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We investigated what a cognitive framework for measuring classroom teaching could reveal about (a) the impact of a professional development (PD) program on teaching practices and (b) the relationship between teaching practices and student science learning. To conduct this study, we leveraged a collaboration between two entirely independent projects. The first project had developed a framework, the Teacher Tasks and Questions (TTQ) coding framework, for measuring teaching. The second project, the Science Teachers Learning From Lesson Analysis (STeLLA-1) project, possessed a rich body of teaching and student learning data. The two projects' independence from each other allowed us to examine the generalizability of the TTQ framework and to investigate its validity. The TTQ measures were applied to the data set from the STeLLA-1 project. We examined whether the TTQ measures detected meaningful changes in teaching practice from pre-PD to post-PD and whether they predicted student learning. We found that the TTQ measures did detect changes in teaching practices that were consistent with STeLLA-1's aims; furthermore, some TTQ measures also predicted student learning. We discuss the value of having generalizable measurement frameworks that can be used across different studies. We also glean lessons about data sharing across independent projects.

Introduction: Approximately half of the people living with HIV (PLWH) experience HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HANDs). However, the neuropathogenesis of HAND is complex, and identifying reliable biomarkers has been challenging. Methods: This study included 132 participants aged 50 and older from greater San Diego County. The participants were divided into three groups: PLWH with HAND (n = 29), PLWH without HAND (n = 73), and seronegatives without cognitive impairment (n = 30). Peripheral blood was collected at the clinical assessment, and plasma levels of neurofilament light chain (NfL), phosphorylated Tau 181 (pTau181), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: Plasma levels of NfL (but not pTau181 and GFAP) were significantly associated with HAND at a medium effect size (p = 0.039, Cohen's d = 0.45 for HAND + vs. HAND−). Notably, higher levels of NfL were significantly associated with HAND diagnosis even after adjusting for sex. Discussion: Our data suggest that neuronal degeneration (as evidenced by increased levels of NfL), but not tau pathology or glial degeneration, is related to cognitive status in PLWH. Our results corroborate the view that blood NfL is a promising biomarker of cognitive impairment in PLWH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]