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Increasing Student Performance Through Teacher Collaboration and Tier I Differentiation
No full textAt City Academies Neighborhood Middle School, there is a gap in student achievement. Over the course of two years, our lowest performing students did not grow at the rate of their peers. This problem has several consequences, including over classification of students with disabilities and a widening achievement gap. The purpose of my research was to determine if increasing teacher knowledge and implementation of Tier I differentiation positively impacts student learning outcomes. This research focused on two English Language Arts teachers and 71 eighth-grade students. The data for this study was collected through professional learning communities, student assessments, and teacher interviews. The findings in this project note that increased professional learning, with a focus on Tier I differentiation and student data analysis, positively affects student learning. These findings indicate the need for a change in the structure of professional learning communities and increased focus on Tier I differentiation in teacher professional development
White Psychodynamic Therapists’ Experiences of Intersectionality With Patients of Color: A Phenomenological Inquiry
No full textWhite psychodynamic psychotherapists repeatedly find themselves working in cross-racial dyads with patients of color (POC) who navigate intersectional realities that can significantly impact their mental health. However, White psychotherapists often struggle with initiating intersectional and racial dialogues with POC. The present phenomenological qualitative study explored how White psychodynamic psychotherapists experienced and approached intersectionality with POC engaged in psychotherapeutic treatment. Using a hybrid recruitment plan, a total of 15 White, primarily New York-based, licensed psychotherapists, participated in this study. Participants engaged in an in-depth, semi-structured interview conducted via a virtual platform. Qualitative findings yielded six primary themes that influenced participants’ approach and understanding of intersectionality with POC. These included: (a) academic background, (b) clinical context, (c) psychotherapists’ insight into own social locations, (d) identity-based conversations with POC, (e) therapeutic self-disclosure with POC, and (f) external ecological factors. Implications for educational and clinical training and for clinical practice are provided, including raising intersectional and intersubjective awareness among White psychodynamic therapists. Specifically, findings can serve to challenge psychotherapeutic barriers affecting POC in cross-racial dyads and the intersectional experiences leading to their presenting mental health distress
Attention Bias Heterogeneity and Brain Structure in Adolescents With Anxiety
No full textAttention bias (AB) to threat is a key transdiagnostic mechanism implicated in the etiology and maintenance of pediatric anxiety disorders. However, little is known about whether different presentations of AB (towards or away from threat), which may have clinical, diagnostic significance, have distinct neural profiles in children and adolescents. The present study extends previous work on anxiety-related AB by investigating AB phenotype and its association with neuroanatomy in adolescents (aged 12-14 years) with moderate to severe anxiety. Attention bias was measured using a free-viewing eye-tracking task in which adolescents simultaneously viewed images of angry and neutral faces. Structural magnetic resonance imaging was obtained and used for primary analyses. Gray matter volume and cortical thickness of brain regions implicated in cognitive control and attention were compared between adolescents who exhibited an AB towards versus an AB away from threat. Exploratory whole-brain analyses of cortical regions were also conducted to examine whether any brain regions outside of our regions of interest exhibited structural abnormalities related to AB. In this study, anxious adolescents with AB towards versus AB away from threat did not differ in gray matter volume or cortical thickness of the hypothesized brain regions. Whole-brain analyses also did not yield significant differences between the two AB groups. These results suggest that AB phenotypes are not related to structural alterations in brain regions involved in cognitive control and attention. Functional MRI, which may be better equipped to examine neural networks, should be utilized by future studies to investigate the neural basis of AB phenotypes in pediatric anxiety
Using an Intersectional Lens to Explore Civic Engagement and Discrimination Experiences Among Young Black Women
No full textHistorically, Black women have held a double-jeopardy position in society as they are located at the intersection of multiple marginalizing identities that put them at risk of experiencing distinct forms of discrimination (Bailey, 2020). Experiences of discrimination can be a catalyst for a broad range of individual and collective civil and political action (Hope, 2022). To date, little research has examined the relationship between discrimination and Black women’s civic engagement behaviors. The current study seeks to address this gap. Data are drawn from 159 Black women who participated in the Health + Activism study (Versey et al., 2020). Findings showed that half of all Black women in the sample reported involvement in anti-racist civic action in the past two years (i.e., BLM, civil rights). Latent class analysis was used to examine unique subgroups of civic involvement. A 3-class model was selected in which Black women were categorized into three classes: Highly Engaged Activist, Traditionally Engaged, and Low Engagement. Findings also showed that Highly engaged Black women experienced more discrimination but had marginally better mental health. The current findings inform the creation of safe spaces for Black women to be civically engaged in as they navigate racism and sexism and take action to seek racial justice
The Delusion of Reform: Punitive Psychiatry in Soviet History
No full textThis dissertation forms the first detailed, historical account of the so-called “political abuse of psychiatry” or the punitive deployment of psychiatry in the Soviet Union against dissidents and social undesirables. It explores punitive psychiatry as a feature embedded in and inseparable from the broader legal and carceral landscapes in the Soviet Union. In so doing, the dissertation follows lines of inquiry concerned with the tangible connections between Soviet prisons and punitive psychiatry, the development and evolution of the institutions and policies governing involuntary psychiatric hospitalization, as well as the role of psychiatric experts in this establishment of a punitive psychiatric apparatus. Considering these lines of inquiry, the dissertation proposes two novel conceptualizations of punitive psychiatry that serve as prisms for understanding and viewing the involuntary psychiatric hospitalization of dissidents and deviants. First, the dissertation presents all of the legal-medical institutions and facilities responsible for the examination, filtration, isolation, and treatment of criminal and non-criminal offenders believed to be mentally ill as components of a broader “psycho-zone,” a term derived from the lexicon of prisoners and referential to the Soviet Gulag.Second, the dissertation proposes viewing the Soviet Union as a developing “therapeutic state,” a term modified to refer to a modern form of governmentality within which collaboration between the state and institutional psychiatry negotiates, constructs, and reinforces social norms by situating those individuals, behaviors, and values opposed to those norms as the subjects of psychiatric inquiry. In other words, Soviet forensic psychiatrists and policymakers labored to produce a social order resting on scientific principles that policed citizens’ failures to abide by the rules through psychiatric intervention. Combined, these two conceptualizations enable meaningful conversations about punitive psychiatry as a function of a biopolitical imperative in the Soviet Union and extend the experience of punitive psychiatry beyond a couple thousand dissidents to the hundreds of thousands of criminals that circulated through forensic psychiatric and penal institutions
