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Background: School-based health centers (SBHCs) fill critical pediatric health care access gaps but typically require parental consent for enrollment. Families' responses to SBHC consent form outreach efforts may reflect broader school engagement. This study investigated whether SBHC consent form return predicted subsequent chronic absenteeism and school transition, indicators of student and family school engagement. Methods: Multivariable logistic regression was used to compare the odds of being chronically absent or transitioning out of a US elementary/middle school (n = 1917) during 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 for those who declined SBHC enrollment or did not return a consent form, compared to those who enrolled. Results: Compared to enrolled students, those who declined had 78% lower odds of chronic absenteeism [95% CI: 0.09, 0.54]. Families who did not respond had 2.8 times greater odds of their student transitioning out of school [95% CI: 2.15, 3.58] but were no more likely to be chronically absent. Conclusions: Consent form return may predict aspects of broader students and family school engagement.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether a networked mentoring program aligned with the racial/cultural identity development model could mitigate social isolation and promote a sense of belonging among first-year racial and ethnic minority Doctor of Physical Therapy students. Mentoring teams consisted of a first-year minority student, a faculty mentor, and a second-year minority peer mentor. First-year mentees described feeling more connected to the institution through interactions with peer and faculty mentors in mentoring sessions and networking events. Faculty mentors demonstrated a significant increase in cross-cultural psychological capital throughout the six-month intervention period. Peer mentors articulated their professional growth through participating in the networked mentoring model, highlighting the reciprocal benefits associated with mentoring.

The increased use of smartphones and tablets sets the stage for new mobile-based educational programs that seek to increase student learning and engagement in school and at home. This study examines the effectiveness of Escribo Play, a game-enhanced educational program, on preschool students' phonological awareness, word reading, and writing skills. The randomized controlled trial was conducted with 749 students from 62 classrooms from 17 schools located in five cities. Quantitative pretesting and posttesting procedures using standardized instruments were employed. The results indicate that the experimental classrooms that used the 20 games for 3 months gained 68% in their reading scores compared to control classrooms (d = 0.40). They also gained 48% more in writing scores (d = 0.20). Multilevel analysis indicated that these findings were statistically significant.

Transformative teacher education: is there such a thing? Yes. For a week long, intensive summer experience and monthly follow-up sessions for a year, the author had the opportunity to engage with like-minded educators from around the world. Each educator is committed to successfully educating and developing pathways of opportunity for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) learners. Their experience espoused a pedagogy of transformative leadership, which inspired the author and assisted in sustaining professional vibrancy. The goal of this paper is to engage the reader in critical reflection and personalized self-care as they identify stress points and the types of things that aid them in remembering or creating celebratory moments.

Community schools extend traditional school responsibilities by providing additional resources to support students, families, and communities, and ultimately attempt to change the school institution. Integral to the institutionalization of community schools are community school managers (CSMs) and their institutional work. Drawing from institutional theory, this study uses interview data to explore the deliberate actions taken by CSMs to create institutions, focusing on their efforts to develop their institutional identities and change normative associations. Institutional identities of CSMs were defined by their implementational responsibilities and organizational positioning. While CSMs skillfully identified, provided, and allocated resources within their implementational identity, the organizational identity remained ambiguous, lacking clarity on their organizational position or consistency in the teams on which they served. CSMs struggled to create normative associations that linked the resources they provided to the community school strategy. Moreover, the local leadership structure and principal support significantly and differentially impacted CSMs' institutional work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Full-service community schools aim to reduce educational inequality by addressing the multifaceted needs of low-income children and youth. Critical to this task is the ability of these schools to generate sufficient social capital to provide students, families, and teachers with essential resources. Using data from a qualitative case study, this article explores how social capital was manifested in an urban full-service community elementary school. Findings show that the principal, teachers, and staff were important sources of school-based social capital, which enabled the provision of services to students and families. However, resource scarcity and interethnic tensions threatened the expansion of social capital and the school's transformative potential. We discuss implications of these findings for the theory, research, and practice of full-service community schools.

