Integrating Systems of Care in California for Youth with Severe Emotional Disturbance IV: Educational Attendance and Achievement

Empirical results are presented from school-based interventions in three California counties that are pioneering participants in a carefully evaluated effort to create an innovative system of care for youth with severe emotional disturbance. Data are presented about the educational attendance and achievement of youth enrolled in clinical and academic programs designed to provide collaborative mental health and education services. Attendance levels were uniformly high. The youth were below expected grade level as measured by standardized tests at program admission. Across programs, two counties demonstrated grade level increases of one year or more for one year in school on all subscales of established measures of educational achievement. The third county demonstrated increases of slightly less than one year on two of three subscales of the educational achievement measures. These results are the first from a multisite demonstration of integrated education and mental health programs embedded within a broader system of care for youth. The findings, combined with those from our prior studies, illustrate that is possible to reduce and control placements in restrictive levels of care while improving the academic performance of a vast majority of the youth enrolled in specialized programs within the care systems.     

RALPH WENDELL BURHOE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract. Ralph Burhoe has sought to preserve “traditional religious wisdom,” but he emphasizes science as a new revelation. His relation to philosophical positivism and his insistence on including in a scientific theology only views that reflect the scientific worldview constitute major philosophical and theological problems. This essay considers the influence of several historical precursors—Francis Ellingwood Abbot, George Burman Foster, and Shailer Mathews of the “Chicago School” of theology, Douglas Clyde Macintosh, and, especially, Henry Nelson Wieman—which has contributed to a favorable reception of Burhoe's ideas. Social problems such as the youth revolution of the 1960s and indifference to the lack of intellectual credibility of religious beliefs have, however, hindered reception of his ideas. The conclusion notes some tasks that must yet be accomplished in order to continue Burhoe's work, particularly that of increasing the general level of education in the sciences.     

Resistance to yielding and the expectation of cooperative future interaction in negotiation

The expectation of cooperative future interaction (ECFI) encouraged especially high joint benefit (the total of the two bargainers' individual outcomes) when resistance to yielding was high, but especially low joint benefit when resistance to yielding was low. Process data suggest that this finding can be explained as follows: When resistance to yielding is high, ECFI encourages problem solving and reduced contentious behavior; when resistance to yielding is low, ECFI encourages a collapse of aspirations. The results support Filley's (1975) dualconcern model and cast doubt on Deutsch's (1973) blanket assertion that a cooperative process leads to constructive conflict resolution.     

The effects of word class on children's reading and spelling

Children's oral language functioning has been shown to be affected by word class (i.e., content vs. noncontent words). The present study reveals comparable effects on children's written language performance. In spelling and reading, third and fifth graders show faster and more accurate responses to nouns and verbs than to noncontent words of matched length and frequency. Further, when the children's performance is examined in relation to level of reading skill, it is found that the less-skilled readers exhibit a greater content/noncontent differential than do the more skilled readers. The results are discussed with reference to differential access for the two word classes and its implication for both oral and written language functioning.     

The effects of verbal feedback and listener type on the speech of preschool children

The present study simultaneously assessed the relative contributions of feedback indicative of comprehension and the apparent age of the listener, either an adult or a doll which resembled a toddler, in a 2 (listeners) × 2 (types of feedback, C = comprehension, NC = noncomprehension) design. Two groups of children, a 3-year-old (N = 13, 7 boys, 6 girls) and a 5-year-old group (N = 12, 6 boys, 6 girls) were asked to tell stories to both the adult and doll in both C and NC conditions. The doll was constructed with an internal speaker such that it could actually carry on a conversation with the children. The conversations were taped, transcribed, and scored for mean length of utterance (MLU), transitional utterance length to each C and NC signal, and the proportion of child questions, exact self-repetitions, repetition and reductions, and rephrases/elaborations. The data analysis revealed that all children appropriately modified the length of their utterances (MLU) in the doll condition but not in the adult condition, indicating that they were sensitive to both the feedback and the nature of their listeners. Older children were more likely than younger children, and girls more likely than boys to adjust the length of their utterances appropriately to each type of feedback, slightly increasing the length of the subsequent utterance to a C signal and decreasing the length to an NC signal. The younger children were also more likely to respond with a simple repetition to NC cues from the adult.     

Moral judgment: Theory and research on differences between males and females

That men and women differ in their moral orientations is a commonly held stereotype. The view that men are morally superior can be found in the writings of philosophers and psychologists (most notably Freud). Recently, Carol Gilligan (Harvard Educational Review, 1977, 47, 431–517) has entered this discussion bringing to it what she calls a “different [woman's] voice.” In this paper, the theory of an ethic of care is described and contrasted with Kohlberg's morality of justice. The empirical support for Gilligan's claim that men and women differ in their moral orientations is examined and a discussion of Gilligan's contribution to an integrated theory of morality is offered.     

The development of procedural knowledge: An alternative explanation for chronometric trends of mental arithmetic

In a review of the Chronometrie literature, M. H. Ashcraft (Developmental Review, 1982, 2, 213–236) concluded that the development of number fact efficiency is due to a shift from relying on procedural knowledge such as counting to relying on declarative knowledge (a stored network of facts). This model assumes that all procedural processes are slow or remain slow, which is probably not the case. An alternative account posits that the key change in number fact efficiency involves a shift from slow counting procedures to principled procedural knowledge. As rules, heuristics, and principles become more familiar and interconnected, their use, for example, in producing the number facts becomes more automatic. The use of such procedural knowledge would be cognitively more economical than storing individual facts in long-term memory. Finally, existing Chronometric data can readily be interpreted in terms of this alternative model.     

Job satisfaction related to tested congruence and differentiation

Tested personality-environment congruence and differentiation, singly and in combination, as measured by the Vocational Preference Inventory (J. L. Holland, Palo Alto, California, Consulting Psychologists Press, 1977b), were predictive of reported job satisfaction for teachers employed in five subject matter areas. Time-related variables and sex were not significantly related to the job satisfaction measure used in the study.     

The Vocational Exploration Group and minority youth: An experimental outcome study

This study was designed to investigate experimentally the effectiveness of the Vocational Exploration Group in assisting students to become more aware of the world of work and its relevance for them. Sixty male, Mexican-American, junior high students were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (1) Vocational Exploration Group, (2) VEG without interaction, or (3) Control. Upon completion of treatments subjects were post-tested with an instrument designed to assess knowledge of factors such as differing functions of jobs, interests and skills needed in different jobs and satisfactions available from work. Analyses revealed no statistically significant differences (a = .05) among groups.