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Researchers have sought for decades to automate holistic essay scoring. Over the years, these programs have improved significantly. However, accuracy requires significant amounts of training on human-scored texts—reducing the expediency and usefulness of such programs for routine uses by teachers across the nation on non-standardized prompts. This study analyzes the output of multiple versions of ChatGPT scoring of secondary student essays from three extant corpora and compares it to quality human ratings. We find that the current iteration of ChatGPT scoring is not statistically significantly different from human scoring; substantial agreement with humans is achievable and may be sufficient for low-stakes, formative assessment purposes. However, as large language models evolve additional research will be needed to continue to assess their aptitude for this task as well as determine whether their proximity to human scoring can be improved through prompting or training.

The California Genetic Disease Screening Program (GDSP) employs a fixed immunoreactive trypsinogen (IRT) cutoff followed by molecular testing to screen newborns for cystic fibrosis (CF). The cutoffs approximate a 1.6% yearly IRT screen-positive rate; however, seasonal variation in IRT population means has led us to develop a model to establish fixed IRT cutoffs that anticipate seasonal variation and minimize missed cases below cutoff. We utilized an ARIMA model to fit monthly IRT screen-positive percentiles and estimated regular seasonal expectations. We established a retrospective cohort followed for at least 1.5 years to capture missed false-negative CF cases. We compared missed CF cases identified by seasonal cutoffs vs. floating cutoffs. GDSP screened 7,410,003 newborns, from July 2007 to December 2022, and missed 36 CF cases below the fixed cutoff; five of the 36 were within 3 ng/mL below the cutoff. There was a regular, seasonal cycle that varied from 1.4% in summer to 1.8% in winter. We would have missed 59 CF cases using a 1.6% daily floating cutoff. California would need to use a 4% daily floating cutoff to improve our current detection rate, which would double the number of specimens sent for costly molecular analysis.

Motivational beliefs, such as writing self-efficacy and attitude toward writing, are believed to foster or hinder writing by influencing if one chooses to write, how much effort is committed to writing, and what cognitive resources writers apply. In the current study, we examined self-efficacy for writing self-regulation and attitude toward writing of 2,124 Grade 2 Norwegian students (1,069 girls; 1,055 boys). We investigated if there were differences in each of these beliefs between girls and boys and students who differed in their language status (Norwegian first language, Norwegian and another language both first language, or language other than Norwegian first language). We further tested if each of these writing motivational beliefs made statistically unique contributions to predicting the quality of students’ writing. In each of these analyses, we controlled for variance related to individual- and school factors. Girls were more positive about writing than boys, and they were confident about their abilities to self-regulate writing. Students with Norwegian and another language both as first language (“bilingual” students) had a more positive attitude toward writing than the other two language groups. Efficacy for writing self-regulation and attitude toward writing both made statistically significant unique contributions to predicting the quality of students writing, although these two writing beliefs collectively accounted for just 2% of the variance in writing quality scores once individual- and school-factors were controlled. Recommendations for future research and implications of the finding are discussed.

The clinical prioritisation criteria (CPC) are a clinical decision support tool that ensures patients referred for public specialist outpatient services to Queensland Health are assessed according to their clinical urgency. Medical referrals are manually triaged and prioritised into three categories by the associated health service before appointments are booked. We have developed a method using artificial intelligence to automate the process of categorizing medical referrals based on clinical prioritization criteria (CPC) guidelines. Using machine learning techniques, we have created a tool that can assist clinicians in sorting through the substantial number of referrals they receive each year, leading to more efficient use of clinical specialists' time and improved access to healthcare for patients. Our research included analyzing 17,378 ENT referrals from two hospitals in Queensland between 2019 and 2022. Our results show a level of agreement between referral categories and generated predictions of 53.8%.

