Recent gseis items

Teachers’ and caregivers’ predictions of autistic students’ kindergarten transition success

Fri, 4 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Successful transitions to kindergarten improve children’s short- and long-term outcomes. Autistic children are more likely than their typically developing peers to face challenges during these transitions. There are no standard transition planning practices for autistic students; therefore, decisions about classroom placement and supports rely primarily on caregiver and teacher perceptions. No published studies examine the predictive validity of caregiver and teacher perspectives or how to incorporate them into decision-making. We examined whether caregivers and preschool teachers could predict children’s adjustment to kindergarten, and whether caregiver-teacher communication and teachers’ autism experience moderated prediction accuracy. The sample included 93 caregiver-child dyads, 68 preschool teachers, and 54 kindergarten teachers. All children had either a medical diagnosis or educational classification of autism. Caregivers and preschool teachers completed a survey, predicting...

Learning when not to share: Refusal as a methodological practice of purposeful data disclosure

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Learning when not to share: Refusal as a methodological practice of purposeful data disclosure

“Doing the Real Work”: Latina Women, Resistance, and State Surveillance in a Border County

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract The experiences of Latina women and girls with state surveillance, and their responses to unfair policies and practices, remain underexplored. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Latinas—primarily of Mexican descent—living in San Diego, we examine how encounters with local police and immigration enforcement shape their political practices. Participants described repeated negative encounters with police and immigration enforcement agencies over the life course. These cumulative experiences fostered distrust of police and critical views of surveillance practices designed to restrict the mobility of immigrants and other systematically minoritized groups. In response, many of the women engaged in community organizing and adopted counter-surveillance strategies. Our findings show how patterned experiences with state surveillance generate political critique and action.

Learning from Within: Life-Affirming Practices and Third Spaces Created by and for Incarcerated Youth

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Grounded in a Black feminist approach (Collins, 2022; Evans-Winters, 2019), in this article, I weave together the personal and professional to share what I have learned as a Black Latina educator, researcher, and abolitionist who for the past twelve years has worked in carceral spaces alongside numerous men, women, youth, and gender expansive people. I bridge what I have learned from theories of the flesh (Madison, 1993; Moraga & Anzaldúa 2021) to what I have learned as a researcher who works with incarcerated youth and use it as a lens to better understand and study youth confinement. Drawing on data from a three-year critical ethnographic study focused on teaching, learning, and identity development in a juvenile detention center, this article explores young people’s experiences living and learning while confined. Using three distinct vignettes, this article touches on the lives of Black and Mexican heritage youth who at the time were detained in a juvenile detention center...

Friends in Our Lives: Perspectives of Young People Who Participated in a Professional Mentoring Program

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mentoring programs are popular interventions to support holistic development for young people. One specific model of mentoring that has emerged over the past few decades in the United States is professional mentoring. Research has illustrated that this model of mentoring may be particularly helpful for young people who could benefit from extra support in their lives that a volunteer mentoring program does not have the capacity to provide. Despite the emerging utilization of professional mentoring programs, little is known about the ideal characteristics of a professional mentor and young people’s experiences in these professional mentoring programs. This study interviewed 12 young people who participated in the same professional mentoring program in different regions of the United States. The participants discussed their ideal characteristics in a mentor, highlighted factors that made the professional mentoring program impactful to them, and shared their ideas on how to improve...

Institutionalizing grant-funded interventions: a multiple case study examining long-term investments in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM)

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Background, context, and purposeAlthough funding agencies make large investments and encourage program adoption, little is known about the process of institutionalizing grant-funded efforts in higher education. This multiple case study examined how grant-funded awardees of a biomedical training grant worked toward institutionalizing program activities. Cases included 10 diverse postsecondary institutions (368 study participants) across the United States charged with implementing a federal grant aimed at comprehensive and multi-level approaches to engage and retain students from diverse backgrounds in biomedical research.FindingsEmploying prior frameworks on institutionalization in higher education, we examined how embedded campus agents appealed to two determinants of institutionalization: compatibility and mutualism. We identified institutional resources as an additional determinant. Compatibility is most commonly sought after as early as the grant proposal stage, while agents...

Conceptual foundations for understanding and characterising adult learning systems: towards more comprehensive comparative reporting

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Adult Learning Systems are now central to economic and social policy, yet most international monitoring continues to treat adult learning and education as a series of isolated participation events rather than as a coordinated system. We conceptualise Adult Learning Systems as national configurations of institutions, policies, financing arrangements, regulatory frameworks, and actors that shape who learns what, when, where, and how across the adult life course. To make these systems empirically tractable, we introduce the Demand–Supply–Coordination–Learning–Outcomes framework, a conceptual and analytical architecture that takes learning occurrences as its basic unit of analysis and organises information around five system functions. We show how the Demand–Supply–Coordination–Learning–Outcome framework can reorient comparative reporting from simple, generic indicators towards complex, purpose-specific information systems tailored to research, policy design, and multi-level...

A Conceptual Foundation for the Development of a Lifelong Learning Measurement Framework

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This report proposes a conceptual framework for measuring lifelong learning (LLL) aimed at improving policy design and evaluation. Lifelong learning is understood as learning across the life course and diverse contexts. The report identifies key limitations in current data systems, including narrow age coverage, lack of longitudinal tracking, overemphasis on labour-market outcomes, and insufficient measurement of informal learning. To address these gaps, the framework is structured around three interconnected pillars: demand, supply, and coordination. Demand captures learning needs at individual, organisational, and societal levels; supply maps opportunities across formal education, workplaces, welfare systems, and communities; and coordination focuses on mechanisms that align needs with provision. The framework also redefines learning by introducing a two dimensional model based on formalisation and digitalisation, better capturing hybrid and emerging forms. Finally, it outlines...

Discriminatory Experiences, Critical Consciousness Development, and Well-Being Among Emerging Adults in and Beyond the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

As part of the developmental stage of emerging adulthood, youth may cultivate critical consciousness (CC) to transform oppressive systems. CC development may be influenced by discriminatory experiences and may affect well-being. To better understand longitudinal CC development and its relationship to discrimination and well-being (i.e., perceived stress, anxiety, hopefulness), we studied a U.S. national longitudinal cohort of emerging adult college students between the ages of 18 and 22 at baseline (M_age = 20.0, SD = 1.3) who completed four surveys between April 2020 and July 2021 (N = 684). The analytic sample was 63% women and 37% men (gender-diverse participants were removed due to small sample size) and 26% lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer/questioning, and other minoritized sexual identities. Self-identified race/ethnicity backgrounds were 54% white, 20% Asian/Pacific Islander, 9% Latinx, 5% Black, and 10% multiple races/ethnicities and/or as Middle...

