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This paper examines an aspect of United States armed forces that has been under-studied in the discipline of political science over the past three decades: the National Guard. The Guard's roles, responsibilities, and relationships with the states and the federal government have changed significantly since the end of the Vietnam War, from "weekend warriors" to an integral component of the national security enterprise. The paper begins by defining the Guard and its constitutional role in American national security, and then evaluates the state of the political science literature on the National Guard. It illustrates changes to the Guard using three recent cases: the War on Drugs, the War on Terror, and Hurricane Katrina. Finally, it explores potential implications of these cases and other recent events on the future role of the National Guard in American politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on part of a larger study investigating the role of phonemic awareness (PA) and decoding ability in second language (L2) reading development among adult English language learners who have not mastered reading in their native language. The data reported in this paper were part of a larger longitudinal study that investigated a variety of factors related to initial reading development for adult L2 learners of English. A group of 26 participants enrolled in adult ESL education classes in the United States were followed for one year and assessed on measures of phonemic/phonological awareness and decoding ability. The results of this study document the relationship between phonemic/phonological awareness and L2 beginning reading in English for adult learners and provide evidence for similar relationships existing between phonemic/phonological awareness and early reading for adult learners and children learning to read in English. While reading and literacy development are complicated, the findings of this study suggest the importance of the decoding process for adult learners in the beginning stages of ESL reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the effect of aspects of family background, such as family income and parental education, on the educational attainment of persons born from 1967 to 1972. Family income is measured at different periods of a child's life to separate long-term versus short-term effects of family income on educational choices. We find that permanent income matters to a certain degree, and that family income when the child is 0–6 years old is an important explanatory variable for educational attainment later in a child's life. We find that short-term credit constraints have only a small effect on educational attainment. Long-term factors, such as permanent family income and parental education, are much more important for educational attainment than are short-term credit constraints. Public interventions to alleviate the effects of family background should thus also be targeted at a child's early years, the shaping period for the cognitive and non-cognitive skills important later in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Texas evaluates, accredits, and financially rewards schools based on student test scores. Test scores increased dramatically following this implementation of high stakes testing. This paper examines whether homebuyers valued these test score increases. The results show little or no relation between changes in test scores and changes in total housing value in a district. Strikingly, improved performance on college entrance exams is associated with increased total housing value. Using the college entrance exams as a benchmark, the results on the state test suggest that high stakes testing failed to increase perceived school quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher licensure is a regime where schools are forbidden from hiring teachers who have not completed a program of study in a teacher education program and/or other preparation requirements. This paper specifies a theoretical model of a school hiring teachers who are either traditional-completed a program of study in a teacher education program or alternative-entered teaching through an alternative path. We combine the implications of the theoretical model with the empirical literature on teacher labor markets to reach conclusions about how labor market policies would impact teacher quality. Perhaps the most important conclusion is that it is very likely that a regime of teacher licensure would lower teacher quality and student achievement. The key reason why licensure would lower teacher quality is that licensure fails to make the important distinction between marginal and average quality in hiring decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the relationship between education, wages and working behaviour. The work is partly motivated by the sharp distinction in the literature between the returns to education and the effect of wages on labour supply. Education is the investment that cumulates in the form of human capital while labour supply is the utilization rate of that stock. Yet, variation in education is usually the basis for identifying labour supply models – education is assumed to determine wages but not affect labour supply. Moreover, it is commonly assumed that the private rate of return to education can be found from the schooling coefficient in a log-wage equation. Yet, the costs of education are largely independent of its subsequent utilization but the benefits will be higher the greater the utilization rate. Thus the returns will depend on how intensively that capital is utilized and we would expect that those who intend to work least to also invest least in human capital. Indeed, the net (of tax liabilities and welfare entitlements) return to education will be a complex function of labour supply and budget constraint considerations. Here we attempt to model the relationship between wages, work, education and the tax/welfare system allowing for the endogeneity of education as well for the correlations between the unobservable components of wages and working behaviour. We use the estimates to simulate the effect of a new UK policy designed to increase education for children from low-income households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state of Washington has renewed support for bilingual education at the same time that the federal government and some other states are reducing or rechanneling bilingual education funds into English immersion programs. These programs have been exposed in the past as ineffective in reducing the high dropout rate of 45 to 55 percent in the nation's secondary schools which are largely attended by Puerto Rican and Chicano students. This paper outlines the need and support for bilingual education in the state of Washington, whose Chicano-Latino population numbers around 120,000 out of 4..5 million. An historical survey outlines the background which include community involvement, educational institutions, and government support. An inside look is provided into the new Title VII grant, which is the Educational Personnel Training Program received by Washington State University which provides for recruitment, preparation, study areas, coursework, and the Spanish Language Proficiency Examination.

