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Lesson study, especially when conducted with support from targeted resources, is often identified as a potentially effective means to support teacher learning. In this study, 80 school-based teams of educators, representing 80 classrooms of third- or fourth-grade students in the US, were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: lesson study supported by fractions resources, lesson study only, fractions resources only, or a comparison group. Fractions instruction was improved in the two conditions that received the fractions resources. Average student performance on a fractions test did not increase relative to the comparison group in any of the three intervention conditions. However, moderation analyses suggest that lesson study, both with and without fractions resources, may have improved student performance in one state, which represented half of the sample.

Teachers present their perceptions when designing and mapping curriculum to implement standards-based instruction and assessment. It appears that teachers are willing but not always able to make curriculum and instructional decisions. Participation of teachers varies from district to district. When curriculum is given to teachers as part of their district curriculum team or committee efforts, all are not part of the process. Teachers are not given a space to deeply engage and create clarity of the content within the curriculum. Teachers are not provided the time, guidance, platform or power to gather the necessary information and make the necessary decisions. No wonder there are misguided practices when it comes to curriculum and instruction. The data collected from our study led the research team to create a model for the process of designing and implementing standards-based instruction and assessment.

East St. Louis educators provide critical counter-narratives to Jonathan Kozol's depiction of teaching and learning in East St. Louis, Illinois in "Savage Inequalities." Teachers, educators, and administrators provide a complex view of urban schooling beyond deficiency, inadequacy, and despair. Findings highlight educators' voices as they privilege "unnamed" forms of capital (such as aspirational, navigational, social, familial, and resistant) identified by Yosso (2005) that influence their practices. Ultimately, this study provides a comprehensive and unfettered account of the meaning of teaching and learning in urban communities.

Full and durable implementation of school-based interventions is supported by regular evaluation of fidelity of implementation. Multiple assessments have been developed to evaluate the extent to which schools are applying the core features of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SWPBIS). The "SWPBIS Tiered Fidelity Inventory" (TFI) was developed to be used as an initial assessment to determine the extent to which a school is using (or needs) SWPBIS, a measure of SWPBIS fidelity of implementation at all three tiers of support, and a tool to guide action planning for further implementation efforts. In this research, we evaluated the psychometric properties of the TFI in three studies: a content validity study, a usability and reliability study, and a large-scale validation study. Results showed strong construct validity for assessing fidelity at all three tiers, strong interrater and 2-week test-retest reliability, high usability for action planning, and strong relations with existing SWPBIS fidelity measures. Implications for accurate evaluation planning are discussed.

Thousands of schools across the United States, and worldwide, implement School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS). SWPBIS provides a framework whereby teams of educators engage in data-based decision making to select, implement, and monitor a continuum of behavioral supports and build sustainable systems to promote implementation fidelity among school staff. To date, a large body of research supports both the essential practices included in a SWPBIS framework as well as the larger systemic approach. Recently public policy and professional organization guidelines have outlined clear appraisal processes to review the extant literature in an effort to designate interventions as "evidence-based." This review applied both the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) and the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) standards to evaluate existing group experimental design studies of SWPBIS. Results identified five unique, group design studies conducted by four separate research teams. Four of the studies met the WWC design standards "without reservations" and findings from three of those studies were characterized as positive. Outcomes from the reviewed studies indicated that when provided with training in components of SWPBIS, school teams met minimal implementation standards. In addition, schools that met implementation criteria also saw positive changes in school climate, staff perceptions, and/or student behaviors. However, application of the CEC standards resulted with a rating of "insufficient evidence" because none of the five studies met all CEC quality indicators. These studies lacked report of implementation fidelity for the SWPBIS training provided, which was the independent variable. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

The current study provides the first replication trial of Bounce Back, a school-based intervention for elementary students exposed to trauma, in a different school district and geographical area. Participants in this study were 52 1st through 4th graders (M[subscript age] = 7.76 years; 65% male) who were predominately Latino (82%). Schools were randomly assigned to immediate treatment or waitlist control. Differential treatment effects (Time × Group Interaction) were found for child-reported posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and parent-reported child coping, indicating that the immediate treatment group showed greater reductions in PTSD and improvements in coping compared with the delayed group. Differential treatment effects were not significant for depression or anxiety. Significant maintenance effects were found for both child-reported PTSD and depression as well as parent-reported PTSD and coping for the immediate treatment group at follow-up. Significant treatment effects were also found in the delayed treatment group, showing reductions in child-reported PTSD, depression, and anxiety as well as parent-reported depression and coping upon receiving treatment. In conclusion, the current study suggests that Bounce Back is an effective intervention for reducing PTSD symptoms and improving coping skills, even among a sample experiencing high levels of trauma and other ongoing stressors.

