ADAMHA prevention policy and programs, 1979-1982.

Mode of access: Internet.

Voices of lay principals: Promoting a Catholic character and culture in schools in an era of change

This paper reports a qualitative study of the practice of leadership in Catholic schools to ascertain the perceptions of lay principals, who as positional leaders play a critical role in embracing and creatively rebuilding the Catholic vision of life within the reality that the Catholic school principalship is now a ministry of the laity. The methodology included semi-structured interviews, field notes, reflexive journals, direct observation, and document nalysis. The study examined both individual human behaviour and the structure of the social order in Catholic schools. The findings point towards successful leadership in Catholic schools being highly influenced by the cultural and spiritual capital that a principal brings to a school signifying a fundamental importance of appointing principals who are not only professionally competent but spiritually as well. In an era of unprecedented social, educational and ecclesial change, and with an ever widening role description, lay principals are challenged to redefine and re-articulate their Catholic character and identity, and will need to look for new ways to make this explicit. Embracing a new leadership paradigm of shared leadership, the preparation and on-going formation of lay principals were identified as critical for the continuance of the Catholic school’s distinctive mission in the future.

Implementing an inclusion policy in a primaryschool:findings and recommendations from a case study approach

This article is based on a case study carried out in a small inner-city primary school in the English south midlands. The key determinant of the research was to examine the factors affecting the progress of children in the school, assess the school's response and to make recommendations that would enhance good practice and undertake responsibilities under the Race Relations Act (2000). The focal point was children for whom English is an additional language (EAL). This article considers the relevance of such a study in gathering the views of EAL and minority ethnic parents, carers and professionals and how far it could be utilized by any school as part of a regular check to determine how well it is providing for their children.

A longitudinal study of Project Trio: A dropout prevention program in a large urban environment

The subject of dropout prevention/reduction is deservedly receiving attention as a problem that, if not resolved, could threaten our national future.^ This study investigates a small segment of the overall dropout problem, which has apparently unique features of program design and population selection. The evidence presented here should add to the knowledge bank of this complicated problem.^ Project Trio was one of a number of dropout prevention programs and activities which were conducted in Dade County school years 1984-85 and 1985-86, and it is here investigated longitudinally through the end of the 1987-88 school year. It involved 17 junior and senior high schools, and 27 programs, 10 the first year and 17 the second, with over 1,000 total students, who had been selected by the schools from a list of the "at risk" students provided by the district, and were divided approximately evenly into the classical research design of an experimental group and the control group, which following standard procedure was to take the regular school curriculum. No school had more than 25 students in either group.^ Each school modified the basic design of the project to accommodate the individual school characteristics and the perceived needs of their students; however all schools projects were to include some form of academic enhancement, counseling and career awareness study.^ The conclusion of this study was that the control group had a significantly lower dropout rate than the experimental group. Though impossible to make a certain determination of the reasons for this unexpected result, it appears from evidence presented that one cause may have been inadequate administration at the local level.^ This study was also a longitudinal investigation of the "at risk" population as a whole for the three and four year period, to determine if academic factors were present in records may be used to identify dropout proneness.^ A significant correlation was found between dropping out and various measures including scores on the Quality of School Life Instrument, attendance, grade point averages, mathematics grades, and overage in grade, important identifiers in selection for dropout prevention programs. ^

Pilot Implementation of a Heat Illness Prevention Program in the Southeastern US

Objective: To evaluate the ease of application of a heat illness prevention program (HIPP). Design: A mixed-method research design was used: questionnaire and semi-structured interview. Setting: Eleven South Florida high schools in August (mean ambient temperature=84.0°F, mean relative humidity=69.5%) participated in the HIPP. Participants: Certified Athletic Trainers (AT) (n=11; age=22.2+1.2yr; 63.6% female, 36.4% male; 63.6%) implemented the HIPP with their football athletes which included a pre-screening tool, the Heat Illness Index Score- Risk Assessment. Data Collection and Analysis: Participants completed a 17-item questionnaire, 4 of which provided space for open-ended responses. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were voice recorded, and separately transcribed. Results: Three participants (27.7%) were unable to implement the HIPP with any of their athletes. Of the 7 participants (63.6%) who implemented the HIPP to greater than 50% of their athletes, a majority reported that the HIPP was difficult (54.5%) or exceedingly difficult (18.2%) to implement. Lack of appropriate instrumentation (81.8%, n=9/11), lack of coaching staff/administrative support (54.5%, n=6/11), insufficient support staff (54.5%, n=6/11), too many athletes (45.5%, n=5/11), and financial restrictions (36.4%, n=4/11) deterred complete implementation of the HIPP. Conclusions: Because AT in the high school setting often lack the resources, time, and coaches’ support to identify risk factors, predisposing athletes to exertional heat Illnesses (EHI) researchers should develop and validate a suitable screening tool. Further, ATs charged with the health care of high school athletes should seek out prevention programs and screening tools to identify high-risk athletes and monitor athletes throughout exercise in extreme environments.

