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In recent years, education policy scholars have begun to utilize social network concepts and methods to describe contemporary policy changes across P-16 levels. While many insights have emerged from this growing literature base, we argue that a more formal network approach rooted in policy network analysis (PNA) is needed to fulfill its conceptual and analytical ambitions. Policy network analysis integrates concepts from social network analysis with theoretical assumptions developed in the field of political science. Toward this end, we first argue that a more rigorous treatment of policy beliefs is needed to analyze the impact of ideas on the policy agenda. Existing literature on the ideological dimensions of market-based reform movements tends to define them largely within the bounds of neo-liberalism and thus far has failed to systematically explain how policy beliefs emerge and converge in this context. Second, we contend that previous work has generally lacked theoretical grounding in formal policy network analysis (PNA). Although there are clear links between the concepts and findings in traditional PNA literature and educational research -- particularly the use of networked governance as a concept for understanding the interconnectedness of educational reform networks -- a more diligent application of PNA theory and methods would enable educational policy scholars to gain deeper insights into the explanatory processes of policy change. We pay particular attention to the usefulness of these approaches for examining two-mode network data and for modeling ideological policy change.

Children with developmental delays or disabilities (DD) are at risk for self-regulation difficulties and behaviour problems compared to typically developing children. Intervening early is crucial to prevent long-term adjustment challenges across home and school contexts. Parenting has been identified as a malleable target of intervention for improving children's adaptive functioning across behavioural, emotional and cognitive domains. Although parent management training (PMT) is an identified best-practice, key questions remain about the critical components of interventions and how novel approaches like video feedback may offer additional benefits. Using a pre-test-post-test one group and superiority design, we evaluated the efficacy of two models of the Keeping Parents Trained and Supported (KEEP) preschool program with parent-only components among 175 families with children diagnosed or at-risk for DD. KEEP-P included core PMT (Oregon Model) methods and KEEP-V integrated KEEP with Filming Interactions to Nurture Development video coaching methods for enhancing developmentally supportive interactions. Intervention outcomes on children's behaviour problems and executive functioning, parenting stress and parent-child relationship quality were compared between groups. Both groups demonstrated significant reductions over time in child behavioural problems, developmental problems and parenting stress. Significant improvements were observed in children's executive functioning, parents' sense of competence and mindfulness in parenting. Group differences were observed in parent's sense of competence, with individuals receiving KEEP-P displaying greater increases over time. Higher intervention dosage predicted a greater reduction in stressful child behaviours and greater improvements in children's inhibitory control.

This study provides a comprehensive review of the published research on the association between early life adversity and markers of inflammation in children and adolescents. We conducted a systematic review of the published literature on the association between early life adversity and markers of inflammation in pediatric populations. To date, 27 studies have been published in this area representing a wide range of global populations and diverse methods of which nearly half were prospective, longitudinal studies. Of these 27, only 12 studies shared an inflammatory outcome with 4 or more other studies; 9 for CRP, and 6 for IL-6. The association between early life adversity and both CRP, z = .07 [.04, .10], and IL-6, z = .17 [-.07, .42], were small and only significant for CRP although comparable in magnitude to the effects observed in adult samples. Descriptively, the association between early life adversity and CRP appeared to be stronger in studies conducted in infants and adolescents compared with middle childhood. There was minimal evidence of publication bias for studies measuring CRP, but evidence of publication bias for studies using IL-6. Eight studies have looked at the association between early life adversity and stimulated inflammatory cytokines in vitro, and both the methods and results of these studies were mixed; the majority observed exaggerated production of inflammatory cytokines despite mixed methodological approaches that make comparisons across studies difficult. In summary, the evidence supporting an association between early life adversity and inflammation in pediatric samples is limited so far by the number of studies and their heterogeneous methodological approaches. More research that is grounded in a developmental framework and informed by the complexity of the innate immune system is needed in this area.

Cerebral atrophy is a common finding in elderly patients; however, cerebrovascular disease causing progressive focal cerebral atrophy and dysfunction is unusual. In this report, we present 3 cases of hemicerebral atrophy due to ipsilateral internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis or occlusion mimicking neurodegenerative conditions. Patient 1 had a frontal dysexecutive syndrome potentially consistent with a diagnosis of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia; however, neuroimaging revealed a chronically occluded left ICA and a pattern of atrophy restricted to the left middle cerebral artery territory, suggestive of a vascular etiology. Patient 2 presented with progressively worsening seizures and right-sided weakness consistent with left hemispheric dysfunction, with radiographic evidence of left hemicerebral atrophy. Angiography revealed a chronic dissection of the left ICA leading to left cerebral hypoperfusion. Patient 3 had asymmetric parkinsonism, alien limb, and cognitive impairment consistent with a diagnosis of corticobasal syndrome. His imaging, however, revealed atrophy and encephalomalacia within the anterior circulation watershed territories with chronic, severe stenosis of the left ICA suggestive of a chronic hypoperfused state. In this case series, we report 3 examples of hemicerebral atrophy secondary to chronic ipsilateral ICA vascular disease with diverse progressive clinical symptoms mimicking primary neurodegenerative conditions. This case series highlights the importance of considering chronic hypoperfusion and large-vessel severe stenosis or occlusion in patients with cognitive impairment and evidence of asymmetric brain atrophy. In addition to symptomatic treatment, the management of vascular risk factors including treatment with antiplatelet agents, statins, and revascularization procedures can be considered.

