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Articulation of secondary curricula and postsecondary studies in the United States and in the United Kingdom are compared. Articulation is seen as more important in the United States, in which secondary curricula are not as closely controlled or as uniform. In addition, progression to higher education is less common in the United Kingdom. (MSE)

Large, traditional urban high schools are among the most difficult education environments in the United States. These schools, which serve a high percentage of the Black and Latino students in the United States, often have low academic performance, high dropout rates, high teacher and school leader turnover, and inexperienced teachers. They often exist within contexts of high poverty, high family mobility, high unemployment, and low social capital. However, because they serve such a high percentage of students nationally, academic success at these schools is an equity issue with major national economic and social wellbeing implications. As a result, there have been many efforts to reform these urban high schools or whole urban districts. Despite some exceptions, particularly in small schools that serve a small percentage of students, the success of these reforms has been limited. This is the report of a qualitative study of teachers', school leaders', and students' perceptions of three large, traditional urban Texas high schools that were exhibiting the most success in math and science when compared to similar large, traditional urban Texas high schools after statistically controlling for the challenges each school faced. The 3 themes that emerged to describe the similarities among these three schools were leadership, equity orientation, and instructional focus. However, the highlight of the results was long lasting, stable teachers' professional communities composed of diverse, experienced teachers with particularly strong equity orientations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores tracking and its effect on African American students at Highview High School, a racially and socioeconomically diverse, first-ring suburban school. Mary Johnson, a White assistant principal, is troubled by the existence of racially identifiable course enrollment patterns and knows that meaningful change will only occur if a plan is created that appeals to everyone. The question remains: Should tracking continue in some form or be abolished completely? This study enables students to understand the implications of informal policies on various student populations and design comprehensive intervention strategies to address stratification due to tracking in their own schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looks into the issue of democracy in the U.S. educational sector. Issue of the involvement of corporations in schools; Discovery of the fact that contemporary capitalism has undermined the principles of democracy; Persistency of the patterns of racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and ableism.

Persistent achievement gaps by race and class in U.S. public schools are educationally and ethically deplorable and, thus, need to be eliminated. Based on their research on schools and districts that have narrowed these gaps, the authors have developed a simplified reconceptualization of equity auditing, a concept with a respected history in civil rights, in curriculum auditing, and in some state accountability systems. This reconceptualized equity auditing is a leadership tool that can be used to uncover, understand, and change inequities that are internal to schools and districts in three areas-teacher quality, educational programs, and student achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the effect of accountability policy characteristics on educational equity in Texas. Discussion on the issue of disagreement on shared contested construction; Views on accountability and educational equity; Evidence of increasing educational equity in public schools.

This paper advocates working carefully through a tactical, practical engagement with accountability policies for the purpose of increasing educational equity and social justice for children of colour and children from low-income families. It discusses the pervasiveness of systemic racism and its effects in US schools, and explores the complexity surrounding issues of accountability and the possible disruption of this racism. Also described is the possibility of a convergence of interests between supporters of accountability and advocates for social justice. Finally, evidence is presented, from state and school district levels in Texas, that increased educational equity can be leveraged through the careful use of some accountability measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the school accountability policy for education in Texas. Arguments by the critics of standardized tests; Debates on accountability and educational equity; Practices that increased achievement and improved equity for minority children.

Presents information on a study which examined deficit thinking in public school district leadership in Texas. Description of the theoretical framework; Methodology; Results and discussion.

Deals with the education of children of migrant laborers in the United States. Socio-economic conditions and exposure to pesticides of the workers and their children; Narratives of the migrant journey; Migrant adults' and their children's narratives; Contributions to the US economy.

This article focuses on municipal fiscal distress which is an emerging issue for state governments in the 1990s. The fiscal context within which municipalities across the country operate is to a large extent a product of the evolving fiscal relationship between and among federal, state, and local governments. On the federal level, the current incarnation of "new federalism," which originated in the U.S. President Richard Nixon and Jim Carter administrations but has reached new levels since 1980, has had far reaching and dramatic impacts on municipal governments across the country. While the authority of state governments was marginally increased in some areas, this movement has more frequently been characterized by significant increases in responsibilities in the form of federal mandates without commensurate national funding. In much the same way, state governments have passed on costs and unfunded mandates to their local governments. The impact of the loss of resources from the national government is evidenced in the General Accounting Office reports.