Moving beyond linguistic bordering: Utopian designs for new futures

Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We examine learning as movement as a utopian methodological approach that reorients how we shape and understand literacy learning ecologies with youth who are racialized as non-white. Understanding linguistic practice as integral to learning, and to common beliefs of what it means to be human, we consider how static notions of language are deployed as border-marking tools within settler coloniality, supporting a logic that justifies pernicious racial subordination. Within education, these ideologies frame certain learners as illegitimate and deviant, with particular implications for literacy learning. The learning sciences are uniquely positioned to re-signify what it means to be a literate body and to design learning ecologies in which youth move across these borders. Aligning ourselves with decolonial scholars, we argue that utopian methodology with a learning as movement frame allows us to forefront expansive learning design as we work alongside youth from otherized backgrounds...

When Learning as Movement meets Learning on the Move

Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Considering the special issue on learning-on-the move in light of earlier work on learning as movement, this commentary reflects on how the articles in the special issue expand the field’s theoretical matrix of the sociohistorical, cognitive, sociopolitical, sociocultural, relational, and spatial. Taken together, they tease out new subject-object, subject-subject, and culture-nature relations, and explore the significance of the movement of people and tools across and within tasks, place, everyday events, and interactions in terms of learning and development, human agency, and dignity.

Youth as historical actors in the production of possible futures

Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In this paper, we expand the concept of historical actors to elaborate on how transformative agency has been addressed in our work with youth from nondominant communities, particularly as they leverage digital tools. First, we revisit our work with migrant students, from which the concept arose. Next, we expand this theory by proposing four indicia of the transformative nature of becoming historical actors, and offer three empirical examples to elucidate them. In our first vignette, we document how, when youth glitch during video game play, they collectively experiment with the rules, regulations, and boundaries of game design, finding ways to circumvent normative video game play and co-author their experiences. In the second vignette, we focus on siblings who take over research video cameras as their family is being filmed. We illustrate how they reshape their relation to the cameras, reorganizing participation structures through their agentive and transgressive actions. Finally,...

Civics on the Move: The Politics of Latinx Civic Integration

Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Throughout the U.S., Latinx communities represent a growing and critical segment of local, regional, and national electorates, but they are underrepresented at the polls. Their political disengagement stems from their historical sociopolitical marginalization and a lack of investment in their political integration. To foster more civic engagement among Latinx students, we propose recognizing their communities’ past and present “lived civics,” which are the actions that address community concerns but are often forgotten or not considered as political. The conception of lived civics that we propose provides a road map for fostering Latinx agency and political efficacy, and our “civics on the move” framework aims to strengthen democratic institutions, ensuring that they represent the needs of this critical segment of the U.S. population.

When Learning Is Made Consequential: A Methodological Note on Repertoires

Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This chapter focuses on the utopian methodological approach taken up by social design-based experiments, their conceptual underpinnings, and commitments. The methods are drawn from Gutiérrez’s empirical work and detail ways of seeing and capturing human learning activity crucial to envisioning and enacting new social futures with radical possibilities for those from historically nondominant communities. It elaborates methodological commitments to seeking complexity in human learning activity as it centers equity understood as worldmaking. A review of a range of methodological tools employed across Gutierrez’s studies is presented—from an analytical focus on ensembles and the multiplicity of social spaces in learning ecologies to attending to how people’s repertoires of practices are constituted through participation in everyday activity, as they move in and across the ecologies of everyday life.

Culture and everyday learning across contexts: learning with Luis Moll / Cultura y aprendizaje cotidiano entre distintos contextos: aprendiendo con Luis Moll

Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This paper brings three bodies of work that share an intellectual and social history into conversation to engage several key ideas in cultural historical theories of learning and development. Anchoring the discussion around the contributions of Luis Moll, the paper highlights the intersections and shared theoretical and methodological commitments across the work of Kris Gutiérrez, Barbara Rogoff and Luis Moll. We discuss how each of us has contributed to understanding the importance of context and everyday practices in youth and children and youths’ learning, attending especially to building on the strengths of Latine children and families in learning activities. We show the relationship between Luis’ concept of households’ Funds of Knowledge and Gutiérrez and Rogoff’s concept of repertoires of practice, Rogoff’s perspective on mutually constituting processes, and Gutiérrez’s contribution focusing on how people develop repertoires of practice and Funds of Knowledge in their movement...

Rising Numbers, Fading Resources: Students Experiencing Homelessness in Los Angeles County

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study examines student homelessness in Los Angeles County within broader state and national trends, highlighting the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on identification, engagement, and attendance. Pandemic-related disruptions intensified chronic absenteeism and obscured accurate identification, particularly during periods of remote learning. National data also show that many students experiencing homelessness face overlapping vulnerabilities, including disability status, migrant education eligibility, and English learner needs. In response, the American Rescue Plan – Homeless Children and Youth (ARP-HCY) program provided substantial short-term funding to expand identification efforts and deliver wraparound supports, though these funds have since expired. The end of this funding has created a fiscal cliff, resulting in reduced services and staffing for students experiencing homelessness. Recent data show sharp increases in student homelessness across California, specifically...

Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Education Approaches: Rethinking California’s Alternative Education System

Fri, 8 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

California’s alternative education system, particularly its Dashboard Alternative School Status (DASS) schools, serves as a vital but often overlooked pathway for historically marginalized and vulnerable students. This report analyzes 2022–23 data from 894 DASS schools, representing 150,009 students, to evaluate the effectiveness of these settings.

The findings reveal that DASS schools disproportionately enroll Black, Latine, Indigenous, foster, homeless, socioeconomically disadvantaged, disabled students, and other populations facing significant systemic barriers. Educational outcomes in these settings highlight profound disparities compared to non-alternative schools, including a 60% chronic absenteeism rate, a 58% five-year graduation rate, and significantly lower proficiency in English Language Arts and mathematics. Furthermore, the analysis identifies systemic challenges in staffing, leadership, and accountability frameworks that often fail to adequately capture...

Hidden in Plain Sight: Fear, Underidentification, and Funding Gaps for Housing-Insecure Students in Los Angeles County

Wed, 6 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Los Angeles County is facing a rapidly escalating youth homelessness crisis. In the 2023–24 school year, more than 61,000 students experienced homelessness, a nearly 30% increase from the prior 2022–23 school year, with Latine students (75%) and English Learners (34%) disproportionately affected (California Department of Education, 2024; Cazares-Minero & Bishop, 2026). Despite federal protections under the McKinney-Vento Act, a significant gap persists between policy intent and frontline realities.

