrock depth in Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field school is one of the most common forums in which individuals obtain practical training and experience in archaeology. Given the emphasis placed on such programs, questions arise regarding their objectives, the pedagogies employed and their effectiveness in preparing students for careers in archaeology. Field schools conducted on San Clemente Island, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of California, serve as useful case studies for considering such questions. These programs are discussed in the context of relevant learning theories to evaluate the role that they have played and been expected to play in the development of future archaeologists. In this paper, it is argued that their ultimate benefits are in the opportunities they provide for authentic learning through the formation of a research community. These experiences engage students as active participants in the culture of archaeological research, something that cannot be achieved in the classroom setting alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the National Ad Hoc Forum of Film/Video Schools and its conferences. The Forum an organization of seventeen university film/video departments concerned with film/video as an artistic, professional, and academic discipline. The genesis of the Forum took place in August 1977 when a small group met at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, to consider the possibility of starting an orderly self-examination of film/video schools in disciplinary terms. To address this need, the group recommended a structured conference/workshop, which took place in August 1978 at the University. The discussion was focused on commissioned position and rebuttal papers that dealt with three broad categories: diversity and scope of the field; academic processes; and, supportive resources.

The article presents an announcement regarding the EcoNet Computer Conference. It states that all papers to be presented in the 1990 annual meeting of National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) at Anaheim, California can be read and downloaded through the access of EcoNet. It is also useful for both teachers and students as a valuable source of information for social studies education. EcoNet is associated with to similar non-profit communication networks from different parts of the world. The EcoNet access uses a commercial computer telecommunications system known as Telenet.

Announces the 26th Language Testing Research Colloquium scheduled for March 24 to 28, 2004 in Temecula, California. Colloquium theme "Language Assessment in Schools"; Tentative program; Information on transportation and accommodations.

The article provides information on the publication "Back to the Basics: Lake Tahoe, California/Nevada," which features the Lake Tahoe exercise on teaching foundational map reading and spatial differentiation skills. The exercise offers opportunities for students to learn important mathematical concepts and procedures. It is also an inquiry-based, hands-on exercise for students to interpret physical and cultural information. It is emphasized that processing mathematical information will give students the opportunity to develop computation fluency and to improve their reasoning skills.

Explores the learning opportunities that standards-based portfolio assessment offers to promote teacher and faculty learning in teacher education. Purpose of the Performance Assessment for California Teachers consortium; Impact of performance assessments on teacher learning; Challenges provided by electronic applications for measuring changes in teacher knowledge and skills.

This study investigates climate change perceptions of secondary science teachers in a Blue state and a Red state. A total of 832 secondary science teachers, 456 from California, and 376 from Texas public schools responded to an online questionnaire regarding their climate change perceptions. Findings indicate that a significant proportion of teachers in both states lack adequate knowledge and have misconceptions about basic climate change concepts. However, California teachers have a better understanding and fewer misconceptions about the greenhouse effect. More California than Texas teachers emphasize the scientific consensus about climate change anthropogenic causes, while more Texas than California teachers send conflicting messages by emphasizing climate change's natural causes and scientific consensus about its anthropogenic causes. Study findings reveal a significant association between teachers' political orientation and their views of the scientific consensus about climate change anthropogenic causes. The notable differences in teachers' understanding of climate change, instructional approaches, and views of the scientific consensus between responding California and Texas teachers suggest that climate change is taught differently in the two states. Findings highlight the need for additional in-service training to improve teachers' climate knowledge, climate science communication, the epistemology of science knowledge, and the ethics of professional responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the interpretation of writing teachers on the concept of California Assessment Program (CAP) in California. Conflict of the interpretation of teachers with the curricular recommendation of the state; Failure of the CAP program to measure individual classroom achievement; Provision of CAP to provide comparison in public schools.