Using congressional testimony on teacher quality from 2003 to 2015 and analysis of 60 elite interviews, we show how the political economy of knowledge production influences idea uptake in education policy discourse. We develop and assess a conceptual framework showing the organizational and financial infrastructure that links research, ideas, and advocacy in politics. We find that congressional hearing witnesses representing groups that received philanthropic grants are more likely to support teacher evaluation policies, but specific mentions of research in testimony are not a factor. Overall, our study shows that funders and advocacy groups emphasized rapid uptake of ideas to reform teacher evaluation, which effectively influenced policymakers but limited the use of research in teacher evaluation policy discourse.

Instructional coaching has emerged as a popular policy lever for improvement efforts in an era of teacher evaluation. In this environment, coaches often face conflicting demands between their educative duties to develop teachers and their reform-oriented responsibilities to implement district policy. Coaches can wield facets of teacher evaluation to promote coherent instructional improvement. Drawing on interview data from 41 coaches across five educational systems, we apply the micropolitics perspective to examine coaches' work as they navigate the intersection of teacher evaluation and instructional improvement. Our findings elucidate two major micropolitical strategies: convergence and divergence. In particular, coaches frequently converged their work with evaluation around goal setting and observation feedback, facilitating teachers' and administrators' understanding of the evaluation system and instructional reform. Conversely, coaches tended to separate issues of teachers' formal ratings from their coaching. Our analysis reveals details on coaches' political role and illuminates benefits and limitations of coaches' involvement in evaluation.

We show how policy makers converged to support similar reforms on a major educational issue: teacher effectiveness. Our study demonstrates the importance of idea brokers--actors that facilitate connections between preferences in policy networks and promote consensus around new policy ideas. Our study is based on analysis of testimony from 200 Congressional hearings from 2001 to 2015. We use discourse network analysis to examine network ties based on policy preferences expressed in hearings. We visualize policy networks, identify brokers, and estimate exponential random graph models to examine policy changes between the Bush and Obama administrations. We show how idea brokerage is associated with a convergence of policy preferences around teacher effectiveness among a coalition of political actors.

Background/Context: This study contributes to our growing understanding of coaches' role in district reform by introducing instructional-coach teams as a potentially important concept for understanding coaching activities that support systemic reform. Prior research shows that instructional coaches leverage their position between the district office and schools to coordinate policy implementation. This study builds on that analysis by adding a group dimension to instructional coaching at the district level. No other study to date has focused on the collective behaviors of coaches that facilitate reform efforts. Purpose/Objective/RQ/Focus of Study: The purpose of this study is to examine the practices of effective instructional-coach teams and conceptualize the role of coach teams in district reform. Research Design: I used cross-case analysis that relied on social-network, questionnaire, interview, and observational methods as sources of evidence to analyze how instructional coaches work together to build capacities for district reform. I identified two successful district-level coach teams with an explicit mandate to support reform efforts that were, however, operating in very different district contexts. The focus of this analysis was to identify and compare the circumstances that present in both cases and help explain why these districts have effective coach teams. Findings: My findings describe how coach teams develop institutional capacities that enable districts to respond to policy demands. I find that differences in curriculum policy, district reform context, and professional collaboration are associated with differences in the teams' relational structures. I link these differences to common process gains resulting from the collective working of coach teams. I found three important process gains: intranet systems, collaborative problem-solving, and collective expertise. Although both teams produced all three, they implemented process gains in very different ways. Conclusions/Recommendations: This comparative study demonstrates the conceptual utility of instructional-coach teams for understanding the link between coaching and systemic district reform. More theory and research are needed to better understand the behaviors of teams of educators, and particularly instructional coaches, engaged in collective work to support district reform.

