California's Children

The campaign to save categoricals: Foster Youth Services

UPDATE, March 13, 2013: The California Report this morning gives an overview of the role of the Dept. of Education's Foster Youth Services, interviewing advocates for retaining the program's categorical funding status.

 

February 26, 2013: Gov. Brown's "Local Control Funding Formula," the overhaul of public (and charter) school financing proposed for '13-'14 budget year into two primary formulas eliminates the majority of categorical programs. As to local control funding behaviors in the past, let's go to the video tape:

The 2011, the RAND Corporation, funded by private foundation money, examined how 10 school districts responded to the ("not a well-articulated policy") deregulations (SBX-4 2009)of $4.5 billion in categorial flexing ("local educators [were freed] from specific guidelines that ...regulated spending on 40  [categoricals]"). Most of the districts used the money to "backfill" cuts. Some highlights:

Adolescent mental health: three new studies on depression, impulsiveness

March 1, 2013:  The Association of Psychological Science has issued a release highlighting recent research in the cognitive, environmental, and genetic roots of mental illness in adolescents; the three different studies appeared in publications of the association: Psychological Science and Clinical Psychological Science.

Social-Information-Processing Patterns Mediate the Impact of Preventive Intervention on Adolescent Antisocial Behavior, Kenneth A. Dodge, Jennifer Godwin, and The Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group

Fast Track is a preventive intervention designed to help children who show aggression at an early age. The intervention addresses kids’ social-cognitive processes in several ways, including social-skill training groups, parent groups, and classroom curricula. In this study, the researchers investigated the processes underlying this intervention’s success. A total of 891 kindergarteners who were at high risk for adolescent antisocial behavior were randomly assigned to receive either the Fast Track intervention or a control program. The data revealed that children in the intervention showed decreased levels of antisocial behavior at the end of 9^th grade, which was driven, in part, by improvement on three specific social-cognitive processes. These results suggest that social-cognitive processes may play an important role in the development of antisocial behavior in youth. Published online February 13, 2013 in Psychological Science

 A Comparison of Two Models of Urgency: Urgency Predicts Both Rash Action and Depression in Youth Gregory T. Smith, Leila Guller, and Tamika C.B. Zapolski

A test of two competing theories concerning the trait of urgency. One: people’s tendency to act rashly or impulsively when they’re emotional. Two: urgency reflects a general responsiveness to emotions that can lead to rash action (such as heavy drinking or binge eating) or ill-advised inaction (which is associated with symptoms of depression). In previous research, Smith and colleagues found that urgency levels in 5^th grade predicted addictive behaviors (including alcohol consumption, binge eating, and smoking) in 6^th grade, which is consistent with both theories. In this study, the researchers found that level of urgency in 5^th grade also predicted higher levels of depression at the end of 6^thgrade. ... researchers conclude that urgency may be an important trait in various diagnoses, across both internalizing and externalizing disorders. Published online February 15, 2013 in Clinical Psychological Science

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Rumination, Distraction, and Depressed Mood in Adolescence Mollie N. Moore, Rachel H. Salk, Carol A. Van Hulle, Lyn Y. Abramson,  Janet S. Hyde, Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, and H. Hill Goldsmith 

... Rumination, the process of dwelling on one’s feelings and problems, is an established cognitive risk factor for depression....[researchers] investigated if response styles associated with rumination might account for some of the genetic vulnerability associated with depression. A total of 756 adolescent twins ages 12 to 14 completed the Response Styles Questionnaire and several measures of depressive symptoms. ... results suggest that the same genetic factors that contribute to distraction may protect against depression. Published online February 20, 2013 in Clinical Psychological Science

Categoricals to be retained under Brown's local control proposal

February 26, 2013: Gov. Brown's "Local Control Funding Formula," the overhaul of public (and charter) school financing proposed for '13-'14 budget year into two primary formulas eliminates the majority of categorical programs. Maintained as categorical programs:

Special education (Federal law requirement)

After-school safety and education (voter-approved initiative, Prop 49, 2002)

State preschool ("unique population")