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the United States, students of law, politics and economics are primarily trained to think in terms of state-centric analytical frameworks. This essay argues that this training is anachronistic and does not adequately prepare students for the complex geopolitics of the 21st century. Of course, not all scholarship in these disciplines can be characterized in this way since each discipline has its own internal disputes and scholarly innovations. That being said, a mainstream state-centric approach dominates the literature and the curriculum in most law, politics and economics departments. The first part of the essay describes the rise of law schools and the establishing of political science and economics disciplines in the late 19th century. It explores the implications of these disciplines' claim to do "scientific" research. It argues that this claim continues to bind the disciplines to a state-centric framework which in turn provides obstacles to developing new theories and methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the state of Western Armenian language instruction in Armenian day schools within the United States to evaluate the state of language transmission and acquisition through the specific structure of private schools. In analyzing methodologies and modes of instruction, content development, resources, teacher training and student demographics, we aim to identify patterns that can pose a challenge to or serve as models for Armenian language instruction and, ultimately, the maintenance of Western Armenian, which UNESCO classified as an endangered language in 2010. To begin with, we offer an overview of the standardization of modern Western Armenian, first, in the late 1800s in Constantinople and subsequently, in the Middle East after World War II. Then, we examine Armenian immigration to the United States to understand the impact of language use as well as the establishment of educational and other institutions necessary for its prolonged existence. The move to establish Armenian day schools in the United States dates back to the 1960s. We trace the development of this movement and study the current state of language instruction, as well as current trends in student demographics, to ask how successful these institutions are in heritage language maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The education of professional emergency managers has been the subject of workshops by the National Science Foundation and the National Academies. There is general agreement on the content of curricula, except for components related to Homeland Security. This article looks at the broad issue of professional education and the need to include information on Homeland Security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the important areas of vulnerability that has been repeatedly identified following the events of September 11, 2001 is the potential for an intentional attack on America's food supply. Despite the importance of equipping professionals to protect our nation's food supply, educators face a scarcity of information on which to base food protection and defense curricula and training development efforts. This research sought to identify a set of knowledge content areas required by food protection and defense professionals. A Developing A CurriculUM (DACUM) process was employed to create a job task analysis that identified duties, tasks, steps, and associated knowledge, skills, and abilities for this occupational category. The knowledge areas identified during the DACUM process and validated through a stakeholder survey were used to frame the program for a training workshop and computer simulation in which participants responded to a mock intentional food contamination event. Results of this process can serve as foundational elements that can be shaped by instructional and curricular design experts to create educational programs in food protection and defense for graduate students and in-service professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

US bilingual classrooms were originally created for students who had limited proficiency in English, but who came from homes where reading and writing formed an integral part of their lives. This article explores the challenge of having a growing number of indigenous Mexican students in US bilingual classrooms who do not come from literate backgrounds and whose oral expression is not associated with the academic registers of school. This article documents the role or mediation (or interactional scaffolding) taking place in conversations between a teacher and two indigenous Mexican-Mixteco students who were attending a New York City dual-language, bilingual kindergarten class (Spanish-English). This article sheds light on the complex process that mastering academic language requires and the vital role that teacher-student interactions play in the development and understanding of academic language. These interactions cannot be left to chance; they require thoughtful planning and have to be collectively constructed and practiced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nursing discipline in the United States (US) has a history of creating various doctorates.One such degree, the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), serves as an alternative to the traditional Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree for Nurse Practitioners (NPs) exploring career options. The availability of the DNP has sparked a debate within the profession: close attention to the issues iswarranted for any school considering the development of a DNP program. However, some of theseissues are not applicable, or apply differently to other contexts including Canada, where the highestlevel of education for an NP is a PhD. This article will review the history of doctoral education inboth countries, compare the practice-focused