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The Balanced Curriculum is a web-based tool that school districts use to create, align, assess, and manage their curriculum development and implementation. The courses are divided into time-bound units with significant tasks (or assured activities) that local district teachers develop and promise to teach. The significant tasks are aligned to standards and assessment specifications. District curriculum authors also develop assessments for all to use when implementing the curriculum. Results of more than 15 years of implementation show that all districts that have developed curriculum using this model, and ensured implementation, have had significant improvement on their test scores. Implications for teachers, principals, and central office staff are given at the end of the article. © The Author(s) 2013.

The study compared the invented spelling of vowels in kindergarten native Spanish speaking children with that of English monolinguals. It examined whether, after receiving phonics instruction for short vowels, the spelling of native Spanish-speaking kindergartners would contain phonological errors that were influenced by their first language. Results showed no differences between the two groups on the number of correct short vowel spellings, even though the sounds for four of the five English short vowels do not exist in Spanish. By contrast, differences were observed in the representation of long vowels with a higher rate of error among ELLs. The students had not received explicit instruction in long vowels. ELLs appeared to be trying to represent the diphthongized nature of some English long vowels by spelling long vowels with more than one vowel. The results support the authors' hypothesis that kindergarten phonics instruction had an impact on the invented spellings of new second language vowel phonemes.

Initiatives to increase the number of teachers of color in U.S. public schools must be accompanied by culturally relevant teacher preparation for candidates of color. This study is a cooperative inquiry (Heron, 1996) conceived, conducted, and analyzed by five preservice teachers of color and one of their professors, a white lesbian. The women met biweekly for a year to co-construct meaning from their experiences in a teacher education program. They analyzed data sources together, including meeting transcripts, autobiographical sketches, and reflective writing on themes from the data. Key findings include the complexity of teacher candidates' identities; the importance of support systems for teacher candidates of color, particularly within predominantly white contexts; the connection between teacher candidates' backgrounds and their visions as teachers; and the role others' perceptions, particularly teacher educators, have played in teacher candidates becoming teachers.

Although schools have begun to employ multiple programs to reach educational goals, little attention has been paid to the efficacy of combining separate programs. The present study investigates the combination of a school reform model, the School of the 21st Century (21C), and the Arkansas Better Chance (ABC) program, where preschools apply for state funds to provide high quality services to children at risk. To determine if 21C adds anything to the ABC program, the present study compared results from a developmental assessment. The authors compared school-based preschools that had both ABC and 21C services to those programs that offered only ABC services. Results indicated that, at baseline, children within the 21C/ABC programs scored the same or poorer than their ABC-only counterparts. However, at the end of the year, participants at 21C/ABC preschools were significantly ahead of ABC-only programs on all developmental indicators. There were also differences favorable to 21C/ABC preschools between the programs' quality ratings as measured by the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale. Copyright © 2013 American Orthopsychiatric Association.

Given the popularity of PHP frameworks used in developing webbased applications, a comparative study is conducted to determine which framework is best suited for incorporation into the curriculum of an undergraduate software engineering course that uses project-based learning. The top six PHP frameworks (Zend, Yii, CakePHP, CodeIgniter, PRADO, and Symphony) were initially considered and then narrowed down to two (CakePHP and CodeIgniter) based on their alignment with common functionality in previous class projects, framework complexity for those new to frameworks (learning curve), and developer friendliness (availability of documentation and online resources). An in-depth comparative study is conducted by developing a functionally-equivalent web application using each of the two frameworks as well as plain PHP (no framework). This work was motivated by the difficulties that were encountered in an evolving, content-rich software engineering course and discusses the educational changes that were made to align student learning with sound software engineering principles and current software development practices used in the computing industry. Copyright © 2013 ACM.