This qualitative study draws on interviews with seven school-based homeless liaisons and county officials across five districts to examine identification practices, service barriers, and data systems. Findings show major challenges in accurately identifying students due to inconsistent, subjective processes, despite the statewide requirement of a housing questionnaire. Many families avoid self-identification...

Newark’s Implementation of a Lower Voting Age: Research Brief

Tue, 5 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Newark, New Jersey implemented a voting age of 16 for school board elections in April of 2025. This research brief presents findings from a multi-method implementation study. We interviewed 11 stakeholders about implementation successes and challenges. Qualitative insights were supplemented by survey findings from 334 11th and 12th graders in Newark. Implementation successes included high registration numbers and strong coalition building across organizations. However, Newark faced challenges to implementation, including limited accessibility, voter education, and time. These findings can inform Newark and other cities interested in implementing a lower voting age.

A Multidimensional Conceptualization and Measure of Youth Civic Agency

Mon, 4 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Scholars of youth civic development have assessed agency using a wide range of constructs, including motivation, efficacy, empowerment, and sociopolitical control. We propose a multidimensional framework and describe the development and validation of a measure of civic agency, conceptualized as competence, drive, individual power, and collective power. In Study 1, we developed a set of items and employed exploratory factor analysis with a pilot sample of adolescents (N = 295, M_age = 17.1, 65.4% youth of color, 47.9% female, 15.8% nonbinary), which supported our hypothesized four-factor model of civic agency. In Study 2, we conducted confirmatory factor analysis of our final items with a separate adolescent sample (N = 1120, M_age = 16.2, 73.0% youth of color, 55.7% female, 23.3% nonbinary), which demonstrated measurement invariance on race/ethnicity, gender, and age. In Study 3, we validated our scale in a sample of young activists (N = 342, M_age = 19.1,...

State of Crisis: Dismantling Student Homelessness in CA

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Study’s Purpose:Over 269,000 K–12 students in California experience homelessness, alongside significant numbers in early childhood and higher education. These students face disproportionate barriers to academic success, including higher rates of suspension, absenteeism, and lower graduation and college readiness rates. This study investigates the educational and social supports needed to improve outcomes for students experiencing homelessness, from early learning through college.

Research Methods:The report draws on qualitative data from over 150 stakeholders including students, educators, homeless liaisons, community-based organizations, school districts, and higher education institutions through interviews and focus groups. Quantitative analysis of statewide data from the 2018–2019 school year examines patterns in suspension, absenteeism, graduation, and college readiness rates among students experiencing homelessness.

Key Findings:Findings reveal that current...

The Impact of a Broken Immigration System on U.S. Students and Schools

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Study’s Purpose:Living with undocumented parents leaves millions of U.S. citizen students vulnerable to instability that disrupts their education. Immigration enforcement and anti-immigrant rhetoric create fear, absenteeism, and disengagement, particularly among Latinex students, but the effects extend across schools and communities. This study examines how a broken U.S. immigration system affects students, families, educators, and school climate.

Research Methods:Findings are drawn from Schools Under Siege: The Impact of Immigration Enforcement on Educational Equity (Gándara & Ee), which used a 2017–18 national survey of over 3,600 educators from 760 schools across 13 states, combined with additional empirical studies. The survey captured educators’ observations of student performance, attendance, and wellbeing in the context of heightened immigration enforcement.

Key...

Highly Mobile Youth: How State Policy and Local Implementation Can Work Together to Support Youth

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Highly Mobile Youth: How State Policy and Local Implementation Can Work Together to Support Youth

Strengthening K-12 Cellphone Policies to Support Student Learning and Well-Being: Research-Based Guidance for U.S. Education Leaders

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Strengthening K-12 Cellphone Policies to Support Student Learning and Well-Being: Research-Based Guidance for U.S. Education Leaders

State of Crisis: Understanding District Educational Patterns for CA Students Experiencing Homelessness

Thu, 5 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This policy brief builds upon our 2020 analysis of student homelessness statewide to examine district-level data for 10 districts across the state. In 2021, California made historic investments to help students and schools recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, adversely impacting schools and students experiencing homelessness, limiting the scope and application of student data, and creating new challenges for teaching and learning. While the future after this pandemic is unclear, we must continue to support students experiencing homelessness and address the long-standing inequities that this vulnerable student group faces. Learn more on the CTS website.

Can Community Cultural Wealth Maintain STEM Career Aspirations of Undergraduate Women of Color? Examining HERI Data

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Women of color (WOC) remain underrepresented in the STEM workforce due to systemic racism and sexism. Using Yosso’s (2005) anti-deficit Community Cultural Wealth framework, this study quantitatively explored factors associated with STEM career aspiration persistence among senior WOC undergraduates who entered college with initial STEM career aspirations. Drawing on longitudinal data from the Higher Education Research Institute’s (HERI) 2015 Freshman Survey (TFS) and 2019 College Senior Survey (CSS), we analyzed a sample of 1,460 WOC graduating seniors across 42 institutions using logistic regression. Results revealed that aspirational and navigational capital played pivotal roles in maintaining STEM career aspirations. Specifically, WOC who expressed strong desires to make scientific contributions were significantly more likely to maintain STEM career aspirations. Additionally, WOC who participated in undergraduate research and STEM support programs had significantly higher likelihoods...

Agile and the Long Crisis of Software Development

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

From the article: "I began to explore the history of Agile. What I discovered was a long-running wrestling match between what managers want software development to be and what it really is, as practiced by the workers who write the code. Time and again, organizations have sought to contain software’s most troublesome tendencies—its habit of sprawling beyond timelines and measurable goals—by introducing new management styles. And for a time, it looked as though companies had found in Agile the solution to keeping developers happily on task while also working at a feverish pace. Recently, though, some signs are emerging that Agile’s power may be fading. A new moment of reckoning is in the making, one that may end up knocking Agile off its perch."