Writing teachers play an extraordinarily important role in their students’ writing development. Teachers’ motivational beliefs, such as attitudes toward writing, perceptions of their efficacy to teach writing, or preparation to use evidence-based instructional practices, impact their writing instruction, which directly affects the advancement of students’ writing skills. Deaf writers are a subpopulation of writers who may face discriminatory beliefs toward their writing development stemming from ableism, audism, or linguicism. Deaf education teachers may doubt their abilities to teach bilingual/multilingual students or teach deaf students experiencing language deprivation. The current study investigates whether deaf education teachers’ beliefs can be fostered through an intensive one-year professional development (PD) program designed specifically for deaf education teachers. In this randomized controlled trial, we examine the extent to which the participation of deaf education teachers in specialized PD and subsequent writing instruction implementation (n = 26) impacts their pedagogical content knowledge, use of evidence-based practices for teaching writing, interest, attitudes, efficacy in teaching writing, and epistemological beliefs about writing compared to teachers in a business as usual condition (n = 24). Pre-post regression analyses indicate statistically significant group differences (with the treatment group scoring higher) on all variables except attitude and some epistemological beliefs. We speculate that specialized, sustained PD paired with supported implementation of writing instruction and ongoing teacher reflection are contributing factors to changes in teachers’ motivational beliefs.

IntroductionTraditional evaluation procedure in National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) relies on visually assessing replicated turf plots at multiple testing locations. This process yields ordinal data; however, statistical models that falsely assume these to be interval or ratio data have almost exclusively been applied in the subsequent analysis. This practice raises concerns about procedural subjectivity, preventing objective comparisons of cultivars across different test locations. It may also lead to serious errors, such as increased false alarms, failures to detect effects, and even inversions of differences among groups.MethodsWe reviewed this problem, identified sources of subjectivity, and presented a model-based approach to minimize subjectivity, allowing objective comparisons of cultivars across different locations and better monitoring of the evaluation procedure. We demonstrate how to fit the described model in a Bayesian framework with Stan, using datasets on overall turf quality ratings from the 2017 NTEP Kentucky bluegrass trials at seven testing locations.ResultsCompared with the existing method, ours allows the estimation of additional parameters, i.e., category thresholds, rating severity, and within-field spatial variations, and provides better separation of cultivar means and more realistic standard deviations.DiscussionTo implement the proposed model, additional information on rater identification, trial layout, rating date is needed. Given the model assumptions, we recommend small trials to reduce rater fatigue. For large trials, ratings can be conducted for each replication on multiple occasions instead of all at once. To minimize subjectivity, multiple raters are required. We also proposed new ideas on temporal analysis, incorporating existing knowledge of turfgrass.

Writing presents considerable challenges to students’ motivation. Yet there is a dearth of studies assessing the role of affect and motivation in writing performance for students with migration backgrounds (MB), who often underachieve in writing. Our study addressed this research gap by investigating the interplay between writing self-efficacy, writing anxiety, and text quality in 208 secondary students with and without MB using Response Surface Analyses. The data showed comparable levels of self-efficacy and, notably, lower writing anxiety levels among students with MB despite lower writing achievements. In the full sample, we observed positive correlations between self-efficacy and text quality and negative correlations between writing anxiety and text quality. When modeling efficacy and anxiety measures and their interplay to predict text quality, self-efficacy measures continued to account for statistically detectable unique variance in text quality, whereas writing anxiety did not. However, students with MB demonstrated differing interplay patterns, with less efficacious students with MB showing positive relations between writing anxiety and text quality.

To investigate COVID-19 surveillance among pregnant women, the California Genetic Disease Screening Program conducted a screening performance and seroprevalence evaluation of maternal SARS-CoV-2 antibodies detected in banked newborn dried blood spots (DBS). We obtained seropositive results for 2890 newborn DBS from cohorts in 2020 and 2021 using Enable Bioscience’s Antibody Detection by Agglutination-PCR (ADAP) assay for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. To infer maternal infection, we linked 312 women with a known laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 episode with their newborn’s DBS SARS-CoV-2 antibody result. Among 2890 newborns, we detected 453 (15.7%) with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in their DBS. Monthly snapshot statewide seroprevalence among neonates was 12.2% (95% CI 10.3–14.1%, n =1156) in December 2020 and 33.3% (95% CI 29.1–37.4%, n = 26) in March 2021. The longest time recorded from COVID-19 infection to a seropositive neonatal result was 11.7 months among the 312 mothers who had an available SARS-CoV-2 PCR test result. Approximately 94% (153/163) of DBS were seropositive when a known maternal infection occurred earlier than 19 days before birth. The estimated relative sensitivity of DBS to identify prevalent maternal infection was 85.1%, specificity 98.5% and PPV 99.2% (n = 312); the sensitivity was lowest during the December 2021 surge when many infections occurred within 19 days of birth. Fifty pre-pandemic specimens (100% seronegative) and 23 twin-pair results (100% concordant) support an intrinsic specificity and PPV of ADAP approaching 100%. Maternal infection surveillance is limited by a time lag prior to delivery, especially during pandemic surges.