In this paper, we examined why information searchers perceive search tasks as difficult, and what factors/reasons make them perceive tasks as difficult. We also examined if task difficulty reasons vary across different tasks (task types). Data was collected through a controlled laboratory experiment in which tasks were designed following a classification scheme. A total of 32 undergraduate students participated, each was given 4 search tasks, and they were asked in questionnaires both before and after the tasks for task difficulty ratings and why they gave those ratings. We developed a coding scheme based on the difficulty reasons users gave, which covered various aspects of task, user, and user-task interaction. Difficulty reasons were categorized following this scheme. Results showed that searchers had some common reasons for task difficulty in different tasks, but most of the difficulty reasons varied across tasks. For each task, there were also common reasons for task difficulty, although there was some variation here as well. Task difficulty was also found to be negatively correlated with users topic knowledge, previous experience, and topic interest. Our findings help understand search task difficulty, as well as the relationships between task difficulty and task type, knowledge background, etc. These can also be helpful with experiment task design. © 2013 ACM.

This paper reports on an examination of why information searchers find search tasks difficult and the specific reasons they feel difficult. Data was collected through a controlled laboratory experiment with 32 participants, each working with 4 search tasks. They were asked in questionnaires, both before and after the tasks, for task difficulty ratings and their reasoning for giving those ratings. We developed a coding scheme based on the difficulty reasons users gave, which covered various aspects of task, user, and user-task interaction. This helps us understand search task difficulty, as well as provides a scheme for task difficulty control in experiment task design.

Research and training in atmospheric lidar remote sensing requires highly versatile software environments for both experimentation and analysis. Experimentation and analysis may be conducted either directly on site at the location of the lidar equipment and/or institutional computer center or remotely from a distant location. The requirements for lidar software environments depend not only on type of user access (remote or onsite) but also on the nature of the teaching or research missions they support and the characteristics of the lidar systems for which they are used. The software environments discussed in this paper have been used to support lidar aerosol studies in settings ranging from urban locations to a remote atmospheric baseline station. Experiments and data analysis studies have been conducted for two different ground-based lidar systems, a monostatic Micro Pulse Lidar system and a bistatic imaging lidar system. © 2013 IEEE.

Based on a survey with members of an online consumer panel (N= 699), this study revealed that: (a) a substantial percentage of consumers held misperceptions about the chemical imbalance theory of depression; (b) personal and interpersonal experiences with depression positively related to such misperceptions; (c) overall, exposure to direct-to-consumer (DTC) antidepressant advertising did not significantly relate to misperceptions; and (d) DTC exposure magnified misperceptions when consumers were highly trustful of DTC advertising, whereas exposure diluted misperceptions when consumers were highly skeptical. Theoretical and practical implications of the research are discussed, especially in light of the social responsibility of DTC advertising. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Using Taylor's six-segment message strategy wheel as a theoretical framework, this study examines the communication approach (transmission or ritual) and message strategy (ego, social, sensory, routine, acute need, or ration) of cosmetic surgery websites. A content analysis revealed a fairly even division between transmission and ritual approaches. Ration strategy was the exclusive strategy in the websites adopting a transmission approach. No routine or acute need strategies were observed. Websites incorporating the ritual approach used ego, social, and sensory strategies. Human female models and natural objects were incorporated to deliver emotional persuasion. Implications for cosmetic surgery web marketers are discussed.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a treatment program that includes ultrasound biofeedback for children with persisting speech sound errors associated with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Method: Six children ages 9-15 years participated in a multiple baseline experiment for 18 treatment sessions during which treatment focused on producing sequences involving lingual sounds. Children were cued to modify their tongue movements using visual feedback from real-time ultrasound images. Probe data were collected before, during, and after treatment to assess word-level accuracy for treated and untreated sound sequences. As participants reached preestablished performance criteria, new sequences were introduced into treatment. Results: All participants met the performance criterion (80% accuracy for 2 consecutive sessions) on at least 2 treated sound sequences. Across the 6 participants, performance criterion was met for 23 of 31 treated sequences in an average of 5 sessions. Some participants showed no improvement in untreated sequences, whereas others showed generalization to untreated sequences that were phonetically similar to the treated sequences. Most gains were maintained 2 months after the end of treatment. The percentage of phonemes correct increased significantly from pretreatment to the 2-month follow-up. Conclusion: A treatment program including ultrasound biofeedback is a viable option for improving speech sound accuracy in children with persisting speech sound errors associated with CAS.