Book Review: Strategies of Segregation: Race, Residence, and the Struggle for Educational Equality

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Book Review: Strategies of Segregation: Race, Residence, and the Struggle for Educational Equality

Writing Names, Reading Hip Hop: Children (re)Mixing and (re)Making Language, Literacy, and Learning Through the Hip Hop Cultural Naming Practices and Pedagogies of StyleWriting

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Writing Names, Reading Hip Hop reports on the cultural naming practices and pedagogies of the Beats Club, an experimental Language and Literacy(ies) program for children in central Los Angeles (Orellana, 2016). Across three years of play and study in Beats - Stely, Caiyl, Feldspar, Kiboo, Fina, Curipaii and 70 others engaged in the invention and writing of their Club pseudonyms, following the Hip Hop cultural practices known as StyleWriting[1] (Rossomando, 1996). In this dissertation I break down what our Beats Club Naming (BCN) activity is and means, unpacking the names-based Pedagogy(ies) employed and kids’ dynamic Response(s). I ask and answer, how do these naming practices of StyleWriting shape and support children’s pathways to and through Language, Literacy(ies), and Learning.

I take aim at the problem of inequality, and its perpetuation through standardized, Western schooling (Au, 2009; Hill, 1998; Woodson, 1969). I (Hip Hop)...

The Silence of Our Friends: Recognizing Microaggressions

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In a time where there are various representations of race in the United States, many ethnic minority groups still face a number of challenges that are related to the color of their skin, socioeconomic status, national status, and gender. These challenges are referred to as microaggressions. Solorzano & Perez Huber (2012) discusses racial microaggressions specifically as, “one form of systemic everyday racism used to keep those at the racial margins in their place” (p.1489). In this paper, we use Critical Race Theory as a tool and a framework to examine a few different forms of microaggressions, mainly racial microaggressions, from different ethnic groups. We recognize microaggressions continue to exist in our society. Furthermore, we acknowledge that transformational resistance begins when we identify these various forms of microaggressions.

Your AI Is a Human

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Your AI Is a Human

Between localization and internationalization: how does the global international school industry establish legitimacy?

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

With shifting customer demographics, the global international school industry faces the legitimacy dilemma of attracting potential customers from local while maintaining its international identity. Drawing on institutional theory, 30 international schools in Shanghai, Geneva, and New York are selected as cases to identify common marketing strategies adopted by schools from the industry when navigating the legitimacy dilemma. This study found that international schools position themselves as elite institutions to meet local aspirations for social mobility and emphasise their international characteristics, such as multilingual curricula, diverse student backgrounds, to maintain their international identity. Findings advance understanding of international schools’ role in reinforcing social inequalities.

Leveraging LCFF Funding to Implement Comprehensive School Counseling: A Case Study of Livingston Union School District

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Study's Purpose: This research brief explores the Livingston Union School District’s (LUSD) implementation of a comprehensive school counseling program. The program aligns with the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model and is sustained through California’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). Located in California’s Central Valley, LUSD serves a predominantly Latine and socioeconomically disadvantaged student population in a high-need rural context. LUSD bolstered its school counseling program, making it a cornerstone of its student support strategy through collaborative leadership, strategic staffing, and equity-centered resource allocation.

Research Methods: Using a mixed-methods approach—including document analysis, interviews, survey data, and quantitative outcomes—this study finds that the district’s sustained investment in school counseling has led to measurable improvements in school climate and student...

Unpacking the implementation climate in general education settings in public schools: a sequential-explanatory mixed-methods study

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

BackgroundAutism has significantly increased in the United States with 1 in 31 children affected and increasingly included in general education settings as mandated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. While several evidence-based practices (EBPs) effectively support autistic students, organizational-level factors hinder successful implementation in school settings. Implementation climate–implementers’ collective perceptions that their organization prioritizes, rewards, and supports EBP implementation–strongly predicts EBP use. However, little is known about implementation climate within general education settings in public schools.MethodsA sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach was applied. Participants included 361 general education teachers (n = 161), special education teachers (n = 138), and paraeducators (n = 62) across 60 elementary schools. All participants served at least one autistic student included in a general education classroom, with the total...

Earlier connectivity and specialization predict longitudinal changes in phonological and semantic specialization in 7- to 9-year-old children

Fri, 28 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A central assumption of the Interactive Specialization model (ISM) of brain development postulates that earlier interaction between brain regions (i.e., functional connectivity) drives later specialization. The goal of the current study was to examine this assumption in the language domain. Longitudinal data from 32 children at 7 and 9 years of age were analyzed. The children were given a sound judgment task and a meaning judgment task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess children's phonological and semantic specialization, and functional connectivity in the brain. We found evidence that earlier connectivity at age 7 predicted later specialization at age 9 within the dorsal pathway for phonology and ventral pathway for semantics, therefore supporting the assumption of the Interactive Specialization model. We also found that individual differences in specialization at age 7 predicted later specialization at age 9, and this predictive effect was...

An Exploratory Investigation of Undergraduate Students' Values and Experiences with Breaks, Leisure, and Rest

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract: In the face of worsening college student mental health, calls for greater rest and leisure are abundant. However, without an understanding of student attitudes and experiences with rest, improved mental health through rest are limited. The current study surveyed this critical context in 280 college students across two institutions by examining their attitudes, challenges, and experiences with rest. Results showed students report valuing rest as important to their productivity as students but also report feeling guilty when resting and not working. Students reported that the most common way to recognize it is time to take a break was because of physiological symptoms, including headache, eye fatigue, stomachaches, racing heart, headaches, and exhaustion. Despite students reporting a range of leisure and rest activities, including socializing, watching TV, creative hobbies, and walking, they also reported multiple barriers to resting. This included schoolwork, employment,...

Californians' Views on Lowering the Voting Age

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This research brief presents findings from a statewide poll of Californians to document the level of support or opposition to lowering the voting age to 16 for school board, local, and national elections. Poll results showed the highest level of support for lowering the voting age for local elections. There was greater support among those aged 55 and younger and across certain regions of California.

Social network support is associated with teacher’s perceptions of transition planning for their autistic students

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Background School transitions are accompanied by disruptions in routines and increased social and academic demands, creating challenges for autistic students, who often have difficulty coping with change. These transitions are also challenging for teachers, who often report feeling unprepared to guide their autistic students through the transition process. Methods This study examined teacher and student factors that contribute to teachers’ perceptions of transition planning for their autistic students. At four sites (Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Rochester, and Sacramento), 126 teachers responded to survey questions regarding their perception of transition planning for their autistic students, their students’ classroom behavior as they were preparing to transition, their own burnout, and a social network survey about the people they relied on to support their autistic students. Results Teachers reported being somewhat satisfied with their schools with the way that schools prepared...

Today's Young People and Their Political Gloom

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We surveyed young people in the two weeks following the 2024 election to take their pulse on the current state of U.S. politics. This research brief charts the most frequent terms youth use to describe politics today, highlighting their overall dissatisfaction and political gloom.

