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Over the past 20 years, the USA has seen more than its fair share of controversy with respect to education about sexuality, sex and intimate relationships. Attention has focused on content (abstinence-only vs. comprehensive instruction), delivery (by teachers, parents, health professionals or community educators) and context (within school and beyond). In recognition of this fact,Sex Educationinvited the development of a virtual special issue comprising a sample of its most impactful papers on these and related topics. The 2016 Presidential election results and recent legislative action in the USA point to the importance of thinking broadly about teaching and learning about sexuality inside and outside of schools and of considering sexuality as it intersects with categories of difference, privilege and penalty, including ability, age, immigration, race, gender and class. This paper, developed as an introduction to the virtual special issue, opens with a discussion of the journal’s contributions to the ongoing discussion of pleasure and desire in sexuality education. From there, we turn to the question of what is possible given the material and ideological conditions of schooling and then to opportunities for teachers and learners outside the conventional classroom. We follow with a discussion of the place of intersectional analyses in sexuality education research, and conclude with some thoughts on sexuality education research at this political moment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The number of English language learners and limited English proficient students has grown exponentially in the United States over the past decades. Given the huge cultural and linguistic diversity among them, educating this population of students remains a challenge for teachers. This paper aims to review the types of challenges that educators face when teaching limited English proficient students in the US context. Findings from existing literature show the obstacles teachers confront are social, institutional, and personal in nature. Although some research has emphasised stronger teacher education programmes as a solution to problems related to the teaching and learning of these students, these programmes are insufficient for teachers to overcome all of the challenges they face. Concerted efforts by educators, local and central administrators, academics, local communities, and lawmakers are necessary. [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]

European physicians long worried that the scholarly life was harmful to health. Neurological and digestive problems flowed from sedentary, seated lives. In the late eighteenth century, when the Enlightenment began spreading education to more people, educators inspired by Rousseau’sEmilesuch as Johann Guts Muths, Friedrich Jahn, Johann Pestalozzi, and Philipp von Fellenberg explored ways to add exercise to schooling. In the northeastern United States, educational reformers were also concerned with how to expand schooling without subjecting more children and teachers to the diseases of scholars. Particularly in New England, educators such as Catharine Beecher, Mary Lyon, Alden Partridge, and Joseph Green Cogswell tested new forms of exercise in academies for both girls and boys. Educational reformers had in common a tendency toward ill health, so the dilemma of scholarly frailty particularly engaged them. Spinal curvature and pulmonary consumption added to the previous concerns for students and teachers. In addition to exercise, improving schoolhouse ventilation, heating, and desks could keep students healthier, and teaching physiology could train them to keep themselves healthier. Boston’s highly developed and prevention-oriented medical culture and its medical and education publications made the city the ideal home for the first seven annual meetings of the American Institute of Instruction, which were rich with health content. This paper focuses on the keen interest in health among American educators of the common school reform era before Horace Mann, which puts his interest in phrenology in perspective as only one of many paths to health concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For a century Catholic schools have formed the basis for a strong system of acculturation into Catholic identity and values. Catholic schools provided a low-cost basic education and served as a common school for all social classes of Catholics. This system has weakened considerably in the last decades. Between 1970 and 2000 there was a net loss of 3,595 Catholic schools in the United States, a 29.9% decline. In addition, the nature of these schools seems to be changing as the percentage of total Catholic school enrollment made up by non-Catholics has increased ten-fold in thirty years. Many Catholic schools seem to have pursued increased academic excellence at the expense of religious acculturation. This paper examines diocesan data to determine the extent to which Catholics still consider Catholic elementary schools to be important. Findings include survey data on school importance from 55,000 diocesan Catholics. In addition, parishioner survey results are presented from two suburban parishes, each of which is considering establishing a parochial elementary school. If new elementary schools are going to be established, a way must be found for Catholics to arrive at a consensus on this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some 25 U.S. states have implemented or plan to implement a policy requiring that students pass a basic-skills test to graduate from high school. These tests, designed for native English speakers, have doubtful validity and reliability when administered to the English language learner (ELL) population, which is growing every year. Additionally, requiring students to pass an examination in English for high school graduation has two major consequences. To the individual, failure of the test could result in denial of gainful employment. To the larger society, an incidental English-only policy is implemented. This paper reviews some of the validity issues associated with high school exit exams used with ELL students and some of the solutions proposed by researchers and educators. This paper highlights how high-stakes testing has been implemented in four southwestern states with large ELL populations: Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 30 years after HIV was first recognised in the USA, the epidemic continues to pose a disproportionate threat to vulnerable and marginalised populations. Increasing HIV incidence among young men