Classrooms with high rates of absenteeism and individual success: Exploring students' achievement, executive function, and socio-behavioral outcomes.

Research and policy dialogue surrounding absenteeism has predominately focused on the school when it comes to reducing student absences, with little focus on the classroom. Further, there has also been minimal attention paid to effects of absenteeism beyond achievement outcomes. To address both, we focused on the classroom and asked whether classrooms with typically higher rates of absenteeism were linked to students' individual achievement, executive function, and social skills. We used a nationally representative dataset of children who started in kindergarten in 2010-2011 (N = 18,170) - when absenteeism is at its highest point not seen again until adolescence. Using school and student fixed effects, our findings revealed that as the percent of absent classmates increases, individual student performance worsens consistently across achievement and executive function domains. Evidence for links between classmate absenteeism and student performance in socio-behavioral domains was less conclusive. Finally, the findings were unique to different student groups.

SCHOOL UNIFORMS AND STUDENT BEHAVIOR: IS THERE A LINK?

Whether or not schoolchildren exhibit better behavior in the context of wearing uniforms has been a long-standing area of debate in education. Nonetheless, there has been little empirical inquiry into the benefits or drawbacks of school uniform policies. To contribute new insights to the dialogue, the present investigation used nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 2011 (n = 6,320) to examine students' social-behavioral and engagement outcomes across the elementary school years as a function of school uniform policies. In general, students in schools that required school uniforms did not demonstrate better social skills, internalizing and externalizing behavior, or school attendance as compared with students in schools without school uniforms. These associations were true across both public and private schools. There was, however, some indication that low-income students in schools that required uniforms demonstrated better school attendance than low-income students in schools that did not.

Going to sleep and going to school: Linking bedtime to student absenteeism.

Educators continuously regard health as being a major driver of school attendance. While physical health factors have been explored in regards to reducing student absenteeism, no attention has been given to the role of bedtime. The present study explored associations between having a regular bedtime, the hour of going to sleep, and school start time to student attendance. Our findings indicate that a regular bedtime reduces kindergartners' absences and decreases their likelihood of being chronically absent. However, the time of bed was not associated with absenteeism, nor was the start time of kindergarten each morning. Potential mechanisms involve school-going routines and practices, and therefore we discuss how schools and communities can play an influential role in helping to address student absenteeism.

The Grade-Level and Cumulative Outcomes of Absenteeism.

Nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 2011 (n = 14,370) were used to examine the grade-level and cumulative outcomes of school absenteeism between kindergarten and fifth grade for students' school performance in the United States. Students who were more frequently absent in any year of elementary school demonstrated lower academic, executive function, and socioemotional outcomes. Although there was little variation in the magnitude of associations across grade levels, there was evidence of cumulative associations. Specifically, students who were consistently absent throughout elementary school tended to have lower outcomes across developmental domains in the long-term. The negative links between absenteeism and outcomes were larger for Black than White students, but few other subgroup differences emerged.

Detailing New Dangers: Linking Kindergarten Chronic Absenteeism to Long-Term Declines in Executive Functioning.

Of all elementary school years, absenteeism is at its peak during kindergarten. Although much has been established about the effects of missing kindergarten school days on achievement, nothing has yet been established on absenteeism and executive function (EF) skills. Yet developing EF skills early in school is critical, and missed in-school time might have long-term implications. To explore this link, we asked whether absenteeism in kindergarten was linked to both short- and long-term EF skill development. Using nationally representative data (N = 14,370) and employing fixed-effects modeling, we found that kindergarten absenteeism was linked to lower working memory and cognitive flexibility outcomes. The patterns varied based on definition of absenteeism, though our evidence does suggest long-term declines on EF skills seen through at least third grade.

New Teachers' Perceptions on Being Prepared to Teach Students With Learning Disabilities: Insights From California.

Including students with learning disabilities (SWLDs) in general education classrooms is a priority nationwide. Consequently, now more than ever before in our nation's history, university teacher education programs face increased responsibility to ensure general education teaching candidates receive adequate preparation to educate SWLDs. Many stakeholders believe that edTPA-a performance assessment used as a credential requirement-can be an important tool in helping to fulfill this goal. Utilizing survey data from a large, research university, the authors investigated how perceptions of preparation programs, including edTPA, related to general education teacher candidates' perceptions of their preparation for educating SWLDs. Candidates reported feeling more prepared for disability policies if they believed their program was cohesive in its goals and expectations. Candidates who rated edTPA as beneficial for entering the teaching profession also believed that edTPA improved their abilities to educate SWLDs.

Household wealth and adolescents' social-emotional functioning in schools.

This study attempts a two-part shift in educational research narrowly fixated on the socioeconomic determinants of student test-score performance. First, we focus on variations in how to measure wealth. Second, we move beyond achievement and focus on the wealth determinants of adolescents' social-emotional competencies. Using data from a nationally-representative sample of US eighth graders, we find that the correlation between wealth and social-emotional competencies varies according to how the partitions among the upper class, the middle and working classes, and the poor are defined. By emphasizing wealth in the production of classed social-emotional competencies not captured by test scores, our findings suggest that the growth of household wealth has a more salient effect for lower- and middle-class adolescents than the highest class which appears to have the least to gain, in terms of social-emotional competencies, from an increase in household wealth.

Does Applied STEM Course Taking Link to STEM Outcomes for High School Students With Learning Disabilities?