Unlocking Opportunities: How Dual Language Immersion Can Promote Equity and Integration

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Study’s Purpose:

This policy brief examines the potential of Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs to advance racial, linguistic, and socioeconomic equity in public education. While DLI has grown rapidly in the U.S. and is celebrated for promoting bilingualism and integration, concerns have emerged around access and equity especially for the historically marginalized communities these programs were originally designed to serve. This study focuses on Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), home to the largest number of DLI programs in the country, to assess how these programs are shaping enrollment patterns, integration, and equitable access.

Research Methods:

The study analyzed two decades (2001–2002 through 2021–2022) of publicly available LAUSD enrollment data from the California Department of Education. Researchers examined demographic trends across schools with and without DLI programs, disaggregated by race/ethnicity, English Learner (EL) status,...

Psychometric Properties of the Science Self-Efficacy Scale for STEMM Undergraduates

Mon, 4 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Biomedical research training initiatives need rigorous evaluation to achieve national goals of supporting a robust workforce in the biomedical sciences. Higher science self-efficacy is associated with the likelihood of pursuing a science-related research career, but we know little about the psychometric properties of this construct. In this study, we report on a comprehensive validation study of the Science Self-Efficacy Scale using a robust sample of 10,029 undergraduates enrolled across 11 higher education institutions that were part of a biomedical training initiative funded by the National Institutes of Health in the United States. We found the scale to be unidimensional with an Omega hierarchical (ω_h) reliability coefficient of 0.86 and a marginal reliability of 0.91. Within the item response theory framework, we did not detect variation in item parameters across undergraduates' race/ethnicity; however, one item had parameters that varied across gender identity....

Scaling Equity: Unfulfilled Promises and Lessons From California’s MTSS Initiative

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this report, we present findings from the qualitative data collection and analysis of publicly available data of the California Multi-Tiered System of Support (CA MTSS) Pilot Phase II. This report aims to describe, through administrator interviews conducted by the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools (CTS) research team, the factors that influenced the implementation of the CA MTSS Pilot Phase II during the fourth year of participation in Phase 2A and the second year of participation in Phase 2B. The CA MTSS Pilot Phase II encompasses 35 schools from 26 districts across California as they implement the MTSS framework at the school level, focusing on school climate, positive behavioral supports, and social-emotional learning. Additionally, this report shares longitudinal findings from the qualitative data collection and analysis of the California Scaling Up Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) Statewide (SUMS)for Phases 2A and 2B during the 2018–19 through 2022–23...

The Ten Billion Dollar Deficit: The Economic Burdens of Inequities Across California Schools

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Study’s Purpose:

California’s public schools face significant pressure to improve across a range of metrics, to improve educational efficiency and reduce inequities between student groups. One student support framework is the Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS), which includes screening of students’ needs, monitoring their progress, data-based decision making and a multi-level prevention system. MTSS has the potential to maximize student success. However, to set MTSS in context, it is necessary to calculate the full economic consequences of failing to invest in MTSS (and other educational support strategies).

Here we investigate the economic consequences of failure to graduate from high school; chronic absenteeism; and disciplinary sanctions (suspension, expulsion, and restraint). Applying a standard economic model, we calculate the burdens to society, families, schools, and the California taxpayer. We find significant burdens from each perspective and that these...

1.37 Million and Rising: Understanding the National 25% Spike in Student Homelessness

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

What do we know about the nearly 1.4 million students experiencing homelessness in the U.S.? Our latest brief, “1.37 Million and Rising: Understanding the National 25% Spike in Student Homelessness” explores national patterns for housing insecure youth across the U.S. Students without stable housing, one of several highly mobile student populations, are more likely to miss school, face disciplinary actions, and fall behind academically. Yet many remain invisible in national education data.

This brief builds upon our research on students experiencing homelessness in California, the epicenter of the student homelessness crisis, and highly mobile youth—including an overview of...

Advancing Educational Stability, Continuity, and Success: A Policy Agenda for Highly Mobile Youth in the U.S.

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Highly mobile youth (HMY) include approximately 1.9 million school-age students in the U.S., a broad category for students experiencing homelessness (1.2 million), the foster care system (391,000), migrant youth (274,000) and young people who have been detained in the juvenile legal system (25,000).

This policy brief in collaboration with WestEd builds on our initial overview of HMY by offering actionable strategies for federal and state policymakers. We focus on the unique needs of HMY as they face heightened challenges after the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing political shifts in 2025.

Our systems are not designed to meet the complex realities of HMY. The brief offers a policy agenda to change that. We hope this work supports efforts to build more equitable, responsive systems that center the well-being and opportunity...

Often Overlooked but Not Unseen: An Overview of Highly Mobile Youth in the U.S.

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There were nearly 2 million highly mobile youth (HMY) in the United States in the 2021-22 school year.

These youth—including those experiencing homelessness, in foster care, migratory students, and those involved in the juvenile legal system—face compounded challenges that disrupt their education, health, and future opportunities.This brief uncovers the urgent needs of these underserved populations, highlighting the systemic barriers they encounter, from poverty and language barriers to neighborhood violence and childhood trauma. The research underscores the disproportionate impact on Black and Brown youth and calls for targeted interventions to provide the support they deserve.

Learn more on the CTS website.

Reassessing the Fitting Propensity of Factor Models

Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Model complexity is a critical consideration when evaluating a statistical model. To quantify complexity, one can examine fitting propensity (FP), or the ability of the model to fit well to diverse patterns of data. The scant foundational research on FP has focused primarily on proof of concept rather than practical application. To address this oversight, the present work joins a recently published study in examining the FP of models that are commonly applied in factor analysis. We begin with a historical account of statistical model evaluation, which refutes the notion that complexity can be fully understood by counting the number of free parameters in the model. We then present three sets of analytic examples to better understand the FP of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis models that are widely used in applied research. We characterize our findings relative to previously disseminated claims about factor model FP. Finally, we provide some recommendations for future...

Estimating the Efficacy of CBT for Children on the Autism Spectrum Using a Home-Based Video Assessment of Autism-Related Solitary Behavior

Wed, 9 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

While laboratory and school playground-based independent evaluator (IE) rated measures of intervention outcome have been used in some clinical trials for autistic individuals (Dawson Pediatrics 125:e17–e23, 2010), IE ratings of children’s behavior in their home environments are virtually nonexistent in published clinical trials in autism. In the present study, IE-rated measure of children’s social isolation in the home setting pre and post intervention is utilized to evaluate treatment effects from a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) treatment for school-aged children on the autism spectrum (Wood et al. J Consult Clin Psychol 89:110–125, 2021). Twenty-nine of the 68 families of participants from a CBT intervention for autistic youth (Wood et al. J Consult Clin Psychol 89:110–125, 2021) who recorded home-based videos at pre-treatment also did so at post-treatment. Two measures were used by IEs to rate pre- and post-treatment home video recordings on children’s social isolation...