The purpose of this study was to examine the writing performance and motivational beliefs of students who were identified by their school district as English language learners. The study included 880 students (463 girls; 417 boys) in grades three to eight who wrote an informative/explanatory essay on information technology and completed a motivational survey assessing their intrinsic, extrinsic, and self-regulation incentives for writing. Ninety-seven percent of students’ scores on the writing measure did not meet grade-level proficiency for writing, girls received higher scores than boys, and writing scores generally increased across the six grade-levels. A majority of students agreed that intrinsic and extrinsic incentives drive their writing behavior, but only 38% of students indicated that self-regulation incentives had such an effect. Gender was not related to students’ motivational scores, but scores for the three motivational incentives declined from lower to higher grades. Recommendations for future research and suggestions for classroom practice were provided.

Abstract Background People in close contact with tuberculosis should have screening and appropriate management, as an opportunity for active case detection and prevention. However, implementation of tuberculosis contact screening and management is limited in high-burden settings. Behaviour change is needed across three levels of the healthcare system—policymakers, healthcare providers, and patients. To bridge the wide policy-practice gap, this study draws on the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, the Behaviour Change Wheel, and the RE-AIM model (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) to respectively understand barriers, implement change, and evaluate process and outcome. Methods This methods paper describes a mixed-methods intervention study in Eastern Indonesia. Quantitative data will be collected during baseline, intervention, and sustainability periods and analyzed using time series analysis. The primary outcome is the number of individuals completing tuberculosis preventive therapy by the end of the two-year intervention phase. Of an estimated 10,000 contacts during this period, we anticipate that a minimum of 416 will be found to have active TB or will complete preventive therapy. Qualitative data (semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and observations) will be collected from consenting healthcare providers, patients, and contacts. Activities to promote policy implementation include healthcare provider training, quarterly continuous quality improvement workshops, a social media discussion forum, and promotional materials. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research will be used to identify reasons for limited policy implementation at baseline. The Behaviour Change Wheel will be used to ensure that a suitable range of activities are implemented to facilitate change. The RE-AIM model will be used as the evaluation framework. Discussion Use of theoretical frameworks in combination can ensure a comprehensive understanding of, and robust response to, health policy underimplementation. The selected frameworks are highly applicable to this pragmatic intervention study, in a setting where End TB Strategy targets will not be met without substantial behavior change within health systems. Continuous quality improvement cycles will provide a way to engage staff and stakeholders in understanding local data to motivate behavior change. If successful, up to 500 people could be prevented from developing complications of tuberculosis through early case-finding or receiving preventive therapy over a two-year period. Study registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Register 375803.

The current study examined the effectiveness of a "writing is caught" approach with young developing writers in Norway. This method is based on the premise that writing competence is acquired naturally through real use in meaningful contexts. Our longitudinal randomized control trial study tested this proposition by examining if increasing first grade students' opportunities to write in various genres for different purposes and for a range of audiences over a two-year time period improved the quality of their writing, handwriting fluency, and attitude towards writing. The study included data from 942 students (50.1% girls) in 26 schools randomly assigned to the experimental treatment, and 743 students (50.6% girls) in 25 schools randomly assigned to the business-as-usual (BAU) control condition. Across Grades 1 and 2, experimental teachers were asked to supplement their typical writing instruction by implementing 40 writing activities designed to increase students' purposeful writing. Increasing experimental students' writing over the two-year period did not result in statistically detectable differences in the writing quality, handwriting fluency, and attitude towards writing of students in the experimental and BAU control conditions. These findings did not provide support for the effectiveness of the "writing is caught" approach. Implications for theory, research, and practiced are discussed.

This study examined if in-class, online, and hybrid (in-class and on-line) instruction provided to middle and high school students in the U.S. differed during the third school year of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also provided a description of how writing was taught to secondary students. Thirty-eight middle and high school teachers (32 female, 6 male), who mostly taught languages arts (84%), were asked to complete a survey each day during the 2020/2021 school year for a single class that best represented how they taught writing. The survey included questions about mode of instruction (in-class at school, online, and hybrid), whether writing or writing instruction was provided that day, and if so, whether 11 specific writing activities occurred. Teachers completed 2676 surveys, and their responses indicated there was only one statistically detectable difference between in-class, online, and hybrid lessons in terms of the proportion of lessons that included each of the targeted writing activities or the time devoted to them. The only difference involved creating digital written products, which occurred more often in hybrid lessons than at school in-class lessons, but not more often in online lessons One significant finding across all reported lessons was that teachers devoted little time to teaching writing. Writing and writing instruction did not occur in close to one-third of all lessons; teachers typically included only one writing activity in a lesson; and an average of just 19 min a lesson was devoted to the targeted writing activities.