who have sex with men has spurred debate around the content and approach to HIV prevention interventions directed towards this vulnerable population. A comprehensive model for conceptualising the content of sexual health education is described, which can be tailored to the unique needs and experiences of young men who have sex with men through the application of social theory. Vernacular knowledge is incorporated as a manner of nesting sexual health messages within the shared understandings of young men regarding same-sex sexual practices, gender roles and expectations, community mores and conventions and other shared knowledge of sex and sexuality. Critical pedagogy is then discussed as a way of guiding one’s pedagogical approach during intervention design and implementation that is most conducive to both individual empowerment and community solidarity. The paper concludes with strategies for turning the corner from theory to practice, beginning with formative research that culminates in the design of relevant, community-based sexual health education programmes for young men who have sex with men. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we explored how engagement developed over time during a proportional reasoning unit for a group of US bilingual Latino/a students, with particular attention to aspects of social and cultural activity that supported students' engagement. Our findings suggest that student mathematical engagement developed primarily as a relational process characterized by students' social relations across time, their understandings about their relationships with mathematics, and the important relations emerging across proportional reasoning ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on some reports on the condition of American education. These reports agree that American education is in trouble, and all have roughly similar approaches to dealing with that trouble. All agree that high school is particularly deficient in providing a basic education, both for college and for work, and all insist on a greater emphasis on basic subjects--reading and writing, mathematics and science, history and social sciences, a foreign language. All are addressed to the people and policymakers at large, rather than to any executive or legislative agency that can do much about the recommendations. The report, "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform," lists scores of commissioned papers, many public hearings, and many presentations of testimony and evidence at public hearings. Similarly, "Academic Preparation for College: What Students Need to Know and Be Able to Do," describes an elaborate process of consultation. Most outspoken and controversial is "Making the Grade," which is ready to go for broke on the idea of merit pay to teachers by placing first in its concrete proposals a huge program to select and reward better teachers.

In the early twentieth century in the United States, Roman Catholic schools grew in number and became increasingly regulated by state departments of education. This led to the increased influence of public school reform movements in Catholic schools. Some Catholic educators questioned these movements, while others embraced them. Educational measurement strategies, such as IQ and standardised testing, gained support from women religious orders and congregations, who made up the majority of the Catholic teaching force. For pragmatic reasons, they saw some value in the promises of modern educational science for teaching and learning. This practice, however, put them at odds with some of the beliefs and values of their Church. This study demonstrates how Catholic sister teachers attempted to shape the debate on the introduction and use of reform strategies like IQ and standardised testing. It also examines how Catholic sister teachers made use of Catholic beliefs and values to make arguments in favour of IQ and standardised testing in Catholic schools. Using agreed upon Catholic religious tenets and working within their gendered reality, Catholic sister teachers demonstrated how they tried to convince their colleagues, male and female, to come to an understanding around the use of educational measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how Dr Emil Altman and the New York City Board of Education manipulated prevailing narratives of disability in a crusade to rid their city school system of “unfit” teachers during the late 1920s through to the early 1940s. Capitalising on fears of disability related to ideas about efficiency and eugenics, Altman and board officials redefined the purpose of the New York City Board of Education’s Medical Examiner, pathologised unsatisfactory teaching as illness or disability, introduced new standards and tests required to gain a permanent teaching licence, and forced over 100 teachers out of the school system. An examination of theNew York Timescoverage of this struggle over teacher tenure, retirement policy, competence, and pensions shows how skilfully Altman crafted rhetoric based in current ideas of fitness in order to expand his control over teacher examining and retiring and to help the Board of Education address a major budget deficit. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although parents of children with disabilities have forged systemic changes for individuals with disabilities, little is known about the phenomenon of legislative advocacy ( LA) including methods and barriers. In this United States-based study, 49 parents of individuals with disabilities participated in focus groups about LA reporting both positive and negative experiences with LA. One focus group was held in Spanish; notably, none of the Spanish-speaking parents reported experiences with LA. When discussing methods of LA, parents reported a variety of strategies including: building relationships, educating legislators, collective advocacy, and encouraging fathers and other parents to meet with legislators. Parents also reported barriers to LA: lack of knowledge, disempowerment and feeling overwhelmed. Implications for research to better understand LA and policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to understand generational and role differences in web usage of teachers, teacher candidates and K-12 students in a state in the USA ( n = 2261). The researchers employed unique methods, which included using a custom-built persistent web browser to track user behaviours free of self-report, self-selection and perception bias. Results revealed that all three groups utilized a variety of resources daily, but with some noticeable differences. For instance, (1) teachers and