This study evaluated effects of "Positive Action," a school-based social-emotional and character development intervention, on indicators of positive youth development (PYD) among a sample of low-income, ethnic minority youth attending 14 urban schools. The study used a matched-pair, cluster-randomized controlled design at the school level. A multiple-measure self-report protocol assessed four key strengths and resources for PYD: self-concept, peer affiliations, ethics, and social skills. Students (n = 1,170) were assessed from grades 3 to 8; the duration of the intervention, with drop-outs and late entrants, was included in analyses. Growth curve analyses revealed evidence of favorable program effects on each of the four types of resources. The study contributes to PYD research by providing evidence for school-based interventions in low-income, urban contexts for ethnic minority youth.

Drawing structures, mechanisms, and syntheses is a vital part of success in organic chemistry courses. ChemDraw for iPad has been used to increase classroom experiences in the preparation of high quality chemical drawings. The embedded Flick-to-Share allows for simple, real-time exchange of ChemDraw documents. ChemDraw for iPad also allows documents to be readily shared with students via e-mail directly from the program. ChemDraw for iPad increased engagement and enhanced interactions between students and instructors in organic chemistry classes.

Scaling of evidence-based practices in education has received extensive discussion but little empirical evaluation. We present here a descriptive summary of the experience from seven states with a history of implementing and scaling School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) over the past decade. Each state has been successful in establishing at least 500 schools using SWPBIS across approximately a third or more of the schools in their state. The implementation elements proposed by Sugai, Horner, and Lewis (2009) and the stages of implementation described by Fixsen, Naoom, Blase, Friedman, and Wallace (2005) were used within a survey with each element assessed at each stage by the SWPBIS coordinators and policy makers in the seven states. Consistent themes from analysis of the responses were defined and confirmed with the surveyed participants. Results point to four central areas of state "capacity" as being perceived as critical for a state to move SWPBIS to scale (administrative leadership and funding, local training and coaching capacity, behavioral expertise, and local evaluation capacity), and an iterative process in which initial implementation success (100-200 demonstrations) is needed to recruit the political and fiscal support required for larger scaling efforts.

The author proposes that "societal renewal" and the engagement required to accomplish that renewal should be the core of the university. By focusing on the basic building blocks of good citizenship (civic knowledge and civic action) the university can weave, at relatively low cost, programs and classes into its core. Using Northwestern University as a case study, the author demonstrates how this can be done.

The authors identify ways to facilitate work among current and recent welfare recipients with mental illness. Their analysis assesses the relationship between a particular mental illness, depression, and labor force involvement in a statewide sample of welfare recipients, identifies the factors that promote work for those with depression, and describes the positive and negative correlates of work among this group. This study is a building block in understanding how depression and work are related among current and recent welfare recipients and what factors impede or facilitate substantive involvement in society for those with depression. (Contains 6 footnotes and 6 tables.)

Describes the process of creating the website entitled "At Home in the Heartland Online" that corresponds to the exhibit bearing the same name at the Illinois State Museum. Expounds that the website represents the successful collaboration among three different learning environments: the World Wide Web, the exhibit, and the classroom. (CMK)

Knowledge is limited about quality of care (QOC) in rural hospitals, including the smallest hospitals, critical access hospitals. Staff nurses from 7 critical access hospitals identified items important for QOC across 4 levels of care: patients, microsystems, organizations, and environments. Several items were unique to critical access hospitals. Most QOC items were at the microsystem level, yet few of these items are routinely measured. These findings offer beginning evidence about how to advance QOC evaluations in rural hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article was prepared to summarize the points made in a debate that the first author (C.L.B.) had with Dr. Richard Jonas at the American Association for Thoracic Surgery 90th Annual Meeting. The topic of the debate was the optimal surgical approach for functional single-ventricle patients: extracardiac versus intra-atrial lateral tunnel Fontan. My role was to take the viewpoint that the extracardiac Fontan is better. This review summarizes our results at Children''s Memorial Hospital (Chicago, IL) with 180 patients undergoing a primary Fontan procedure and 126 patients undergoing an extracardiac Fontan as part of a Fontan conversion. The world literature was reviewed on outcomes following the Fontan procedure, focusing on six main areas supporting the superiority of the extracardiac Fontan: hemodynamics, arrhythmias, applicability to complex anatomy, use of cardiopulmonary bypass, complications of fenestration and thromboembolism, and operative mortality. Based on this review, it is our conclusion that the extracardiac Fontan is the procedure of choice for patients with a functional single ventricle based on a very low operative mortality, a lower incidence of early and late arrhythmias, improved hemodynamics, fewer postoperative complications, and applicability to a wide variety of complex cardiac anatomy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The idea that the urban environment is socially produced and contested is a central concern of urban political ecology. Drawing from the theme of circulation, it is argued that Chicago's Michigan Avenue Bridge is a socio-physical manifestation of capitalist urban nature that had important repercussions for the city's landscape, particularly the development of North Michigan Avenue. As fixed capital, the bridge functioned as a metabolic vehicle that facilitated and enhanced the circulation of capital within the rapidly expanding metropolis. Chicago's Michigan Avenue Bridge is an example of how power geometries shape social, political, and urban environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work is a narrative musing inspired by, and entangled with listening to the auto-ethnographic piece shared by Grant Kien at the Second International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry May 4-6, 2006 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]