The differential effects of social contexts and race on educational behavior are examined in terms of a causal process model. Based on data from San Diego, the role of social contexts are found to be important through a causal process in which SES contexts affect personal characteristics which, in turn, influence educational aspirations and attainment. Utilizing both correlational and tabular techniques, tile basic model holds for all racial (ethnic) groups; however, race does affect the level of the individual variables. The findings from this study suggest that the importance of SES contexts are mediated by race and contingent upon the common relations of these contexts and educational behavior to individual characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employed survey methodology to examine the beliefs of Head Start educators about bilingualism, dual language development, and bilingual education and explored relationships between demographic variables and beliefs. Participants came from two large cities in California, a state that until very recently had a restrictive language policy banning bilingual education. Results indicate that while participants exhibited overall favorable views of bilingualism, responses to several questions related to dual language development and bilingual education were more variable and reflect shifting ideologies regarding bilingualism. Participants who spoke more than one language, were born outside of the United States, and reported an ethnicity other than white, demonstrated more favorable views of bilingual education. Education and major, which have been identified as predictors of favorable beliefs about bilingualism in K-12 settings, were not related to the beliefs of Head Start educators in our sample. The exploration of beliefs about bilingualism and bilingual education is particularly timely given recent research and policy recommendations regarding the long term benefits of bilingualism and the Head Start performance standard requirement that teachers support the development of children's home language and engage in teaching practices that support both bilingualism and biliteracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on several articles published in different periodicals related to medicine. Topics in the articles include hospital library-sponsored health information fairs for awareness of library services; professional development; and essentials of workshop development related to logistics, advertising, and assessment.

A significant challenge related to nurse practitioner (NP) training is the shortage of clinical sites with qualified faculty to precept NP interns. The problem is compounded in rural communities with provider shortages, restricting their opportunities to train (and potentially recruit) new APRNs. Consequently, these underserved communities have difficulty accessing specialty providers, such as Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (PMHNPs). Combined with geographic distance from urban communities and generally lower pay, many rural and/or remote communities struggle with the disparity in contrast to more populated regions. A needs assessment of an underserved county with poor access to psychiatric services suggests that contracted telepsychiatry was costly and failed to address the long-term dearth of local psychiatric providers. Stakeholders reported that local RNs (and possibly FNPs) were employed by the local hospital and that a subgroup may have aptitude and interest in psychiatry if a university program and preceptors were available. Collaborating with an urban PMHNP program, televideo technology for clinical training and preceptor development offers a solution to the dearth of preceptors. A pilot intervention will use teleprecepting aimed at establishing best practice guidelines for implementation of this novel approach to expanding the clinical training and capacity in rural and under-served communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This action research initiative showcases the impact of a collaborative process involving educators who are delivering restorative practice to schools in the second largest school district in California. Three restorative practice action-oriented cycles engage educators in developing leadership capabilities to implement a restorative practice approach in targeted schools. Data shows through collaborative participation, restorative educators and stakeholders transform their ideas into restorative action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the well-documented benefits of bilingualism, current educational practices in the United States reflect the deeply held belief that because the United States is an English speaking country, English should be the language of instruction. This belief was codified into law in California via the1998 passage of Proposition 227, which banned bilingual education. The number of young dual language learners has continued to grow, however, and the need to work with these children is a reality that preservice teachers will face despite restrictive language policy mandates. Given the well-established relationship between teacher beliefs and practices, the purpose of this exploratory study was to use survey techniques to explore the beliefs about bilingualism, bilingual education, and dual language development of university students who attended public school in a Proposition 227 context. Findings indicate that despite favorable views on bilingualism and bilingual education and knowledge of dual language development, beliefs about the role of the native language in the school environment continue to reflect the hegemony and deficit-thinking embodied by Proposition 227. Reflecting the research in K-12 settings, Latino students and those who spoke more than one language had more favorable views about bilingualism and bilingual education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A ghetto land pedagogy begins with two axioms that align it with land education more broadly, and that distinguish it from the general umbrella of environmental education. First, ghetto colonialism is a specialization of settler colonialism. Second, land justice requires decolonization, not just environmental justice. A ghetto land pedagogy thus attends to an analysis of settler colonialism, offers a critique of settler environmentalism, and forwards a decolonizing cartography as a method for land education. This article discusses ‘storied land’ as a critical cartographic method for land education, illustrated through a discussion of land in the San Francisco Bay Area. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Parent trigger laws have gained momentum nationally under the premise that they will increase local authority by amplifying parental voice in the decision to turn around “failing” schools. Using Hirschman’s exit, voice, and loyalty framework we create two conceptual models of voice and evaluate the promise of voice in California, home of the only attempts to enact the parent trigger law. We find that parent trigger laws, as presently constructed, provide only tangential voice—marginal voice that is temporary in nature. Policy suggestions are given to enact an infused voice model, embedding parental voice throughout the educational decision making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homeless people are among the most marginalized individuals in the United States and experience significant rates of morbidity and mortality. Los Angeles County, California, has the highest concentration of homeless individuals in the nation, and although it features the largest health and social services system available to homeless people, it faces significant challenges to provide cost-effective integrated care. Housing and highly coordinated or integrated care represents an efficient and effective way to serve homeless individuals. Based on content analysis of symposium proceedings that included multiple stakeholders who engaged in a daylong structured conversation about challenges and opportunities related to the development of a fully integrated system of care, this manuscript presents insights about the state of service integration in the largest county in the United States. We discuss implications for the health and social services system, including a call for developing an strategic plan to vertically integrate care to address issues of homelessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Max Rafferty is best remembered as a larger-than-life traditionalist who boasted of “killing progressive education in California.” Though rarely attracting sustained scholarly attention, the twice-elected state superintendent (1962–71) and bestselling author often serves as a symbol of the conservative populism that germinated in the Golden State and then nationally in the late twentieth century. This article challenges the “Rise of the Right” narrative, employing Rafferty’s career as a lens through which to understand the political and cultural transformations wrought by the late 1960s, and how educational questions – particularly those negotiated in K-12 schoolhouses, and specifically bilingual and sex education – were crucial to these shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We hypothesized that interracial married couples will migrate more than intraracial married couples. We focus on three mechanisms (education, social support, and discrimination) that provide explanations for interracial couples to migrate more than interracial couples. The theoretical framework included the “Push-Pull” theory and perspective on social network ties and how they link to couples migration patterns. We used information gathered in a wave of the survey conducted in 2000 for the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Study. We used this survey and analyzed in a logistic regression model how the three mechanisms described above affect interracial married couples and migration patterns. The results provide a positive direction but did not provide a statistical significant due to small sample size. In conclusion, we find support from all three mechanisms for interracial marriage couples to have higher possibility for migration. Future implications should examine divorce rate and cohabitation to provide a higher migration pattern with interracial married couples. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article brings to light discourses that constituted the education of Asian-American children in California in the second half of the nineteenth century. Guided by Foucaultian ideas and critical race theory, I analyze California public school laws, speeches of a governor-elect and a superintendent, and a report of the board of supervisors, from the 1860s to the 1880s. During this targeted period, the images and narratives of Asian-American children were inscribed with racism. Racializing politics rendered them to be disqualified from attending public schools. Segregated schooling for them was legally ordered and therefore unquestioned. It was a discursive practice implemented on their bodies by dint of a mechanism of a spatial division. This article reveals the shifting dominancy of discourses regarding Asian-American children. Rather than accepting the given historical facts, I intend to reread historical texts in order to rethink the education of Asian-American children through a Foucaultian encounter with critical race theory. Acknowledging different interpretations of the past events is a way of rethinking them and interrogating the history through the revelation of different histories in the education for Asian-American children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: The development of new global health academic programs provides unique opportunities to create innovative educational approaches within and across universities. Recent evidence suggests that digital media technologies may provide feasible and cost-effective alternatives to traditional classroom instruction; yet, many emerging global health academic programs lag behind in the utilization of modern technologies. Objective: We created an inter-departmental University of Southern California (USC) collaboration to develop and implement a course focused on digital media and global health. Design: Course curriculum was based on core tenants of modern education: multi-disciplinary, technologically advanced, learner-centered, and professional application of knowledge. Student and university evaluations were reviewed to qualitatively assess course satisfaction and educational outcomes. Results: 'New Media for Global Health' ran for 18 weeks in the Spring 2012 semester with N=41 students (56.1% global health and 43.9% digital studies students). The course resulted in a number of high quality global health-related digital media products available at http://im1420.wordpress.com/. Challenges confronted at USC included administrative challenges related to co-teaching and frustration from students conditioned to a rigid system of teacher-led learning within a specific discipline. Quantitative and qualitative course evaluations reflected positive feedback for the course instructors and mixed reviews for the organization of the course. Conclusion: The development of innovative educational programs in global health requires on-going experimentation and information sharing across departments and universities. Digital media technologies may have implications for future efforts to improve global health education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education in the twenty-first century requires that all students learn the social studies skills that help them understand the complex issues related to civic ideals and practices. One of these skills is developing multiple perspective-taking. Many educators believe that this critical thinking ability is not only for upper level students but also plays an important role in elementary social studies education. The author shows how he has worked with elementary preservice teachers to develop multiple perspective-taking. Immigration history is one of the areas that is especially appropriate for using multiple perspective-taking. This article shows how to develop these skills by comparing two main immigration stations, Ellis Island and Angel Island, during the first half of the twentieth century. It challenges the commonly held perspective that both immigrant stations served very similar functions. Indeed, it shows how to teach the perspective that the treatment of the Chinese immigrants at Angel Island was more inhumane and racially discriminating than that experienced by their counterparts on Ellis Island. It is important for students of all ages to learn that the immigration policies of our nation have not always lived up to the civic ideals and practices of a democratic pluralistic society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional guidelines state that higher-order thinking skills are a desirable outcome of pharmacy education. In this context, courses in pharmaceutics at the University of Southern California are taught in a learner-centered manner that requires use of chemical reference sources and interpretation of physicochemical information for drug molecules. To facilitate these activities, a librarian worked with faculty to design a class on reference sources and primary literature. Students believed the librarian instruction was beneficial. After the intervention, faculty fielded fewer information-related questions and the librarian received more sophisticated questions. The class emphasizes the importance of collaboration between librarians and faculty in achieving these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A minicourse in critical thinking was implemented to improve student outcomes in two sessions of a senior-level business course at a Midwestern university. Statistical analyses of two quantitative assessments revealed significant improvements in critical thinking skills. Improvements in student outcomes in case studies and computerized business simulations were observed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article uses a Latina/o critical theory framework (LatCrit), as a branch of critical race theory (CRT) in education, to understand how discourses of racist nativism-the institutionalized ways people perceive, understand and make sense of contemporary US immigration, that justifies native (white) dominance, and reinforces hegemonic power-emerge in California public K-12 education for Chicana students. I use data from 40 testimonio interviews with 20 undocumented and US-born Chicana students, to show how racist nativist discourses have been institutionalized in California public education by English hegemony, that maintains social, political, and economic dominance over Latina/o students and communities, regardless of actual nativity. Teacher practices of English dominance is a manifestation of this hegemony that can be articulated by the concept of racist nativist microaggression-systemic, everyday forms of racist nativism that are subtle, layered, and cumulative verbal and non-verbal assaults directed toward People of Color. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we examine the utility and value of multiple measures of school performance for school leaders and managers. The research was conducted within the context of the state of California through an investigation of how operators, managers and authorisers of autonomous 'charter' (publicly financed but privately operated) schools use data to inform decision-making. Users valued data that were transparent in derivation, included an array of schooling dimensions, were longitudinal, and allowed for benchmarking with other schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Black Adoption Research and Placement Center is a nonprofit organization delivering culturally specific adoption and foster care services. The organization developed as a response to concerns in the African-American community about the high numbers of African-American children entering and not exiting the public foster care system. The organization has undergone significant transformations over its 25-year history in relation to social, political, and economic changes that have altered the ways that the agency finances and delivers services. The history of Black Adoption Research and Placement Center presents an organization that has weathered many challenges because of its strong leadership, its committed governing body, its external relationships, and its internal operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In summer 2009, the Norris Medical Library decided to increase outreach efforts in an attempt to revitalize its role in the USC School of Pharmacy for the upcoming academic year. Active networking in the summer and early fall resulted in an increase in use of both educational and reference services by pharmacy students and faculty; the number of planned instruction sessions for the 2009-2010 academic year increased fivefold. This article identifies ten steps that allowed the Library to expand its role considerably in just a few months. If followed wholly, or in part, these ten steps will help any library become more involved on a health sciences campus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explores the impact of a course taught abroad, with the objective of preparing globally minded intercultural educators proficient in second language and culture pedagogy for English learners. The findings suggest that the course content is more powerful when teacher candidates experience cultural and linguistic immersion simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A logic model is a communications tool that graphically represents a program's resources, activities, priority target audiences for change, and the anticipated outcomes. This article describes the logic model development process undertaken by the California Geriatric Education Center in spring 2008. The CGEC is one of 48 Geriatric Education Centers across the nation, funded by the U.S. Health Resources Services Administration, Bureau of Health Professions. Engaging this diverse group of stakeholders to develop a logic model has added substantial value to program planning, implementation, and evaluation of key performance outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the specific ways in which local institutions in inner-city neighbourhoods affect the formation of educational resources for immigrant children. Local institutions here refer to observable neighbourhood-based formal and informal organisations. Based on an ethnographic study of three Los Angeles immigrant neighbourhoods—Chinatown, Koreatown and Pico Union (Mexican/Central American neighbourhood)—I address two main questions. What types of institution exist at the local level, and how does ethnicity shape them? How do local institutions interact with one another to create tangible and intangible resources conducive to education, and how does ethnicity affect access to these resources? My findings suggest that the social structures of immigrant neighbourhoods vary due to group-specific modes of incorporation, immigration histories and the host society's reception; that community organising at the local level centres around certain common parameters in which co-ethnicity is a crucial component; and that neighbourhood-based educational resources are available but the access is unequal and ethnically exclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current english-only programs in California, Arizona, and Massachusetts only a small percent- age of students are learning English and subject matter content. This violates the success in practice prong of Castañeda v. Pickard (1981). Further, these program failures bolster the claim that these programs also violate castafieda's sound theory and qualified expert support prong. Previous legal actions focused on the latter requirement and failed. Focusing on program failure creates a greater likelihood of successful legal challenge. This article calls for a change in interpretation of ELL rights and program requirements based on the majority consensus of best practices research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its inception in 2001, Designmatters, the social impact initiative at Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, California, has developed a unique framework of curricular research methodologies and a value system for “best practices” in design education engaged in the critical issues of our time. This article features a recent exhibition project led by the Illustration Department at the college: “Human Rights: Students Voices,” which premiered at UNESCO during the 61st annual DPI/NGO Conference in September 2008, and provides insight into the salient traits of the project as an innovative and replicable approach to visual advocacy of human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we examine empirical evidence on the criterion, predictive, transfer, and fairness aspects of validity of a large-scale language arts performance assessment, referred to as the Performance Assignment (PA). We use multilevel models to avoid biased inferences that might result from the naturally nested data. Specifically, we examine the relationships of the assessment with the Stanford Achievement Test, 