Pushed to the Edge: Inclusion and Behaviour Support in Schools

While debates rage about educational inequality and the best way to tackle attainment gaps, a pervasive form of inschool segregation is going largely unremarked upon. Internal behaviour support units have become common fixtures in British schools. Young people may be removed from mainstream classrooms for weeks, months or even years to undergo rehabilitative programmes that incur little monitoring or oversight. This original book is the first to provide a detailed insight into the politics and practices of internal school exclusion, highlighted through the experiences of the young people attending the units. Ambitious in its scope, it draws on intensive ethnographic research with pupils, their teachers and parents to address broad questions around social justice, equal opportunities and institutional racism. It will appeal to students, researchers and practitioners in education, social policy, sociology and beyond.

Evaluating the Portuguese National Reading Plan: teachers’ perceptions on the impact in schools

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10671-014-9171-y

The public management issues of access to electronic gaming machines (EGMs) : a case study of policy in Victoria, its effects and requirements for evaluation

Wynne and Schaffer (2003) have highlighted both the strong growth of gambling activity in recent years, and the revenue streams this has generated for governments and communities. Gambling activities and the revenues derived from them have, unsurprisingly, therefore also been seen as a way in which to increase economic development in deprived areas (Jinkner-Lloyd, 1996). Consequently, according to Brown et al (2003), gambling is now a large taxation revenue earner for many western governments, at both federal and state levels, worldwide (for example UK, USA, Australia). In size and importance, the Australian gambling industry in particular has grown significantly over the last three decades, experiencing a fourfold increase in real gambling turnover. There are, however, also concerns expressed about gambling and Electronic Gaming in particular, as illustrated in economic, social and ethical terms in Oddo (1997). There are also spatial aspects to understanding these issues. Marshall’s (1998) study, for example, highlights that benefits from gambling are more likely to accrue at the macro as opposed to the local level, because of centralised tax gathering and spending of tax revenues, whilst localities may suffer from displacement of activities with higher multipliers than the institutions with EGMs that replace them. This also highlights a regional context of costs, where benefits accrue to the centre, but the costs accrue to the regions and localities, as simultaneously resources leave those communities through both the gambling activities themselves (in the form of revenue for the EGM owners), and the government (through taxes).

Critical Literacies in Schools : A Primer

Readers and writers use a variety of modes of inscription – print, oral and multimedia – to understand, analyze, critique and transform their social, cultural and political worlds. Beginning from Freire (1970), ‘critical literacy’ has become a theoretically diverse educational project, drawing from reader response theory, linguistic and grammatical analysis from critical linguistics, feminist, poststructuralist, postcolonial and critical race theory, and cultural and media studies. In the UK, Australia, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and the US different approaches to critical literacy have been developed in curriculum and schools. These focus on social and cultural analysis and on how print and digital texts and discourses work, with a necessary and delicate tension between classroom emphasis on student and community cultural ‘voice’ and social analysis – and on explicit engagement with the technical features and social uses of written and multimodal texts.

Senior management teams in schools : understanding their dynamics, enhancing their effectiveness

Increasingly it has been argued that senior management teams (SMTs), comprising principals, deputy heads and other personnel, play a critical role in the governance of schools. In recent years, many researchers have drawn upon the tools of micropolitics to illuminate the relationships, dynamics and power plays between and amongst members of SMTs. The paper has two foci. Firstly, it overviews some of the seminal literature in the field of SMTs and micropolitics in an attempt to identify the working practices of and challenges facing members of SMTs. Secondly, it discusses an instrument, the TEAM Development Questionnaire, that emerged from a synthesis of this writing and research. The questionnaire presented here was especially devised to use with members of SMTs to help them (i) identify the dynamics amongst team members; and (ii) identify areas for the team to improve. A set of procedures for implementing the TEAM Development Questionnaire is provided to demonstrate its application to the field.