and research-focused doctorates, discuss the issuesof debate, and explore implications for NP practice. To fully inform the decision of the NP, we recommend further research to explore the need for a practice doctorate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The academic course requirements for 111 certificate and degree programs in emergency management and homeland security were reviewed to assess the degree to which the subject of public health has been incorporated into the overall curriculum of this broad and emerging field. Courses that were dedicated primarily to the field of public health comprised about 4% of the total number of courses taught in the curriculum, about the same percentage as taught in the fields of intelligence and planning. More courses were taught in the subjects of emergency management, terrorism, and legal issues associated with homeland security. Specific subject matter covered in public health courses included healthcare for mass casualties, pandemics, bioterrorism, preparedness and planning, diseases associated with disasters, and health care systems for emergency use. The author proposes a framework for further discussion on identifying critical education in public health within the context of homeland security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Practical Theology is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Educating future registered nurses for social justice is an urgent, yet complex undertaking in undergraduate education. Although the need for social justice education is often highlighted, few articles describe practical teaching strategies for ensuring that undertaking. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how a curricular focus on social justice framed and supported the development of a clinical evaluation tool for undergraduate community health clinical experiences.First, social justice is defined and its relationship to baccalaureate nursing education explained. Then a description is provided of how social justice was highlighted in the vision, curriculum, and community health clinical evaluation tool of a College of Nursing. The article subsequently showcases the content and evaluation of students' journal entries about social justice. The development of the social justice component presented in this article may be useful to nurse educators striving to match theory and practice in the evaluation of social justice in students' community health experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High profile sporting events in the United States have been identified by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as potential terrorist targets (Lipton, 2005). However, there has been an identified lack of training and education for key personnel responsible for sport security operations (Cunningham, 2007). Recognizing the demand and need for a specialized area in sport event security management, the University of Southern Mississippi School of Human Performance and Recreation developed an emphasis area in sports event security management as part of the Master of Science in Sport Management program. The sport security emphasis area includes three graduate level courses - 1) introduction to sport security management, 2) risk assessment of sport venues, and 3) sport event emergency response planning. These courses were developed by an interdisciplinary team composed of faculty from the USM School of Human Performance and Recreation, individuals from the Center for Spectator Sports Security Management, a curriculum design specialist, and several professional sport security experts. The goal of the emphasis area is to equip current and future sport and entertainment managers with the specialization skills and knowledge needed to address the challenges of homeland security in the sports industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of the American homeland security endeavor has created demands for knowledgeable professionals to address issues of critical infrastructure assurance. James Madison University has recently developed a survey course on infrastructure performance using a complex systems approach. Course development was facilitated by the enthusiastic support and participation of a multi-disciplinary faculty team. The course is designed for a broad student audience including physical science, public administration, health, business, economics and sociology majors. The course has been successful in terms of graduate and undergraduate student enrollment and has generated positive student feedback. Drawing on recent work from the physical, engineering, and social sciences, we take an interdisciplinary approach to understanding complex system operation and failure. We begin by considering historical examples of major system failures. We then explore the components, operation, and complex interdependencies of the infrastructures most critical to society. We divide critical infrastructures into three classes -- commodity, service, and information -- and focus on the electric power, health services and telecommunication sectors as representative examples. Students are exposed to literatures that inform their understanding of large, complex, and risky technical systems. Course material illustrates how complex systems engender unexpected interactions of failures to occur that can result in a cascade of increasingly serious disturbances often culminating in disaster. A major component of the course is devoted to defining and measuring risk. The final instruction block is devoted to risk management strategies involving both technology and public policy. The course concludes with the presentation of student projects that may address a historical complex system failure case study, an assessment of an existing infrastructure system, or survey a specific topic on complex system operation and failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]