Writing is a particularly complex and demanding task that needs to be mastered to assure students’ success at school. In the last decades, the scientific community has been unanimous about the involvement of cognitive and motivational processes in the learning of writing. However, little is still known about some motivation-related processes, such as the reasons why students write. Therefore, this study analyzed the role of motivation in writing in developing writers, by examining the motives to write of 321 sixth graders. We used the Writing Motivation Questionnaire, which is a new instrument tapping the following motivations for writing: curiosity, involvement, grades, competition, social recognition, emotional regulation, and relief from boredom. Findings confirmed the multidimensional nature of motivations to write and supported the validity and reliability of the instrument. Also, results revealed that the strongest motives to write were grades and curiosity, and that curiosity and social recognition were significant predictors of writing quality, above and beyond attitudes and self-efficacy. Together these findings confirm the key role of motivation in writing and provide validity evidence of the Writing Motivation Questionnaire. This seems a useful tool to better understand the motivational processes involved in learning to write. However, despite the increasing research investment in this area, it is still important to carry out further studies that may contribute to the enrichment of the field of writing motivation.

The emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) poses a major threat to the global targets for TB control. In recent years, an evolving science and evidence base for MDR-TB has led to much needed changes in international guidelines promoting the use of newer TB drugs and regimens for MDR-TB, however, there remains a significant implementation gap. Due to the complexity of treating MDR-TB, management of cases is often supported by an expert multidisciplinary team, or clinical expert group. This service is often centralized, and may be delivered through a telemedicine platform. We have implemented a Web-based “store-and-forward” telemedicine service to optimize MDR-TB patient care in Daru, a remote and resource limited setting in Papua New Guinea (PNG). From April 2016 to February 2019, 237 cases were discussed using the service. This encompassed diagnostic (presumptive) and treatment cases, and more recently, support to the scale up of preventative therapy for latent TB infection. There were 75 cases in which the use of Bedaquiline was discussed or mentioned, with a high frequency of discussions occurring in the initial period (26 cases in the first 12 months), which has appeared to decrease as clinicians gained familiarity with use of the drug (15 cases in the last 12 months). This service has supported high quality clinical care and fostered collaboration between clinicians and technical experts in a shared learning environment.

The current study replicated an earlier investigation by Bouwer and van der Veen (2023) where 10 Grade 5 and 6 classrooms in the Netherlands (210 students) were randomly assigned to a treatment or control condition, with treatment students evidencing improvements in the quality of their essays after practice writing argumentative essays, reading and discussing them with a small group of peers, and revising each essay based on the discussion that ensued. In the present study, 12 Grade 2 to 4 classrooms in Türkiye (383 students) were randomly assigned to this write, talk, and rewrite dialogic treatment or to a control condition. Students in the control condition practiced planning and writing the same four argumentative essays as treatment students did during the experiment, and each of these essays was shared with peers (time spent in both conditions was comparable). Control students did not, however, discuss their essay with peers or use such feedback to revise them as was done by students in the write, talk, and rewrite dialogic treatment. When the nested nature of the data and pretest scores were held constant, the quality of the argumentative posttest essays produced by students in the treatment condition evidenced greater improvement than essays written by control students. The same outcome was obtained for the length of essays (number of words) when the nested nature of the data and pretest scores were held constant. This investigation provided evidence that the write, talk, and rewrite dialogic intervention tested by Bouwer and van der Veen (2023) was effective in improving the argumentative writing of even younger students in a different country. Implications for research and practice are provided.