The new standards for K-12 science education suggest that student learning should be more integrated and should focus on crosscutting concepts and core ideas from the areas of physical science, life science, Earth/space science, and engineering/technology. This paper describes large-scale, urban elementary-focused science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) collaboration between a large urban school district, various STEM-focused community stakeholders, and a research-focused private university. The collaboration includes the development of an integrated STEM curriculum for grade K-5 with accompanying teacher professional development. This mixed-methodology study describes findings from focus group interviews and a survey of teachers from Title I elementary schools. Findings suggest the importance of the following critical features of professional development: (a) coherence, (b) content focus, (c) active learning, (d) collective participation, and (e) duration to the success of large-scale STEM urban elementary school reform.

BACKGROUND: School‐based health centers (SBHCs) fill critical pediatric health care access gaps but typically require parental consent for enrollment. Families' responses to SBHC consent form outreach efforts may reflect broader school engagement. This study investigated whether SBHC consent form return predicted subsequent chronic absenteeism and school transition, indicators of student and family school engagement. METHODS: Multivariable logistic regression was used to compare the odds of being chronically absent or transitioning out of a US elementary/middle school (n = 1917) during 2015‐2016 and 2016‐2017 for those who declined SBHC enrollment or did not return a consent form, compared to those who enrolled. RESULTS: Compared to enrolled students, those who declined had 78% lower odds of chronic absenteeism [95% CI: 0.09, 0.54]. Families who did not respond had 2.8 times greater odds of their student transitioning out of school [95% CI: 2.15, 3.58] but were no more likely to be chronically absent. Conclusions: Consent form return may predict aspects of broader students and family school engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine whether a networked mentoring program aligned with the racial/cultural identity development model could mitigate social isolation and promote a sense of belonging among first-year racial and ethnic minority Doctor of Physical Therapy students. Mentoring teams consisted of a first-year minority student, a faculty mentor, and a second-year minority peer mentor. First-year mentees described feeling more connected to the institution through interactions with peer and faculty mentors in mentoring sessions and networking events. Faculty mentors demonstrated a significant increase in cross-cultural psychological capital throughout the six-month intervention period. Peer mentors articulated their professional growth through participating in the networked mentoring model, highlighting the reciprocal benefits associated with mentoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased use of smartphones and tablets sets the stage for new mobile-based educational programs that seek to increase student learning and engagement in school and at home. This study examines the effectiveness of Escribo Play, a game-enhanced educational program, on preschool students' phonological awareness, word reading, and writing skills. The randomized controlled trial was conducted with 749 students from 62 classrooms from 17 schools located in five cities. Quantitative pretesting and posttesting procedures using standardized instruments were employed. The results indicate that the experimental classrooms that used the 20 games for 3 months gained 68% in their reading scores compared to control classrooms (d =.40). They also gained 48% more in writing scores (d =.20). Multilevel analysis indicated that these findings were statistically significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new standards for K-12 science education suggest that student learning should be more integrated and should focus on crosscutting concepts and core ideas from the areas of physical science, life science, Earth/space science, and engineering/technology. This paper describes large-scale, urban elementary-focused science, technology, engineering, and mathematics ( STEM) collaboration between a large urban school district, various STEM-focused community stakeholders, and a research-focused private university. The collaboration includes the development of an integrated STEM curriculum for grade K-5 with accompanying teacher professional development. This mixed-methodology study describes findings from focus group interviews and a survey of teachers from Title I elementary schools. Findings suggest the importance of the following critical features of professional development: (a) coherence, (b) content focus, (c) active learning, (d) collective participation, and (e) duration to the success of large-scale STEM urban elementary school reform [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including articles about the social and environmental determinants of academic success among African American students, articles about the facilitators of academic success, and articles about family influences on academic success.