Eric Dion

Stressors and Turning Points in High School and Dropout A Stress Process, Life Course Framework

High school dropout is commonly seen as the result of a long-term process of failure and disengagement. As useful as it is, this view has obscured the heterogeneity of pathways leading to dropout. Research suggests, for instance, that some students leave school not as a result of protracted difficulties but in response to situations that emerge late in their schooling careers, such as health problems or severe peer victimization. Conversely, others with a history of early difficulties persevere when their circumstances improve during high school. Thus, an adequate understanding of why and when students drop out requires a consideration of both long-term vulnerabilities and proximal disruptive events and contingencies. The goal of this review is to integrate long-term and immediate determinants of dropout by proposing a stress process, life course model of dropout. This model is also helpful for understanding how the determinants of dropout vary across socioeconomic conditions and geographical and historical contexts.

Improving Attention and Preventing Reading Difficulties among Low-Income First-Graders: A Randomized Study

Students’ inattention is predictive of reading problems and of non-response to effective reading intervention. In this randomized study, 58 first-grade classrooms located in 30 schools were assigned to a control condition or to one of two intervention conditions. In these last two conditions, peer-tutoring activities were conducted to improve classroom reading instruction. In one of the intervention conditions, the Good Behavior Game was also implemented to maximize students’ attention during reading lessons. Both interventions were effective: peer-tutoring activities helped students improve their reading skills and attention was generally higher when the Good Behavior Game was implemented. Contrary to expectations however, students identified as inattentive at pretest did not become better readers when the two interventions were implemented.

Differential Effects of Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies on Students' Social Preference and Friendship Making.

This experimental study examined the influence of a classwide peer-tutoring reading program (Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies; PALS) on the quality of social relationships of elementary school children. Using a sociometric procedure, social preference and friendships were evaluated before and after the PALS program. Overall (mean) and differential (conditional on pre-treatment status) effects were considered. Modest positive effects were detected, but only for children who were unpopular or had no friends before the intervention. We discuss the possibility that problem behaviors may negate the generally positive effects of peer-mediated activity on social relations.

Toward benchmarks for tertiary care for adults with severe and persistent mental disorders.

Background: Scarce attention has been paid to establishing benchmarks for tertiary care for adults with severe mental disorders. Yet, the availability and efficient utilization of residential resources partly determines the capacity of a comprehensive system of care to avoid clogging ever-shrinking acute care bed facilities. Objectives: To describe the actual utilization of and projected needs for residential resources, one part of tertiary care, in the catchment area of a psychiatric hospital in east-end Montreal. To compare results obtained against actual utilization and projected needs evaluated in other Canadian provinces and in other countries, with a view to establishing national benchmarks. Methods: Two surveys were undertaken to establish the number of places in these facilities that were utilized and needed for adults aged 18 to 65 years with severe mental disorders, without a primary diagnosis of mental retardation or organic brain syndrome, and originally from the catchment area. A first survey ascertained the number of places utilized and of those needed for residential care among all long-stay inpatients and all adults in supervised residential facilities. A second survey identified the need for such long-stay hospitalization, nursing homes, and supervised facilities as an alternative or as a complement to hospitalization among acute care inpatients. Results: The actual ratio of places in long-stay hospital units, nursing homes, and supervised residential facilities was 150:100 000 inhabitants. The ideal ratio, according to estimated needs, is 171:100 000. The figure breakdown is as follows: 20:100 000 for long-stay hospital units, 20:100 000 for nursing homes, 40:100 000 for group homes, 40:100 000 for private hostels or foster families, and 51:100 000 for supervised apartments. The needs of this urban, blue-collar population for supervised residential places hovered in the upper range of utilization and standards for European countries and within the proposed standards for Canadian provinces. Discussion: Needs for long-stay hospitalization or for supervised residential facilities cannot be treated as absolute. For example, evaluation conducted in this hospital-led system of psychiatric care may produce higher estimates of institutional care. Comparing actual utilization and projected needs in this urban catchment area with current utilization in other jurisdictions in Canada and Europe should contribute to establishing sound national benchmarks within ranges. Conclusions: It is possible to establish benchmarks that guide the development of supervised residential settings to best meet the needs of the population of adults with severe and persistent mental disorders. The methods used here to assess needs should serve as guidelines for future research, because they were designed to contain the bias of over- or underprovision of care in the current utilization.