teacher candidates used the Internet on school devices much more than students; (2) they accessed general, multimedia, search, entertainment, shopping and social resources at a higher rate than students; (3) students visited a higher proportion of educational websites than their teachers; and (4) teachers visited a higher proportion of search pages than teacher candidates. Results may be useful for researchers (1) to better understand generational differences between groups; (2) to expand educational technology research to better include non-pedagogical support tools for educators; and (3) to serve as a counterpoint for self-report data on web resource frequency of use, which may provide different results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The information shared in schools on sex education in the USA is highly variable depending on the state and sometimes city in which a student lives. Gay and bisexual students living in a socially conservative, primarily rural state such as Oklahoma often receive little information about sexual health information that pertains to their behaviours unless it is discussing the dangers of sex. Using a qualitative approach, 20 gay and bisexual men currently residing in Oklahoma completed semi-structured interviews about their experiences with sex education and alternate ways to compensate for lack of information provided. Participants noted an awareness of the lack of meaningful sex education or if it was offered, a primary focus on abstinence-only until marriage heteronormative curricula. Participants described various ways they compensated for lack of sex education including accessing pornography and information from the internet. With the current socio-political environment of Oklahoma, it is unlikely wholesale changes to the sex education curricula can be made. The importance of public health professionals using the internet and peer educators to deliver inclusive and informative sexual health information remains salient and viable for men who reside in socio-politically conservative areas like Oklahoma. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This chapter identifies directions for future ABE research and suggests how researchers and practitioners can enrich the field's knowledge base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter reviews the implications of policy as it has affected adult basic education over the last 25 years and problematizes the increasing institutionalization and stability that it has brought to the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All around the world, partnerships among schools and other youth-serving systems are promoting more comprehensive school-based mental health services. This article describes the development of international networks for school mental health (SMH) including the International Alliance for Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Schools (INTERCAMHS) and the more recent School Mental Health International Leadership Exchange (SMHILE). In conjunction with World Conferences on Mental Health Promotion, SMHILE has held pre-conference and planning meetings and has identified five critical themes for the advancement of global SMH: 1) Cross-sector collaboration in building systems of care; 2) meaningful youth and family engagement; 3) workforce development and mental health literacy; 4) implementation of evidence-based practices; and 5) ongoing monitoring and quality assurance. In this article we provide general background on SMH in four nations, two showing strong progress (the United States and Canada), one showing moderate progress (Norway), and one beginning the work (Liberia). Following general background for each country, actions in relation to the SMHILE themes are reviewed. The article concludes with plans and ideas for future global collaboration towards advancement of the SMH field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine Arab American parents’ perceptions of difficulties their children experience in the USA. Both Arab American children born outside the USA who later moved to the country and children born in the USA to Arab parents were examined. Fifty Arab American families were interviewed in two areas in the State of Michigan. Data were translated from Arabic to English, and then analysed according to specific themes. Results revealed that the most common difficulties are language acquisition and emotional and social adjustments. The least frequent problem is using technology. Additionally, results showed that children who live in concentrated populations of Arab immigrants have fewer problems than those who live in less concentrated areas. The implications of results for educators, school psychologists and new Arab immigrants are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this cross-national study is to understand teachers' views about the meaning of instructional coherence and the ways to achieve instructional coherence. With respect to the meaning of instructional coherence, whereas the majority of U.S. teachers paid attention to connections between teaching activities, lessons, or topics, the majority of Chinese teachers emphasized the interconnected nature of mathematical knowledge beyond the teaching flow. U.S. teachers expressed their views about ways to achieve instructional coherence through managing a complete lesson structure. In contrast, Chinese teachers emphasized pre-design of teaching sequences, transitional language and questioning based on the study of textbooks and students beforehand. Moreover, they emphasized addressing student thinking and dealing with emerging events in order to achieve 'real' coherence. The findings of the study contribute to our understanding about the meaning of instructional coherence and ways to achieve instructional coherence in different cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The federal government and private foundations for education have established postsecondary credential completion as a national imperative. Washington State’s Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) model was developed to increase the rate at which basic skills students advance to and succeed in college-level occupational programs, and quantitative research on the model provides evidence of its effectiveness. This study shares findings on the implementation of the I-BEST model and provides lessons for practitioners and policy makers in other states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the adoption of gender mainstreaming at the Beijing Conference for Women in 1995 as a major strategy to promote gender equality and the recognition of