PurposeTo describe examples of missed pathogenic variants on whole-exome sequencing (WES) and the importance of deep phenotyping for further diagnostic testing.MethodsGuided by phenotypic information, three children with negative WES underwent targeted single-gene testing.ResultsIndividual 1 had a clinical diagnosis consistent with infantile systemic hyalinosis, although WES and a next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based ANTXR2 test were negative. Sanger sequencing of ANTXR2 revealed a homozygous single base pair insertion, previously missed by the WES variant caller software. Individual 2 had neurodevelopmental regression and cerebellar atrophy, with no diagnosis on WES. New clinical findings prompted Sanger sequencing and copy number testing of PLA2G6. A novel homozygous deletion of the noncoding exon 1 (not included in the WES capture kit) was detected, with extension into the promoter, confirming the clinical suspicion of infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy. Individual 3 had progressive ataxia, spasticity, and magnetic resonance image changes of vanishing white matter leukoencephalopathy. An NGS leukodystrophy gene panel and WES showed a heterozygous pathogenic variant in EIF2B5; no deletions/duplications were detected. Sanger sequencing of EIF2B5 showed a frameshift indel, probably missed owing to failure of alignment.ConclusionThese cases illustrate potential pitfalls of WES/NGS testing and the importance of phenotype-guided molecular testing in yielding diagnoses.

Childhood adversity has been repeatedly and robustly linked to physical and mental illness across the lifespan. Yet, the biological pathways through which this occurs remain unclear. Functioning of the inflammatory arm of the immune system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis are both hypothesized pathways through which childhood adversity leads to disease. This review provides a novel developmental framework for examining the role of adversity type and timing in inflammatory and HPA-axis functioning. In particular, we identify elements of childhood adversity that are salient to the developing organism: physical threat, disrupted caregiving, and unpredictable environmental conditions. We propose that existing, well-characterized animal models may be useful in differentiating the effects of these adversity elements and review both the animal and human literature that supports these ideas. To support these hypotheses, we also provide a detailed description of the development and structure of both the HPA-axis and the inflammatory arm of the immune system, as well as recent methodological advances in their measurement. Recommendations for future basic, developmental, translational, and clinical research are discussed.

In recent years, researchers have focused on acquiring a better understanding of the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children under the age of six following exposure to chronic trauma, such as intimate partner violence (IPV). Despite a number of empirical studies on early childhood PTSD, few have examined how children differ in the clinical presentation of PTSD symptomatology. There may be wide variability in the presentation of symptoms within the four clusters of PTSD symptoms: re-experiencing, alterations in physiological arousal, negative alterations in cognitions and mood, and avoidance. Symptoms of physiological arousal may be particularly difficult for parents and therapists to identify and report on because many of these symptoms are internal sensations (e.g. racing heart beat), and they are most often evaluated out of context (e.g. in reports of past behaviour). Thus, little is known about the presentation of these symptoms in preschoolers. To better identify physiological arousal symptoms as they occur, this study examined therapists' qualitative reports on the presentation of physiological symptoms of 56 young children exposed to IPV while they participated in an intervention programme. Results indicated that children were most likely to exhibit emotion dysregulation, behavioural outbursts, mood swings and temper tantrums when physiologically aroused. The presence of temper tantrums as a component of arousal and reactivity is consistent with recent "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (fifth edition) changes, which include these elements as new criteria for PTSD in children aged six and younger. Behavioural examples are described and implications discussed for clinical intervention.

Objectives To determine the effect of an enhanced information package, the Welcome to Parenthood® (W2P) Kit, given at birth on (a) early parenting experiences and (b) use of educational resources and community services. Methods Two-group, post-test only design, with parents (mothers and fathers) in comparison group (n = 186; received standard discharge information) recruited prior to intervention group (n = 195; received W2P Kit); most were Canadian-born and highly educated. Participants completed an investigator-designed, online or telephone survey at 3 months postpartum, which generated quantitative and qualitative data. The W2P Kit included evidence-based, educational resources about infant feeding, child development, and parenting skills that targeted mothers and fathers, information about community services for new parents, infant board book, and small gifts. Results At 3 months postpartum the intervention group was significantly more likely to be aware of, and to have used, the educational resources than the comparison group. The intervention group was also more likely to have made an unplanned visit to the doctor for their infant, but groups did not differ in early parenting experiences or use of community services. Parents who received the W2P Kit reported that it was helpful to learn about various aspects of child development and parenting. Conclusions for Practice Parents who received the W2P Kit reported increased awareness and use of educational resources, but participants in both groups reported similar experiences as a new parent and use of community services. An enhanced information package given at birth may be a useful health promotion strategy., Author(s): Karen M. Benzies [sup.1] [sup.2] , Sarah M. Horn [sup.1] , Leslie A. Barker [sup.3] , Cyne Johnston [sup.3] [sup.4] , Dena Berci [sup.3] , Jana Kurilova [sup.1] Author [...]