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Many Black young adults engage in their communities through critical action, or activism, as they transition into adulthood. However, knowledge about predictors of critical action remain sparse. The present longitudinal study addresses this gap by exploring links between critical action, ethnic-racial identity, and racial discrimination among 143 Black youth who were surveyed as adolescents (M[subscript age] = 15; 66% female) and again as young adults (M[subscript age] = 20). Using hierarchical logistic regression, we found that young adult experiences of racial discrimination were related to increased odds of critical action, accounting for adolescent racial discrimination, gender, caregiver education, and postsecondary enrollment. We also found that criminalizing discriminatory experiences (e.g., being stopped by the police) during young adulthood were related to increased odds of critical action. Our findings document changes in racial discrimination and ethnic-racial identity during the transition to adulthood and suggest that some marginalized youth may transform adverse experiences into critical action.

Despite growing evidence for learning loss due to COVID-19, there is little research examining this phenomenon using norm-referenced tests (NRTs) or with special educations students. Using a repeated-measures design with 96 fourth- through 12th-grade students previously identified as eligible for special education services, the present study attempted to measure learning loss using W Difference scores gathered from triennial evaluations using the Woodcock-Johnson IV Tests of Achievement. Findings revealed that participants fell further behind proficiency expectations in the areas of decoding, spelling, and math calculation skills. Academic proficiency was found to differ markedly from normative expectations for typical same-age peers across tests, both prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. While academic proficiency was more like that of a clinical sample of students with learning disabilities, moderate to large differences in the sample means of most tests suggest that COVID-19 has had a negative impact on academic achievement.

Microteaching is a way of doing professional development for teachers wanting to incorporate new evidence-based and high-leverage practices into their instructional toolboxes. Given how much work is required in teaching and the limited time professionals have available, microteaching is an accessible process that supports instructional improvement by practicing evidence-based and high leverage strategies. Professionals, working with a small group of peers, engage a four-phase process that includes planning, enactment of a strategy, as well as individual and group reflection. Professionals use the opportunity to explore a teaching strategy that is responsive to student needs in the context of critical friends. Having an opportunity to try it out before introducing it in the classroom can be a valuable way to work out bugs, discover aspects that need development, and build a sense of efficacy. Microteaching is a way to support collegial growth by seeing into each other's classroom practice.

Institutions of higher education are seeking to support more active learning among faculty, and that support includes the creation of active learning spaces to support more student-centered course activities. However, incremental development of these learning spaces leads to a sorting of students between active and passive learning environments. This study collected repeat-measure data from undergraduate students enrolled in a two-semester course sequence to evaluate factors affecting student enrollment decisions and student attitudes toward learning. We integrated this combination of research tools using a QuantCrit analytic framework, which revealed student attitudes and decision-making processes that were generally stable over the study period for individuals, but very different when examining student enrollment groups over time. Limited access to active learning classrooms forced students to self-sort based on either their social networks or their attitudes toward learning. That, in turn, may create a marginalizing force that pushes out some students--most often women--from undergraduate programs.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) created guidance documents that were too complex to be read and understood by the majority of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities who often read at or below a third-grade reading level. This study explored the extent to which these adults could read and understand CDC documents simplified using Minimised Text Complexity Guidelines. Method: This study involved 20 participants, 18-48 years of age. Participants read texts and responded to multiple-choice items and open-ended questions to gather information about how they interacted with and understood the texts. Results: The results provide initial evidence that the Minimised Text Complexity Guidelines resulted in texts that participants could read and understand. Conclusion: Implications for increasing the accessibility of public health information so that it can be read and understood by adults with extremely low literacy skills are discussed.

Discussions about coping, resilience, and mental health accompanied the COVID-19 shutdowns and gradual return to academic and workspaces across the US through 2021. As physical and spiritual practices, yoga and meditation have been shown to help people through adversity and create resilience. Academic librarians were surveyed about yoga and meditation programs throughout the pandemic. The survey found that while yoga and meditation programs in academic libraries are on the rise, many cancelled their sessions because of the pandemic. Additionally, more can be done to make these sessions accessible.