9th Edition and the California High School Exit Examination. The results indicate that the measures are related, that students demonstrate a degree of transfer, and that the language arts PA is relatively more fair than comparison assessments. The results are robust to various model specifications and demonstrate that benefits do not accrue to all students equally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a series of articles have examined the performance of charter schools with mixed results. Some of this research has shown that charter school performance varies by charter type or the age of the school (Bifulco & Ladd, 2006; Buddin & Zimmer, 2005; Hanushek, Kain, & Rivkin, 2002; Sass, 2006). However, this research has not examined the school attributes that lead to high- or low-achieving charter schools. In this article, we examine how student achievement varies with school operational features using student-level achievement and survey data for charter and a matched-set of traditional public schools from California. We did not find operational characteristics that were consistently related with student achievement, but we did identify some features that are more important at different grade levels or in charter schools versus in traditional public schools. We also examined the relationship between greater autonomy within schools, which is a major tenet of the charter movement, and student achievement and found very little evidence that greater autonomy leads to improved student achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports a study of parental motivation, attitudes, support, and commitment for the second year of the two-way immersion (TWI) program at an elementary school in San Bernardino, California. Findings include the unique aspects of border communities; similarities and differences between Spanish-language and English-language participants; factors that influence attrition rates; details of how TWI parents support their children; as well as the identification of parental insistence on "core-enrichment," the development of strong academic skills, and adherence to content standards in both languages. Research data will assist teachers and administrators in gaining and maintaining parental support for TWI programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act. In addition to providing additional funding for schools and encouraging local autonomy, the new law focuses on accountability in an attempt to close the achievement gap for all students, leaving no child behind. Perhaps the most striking manifestation of Bush's new law is the amplified attention on high-stakes testing as a means to demonstrate accountability. The California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) is California's effort to ensure accountability by proving that students are proficient in English language arts and mathematics on graduation. Hailed as near flawless by an independent evaluating agency, the test is nonetheless the subject of much debate. Because testing as a means of demonstrating accountability is surely becoming a reality, the CAHSEE must be examined to ensure its fairness. Kunnan's (2004) test fairness framework makes it possible to examine the test within the context of fairness using 5 main qualities: validity, absence of bias, access, administration, and social consequences. The framework is particularly relevant to the CAHSEE because the test's potential for impact is so great. In the end, some questions regarding the test's fairness remain. Although full implementation of the test as a requirement for high school graduation is scheduled for the class of 2006, it is not yet certain whether next year's graduates will have to pass the CAHSEE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the Addams/California State University, Fresno (CSUF) Educational Partnership Project, a model teacher education program designed to provide student teachers an opportunity to be trained to work with at-risk students. Risk factors associated with at-risk students; Project goals; Outcomes of project; Conclusions of the project; Implications for pre- and inservice teacher education.

In this article Francisca E Gonzalez shifts the focus from a deficit view of cultural knowledge to an imaginary of the formation of identities and integrity braided with the law, policy, and social formations. In this way, cultural practices cultivate a unique worldview with implications for K-12 educational excellence and academic achievement. Gonzalez situates her research within the national discourse on educational reform so as to direct educational researchers', policy makers', and educators' thinking of young Mexicanas as pensadoras who interrogate the social order, and who give meaning to learning, knowing, and power. She describes a study intended to explore the development of womanhood among young Mexicanas beginning with an explanation of a theoretical lens, a looking prism of critical race feminisms and Latina critical theory interpretive frameworks. Then she explains the study's multimethodological approach of trenzas y mestizaje, the braiding of theory, qualitative research strategies, and a sociopolitical consciousness. The article then details young Mexicana meanings of gendered cultural socialization, educacion , and success as cultural epistemologies and pedagogies, what the young Mexicanas called haciendo que hacer. Gonzalez explains this as the teaching and learning of sociocultural foundations and the cultivation of academic achievement. In closing, Francisca elaborates on how a braiding of different ways of knowing, teaching, and learning brings cultural knowledge to the fore of discourses on human rights, social justice, and educational equity including the formulation of holistic educational policies and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]