The Promise and Limitations of Reading Instruction in the Mainstream: The Need for a Multilevel Approach

The purpose of this article is to describe how increasingly intensive, multilevel interventions can be used to ensure the increase in number of children who learn to read. We first review the promise and limitations of empirically validated best practices for mainstream classrooms. We then discuss results from a recent multilevel intervention study. We conclude by examining implications of a multilevel instructional approach for special education service delivery.

Efficacy of an Intervention to Enhance Reading Comprehension of Students With High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study examines whether explicit reading comprehension instruction is relevant for students with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Forty-five students (Mage = 9 years) were randomly assigned to two conditions: control or intervention. Those assigned to the intervention condition received instruction on vocabulary, main idea identification, text structure, and anaphoric relations. Compared with their peers in the control condition, students in the intervention condition showed greater improvement on one measure of reading comprehension. They also knew the meaning of more words and were better able to identify main ideas and anaphoric relations, with some of these gains still being detectable at the follow-up. Although additional adaptations appear warranted, students with high-functioning ASD clearly benefited from instruction.

Segmenting Texts Into Meaningful Word Groups: Beginning Readers’ Prosody and Comprehension

It was hypothesized that prosodic reading facilitates beginning readers’ comprehension by allowing them to segment the text into meaningful word groups. Two prosodic features of the oral reading of second-grade students were considered: lack of inappropriate pauses and attention to punctuation. To examine the unique contribution of these features to reading comprehension, fluency (speed and accuracy of reading) and vocabulary were controlled. As expected, both prosodic features were significantly related to comprehension, jointly explaining as much variance as fluency. Accordingly, it might be counterproductive to encourage reading speed and accuracy at the expense of prosody.

Standardized Effect Size Measures for Mediation Analysis in Cluster-Randomized Trials

This article presents 3 standardized effect size measures to use when sharing results of an analysis of mediation of treatment effects for cluster-randomized trials. The authors discuss 3 examples of mediation analysis (upper-level mediation, cross-level mediation, and cross-level mediation with a contextual effect) with demonstration of the calculation and interpretation of the effect size measures using a simulated dataset and an empirical dataset from a cluster-randomized trial of peer tutoring. SAS syntax is provided for parametric percentile bootstrapped confidence intervals of the effect sizes. The use of any of the 3 standardized effect size measures depends on the nature of the inference the researcher wishes to make within a single site, across the broad population, or at the site level.

Development and validation of the RQC: a daily contact log for ACT and ICM teams.

AIM Instruments to measure the process--the daily activities of home care workers--have received little attention and may impede research in refining the active ingredients, the clientele best served and continuous quality improvement. We developed a decade ago in Quebec, Canada, a new daily contact log (relevé quotidien des contacts or RQC) that has now reached in practice 1 million entries. METHODS Three features distinguish the RQC development, namely, practical ergonomics, a clear logic, and response categories easy to understand and retain. The instrument is filled following any 10-minute or more contact with or about the client, and covers the location, time and actors of the episode of care, and the nature of the intervention (crisis, representing, accompanying, discussing) in 10 areas (i.e. medication, daily living activities, housing, relationships, substance abuse, legal, etc.). Inter-rater agreement for each RQC response category and rater agreement with a criterion measure (coded vignettes) were evaluated. RESULTS Kappa coefficients and intra-class correlation coefficients yielded results ranging from at least moderate to generally substantial agreement for all 77 response categories. CONCLUSIONS The new RQC may support international studies of the implementation and application of various forms of intensive home care, refining its indications, and serves as a clinical and managerial tool to ensure quality of the interventions.

Prevenir les difficultes d'apprentissage en lecture : le defi de la presentation du contenu et de l'organisation des services

This literature review examines the issue of delivery of instruction for students at-risk of reading disabilities. Research has traditionally been more interested in content (what should be taught) than delivery (how it should be taught), leaving to practitioners the difficult task of organising services to students. In order to contribute to fill this gap, the authors review available data on three forms of delivery of instruction: one-to-one tutorial, small group, and enriched classroom teaching. The complementary role of these forms of delivery of instruction is discussed and researchers are encouraged to consider matters related to delivery of instruction when developing reading interventions.