Differentiation of autistic adults’ perceptions of research by gender: a mixed methods exploration

Wed, 9 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Purpose: The funding breakdown of autism research diverges with the research priorities of the autism community and stakeholders (Putnam et al., 2023), prompting concern about the disconnect between researchers and the autism community (Keating, 2021). This study aims to address this gap in the literature through an exploration of autistic adults’ opinions of the current research landscape and what autism research should address through a survey disseminated to the autistic community. Design/methodology/approach: In total, 89 autistic adults completed the survey. Participants rated their agreement to statements with a five-point Likert scale, ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree.” Participants were asked “What should autism research be focused on?” and answered via long answer text. Findings: A numerical difference was found in participants’ ratings of autism research as more harmful than helpful. Participants who identified as nonbinary felt...

John Wooden Advocated “Repetition” but Implemented “Deliberate Practice”

Wed, 9 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

John Wooden emphasized repetition, joking that his eight laws of learning were “explanation, demonstration, imitation, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, and repetition.” We believe Wooden’s laws of learning were rounded off not by repetition, but by deliberate practice. Deliberate practice is defined as “individualized training activities especially designed by a coach or teacher to improve specific aspects of an individual’s performance through repetition and successive refinement” (pp. 278–279). We draw on studies of Wooden, interviews with former players and coaches with whom he worked, and Wooden’s own writings to view his teaching through the lens of deliberate practice.

Violence Directed Against Teachers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Social–Ecological Analysis of Safety and Well-Being

Tue, 8 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Violence against teachers is a public health crisis that has devastating effects on school personnel well-being, health, and retention, as well as students' educational outcomes. In collaboration with national organizations, the American Psychological Association Task Force on Violence against Educators conducted the first national survey on educator victimization that included 4,136 pre-K through 12th-grade teachers from all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico during the pandemic. In the current study, 43.7% of teachers reported experiencing at least one verbal threat, physical assault, and/or property damage, with verbal threats being the most prevalent form of victimization during the pandemic. Using a social-ecological framework and logistic regression analyses, characteristics of teachers, school climate, and school organizational and community factors were examined as predictors of teacher victimization (i.e., verbal threats, physical, property violence) during the pandemic....

Violence and Aggression Against Educators and School Personnel, Retention, Stress, and Training Needs: National Survey Results

Mon, 7 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Aggression and violence against educators and school personnel have raised public health concerns that require attention from researchers, policymakers, and training providers in U.S. schools. School aggression and violence have negative effects on school personnel health and retention and on student achievement and development. In partnership with several national organizations, the American Psychological Association (APA) Task Force on Violence Against Educators and School Personnel administered two national, multi-informant, cross-sectional surveys. Time 1 data were collected in 2020-2021 from 14,966 respondents; participants reflected on their experiences of violence and aggression before COVID-19 and during COVID-19 restrictions in this survey. One year later, in 2022, 11,814 respondents completed the Time 2 survey after COVID-19 restrictions ended. Participants included teachers, school psychologists, social workers, counselors, staff members, and administrators from all...

School Safety Concerns and Solutions: A Qualitative Analysis of U.S. School Psychologists’ Perspectives

Wed, 2 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In the present study, we analyzed qualitative survey data from 538 school psychologists across schools in the United States regarding their perceptions of school safety issues and potential strategies to address school safety. There are only a few studies exploring the experiences and perspectives of school psychologists that have been based on large-scale qualitative data. Using inductive coding, three themes for safety concerns emerged: (a) aggressive behaviors from students, (b) mental and behavioral needs, and (c) limited staffing. Three themes also emerged for potential solutions: (a) professional development/training, (b) school-family-community relationships, and (c) threat assessments. These findings from school psychologists have implications for addressing structural issues to prevent school violence in research and practice. Policy recommendations to inform resource allocation and improve school safety are discussed.

Caregiver strategies before intervention moderate caregiver fidelity and maintenance in RCT of JASPER intervention with autistic toddlers

Tue, 1 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Background: Interventions facilitated by caregivers have gained popularity among those caring for young children with autism. Instructing caregivers on specific techniques to foster social communication skills in their at-risk or diagnosed autistic children has the potential to alleviate concerns about their children's development. Moreover, it can offer a more intensive early intervention compared to what community providers alone can deliver. This study seeks to explore the correlation between caregiver strategies employed prior to participating in a caregiver-mediated intervention and the caregiver's fidelity to the intervention, as well as its sustainability during the follow-up period and child outcomes. This study constitutes a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial that compared the joint attention, symbolic play, engagement, and regulation (JASPER) and Psychoeducational Education Intervention (PEI), revealing significant advancements in children's social communication...

How school policies, strategies, and relational factors contribute to teacher victimization and school safety

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this study, we examined how school policies and strategies (i.e., positive discipline, hardening strategies, and positive behavioral strategies) affect teacher relational factors and teacher reports of victimization and safety. Specifically, we examined the mediational roles of teacher support of student learning, maltreatment of students by teachers, and teachers' differential treatment of students in schools. Using a sample of 6643 pre-K-12th-grade teachers, path analysis results revealed that positive behavior strategies, hardening strategies, and positive discipline were indirectly associated with teacher victimization and sense of safety. Additionally, teachers' perceptions of other teachers maltreating students had the greatest contributions to their sense of safety and victimization by students. Positive discipline was directly and indirectly associated with teacher victimization and safety. Implications and directions for future studies are discussed.

Addressing Violence Against Educators: What Do Teachers Say Works?

Fri, 7 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

School personnel safety and well-being have received increased attention via national outlets; however, research is limited. The current investigation is the first to examine the reported use and perceived effectiveness of commonly used school-based intervention approaches for addressing school violence, specifically violence against teachers in U.S. schools. A sample of 4,471 prekindergarten-12th grade teachers was asked to rate the use and perceived effectiveness of common school-based approaches, namely exclusionary discipline (e.g., suspensions), school hardening (e.g., metal detectors, school police), prevention (e.g., school climate improvement, social-emotional learning, classroom management), and crisis intervention practices (e.g., de-escalation, physical restraint) to address verbal/threatening, physical, and property violence against teachers. Findings revealed that teachers rated prevention practices as most effective in reducing violence against teachers. The use...