Purpose: This article introduces theoretically driven acoustic measures of /s/ that reflect aerodynamic and articulatory conditions. The measures were evaluated by assessing whether they revealed expected changes over time and labiality effects, along with possible gender differences suggested by past work. Method: Productions of /s/ were extracted from various speaking tasks from typically speaking adolescents (6 boys, 6 girls). Measures were made of relative spectral energies in low-(550-3000 Hz), mid-(3000-7000 Hz), and high-frequency regions (7000-11025 Hz); the mid-frequency amplitude peak; and temporal changes in these parameters. Spectral moments were also obtained to permit comparison with existing work. Results: Spectral balance measures in low-mid and mid-high frequency bands varied over the time course of /s/, capturing the development of sibilance at mid-fricative along with showing some effects of gender and labiality. The mid-frequency spectral peak was significantly higher in nonlabial contexts, and in girls. Temporal variation in the mid-frequency peak differentiated +/- labial contexts while normalizing over gender. Conclusions: The measures showed expected patterns, supporting their validity. Comparison of these data with studies of adults suggests some developmental patterns that call for further study. The measures may also serve to differentiate some cases of typical and misarticulated /s/.

Purpose: To determine if speech error patterns in preschoolers with speech sound disorders (SSDs) predict articulation and phonological awareness (PA) outcomes almost 4 years later. Method: Twenty-five children with histories of preschool SSDs (and normal receptive language) were tested at an average age of 4;6 (years;months) and were followed up at age 8;3. The frequency of occurrence of preschool distortion errors, typical substitution and syllable structure errors, and atypical substitution and syllable structure errors was used to predict later speech sound production, PA, and literacy outcomes. Results: Group averages revealed below-average schoolage articulation scores and low-average PA but ageappropriate reading and spelling. Preschool speech error patterns were related to school-age outcomes. Children for whom >10% of their speech sound errors were atypical had lower PA and literacy scores at school age than children who produced <10% atypical errors. Preschoolers who produced more distortion errors were likely to have lower school-age articulation scores than preschoolers who produced fewer distortion errors. Conclusion: Different preschool speech error patterns predict different school-age clinical outcomes. Many atypical speech sound errors in preschoolers may be indicative of weak phonological representations, leading to long-term PA weaknesses. Preschoolers' distortions may be resistant to change over time, leading to persisting speech sound production problems. © American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

We employed brain-behavior analyses to explore the relationship between performance on tasks measuring phonological awareness, pseudoword decoding, and rapid auditory processing (all predictors of reading (dis)ability) and brain organization for print and speech in beginning readers. For print-related activation, we observed a shared set of skill-correlated regions, including left hemisphere temporoparietal and occipitotemporal sites, as well as inferior frontal, visual, visual attention, and subcortical components. For speech-related activation, shared variance among reading skill measures was most prominently correlated with activation in left hemisphere inferior frontal gyrus and precuneus. Implications for brain-based models of literacy acquisition are discussed. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Objective: A common clinical complaint among older adults is difficulty hearing in noise, even in those with normal or near-normal peripheral hearing sensitivity. Researchers have demonstrated behavioral hearing in noise deficits in older adults, but to date limited evidence, particularly objective, exists elucidating the effects of age on auditory cortical processing in noise. The purpose of this investigation was to explore age related differences in auditory cortical processing at multiple signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Study design: Twenty normal-hearing young adults and 15 normal-hearing older adults participated in the study. Late auditory evoked potential (N1 and P2) latencies and amplitudes were measured in quiet and at three signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) (+ 20, + 10, and 0 SNR). Repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVA) were utilized to determine if statistically significant differences existed. Results: Significant group by listening condition interactions existed for N1 and P2 amplitudes. P2 latencies were significantly longer for the older adult group compared to the younger adult group. In addition, N1 and P2 amplitudes were significantly smaller for the younger adult group compared to the older adult group. Conclusion: Results suggest a possibly greater reduction in the synchronous neuronal response from quiet to noisy conditions in older adults than in younger adults. © 2013 Informa Healthcare.