Writing is a critical skill for success in all areas of life, but it is one of the least taught skills in school. Teachers consistently report being unprepared to teach writing. In this study, set in a Southern U.S. boomtown, teachers received two days of practice-based professional development for a ten-week implementation of self-regulated strategy development (SRSD), an evidence-based writing intervention, to support student persuasive and informational writing as well as performance on the state standardized writing exam. This multi-site cluster randomized controlled study evaluated the effectiveness of SRSD on student writing outcomes including prompt adherence, elements, and holistic quality. Multilevel modeling analysis was used to evaluate data from 418 fourth-grade students (256 treatment, 162 control) nested across 33 classes (n = 17 treatment taught by 8 departmentalized teachers; 16 control, 9 departmentalized teachers) within 11 schools randomly assigned to condition. Teachers implemented SRSD with high fidelity (M = 92%; range 91-100%). SRSD had a statistically significant and large effect on prompt adherence (p < 0.001; Hedges' g = 1.87), elements (p < 0.001; Hedges' g = 0.84) and holistic scores (p < 0.001; Hedges' g = 0.87), while holding gender and pretest scores constant. Effects of SRSD on all writing measures were not significantly moderated by students' gender, students' pretest scores, or schools' pretest scores. There were complications with teacher observations, especially related to technology. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

A new validation metric is proposed that combines the use of a threshold based on the uncertainty in the measurement data with a normalized relative error, and that is robust in the presence of large variations in the data. The outcome from the metric is the probability that a model's predictions are representative of the real world based on the specific conditions and confidence level pertaining to the experiment from which the measurements were acquired. Relative error metrics are traditionally designed for use with a series of data values, but orthogonal decomposition has been employed to reduce the dimensionality of data matrices to feature vectors so that the metric can be applied to fields of data. Three previously published case studies are employed to demonstrate the efficacy of this quantitative approach to the validation process in the discipline of structural analysis, for which historical data were available; however, the concept could be applied to a wide range of disciplines and sectors where modelling and simulation play a pivotal role.

Writing intervention research can enhance our knowledge about writing, its development, and how to teach it effectively. Despite the importance of such research, many of the writing intervention studies conducted previously were of poor quality, as documented by Graham and colleagues in a series of meta-analyses (Graham, McKeown, Kiuhara, & Harris, 2012; Graham & Perin, 2007; Rogers & Graham, 2008). In this article, we offer 12 recommendations for conducting high quality intervention research, recommendations that draw on those meta-analyses as well as previous work on improving the quality of intervention research (Pressley & Harris, 1994a, 1994b) and our experiences as writing intervention researchers and editors of journals that publish intervention research (including the Journal of Writing Research) . The recommendations address issues and actions involved in designing, conducting, and reporting such research.

Indonesia has the third highest tuberculosis (TB) caseload internationally. A cornerstone for strengthening health systems to respond to TB is a well-trained workforce. In a partnership between Indonesian and Australian institutions, TB training was run during 2018 to strengthen the local capacity to meet End TB strategy targets. This paper aims to report on course design, delivery, training outcomes, and reflections. Seventy-six Indonesian healthcare workers, program staff, researchers, and policy-makers were selected from over 800 applicants. The structure comprised three trainings, each with a pre-course workshop (in Indonesia) to identify learning needs, a two-week block (Australia), and a post-course workshop (Indonesia). The training content delivered was a combination of TB technical knowledge and program/project theory, design, and logic, and the training utilised multiple teaching and learning methods. An innovative element of the training was participant-designed TB workplace projects focusing on context-specific priorities. Evaluation was undertaken using participant surveys and appraisal of the projects. Participants rated the course highly, while success in project implementation varied. Reflections include the importance of involving Indonesian experts in delivery of training, the need to understand participant learning requirements and adapt the training content accordingly, and the challenge of measuring tangible training outputs.

Seventy-five general and 65 special education teachers working in the same 65 elementary schools in 12 different U.S. school districts were surveyed about their mindsets concerning the malleability of writing and intelligence as well as their practices for teaching writing. All teachers taught writing to one or more fourth-grade students receiving special education services, including students with learning disabilities. Both general and special education teachers typically held a growth mindset toward the malleability of writing and intelligence. Collectively, these teachers' mindsets predicted writing frequency (i.e., frequency of students' writing) and how often they taught writing skills and processes once variance due to teachers' preparation, efficacy to teach writing, teaching experience, and type of teacher was first controlled. The observed relationships between teachers' mindsets and reported practices for teaching writing were not mediated by type of teacher (i.e., general or special education). General and special education teachers did not differ in writing frequency for three types of writing collectively (narrative, informative, and persuasive) or how frequently they made 18 adaptations for teaching writing collectively, but general education teachers reported teaching writing skills and processes more often than their special education counterparts. Recommendations for future research and implications for practice are presented.