gender analysis as central to this process, Gender and Development (GAD) frameworks have provided tools for gender analysis in various sectors. Gender mainstreaming in basic education has received limited attention to date, however, especially in development agencies at the level of operations (i.e., field offices in partnership with the community, school, and classroom). We contend that gender analysis in education - especially at the level of operations for development agencies - could be enhanced through the use of robust education and gender (EDGE) analysis frameworks that integrate dimensions of educational quality and attainment with equality and empowerment. We explore this idea by examining CARE USA's comprehensive Common Indicator Framework (CIF) that integrates these four areas and was designed for use in the basic education sector. We review and compare the findings from the initial use of the CIF to guide data collection for a situation analysis in two countries, Mali and Cambodia, and we critique both how it is contributing to gender mainstreaming at the level of operations and ways in which it needs to be refined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are community colleges as institutionally underprepared for underprepared students as these students are for college-level work? Learning to listen to underprepared students is a strategy community colleges must embrace and explore at the institution level if there are to be any significant shifts in student outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article gives an example of cross-cultural teaching between the United States and Korea using Bible study, lecture, and psychodrama by Korean students on the topic of domestic violence. In the process, basic education on domestic violence is presented in a culturally sensitive way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vulnerable consumers fail to understand their preferences and/or lack the knowledge, skills, or freedom to act on them. To protect them, some want to censor information, restrict choices, and mandate behaviors. One-fifth of the American public is functionally illiterate, K-12 performance is declining, and yet a substantial majority of American consumers (adolescents included) appear to be marketplace literate. Rather than curtail consumer prerogatives to protect a vulnerable minority, education reform focused on the values, knowledge, and skills necessary to create and navigate responsive markets is proposed. Reformed adult and K-12 education can refine, expand, and accelerate learners' informal and experiential understanding of marketplace fundamentals. The aim is to significantly replace trial and error with a robust understanding of markets, markets habitually governed by social virtues. Evidence suggests that these aims can be better achieved via K-12 choice and should be the focus of adult basic education reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents several issues to resolve the basic skills problems in community colleges in California. Need for a faculty reevaluation; Discussions on why teachers have to learn how to teach basic skills; Identity problem of community colleges; Prerequisites for courses.

Looks at some of the issues and dilemmas confronting adult basic education (ABE) practitioners in the U.S. interested in providing instruction for welfare recipients. Discussion of the competing perspectives on cultural values, the economy and patriarchy; Goals and purposes of ABE programs; Role of women in the implementation of ABE programs.

Examines the role of the arts in general education given the emergence of new crises and changes in educational priorities. Function of the arts in the context of the rising demand for excellence in contemporary schools; Effect of the increased concern for basic education on the teaching of the arts; Historical background of the issue.

The article focuses on the Basic Skills Assessment Program Legislation in South Carolina. South Carolina's Basic Skills Assessment Program Legislation was signed into law on August 4, 1978. Immediately following the signing of the legislation into law, the South Carolina Department of Education was delegated the responsibility of coordinating and implementing the legislation. With the assignment of responsibilities completed, the tasks at hand were the two first-year activities. One first-year activity was the establishment of statewide educational objectives in the basic areas of reading, writing, and mathematics in grades K-12. The second activity was the selection and field testing of a first-grade readiness test. Given the magnitude of the work involved in the objectives identification process, the decision was made that the objectives identification activity would be the one contracted to an outside agency. The outside consultant chosen by the Department was Jack Schmidt, Director of the Department of Field Services, National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Providing all children equal access to essential services, such as primary education, has been set as a priority in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)' agenda during the last two decades. Yet the Global Education Monitoring report in 2016 reveals that wide disparities between the rich and the poor persist in access to education of high quality. This study uses the Human Opportunity Index (HOI) to examine the equality of opportunity in access to basic education of high quality. By using enrollment and admission data from a case study in a large school district in the US in 2015/2016, this research evaluates the capacity of the HOI, in order to reveal disparities in access to school opportunities and examines how much of this inequality is explained by families' pre-determined circumstances. The way of analyzing equality is by disaggregating applications' data into circumstance groups, according to gender, geography, race/ethnicity, and other criteria. To capture the contribution of each circumstance to inequality of opportunity, the Shapley decomposition method is used. Findings show that the HOI is capable of systematically monitoring and examining existing admission policies and identifying inequality problems. Furthermore, the analysis of the contribution of each circumstance group can reveal admission criteria that have the potential to harm the educational opportunities for children. This assessment should provide valuable insights into the capability of the indicators to reveal where policy intervention is necessary and supply points of view on how policy can be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]