Stephen D. Truscott

Predicting Dropout Using Student- and School-Level Factors: An Ecological Perspective.

High school dropout has been associated with negative outcomes, including increased rates of unemployment, incarceration, and mortality. Dropout rates vary significantly depending on individual and environmental factors. The purpose of our study was to use an ecological perspective to concurrently explore student- and school-level predictors associated with dropout for the purpose of better understanding how to prevent it. We used the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 dataset. Participants included 14,106 sophomores across 684 public and private schools. We identified variables of interest based on previous research on dropout and implemented hierarchical generalized linear modeling. In the final model, significant student-level predictors included academic achievement, retention, sex, family socioeconomic status (SES), and extracurricular involvement. Significant school-level predictors included school SES and school size. Race/ethnicity, special education status, born in the United States, English as first language, school urbanicity, and school region did not significantly predict dropout after controlling for the aforementioned predictors. Implications for prevention and intervention efforts within a multitiered intervention model are discussed.

Addressing Pediatric Health Concerns Through School-Based Consultation

The word consultation has multiple meanings. In popular usage, it may mean providing advice or counsel or simply talking with someone. In medical contexts, consultation may denote a patient’s visit to a health care professional or a formal professional arrangement between health care providers to discuss a patient’s diagnosis and treatment. In schools, the term consultation also has multiple meanings. Often it is used to describe a quick, informal process of advice giving between teachers and/or school specialists. As a formal discipline, School-Based Consultation (SBC) is an indirect service delivery model that involves two or more parties working together to benefit students. Most often, the relationship is triadic and a school specialist (e.g., school psychologist or school nurse) provides consultative support to a teacher (i.e., consultee) who works directly with the student of concern. The systematic study of SBC includes formal models, accepted components, and cohesive tenets derived from 40 years of research and practice. The purpose of this commentary on the special issue of the Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation devoted to pediatric/educational collaboration is to suggest elements of SBC that might be useful to school psychologists and other school specialists who work with students who have significant medical concerns. Although SBC sometimes involves teams of school specialists who serve as consultants and the focus of the consultation may include an individual student, group of students, or even the whole school, the consistent twofold intent of SBC is to address the immediate student concerns and to provide the teacher with the skills and information necessary to successfully and independently address similar future situations. Several approaches emphasize different SBC elements; however, all approaches attend to the relational processes between consultants and consultees and to the outcomes of working to resolve the presenting issues. Consequently, skilled schoolbased consultants serve children by using problem-solving methods to assess

The Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation: A Quarter Century of Contribution, A Future of Challenge and Optimism

The Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation (JEPC) is beginning its second quarter century of publication. Given the challenges education faced in 1990, when the journal began publishing, and the evolving challenges of 2015, it became important to answer two questions: (1) Has JEPC successfully contributed to the facilitation of service delivery leading to improved outcomes? (2) What major challenges should JEPC consider—in an era of diminishing school budgets, professional autonomy, and social safety nets—to ensure that it can help to meet the needs of struggling learners, their fellow students, and the people and organizations who work on their behalf? To help answer these questions, this article discusses JEPCs contributions to consultation, current and future challenges, and possible directions for meeting the current and future needs of struggling learners, their peers, and all other stakeholders to which JEPC has dedicated itself.

Using the critical incident technique to measure long-term outcomes of interprofessional education

ABSTRACT There is a critical need to develop methods that capture long-term trainee outcomes and link these outcomes to interprofessional education (IPE) to establish the value added from IPE. This article describes the use of the critical incident technique (CIT) to evaluate long-term trainee outcomes attributed to IPE. Critical incidents (CIs) are specific examples of behaviours that occurred within the recent past. Trainees of an IPE programme (n = 24) were interviewed using CIT. Across the trainees, 41 CIs were reported, of which 9 were collapsed due to similarity in theme. A final total of 32 CIs were mapped along the Kirkpatrick/Barr Model of Learner Outcomes. The mapping process revealed that all of the CIs reported described incidents at Levels 3, 4a, and 4b, indicating changes in trainees’ own professional behaviour and improvements in patient outcomes related to their IPE experience. Implications for evaluating IPE using the CIT method are discussed.

Intellectual Humility and Morality as Consultee-Centered Consultation Epistemologies

ABSTRACT Little research examines how epistemological constructs affect the consultation process in schools. We consider how the epistemological constructs of (a) intellectual humility and (b) moral foundations may moderate the effectiveness of consultee-centered consultation. We define the constructs and provide examples of their potential influences on consultee-centered consultation. Then we provide four areas of investigation for future research on the epistemologies of school-based consultation.