Over the most recent two decades, federal policy has urged high schools to embed applied science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses into the curriculum to reinforce concepts learned in traditional math and science classes as well as to motivate students' interests and long-term pursuits in STEM areas. While prior research has examined whether these courses link to STEM persistence for the general student population, no work has examined the role of these courses for students with learning disabilities (LDs). This is a critical lapse, as these courses have been supported as being one path by which STEM material can become more accessible for students with diverse learning needs. Hence, this descriptive study examines the landscape of applied STEM course taking for students with LDs. The findings suggest students with LDs are less likely to take applied STEM courses in high school compared to the general population. Additionally, while the general population does benefit from taking these courses, there is a unique association between applied STEM course taking and advanced math and science course taking or math achievement for students with LDs. Hence, there is no evidence that applied STEM course taking is related to any closure of the STEM achievement gap for students with LDs.

New evidence indicates the presence of barracuda (Sphyraenidae) and supports a tropical marine environment in the Miocene of Madagascar.

Recent exploration of Miocene-age deposits at Nosy Makamby, a small island ~50 km southwest of Mahajanga city in northwestern Madagascar, has led to the recovery of a large sample [82] of isolated barracuda teeth (Sphyraena sp.). in a tropical marine fauna that also includes diverse marine invertebrates, chondrichthyans, bony fishes, turtles, crocodylians, and sirenians. Characteristically for barracudas, the teeth are labiolingually flattened and fang-like with a broadly triangular and blade-like acuminate outline and sharply edged but unserrated cutting margins. These barracudas inhabited an environment that included coral reefs (based on fossil scleractinians) and seagrass beds (evidenced by the epiphytic benthic foraminifera Elphidium sp.). The relatively common occurrence of Miocene barracuda at Nosy Makamby corroborates the presence of a tropical marine ecosystem encircling Madagascar by the Miocene, likely similar overall to the environment found there today.

First record of eocene bony fishes and crocodyliforms from Canada's Western Arctic.

BACKGROUND: Discovery of Eocene non-marine vertebrates, including crocodylians, turtles, bony fishes, and mammals in Canada's High Arctic was a critical paleontological contribution of the last century because it indicated that this region of the Arctic had been mild, temperate, and ice-free during the early - middle Eocene (∼53-50 Ma), despite being well above the Arctic Circle. To date, these discoveries have been restricted to Canada's easternmost Arctic - Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg Islands (Nunavut). Although temporally correlative strata crop out over 1,000 km west, on Canada's westernmost Arctic Island - Banks Island, Northwest Territories - they have been interpreted as predominantly marine. We document the first Eocene bony fish and crocodyliform fossils from Banks Island. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We describe fossils of bony fishes, including lepisosteid (Atractosteus), esocid (pike), and amiid, and a crocodyliform, from lower - middle Eocene strata of the Cyclic Member, Eureka Sound Formation within Aulavik National Park (∼76°N. paleolat.). Palynology suggests the sediments are late early to middle Eocene in age, and likely spanned the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These fossils extend the geographic range of Eocene Arctic lepisosteids, esocids, amiids, and crocodyliforms west by approximately 40° of longitude or ∼1100 km. The low diversity bony fish fauna, at least at the family level, is essentially identical on Ellesmere and Banks Islands, suggesting a pan-High Arctic bony fish fauna of relatively basal groups around the margin of the Eocene Arctic Ocean. From a paleoclimatic perspective, presence of a crocodyliform, gar and amiid fishes on northern Banks provides further evidence that mild, year-round temperatures extended across the Canadian Arctic during early - middle Eocene time. Additionally, the Banks Island crocodyliform is consistent with the phylogenetic hypothesis of a Paleogene divergence time between the two extant alligatorid lineages Alligator mississippiensis and A. sinensis, and high-latitude dispersal across Beringia.

Recent plant diversity changes on Europe's mountain summits.

In mountainous regions, climate warming is expected to shift species' ranges to higher altitudes. Evidence for such shifts is still mostly from revisitations of historical sites. We present recent (2001 to 2008) changes in vascular plant species richness observed in a standardized monitoring network across Europe's major mountain ranges. Species have moved upslope on average. However, these shifts had opposite effects on the summit floras' species richness in boreal-temperate mountain regions (+3.9 species on average) and Mediterranean mountain regions (-1.4 species), probably because recent climatic trends have decreased the availability of water in the European south. Because Mediterranean mountains are particularly rich in endemic species, a continuation of these trends might shrink the European mountain flora, despite an average increase in summit species richness across the region.

The evolution of mammal-like crocodyliforms in the Cretaceous Period of Gondwana.

Fossil crocodyliforms discovered in recent years have revealed a level of morphological and ecological diversity not exhibited by extant members of the group. This diversity is particularly notable among taxa of the Cretaceous Period (144-65 million years ago) recovered from former Gondwanan landmasses. Here we report the discovery of a new species of Cretaceous notosuchian crocodyliform from the Rukwa Rift Basin of southwestern Tanzania. This small-bodied form deviates significantly from more typical crocodyliform craniodental morphologies, having a short, broad skull, robust lower jaw, and a dentition with relatively few teeth that nonetheless show marked heterodonty. The presence of morphologically complex, complementary upper and lower molariform teeth suggests a degree of crown-crown contact during jaw adduction that is unmatched among known crocodyliforms, paralleling the level of occlusal complexity seen in mammals and their extinct relatives. The presence of another small-bodied mammal-like crocodyliform in the Cretaceous of Gondwana indicates that notosuchians probably filled niches and inhabited ecomorphospace that were otherwise occupied by mammals on northern continents.