Teacher-Directed Violence and Anxiety and Stress: Predicting Intentions to Transfer and Quit

Mon, 3 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Teacher well-being and experiences of violence have become issues of national concern, and teacher shortages have increased since the onset of COVID-19. In this national study, we examined verbal and physical violence against teachers from multiple aggressors and the role of anxiety and stress in predicting intentions to transfer positions or quit the profession. The majority of the sample of 9,370 pre-Kindergarten-12th grade teachers was White (79%) and female (79%). Descriptive analyses revealed that 25% of teachers reported intentions to transfer schools and 43% of teachers reported intentions to quit teaching. Structural equation model results indicated pre-COVID-19 verbal and threatening violence from students, parents, colleagues, and administrators predicted teacher anxiety and stress and intentions to transfer schools (R² ranged from .18 to .23) and quit the profession during COVID-19 (R² ranged from .34 to .36). Anxiety and stress significantly mediated...

How adolescents learn to build social bonds: A developmental computational account of social explore-exploit decision-making

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Building social bonds is a critical task of adolescence that affords opportunities for learning, identity formation, and social support. Failing to develop close relationships in adolescence hinders adult interpersonal functioning and contributes to problems such as loneliness and depression. During adolescence, increased reward sensitivity and greater social flexibility both contribute to healthy social development, yet we lack a clear theory of how these processes interact to support social functioning. Here, we propose synthesizing these two literatures using a computational reinforcement learning framework that recasts how adolescents pursue and learn from social rewards as a social explore-exploit problem. To become socially skilled, adolescents must balance both their efforts to form individual bonds within specific groups and manage memberships across multiple groups to maximize access to social resources. We draw on insights from sociological studies on social capital...

Practitioner Adherence and Competence in MEYA, a Free Online Self-Instruction Program in Modular Psychotherapy and Counseling for Children’s Autism-Related Clinical Needs

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The quality of care in public schools and other community settings for school-aged youths on the autism spectrum is variable and often not evidence-based. Training practitioners in these settings to deliver evidence-based practices (EBPs) may improve the quality of care. We developed a free internet-based training and clinical guidance system synthesizing multiple EBPs for youth on the autism spectrum addressing a range of mental health needs and autism-related behaviors, entitled Modular EBPs for Youth on the Autism Spectrum (MEYA; meya.ucla.edu). A multiple baseline study was conducted with seven practitioners recruited from mental health practice settings across the United States who were providing services to children on the autism spectrum (aged 6 to 17 years). Practitioners were randomly assigned to undergo baseline conditions of 2 to 8 weeks. Once online training in MEYA commenced, practitioners engaged in algorithm-guided self-instruction in EBPs for autism....

Master Diversity Program Consortium Participants List

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The DPC Participant List is a roster of all professionals who have participated in the consortium-wide effort for at least one year.

Navigating the Transition to Adulthood: Insights from Caregivers of Autistic Individuals

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

With many teens having to transition from a mainly educational system of support to a set of health and social service systems (Shattuck et al. in Autism Res Treat https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/924182, 2017), there is a critical need to advance research and support services in the area of autism and transition to aid autistic* individuals and their families. This study aims to learn more about the experiences of caregivers of autistic young adults, their experiences navigating the transition process post-graduation, and what realistic steps could be undertaken by high schools, vocational schools, colleges, Regional Centers, and places of employment to ease this transition. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with caregivers of autistic young adults over the age of 18 focused on their experiences helping their children navigate the transition to adulthood. Using an iterative and inductive coding approach, three overarching themes were uncovered with twelve subthemes. The...

Transcendent thinking counteracts longitudinal effects of mid‐adolescent exposure to community violence in the anterior cingulate cortex

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Adolescence involves extensive brain maturation, characterized by social sensitivity and emotional lability, that co-occurs with increased independence. Mid-adolescence is also a hallmark developmental stage when youths become motivated to reflect on the broader personal, ethical, and systems-level implications of happenings, a process we term transcendent thinking. Here, we examine the confluence of these developmental processes to ask, from a transdisciplinary perspective, how might community violence exposure (CVE) impact brain development during mid-adolescence, and how might youths' dispositions for transcendent thinking be protective? Fifty-five low-SES urban youth with no history of delinquency (32 female; 27 Latinx, 28 East Asian) reported their CVE and underwent structural MRI first at age 14-18, and again 2 years later. At the study's start, participants also discussed their feelings about 40 minidocumentaries featuring other teens' compelling situations in a 2-h private...

Operation and performance of the ATLAS tile calorimeter in LHC Run 2

Tue, 4 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The ATLAS tile calorimeter (TileCal) is the hadronic sampling calorimeter covering the central region of the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This paper gives an overview of the calorimeter’s operation and performance during the years 2015–2018 (Run 2). In this period, ATLAS collected proton–proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV and the TileCal was 99.65% efficient for data-taking. The signal reconstruction, the calibration procedures, and the detector operational status are presented. The performance of two ATLAS trigger systems making use of TileCal information, the minimum-bias trigger scintillators and the tile muon trigger, is discussed. Studies of radiation effects allow the degradation of the output signals at the end of the LHC and HL-LHC operations to be estimated. Finally, the TileCal response to isolated muons, hadrons and jets from proton–proton collisions is presented. The energy and time calibration methods performed...

Gauging treatment impact: The development of exposure variables in a large‐scale evaluation study

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

While guidance on how to design rigorous evaluation studies abounds, prescriptive guidance on how to include critical process and context measures through the construction of exposure variables is lacking. Capturing nuanced intervention dosage information within a large-scale evaluation is particularly complex. The Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) initiative is part of the Diversity Program Consortium, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health. It is designed to increase participation in biomedical research careers among individuals from underrepresented groups. This chapter articulates methods employed in defining BUILD student and faculty interventions, tracking nuanced participation in multiple programs and activities, and computing the intensity of exposure. Defining standardized exposure variables (beyond simple treatment group membership) is crucial for equity-focused impact evaluation. Both the process and resulting nuanced dosage variables...