Examining the Effects of Performance Feedback on Preschool Teachers’ Fidelity of Implementation of a Small-Group Phonological Awareness Intervention

ABSTRACT Although a growing body of literature indicates that high-quality preschool and/or prekindergarten programs can improve child outcomes, research evidence suggests that some children may continue to exhibit academic difficulties. While there appears to be overwhelming evidence supporting the effectiveness of performance feedback for improving teaching practices in kindergarten to Grade 12 settings, research is needed on its effectiveness with preschool teachers to address early literacy concerns. Thus, for this study, we used a concurrent multiple baseline across-group design to examine the effectiveness of performance feedback on teachers’ implementation of a targeted small-group phonological awareness intervention. We also examined the impact of targeted small-group instruction on students’ phonological awareness skills. Findings suggested that preschool teachers were satisfied with the performance feedback process and found the phonological awareness intervention to be acceptable and socially valid. The discussion includes implications for future research and practice.

Comparing Traditional Versus Retrospective Pre-/Post-assessment in an Interdisciplinary Leadership Training Program

Objectives As the U.S. healthcare system shifts toward collaboration, demand for leaders with interdisciplinary skills increases. Leadership competencies guide interdisciplinary training programs; however, identifying cost-effective methods for evaluating leadership competencies is challenging, particularly when interdisciplinary trainees have different areas of expertise and professional goals. Traditional pre-/post-testing, a common method for evaluating leadership competencies, is subject to response-shift bias, which can occur when participants’ understanding of a construct changes between pre- and post-test. As a result, participants may rate their knowledge of the construct lower at post-test. Retrospective pre-tests are one method thought to reduce response-shift bias in pre-/post-tests. The current study explores the use of a retrospective pre-test to control for response-shift bias in an interdisciplinary training program. Methods Over three cohort years, thirty-four trainees from an interdisciplinary leadership program completed a self-assessment aligned with MCH leadership competencies. The traditional pre-test self-assessment was completed at the beginning of the training program. The retrospective pre-/post-test self-assessment was completed at the end of the training program. Results Retrospective pre/post-test scores indicate significant self-reported increases in all 24 leadership areas (p ≤ .001). Furthermore, participants’ self-ratings were significantly higher on the traditional pre-test for all 24 areas than on the retrospective pre-test (p ≤ .001). Conclusions for Practice Retrospective pre-tests appeared to control for response-shift bias and may be a cost-effective way to evaluate trainee change within an interdisciplinary leadership program. These findings suggest the methodology’s usefulness in interdisciplinary training and its potential use in the broader world of community-based MCH training initiatives.

Improving Culturally Congruent Health Care for Children With Disabilities: Stakeholder Perspectives of Cultural Competence Training in an Interdisciplinary Leadership Training Program

Introduction: Racially/ethnically diverse children with disabilities experience increased risk for health care disparities when compared to non-Hispanic White children with disabilities or racially/ethnically diverse children without disabilities. The purpose of this study was to progress culturally congruent health care by exploring cultural competence (CC) for an interdisciplinary leadership training program designed to improve services for children with disabilities. The study also sought to bridge a gap in the literature by including the perspectives of diverse health care consumers. Method: Q-methodology was used to support participant groups’ sorting of CC training outcomes by importance to identify factors of CC. Results: Data collected from 51 participants were subjected to a by-person factor analysis that yielded six factors explaining 50% of variance. Discussion: Findings validate some common elements of existing CC models and provide new perspectives regarding potentially overlooked aspects of CC, with many new perspectives provided by racially/ethnically diverse parents of children with disabilities.

Including the Family Member in Interdisciplinary Team Meetings Communication Trend Analysis

This study explored the interaction patterns of family members of individuals with disabilities in a simulated interdisciplinary team problem-solving process. Participants included 15 members of a training cohort within a Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities program. Family trainees and non-family trainees engaged in a simulated team discussion at two points during the training year (Time 1 and Time 2). To understand how family members and other professionals interact in interdisciplinary problem-solving meetings, we applied three coding schemes to the interdisciplinary team discussions to measure language similarity, dominance and domineeringness, problem solving, and balance of power. The results suggested there were trends in the communication dynamics between family trainees and non-family trainees at Time 1 and Time 2. For example, language similarity between groups was high at both Time 1 and Time 2, yet families were less successful at controlling the team conversation at Time 2. The implications of these and other results are discussed.