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This paper examines how organisations have increasingly been portrayed in textbooks as solving social problems as well as contributing to national development. Findings from 527 Canadian and U.S. textbooks illustrate the rise of an organisational society during the time period between 1836 and 2011. Discussions of for-profit and non-profit forms of organisations rise early on in both countries, creating the foundation for an organisational society, which expands to incorporate global organisations in the post-World War II period. We argue that such portrayals in textbooks both reflect and legitimise the role of organisations in society, strengthening their taken-for-granted status as social actors. [This paper was published in "Globalisation, Societies and Education" v19 n1 p7-22 2021 (EJ1283872).]

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused one of the worst economic crises since the Great Depression. Although countries responded quickly to support displaced workers with assistance packages and funding for education and training, additional measures might be needed. Each country's economic recovery will most likely depend on how well its workforce is prepared to meet the needs of the changed labor market. Providing workers with opportunities to upskill or reskill is of major importance in meeting these challenges and improving low- and middle-skilled workers' reemployment prospects. This qualitative study examines measures taken in response to COVID-19 in adult education and training (AET) in seven countries. The findings are based on key informant interviews with international experts and online sources they provided. Some countries have increased government funding for vocational and continuing education or offered financial support for post-secondary students while others have provided funds to employers to offer training and retraining for their employees. [This paper was published in: "Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning" v23 n1 p201-210 Jun 2021.]

A large percentage of adults throughout the world have low reading skills. Computer technologies can potentially help these adults improve their literacy in addition to instructors at literacy centers. AutoTutor was designed to teach comprehension strategies by implementing conversational "trialogues" in which two computer agents (tutor and peer) hold spoken interactions with the adult about words, sentences, and text in digital lessons. The agents model comprehension strategies, ask questions, and give feedback on adult answers. AutoTutor records in log files the adults' performance, namely the time and accuracy of answering questions in the conversation. We assessed the value of AutoTutor in a study with 52 adult literacy students in the United States and Canada who interacted with AutoTutor as part of a 4-month intervention with human instructors. Performance in AutoTutor was tracked at four theoretical discourse levels (words, explicit textbase, conceptual situation model, rhetorical structure) and also engagement, with an objective psychometric measure of comprehension skill both before and after the intervention. The results showed that AutoTutor provides nuanced performance and engagement measures that predicted comprehension improvements and can be used to guide formative assessment for instructors. [This paper was published in "Revista Signos" v54 n107 p1089-1113 2021.]

Access to lifelong learning opportunities has long been discussed in terms of the economic benefits conferred by access to and engagement in further education by members of the labor force, particularly within the global knowledge economy. However, equitable access to lifelong education opportunities, particularly for low-skilled adults in the labor force, has been lacking. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) identified three models for funding adult learning: (1) individual learning accounts; (2) individual savings accounts; and (3) training vouchers. The current study discusses examples of these models, either proposed or implemented, across four countries or economic blocks - France, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In addition, to understand the importance of providing funding for education and training to adults with low levels literacy skills, we use data from the Program for the International Assessment for Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to compare participation in adult education and training (AET) by literacy skill levels. In all countries examined, adults with low literacy skills participated in AET at lower rates than those with middle and high levels of literacy skills. To be successful in reaching adults most in need of skill upgrading, financing models need to provide adequate funds for meaningful skill upgrades, have well-structured information sources (e.g., websites) that are easily navigated by the target population, and include policies to screen educational providers for program quality. [This paper will be published in "Adult Learning."]

The Simple View of Reading (SVR), which posits that reading comprehension is the product of decoding and linguistic comprehension, has been studied extensively with school-age readers. However, little is known about the intricacies of the SVR for adults who struggle with reading. The current study addresses notable gaps in this literature, including the dimensionality of linguistic comprehension, the interaction between the two SVR components, and the relative contributions of components across different reading proficiency levels. With a sample of 392 struggling adult readers, confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the linguistic comprehension component encompasses the highly related yet separable constructs of oral vocabulary and listening comprehension. Structural equation modeling showed significant main effects of decoding and listening comprehension, but not oral vocabulary, on reading comprehension. Additionally, the interaction between the SVR components did not uniquely contribute to variance in reading comprehension. Quantile regression models demonstrated that the unique effects of the SVR components were relatively stable in magnitude across different levels of reading comprehension performance. Implications for instruction and future research are discussed. [This is the in press version of a paper that will be published in "Journal of Learning Disabilities."]