Understanding the context and appreciating the complexity of evaluating the Diversity Program Consortium

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) made a sizeable investment in developing a scientific approach to understanding how to best increase diversity in the NIH-funded workforce by fostering inclusive excellence at a national scale through the Diversity Program Consortium (DPC). This chapter provides an overview of the context in which the consortium-wide evaluation study has taken place to provide readers with an understanding of its level of complexity. This evaluation effort is the first large-scale, national, systemic, longitudinal evaluation of harmonized interventions focused on undergraduate biomedical research training programs in the history of the NIH and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

The School-to-Prison Pipeline for Probation Youth With Special Education Needs

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Juvenile justice-involved youth with special education eligibility may have distinct needs from other justice-involved youth that place them at higher risk of re-offending. This study examines the extent to which the comorbidity of risk factors, such as school challenges and mental and emotional health problems, is related to recidivism among probation youth with a diagnosis eligible for special education. Data came from the Washington State Juvenile Court Assessment provided to 4,317 youth adjudicated to probation for at least 3 months. We used independent sample t-tests and chi-square tests to assess the difference in mental health and school problems (e.g., suspension/expulsion history) between those with and without special education needs. Multiple regression models estimated the unique and cumulative role of special education status, mental health, and school problems in future recidivism. In the study sample, 39.6% (n = 1,708) of the youth had diagnoses eligible for special...

Characterizing caregiver responses to restricted and repetitive behaviors in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Restricted and repetitive behaviors are a core feature of autism spectrum disorder. This descriptive study documented the presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors in 85 toddlers with autism spectrum disorder as they interacted with their caregiver in a play interaction. For each child restricted and repetitive behavior, a caregiver response/non-response was coded. Caregiver responses were rated as successful or unsuccessful. In all, 83 toddlers demonstrated at least one restricted and repetitive behavior in 10 min. The most common child restricted and repetitive behavior was repetitive object use with 72 children displaying at least one instance of this category of restricted and repetitive behavior. Overall, caregivers responded to fewer than half of their child's restricted and repetitive behaviors, and caregiver response varied by child restricted and repetitive behavior type. The most common response was redirection. Success varied by child restricted and repetitive...

Using the Clinical Global Impression scale to assess social communication change in minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Assessing improvements in social communication behaviors in minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often challenging. The Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI) is a 7-point scale that has been adapted so that clinicians can easily and quickly rate social communication behaviors. The current study evaluated the CGI-Improvement (CGI-I) subscale as a measure of social communication change in minimally verbal children with ASD. The sample included 54 minimally verbal school-age children with ASD enrolled in a social communication intervention trial. CGIs were rated by interventionists and the study coordinator at baseline and at Week 6 of intervention, and were compared to scores on the Communication Complexity Scale (CCS). Results indicated that CGI ratings corresponded with CCS scores at baseline and Week 6. Children who were rated as more severe on social communication at baseline demonstrated lower complexity of communication compared to those who were...

“I do my best to do right by her”: Autistic motherhood and the experience of raising a non-autistic adolescent daughter

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

LAY ABSTRACT: Little is known about the parenting experiences of autistic mothers, especially those who have daughters who are not on the autism spectrum. In this study, we interviewed seven autistic mothers who have raised or are currently raising non-autistic teenage daughters. Mothers were asked to describe what parenting was/is like during their daughters' teenage years. We analyzed the transcripts of the interviews and found several common themes. Mothers described their relationships with their daughters to be loving, safe, and empathetic. Mothers described several strengths when it came to parenting, such as helping their daughters solve problems and using positive strategies to handle conflict with their daughters. Mothers also described challenges they faced when interacting with other non-autistic people and when trying to form relationships with them. Mothers tried to build their daughters' social skills so that they would not experience the same challenges. This study...

Predictors of Sexual Victimization Among Autistic and Non-Autistic College Students

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Purpose. This study examined predictors of sexual victimization among autistic and non-autistic college students. Specifically, we aimed to determine whether autistic students are more likely than non-autistic students to experience unwanted sexual contact and sexual assault, controlling for co-occurring diagnoses. We also aimed to determine whether students with other disabilities, specifically ADHD, learning disability (LD), and psychological disorders, are more likely than students without these disabilities to experience unwanted sexual contact and sexual assault. Methods. Autistic students (n=270) and non-autistic students (n=270) who had participated in a nationwide survey were matched on demographic characteristics and co-occurring diagnoses. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to address the research questions and evaluate predictors of unwanted sexual contact and sexual assault. Results. Autistic students were as likely as non-autistic students to have experienced...

Adjustment Across the First College Year: A Matched Comparison of Autistic, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and Neurotypical Students

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Background: Although the number of autistic students attending higher education has grown substantially in recent decades, little is known about factors that support their retention and persistence in college. First-year experiences and adaptability to the college environment greatly impact students' decisions to remain enrolled. Despite the importance of first-year adjustment to persistence and retention, few studies have examined the adjustment experiences of first-year autistic students compared to those of matched nonautistic students. Methods: This study used national survey data to compare the first-year college adjustment experiences of 222 freshmen, including 74 self-identified autistic students, 74 students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and 74 students without diagnoses (referred to as neurotypical; NT), matched on mental health and demographic characteristics. Students were compared on measures of academic, social, emotional, and institutional...

Supporting peer engagement for low-income preschool students with autism spectrum disorder during academic instruction: A pilot randomized trial

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

LAY ABSTRACT: Children with autism spectrum disorder attending special education preschool classrooms may not receive support that addresses their core challenges, such as engagement and social communication. There are interventions designed to target these core challenges, like the play-based intervention known as Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement, and Regulation. Embedding strategies from an intervention like Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement, and Regulation into more traditional academic activities can help teachers target engagement and social communication throughout the school day. In the current study, we collaborated with special education preschool teachers to embed Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement, and Regulation strategies during small group time for moderate to severe disability students with autism spectrum disorder, 3-5 years of age. Compared to teachers implementing the standard preschool curriculum, teachers trained in Joint Attention,...

Evaluating a National Biomedical Training Program Using QuantCrit: Revealing Disparities in Research Self-efficacy for Women of Color Undergraduates.

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Program evaluation for interventions aimed at enhancing diversity can fall short when the evaluation unintentionally reifies the exclusion of multiple marginalized student experiences. The present study presents a Quantitative Critical Race Theory (QuantCrit) approach to program evaluation to understand outcomes for Women of Color undergraduates involved in a national biomedical training program called the Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) initiative. Using longitudinal data, we examined the impact of participation in the BUILD Scholars programs and BUILD-developed novel biomedical curriculum on undergraduate's research self-efficacy. Employing propensity score matching and multiple regression models, we found that Black women who participated in the BUILD scholars program reported higher research self-efficacy, whereas Latine and White undergraduate BUILD scholars had lower research self-efficacy. Additionally, Latine women who participated in novel biomedical...

Foster(ing) Youth in the California State University: Understanding the Vital Role of Campus Support Programs