The article focuses on the changes in science education in elementary and secondary schools in the U.S. These changes in school science and in teacher education and collegiate programs generally have affected graduate centers of science education. Other problems of science programs included poor teachers, poor counseling, increasing average teacher age, reassignment of teachers to subjects outside their area of expertise, unionism, governmental control, and the shortage of science teachers. Limitations on budgets for science education were also mentioned as a problem for science education.

The article presents an analytical study that describes the professional quality of the faculty employed at the major programs at graduate science education centers in the U.S. After collecting the biographical and professional data of 168 school teachers, the study observed that the graduate faculty have common aspects as to age, sex, rank, academic training, past experience, research productivity, and professional involvement. Major concerns currently faced in science education include the stability in number of new staff employed at research centers and the multipurpose coverage of most centers. Thus, development projects and strategies were initiated for practice, expecting advantages from research findings as well as continuing dynamism and viability for both individuals and the profession.

The article discusses the survey of science educators regarding their views to problems faced in science education in the U.S. The study involves five groups which were represented by faculties of graduate institutions, graduate students, supervisors, and leadership conferees. Each of the group was provided with the same open-ended questions. Their responses were then categorized into six major groups such as conceptual, organizational, teacher-related, student-related, university, and societal. As tabulated, it was found that the most mentioned problem were more on conceptual issues. The second were on university-related and organizational problems.

Examines the structure of policy responses of state governments to municipal fiscal distress. Lack of reliable data on municipal governments that are experiencing distress; Multijurisdictional distress legislation.

The article reports on the statistical problems involving research in science education for the years 1968 to 1969 for Elementary School level conducted in the U.S. The author noted the same study done by Haney and his associates on 1965 to 1967. Weaknesses identified with the two studies include: lack of precise terminology, study of global variables that are poorly defined, brief treatment periods on unrepresentative populations and inadequate instruction. The current studies found two additional faults: first, quality of reporting is frequently poor and second; it concerns the broad area of experimental design.

The article focuses on the study that compares the effects of instruction presented in the individual, audio-tutorial mode and the familiar teacher-directed, a group mode, on third grade pupils in the U.S. The effect of the different instructional modes include pupils instructed individually in the audio-tutorial mode, will be distracted from tasks less than pupils who are instructed in a group. Furthermore, pupils who are individually instructed will demonstrate great achievement on the post-test than pupils who receive group instruction.

The article presents information on health care facilities in the U.S. A partial hospitalization program, a day treatment program sponsored by a northern New Jersey mental health center for adults with psychiatric disorders, developed a softball league in cooperation with other day programs in the area. The partial hospitalization program is a vocational rehabilitation program. Members are from 18 to 40 years old; 65 percent are female and 35 percent are male. The majority of the members have a diagnosis of schizophrenia or some other psychotic disorder. The softball team consists of members from the program. Members who choose not to participate attend the games to cheer the team on. The use of a planned activity to socialize, resocialize and provide therapy for individuals has a long and colorful history in social work practice. Programming can play a specific role in the clinical task on its own, not only a "time filling," substitute for psychiatric contacts during the rest of the day. Activities such as softball also have a high recreational value for group members. As is characteristic of individuals diagnosed as schizophrenic, the team members are often withdrawn, isolated and resistant to interacting with other people.

The article focuses on issues related to LGBTQ people in the society across the U.S. Topics discussed include an increase in proliferation of gay organizations in the U.S., development of antidiscrimination laws to protect LGBTQ people, increasing anti-homophobic attitudes of people across the U.S. and, acceptance of homosexual behavior of people.