Essays on the Payroll Protection Program
No full textThe Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has been instrumental in providing financial assistance to small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the correlations between firms\u27 characteristics and PPP loan recipiency is important for understanding the heterogeneity in access to funding.This study utilizes a comprehensive dataset from Dun & Bradstreet for over 26 million U.S. businesses to examine the correlations between selected factors - prior borrowing experience, credit and financial stress rankings, firm size, minority status, firm age, and gender- and PPP loan recipiency in April 2020 and June 2021.The findings highlight the significance as of April 2020 of 7(a) loan experience (38.8%) and firm size (5.7%) as the two factors associated the most with loan recipiency. Moreover, firms with better credit and financial stress rankings were also significantly more likely to receive PPP loans. However, by June 2021, these correlations became very small, and sometimes not statistically significant.Furthermore, the firm’s age showed a negative but small correlation with loan recipiency in both periods. The minority status of the owner exhibited a positive correlation with loan recipiency in 2020 (9.9%), which persisted but weakened in 2021 (6.2%). Finally, the correlation between PPP recipiency and female ownership was negative in 2020 but became positive, albeit small, in 2021.These findings address an evidence gap in the PPP literature, providing insights into the relationship between various factors and PPP loan recipiency. Additionally, the study underscores the temporal changes in these correlations, shedding light on the evolving nature of PPP policies over time. These findings enhance our understanding of the factors contributing to the heterogeneity in loan access and suggest there was heterogeneity in access to PPP loans, especially in their initial phase
Helen Diane Foster Interview
No full textSummarized by Alan C. Ventura
In this extensive interview, Helen Diane Foster talks about her upbringing across different areas of the Bronx, her relationship with her father, Reverend T. Wendell Foster—the first black elected official to serve the Bronx—and her time spent on the city council, in turn becoming the first black woman elected to that position within Bronx County. Listen in as she and Dr. Mark Naison relive this monumental time in Bronx history, which most notably involved Foster’s attempts to stop the seizure of Macombs Dam Park for Yankee Stadium
Voces de Los Perdidos: A Latina School Leader Empowers English Language Learners Through Ypar
No full textThis study uses a multi-faceted Improvement Science approach to conduct a case study of the leadership actions and organizational changes required while enacting two novel change ideas. The problem of practice addressed the lack of progress of English Language Learners (ELLs) and the persistent achievement gap between ELLs to their mainstream peers. Despite school-wide efforts and state-mandated legislation aimed at closing the achievement gap between ELLs and their peers, a large proportion of ELLs at Promesa Academy stagnated as developing or long-term ELLs, receiving years of service and showing little to no growth in English language proficiency. This study sought to empower students to participate and use their voices to improve the ELL learning experience, enhancing teacher pedagogy and mindset and thereby improving student performance and learning conditions. Iterative cycles were conducted using Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR), students groups, and teacher Professional Learning Communities to identify change ideas targeting instructional priority areas. Findings revealed 10 themes related to leadership actions and organizational changes: 1) critical self-reflection, 2) culturally responsive teachers, 3) culturally responsive and inclusive school environment, 4) providing quality teacher feedback for individualized student needs, 5) confronting inequities stemming from power and privilege, 6) creating organizational structures for distributive leadership, 7) creating a foundation for critique and promise, 8) implementing processes that allow for the deconstruction and reconstruction of the social and cultural knowledge frameworks that generate inequities, 9) YPAR as work that fosters empowerment and knowledge of teaching and learning, and 10) YPAR as work that leads to improved learning conditions
A Leader’s Journey: Self-examination & Implementation of the Schema-Based Instructional Model in Service of Homeless and Highly Mobile Students
No full textResearch, conducted universally over two decades, suggests there is a significant disproportionality of achievement of housing displaced and highly mobile students (HDHM) compared to students who are in stable housing. HDHM students not only present with learning gaps but exhibit greater challenges in math. The purpose of this critical case study was to document and analyze the leadership and organizational practices used to implement a math intervention for students in grades four through eight, with a keen eye on our HDHM and how I as a school leader implemented changes to my practices to support teachers working collaboratively while engaging in inquiry via two consecutive Plan/Do/Study/Act (PDSA) cycles and weekly teacher team meetings. The primary drivers centered around deepening teacher content knowledge and efficacy relative to math and the Schema Based Instructional (SBI) model. Teachers became active participants in the process of building capacity, enhancing, and designing lessons that included culturally responsive practices and enhancing their skills in meeting the learning needs of the HDHM student. Themes that emerged highlighted that when teachers engage in layered PL around a focused theme, developing student ownership and deepening their content knowledge, they build efficacy. My actions were analyzed through the lens of adaptive leadership (Heifetz et al., 2009). The implementation process and organizational practices were analyzed using organizational change theory (DuFour & Eaker, 2008), and the use of this process to improve teacher practice were analyzed using adult learning (Drago-Stevenson, 2009), and organizational learning theory (Burke. 2002)