Perry Nelson

Mobility and School Functioning in the Early Grades

Abstract The relationship between initial school functioning and subsequent student mobility was examined among a sample of 2,524 early elementary school students from low-income families. Academic, behavioral, and school adjustment data were collected in the year of the study. The students then were trailed for 3 years, during which time their school mobility was observed. Analyses indicate that the most mobile students tended to have poorer initial school behavior ratings and school adjustment and to be from single-parent families. Implications for research and policy are discussed.

Scaling-Up Reforms across a School District.

Each pendulum swing in the debate over how best to teach reading and writing calls for large-scale systemic changes. For the most part, however, the field of education has paid little attention to the full array of complexities involved in large-scale replication of curricular changes and other new directions for school-based interventions. Such neglect has contributed to the failure of many reforms. This article highlights a framework of general phases and specific steps for diffusion of major new approaches across a school district. The overlapping phases are seen as encompassing: (a) creating readiness, (b) initial implementation, (c) institutionalization, and (d) ongoing evolution. The discussion includes lessons learned in applying the framework.

Two Studies of Low Income Parents' Involvement in Schooling.

An interview and an intervention study are reported. Interview findings extend research on the positive relationship of parent involvement to school success. That is, although most of the low income families reported low-moderate participation, a postive relationship was found between parent involvement and school adjustment as early as kindergarten. With respect to negative valuing and barrier interpretations of low participation, the data support the latter; all but a few parents reported positive attitudes toward school involvement, while the majority indicated significant barriers. In comparing Latino and non-Latino groups, the former reported more barriers. Within the Latino group, parents whose children had made a good school adjustment indicated the most participation. Non-English proficient parents reported more barriers than those proficient in English but comparable degrees of involvement. In the intervention study, a simple strategy resulted in more treatment than control parents attending a school event. Differences in attendance were related to ethnicity and language.

Students' perception of control at school and problem behavior and attitudes

Abstract As part of a series of studies exploring perceived control at school, comparisons were made of students attending regular and special education programs. As expected, in contrast to regular education students, those in public school special education programs perceived themselves as having less control at school and reported lower levels of happiness. Special education students in a laboratory program emphasizing the enhancement of perceived control were found to have higher perceptions of control at school and more positive attitudes toward schooling than either of the public school samples. Significant positive relationships were found between perceived control at school and most of the indices of attitude, affect, and behavior for the regular education sample; these relationships were considerably weaker for the special education samples. Implications for further research and intervention practices are discussed.

Parent and child causal attributions during clinical interviews

Attributions made by children and their parents for the cause of the childs clinical problem were monitored during assessment interviews. Results support previously observed differences obtained through questionnaires, with parents making more attributions than their children to characteristics of the child. This pattern was affected by variations in interview format. Parents and children differed in the locus of their attributions when interviewed individually, but these differences were not present when families were interviewed with both parents and children present. Implications for the methodology of attribution research with child-clinical populations are highlighted.

Discrepancies Among Student, Parent, and Teacher Ratings of the Severity of a Student’s Problems

Students from 6 to 18 years of age who had been referred for clinical assistance for school problems responded to questions related to their school performances, attitudes, and behavior. Their parents and teachers responded to comparable questions. The findings indicate that the student reports were consistently more positive than those of their parents, and the parents were consistently more positive than the students’ teachers. The students also viewed their school achievement more favorably than was indicated by their standardized test scores and school grades. These discrepancies have both theoretical and practical heuristic implications.

Toward a Procedure for Minimizing and Detecting False Positive Diagnoses of Learning Disability

Assessment procedures that can significantly enhance motivation to perform are needed so that poor performance due to low or avoidance motivation is not misdiagnosed as indicating ability deficits or as symptomatic of learning disabilities (LD). In this connection, research is under way to investigate the degree to which a highly motivating computer game learning task can improve differential diagnoses of LD. Findings from the initial investigation indicate that a large proportion of students diagnosed as LD were able to learn effectively when pursuing such a task. The results illustrate the key role motivation plays in determining the validity of diagnostic assessment and demonstrate the potential value of similar tasks for use in differentiating, from among individuals diagnosed as LD, those who do not have impaired learning processes.

Learning Problems, Anger, Perceived Control, and Misbehavior

Fifty-four students diagnosed as having learning disabilities (LD) and 73 students in regular education were administered the School Anger Inventory and the Perceived Control at School Scale. Teachers and parents rated student deportment and motivation. Predictably, those in the LD sample indicated higher school anger levels and were rated as exhibiting more negative behavior, less positive behavior, and lower motivation for on-task performance. The samples did not differ in their ratings of perceived control, which was moderate, and were given comparable positive teacher ratings for recall of relevant and interesting material. Significant correlations between school anger and behavior were found only in the LD sample, and there was no significant overall relationship between school anger, behavior, and perceived control within either sample. Overall, however, students who reported both a high level of anger and high perceived control were found to exhibit more negative behavior than those with high anger and low perceived control.

Motivational Readiness and the Participation of Children with Learning and Behavior Problems in Psychoeducational Decision Making

Efficacy of a brief cognitive-affective intervention to enhance motivational readiness for participating in a psychoeducational decision-making conference was explored. Although outcomes specific to the preconference intervention were not found, findings of relevance to the hypothesized positive relationship between motivational readiness and actual participation in decision making are reported. The positive and negative findings are discussed in terms of implications for enhancing motivational readiness and for understanding the limited impact of skill training to improve participation and decision making.

Perceived control, causality, expectations and help-seeking behaviour

Abstract Undergraduates recruited from an introductory psychology course who were currently not seeking professional help (n=81) were compared with a comparable sample seeking professional help at a university psychological services centre (n=53). Participants answered an assessment instrument with reference to the problem currently upsetting them most. As hypothesized, those students seeking help tended to internalize causality, report lower levels of perceived control over their problems, and consider themselves more likely to expend time and energy in resolving their problem. Contrary to expectations, the groups did not differ in optimism about problem resolution. Results from an exploratory analysis of perceptions about the nature of professional and non-professional help are also reported. The findings, consistent with previous research, underscore the importance of differentiating the constructs of locus of control, causal attributions, and perceived control in studying mediators of help-seeking beh...