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) national conference, Microbe, is the flagship meeting for microbiologists across the globe. The presence of roughly 10,000 attendees provides enormous opportunities for networking and learning. However, such a large meeting can be intimidating to many, especially early career scientists, students, those attending alone, and those from historically underrepresented groups. While mentorship is widely valued by ASM and its members, finding concrete ways to develop new and diverse mentoring opportunities can be a challenge. We recognized the need for an initiative aimed at expanding peer-to-peer mentoring, facilitating networking, and providing support for Microbe attendees; therefore, we created the program Binning Singletons for ASM Microbe 2019. The program consisted of five steps named after tools or phenomena in the profession of microbiology: (i) Identify the Singletons (e.g., individuals attending alone), (ii) Bin the Singletons, (iii) Horizontal Transfer, (iv) Quorum Sensing, and (v) Exponential Growth. These steps resulted in the matching of participants unsure of how to get the most out of their conference experience (e.g., singletons) with mentors who assisted with meeting planning, networking, and/or impostor syndrome. Started on social media only a month before ASM Microbe 2019, the program successfully launched despite limited time and resources. Binning Singletons improved inclusivity and networking opportunities for participants at the conference. Here, we discuss what worked, and what can be improved, with an eye toward development of the Binning Singletons model for future conferences to provide opportunities to increase inclusivity, networking, and accessibility for singletons and build a stronger scientific community.

Restoration of American chestnut ( Castanea dentata ) depends on combining resistance to both the chestnut blight fungus ( Cryphonectria parasitica ) and Phytophthora cinnamomi , which causes Phytophthora root rot, in a diverse population of C. dentata . Over a 14-year period (2004 to 2017), survival and root health of American chestnut backcross seedlings after inoculation with P. cinnamomi were compared among 28 BC 3 , 66 BC 4 , and 389 BC 3 F 3 families that descended from two BC 1 trees (Clapper and Graves) with different Chinese chestnut grandparents. The 5% most resistant Graves BC 3 F 3 families survived P. cinnamomi infection at rates of 75 to 100% but had mean root health scores that were intermediate between resistant Chinese chestnut and susceptible American chestnut families. Within Graves BC 3 F 3 families, seedling survival was greater than survival of Graves BC 3 and BC 4 families and was not genetically correlated with chestnut blight canker severity. Only low to intermediate resistance to P. cinnamomi was detected among backcross descendants from the Clapper tree. Results suggest that major-effect resistance alleles were inherited by descendants from the Graves tree, that intercrossing backcross trees enhances progeny resistance to P. cinnamomi , and that alleles for resistance to P. cinnamomi and C. parasitica are not linked. To combine resistance to both C. parasitica and P. cinnamomi , a diverse Graves backcross population will be screened for resistance to P. cinnamomi , survivors bred with trees selected for resistance to C. parasitica , and progeny selected for resistance to both pathogens will be intercrossed.

Purpose: Relatively little is known about how medical genetics is being taught in the undergraduate medical curriculum and whether educators concur regarding topical priority. This study sought to document the current state of medical genetics education in U.S. and Canadian accredited medical schools., Method: In August 2004, surveys were sent from the Indiana University School of Medicine to 149 U.S. and Canadian medical genetics course directors or curricular deans. Returned surveys were collected through June 2005. Participants were asked about material covered, number of contact hours, year in which the course was offered, and what department sponsored the course. Data were collated according to instructional method and course content., Results: The response rate was 75.2%. Most respondents (77%) taught medical genetics in the first year of medical school; only half (47%) reported that medical genetics was incorporated into the third and fourth years. About two thirds of respondents (62%) devoted 20 to 40 hours to medical genetics instruction, which was largely concerned with general concepts (86%) rather than practical application (11%). Forty-six percent of respondents reported teaching a stand-alone course versus 54% who integrated medical genetics into another course. Topics most commonly taught were cancer genetics (94.2%), multifactorial inheritance (91.3%), Mendelian disorders (90.3%), clinical cytogenetics (89.3%), and patterns of inheritance (87.4%)., Conclusions: The findings provide important baseline data relative to guidelines recently established by the Association of American Medical Colleges. Ultimately, improved genetics curricula will help train physicians who are knowledgeable and comfortable discussing and answering questions about genetics with their patients.