Effective conservation of wildlife requires current and accurate range maps of a species' distribution. While maintaining these resources can be challenging, especially for poorly documented species, the map is important for scientists, land managers, and decision makers alike. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species is a leading information source on the global extinction risk status of flora and fauna and provides current range maps for use in wildlife conservation and listing decisions. Chuck-wills-widow (Antrostomus carolinensis), a declining aerial insectivore whose contemporary range includes North and South America, is a near-threatened species according to IUCN, but its range map excludes areas known to support breeding populations. Here we compiled occurrence of Chuck-wills-widow within the state of Illinois across 6 data sources over a 65+ year period to highlight the occurrence of the species throughout the region. Although excluded from the current IUCN range map, we documented 947 occurrences of the species within Illinois since 1957. Through the use of minimum convex polygons (MCP), we report consistent and stable occurrence of Chuck-wills-widow, with the composite MCP ranging across the southern half of the state. Our results suggest that Chuck-wills-widow distribution within Illinois is not a result of recent colonization nor a climatic-induced shift in the species' distribution, but rather likely an underreporting of the species. This research illustrates how nocturnal or otherwise difficult to detect species may be widely underrepresented in public biodiversity databases and, as a result, have several gaps in their IUCN range maps. In addition to eBird and GBIF, we therefore encourage the inclusion of researchers and land managers along the range boundaries in the development of IUCN range maps, as local knowledge may be needed to fully describe the distribution of declining and underrepresented species. Received 22 August 2023. Accepted 17 June 2024. Key words: conservation mapping, extent of occurrence, geographic range, nightjars, species distribution, threatened species. (Spanish)--La conservacion efectiva de la vida silvestre requiere de mapas de rangos de distribucion de especies actuales y precisos. Aunque el mantenimiento de estos recursos puede ser un reto, especialmente para especies poco documentadas, el mapa es importante tanto para cientificos como para administradores de tierras y tomadores de decisiones. La Lista Roja de Especies Amenazadas de la Union Internacional para la Conservacion de la Naturaleza (IUCN) es una fuente de informacion de avanzada en el riesgo global de estatus de riesgo de extincion global de flora y fauna y proporciona mapas de rangos actuales para uso en conservacion de vida silvestre y toma de decisiones en listados. El chotacabras Antrostomus carolinensis, una especie aerea insectivora en declive cuyo rango contemporaneo incluye Norte y Sudamerica, es una especie casi amenazada segun la IUCN pero su mapa de rango de distribucion excluye areas conocidas por tener poblaciones reproductivas. Aqui compilamos registros de presencia de chotacabras Antrostomus carolinensis dentro del estado de Illinois usando 6 fuentes de datos en un periodo de tiempo de mas de 65 anos para resaltar los registros de presencia de la especie en la region. Aunque excluida del mapa de rango actual de la IUCN, documentamos 947 registros de la especie en Illinois desde 1957. A traves del uso de poligonos minimos convexos (MCP), reportamos presencia consistente y estable de chotacabras Antrostomus carolinensis, con el rango compuesto de MCP que cubre la mitad surena del estado. Nuestros resultados sugieren que la distribucion de chotacabras Antrostomus carolinensis en Illinois no es el resultado de colonizacion reciente ni de cambio de distribucion inducido por el cambio climatico, sino que se debe posiblemente a un subreporte de la especie. Esta investigacion ilustra como especies nocturnas o dificiles de detectar por otras razones pueden estar subrepresentadas en bases de datos publicas de biodiversidad y, como resultado, tener faltantes serios en sus mapas de rangos de la IUCN. Ademas de eBird y GBF, instamos a incluir a investigadores y adminostradores de tierras cercanas a los limites de rangos en el desarrollo de los mapas de rango de la IUCN, ya que el conocimiento local puede ser necesario para describir completamente la distribucion de especies en declive o subrepresentadas. Palabras clave: amplitud de presencia, chotacabras, distribucion de especies, especies amenazadas, mapeo de conservacion, rango geografico., Documenting the current range of a species is essential for effective wildlife conservation and management (Franklin 2010, Guisan et al. 2013). This information is vital for scientists, decision makers, and [...]

Much of the extant literature regarding middle grades teachers centers on interventions to improve the quality or effectiveness of their teaching: studies that identify a particular instructional strategy, curricular support, or disposition, and conclude with recommendations that teachers improve their practice by adopting said thing. In contrast, the qualitative case study we present here contributes to the rising tide of research illustrating the powerful, transformative work that middle grades teachers oriented toward justice and equity are already doing in the classroom. Specifically, we draw on eight months of data to illuminate how teachers in a Title I middle school located in the southeastern United States enacted what bell hooks (1994) refers to as engaged pedagogy. By this, we mean educators who believe we learn best when there is an interactive relationship between teachers and students; are continuously engaging in self-actualization by working to identify and unlearn harmful, dominant narratives about race/ethnicity, social class, dis/ability, and gender; and who attend to their own well-being so they can better attend to their students' overall academic and social-emotional well-being. Rather than a blueprint assumed to be generalizable, we offer these illustrations to underscore the importance of developing and supporting justice-oriented middle grades teachers who are and/or will become engaged pedagogical practitioners.

One only needs to listen to the news reports to recognize that the gap between securing the enterprise and cybersecurity threats, breaches, and vulnerabilities appears to be widening at an alarming rate. An untapped resource to combat these attacks lies in the students of the secondary educational system. Necessary in the cybersecurity education is a 3-tiered approach to quickly escalate the student into a workplace-ready graduate. The analogy used is a three-legged-stool, where curriculum content, hands-on skills, and certifications are equal instruments in the edification of the cybersecurity student. This paper endeavors to delve into the 3rd leg of the stool by developing the concept of vendor-specific and vendor-neutral certifications to educate the cybersecurity student and test their capability of protecting the workplace. The research data was drawn from companies in the Atlanta, Georgia area, who employ and hire cybersecurity recruits. The data from the research proves certifications are necessary as an addition to the cybersecurity curriculum in the secondary education arena. The paper reviews the need for cybersecurity graduates, the balance between cybersecurity theory and applied skillsets, the difference between a certificate and a certification, benefits to the community, classifications of certifications, relevancy of a college degree in today's workforce, and recommendations for further study.