Automation and advanced technologies have increased the need for a better understanding of the skills necessary to have a globally competitive workforce. This study used data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies to compare problem solving skills in technology rich environments among adults in South Korea, Germany, Singapore, Japan, Canada, Estonia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. Overall, the United States had the lowest scores among all countries, and in all countries scores declined with age. The United States had higher proportions of survey participants in the lowest skill category and lower proportions in the top skill categories. The results of this study suggest changes in the United States educational and lifelong learning systems and policies may be necessary to ensure all adults have the necessary skills in a competitive workforce. [The paper will be published in "Adult Learning".]

Biased sampling occurs frequently in economics, epidemiology, and medical studies either by design or due to data collecting mechanism. Failing to take into account the sampling bias usually leads to incorrect inference. We propose a unified estimation procedure and a computationally fast resampling method to make statistical inference for quantile regression with survival data under general biased sampling schemes, including but not limited to the length-biased sampling, the case-cohort design, and variants thereof. We establish the uniform consistency and weak convergence of the proposed estimator as a process of the quantile level. We also investigate more efficient estimation using the generalized method of moments and derive the asymptotic normality. We further propose a new resampling method for inference, which differs from alternative procedures in that it does not require to repeatedly solve estimating equations. It is proved that the resampling method consistently estimates the asymptotic covariance matrix. The unified framework proposed in this article provides researchers and practitioners a convenient tool for analyzing data collected from various designs. Simulation studies and applications to real datasets are presented for illustration. Supplementary materials for this article are available online. [This paper was published in "Journal of the American Statistical Association" v112 n520 p1571-1586 2017.]

This review examines four books that may offer some insight into what the discussion about educational policy, reform, and performance may look like after the era of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Collectively, "The Allure of Order: High Hopes, Dashed Expectations, and the Troubled Quest to Remake American Schooling" by Jal Mehta, "Too Many Children Left Behind: The US Achievement Gap in Comparative Perspective" by Bruce Bradbury and colleagues, "Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools" by Amanda E. Lewis and John B. Diamond; and "Toxic Schools: High-Poverty Education in New York and Amsterdam" by Bowen Paulle show that concerns with school accountability are now embedded in broader discussions about the importance of investing in children, families, and schools and how the internal dynamics of schools either support or frustrate those investments. We hope that these works represent a trend toward thinking that is less a historical and reductionist and more empirically grounded than some of the thinking driving educational reforms when No Child Left Behind was passed. [This paper was published in "Social Service Review" v90 n3 Sep 2016.]

Research has shown principal support to be a critical variable for implementing and sustaining evidence-based practices. However, there remains little understanding of the factors that may influence a principal's personal decision to support a practice. The purpose of the current study was to examine events that influenced principals' support for a widely-used approach to behavior in schools, school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS). In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 school administrators who self-reported that they were initially opposed to or not supportive of PBIS but became stronger supporters over time. Qualitative analysis using the Enhanced Critical Incident Technique revealed eight helping and three hindering categories of experiences in change in support, as well as two categories of early experiences that they reported might have built their support from the beginning. Implications for enhancing administrator support are provided. [This paper was published in "Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions" (EJ1092466).]

The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify, categorize, and describe practitioners' perspectives regarding factors that help and hinder sustainability of Tier I (universal) systems within School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS). Seventeen participants involved in sustaining Tier I SWPBIS over several years within a school district were interviewed and asked what events affected its long-term implementation through a qualitative approach called Critical Incident Technique. Two hundred and twenty-seven critical incidents were recorded and sorted into emergent unitary clusters based on content analysis. These categories then underwent rigorous reliability and validity checks, including expert analysis, inter-rater agreement, and participant feedback. This process yielded 13 categories that represent the participants' experience of sustainability: Continuous Teaching, Positive Reinforcement, SWPBIS Team Effectiveness, Staff Ownership, School Administrator Involvement, Adaptation, Community of Practice, Use of Data, Involving New Personnel, Access to External Expertise, Maintaining Priority, Staff Turnover, and Conflict of Personal Beliefs/Mistaken Beliefs. [This paper was published in "Journal of Special Education" v49 n3 p157-167 2015.]