Quality education investment act (will expire in '14-'15)

Child nutrition (federal requirement/fed funds increased by $77mil in '13-'14)

Mandates block grant (constitutional requirement)

Assessments (state/fed accountability requirements)

American Indian education centers and early ed programs ("unique population")

Is BPA "really" harmful to humans? Toxicologists debate at AAAS conf

UPDATE, February 16, 2013: Elizabeth Grossman, reporting for Environment Health News, posted today the debate among scientists over the question "Do low doses of BPA really harm people?" Her report was based on yesterday's presentation of leading toxicologists who presented their arguments at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston.

This debate, while arcane, is important because the scientific information is being used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration in deciding whether to regulate BPA in consumer products, such as canned foods. Reacting to consumer concerns, some manufacturers already have stopped using BPA in plastic baby bottles, receipts and other items....Speaking on the cautionary side, among others, was Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst biology professor R. Thomas Zoeller, above, (endocrine research focusing on BPA effects on the thyroid), who noted  that the toxicological modeling is not designed to examine effects of chronic, low-dose exposure to an endocrine-disrupting chemical like BPA. Historically, these models have looked at specific cancers or fully manifested diseases. In contrast, BPA appears to produce health effects that set the stage for diseases often diagnosed many years after exposure.

“Chronic disease in human populations is not something traditional toxicology is designed to handle. It doesn’t look for risk factors,” Zoeller said.

October 5, 2012: Tia Ghose, writing for California Watch, reports:

A new UC San Diego study suggests that the byproducts of a chemical used in plastic found in the lining of cans may disrupt human hormone function more than the chemical itself.

The study, published today in PLOS ONE, may help explain why the chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, has been tied to many health problems even though the chemical doesn’t have a strong effect on cells in a Petri dish.

“We have a candidate chemical that is doing the nasty stuff, or the endocrine disruption," said study co-author and UCSD structural biologist Michael E. Baker, at left. "We know that BP analyzing the chemical that’s really doing the endocrine disruption." ...in 2003, a Japanese research team found that the body breaks down BPA into another chemical: 4-methyl-2,4-bis(p-hydroxyphenyl)pent-1-ene, called MBP for short. MBP was 500 times more powerful at mimicking estrogen than BPA.

SFUSD: Should teachers be evaluating at-risk behaviors?

February 11, 2013: San Francisco schools have began a controversial program, Response to Intervention, aimed at identifying at-risk students by evaluating school and classroom rules, and discipline policies to help students who have academic and/or behavior issues.

According to Jill Tucker for the San Francisco Chronicle, Response to Intervention is intended to identify children with chronic behavior problems who are continually sent sent to the Principal or referred to special education. The controversial aspect: for each student, teachers are asked to fill out a questionnaire identifying external and internal "at-risk behaviors." Questions include inquiries about defiance, bullying, lying or fighting; answers are "never," "rarely,"  "sometimes," or "frequently."

United Educators of San Francisco teachers union president Dennis Kelly said,"People rebelled against it...our members quite rightfully got upset. Is this psychological testing or is it not?"

According to district officials, it's not. However, many teachers felt uncomfortable making judgement calls on children's internal mental health,especially for homeroom students they saw only for a few minutes each day.

[The union also] questioned the legality of the screening, specifically whether teachers could be held liable and why parents weren't notified.

"The Education Code does not require the District to obtain advance written permission from parents every time a teacher is asked to share his or her observations about a pupil's behavior," Angela Miller, district deputy counsel, wrote in response to union concerns. State law "does not prohibit teachers from sharing their personal observations of student behavior."

District officials said parents would be contacted if a child was identified as needing special attention.

"If we don't have a clear concrete way of identifying students ... then you might be a teacher who has no other alternative but to refer a kid for (special education) evaluation," Guerrero said. "It's great for once to really be putting attention on this."

One middle school teacher ...told the SF Chronicle, "several teachers who protested by not doing it [the questionnaire] got written up, I did it, but marked 'Never' for all the internal psychological factors."

The program includes four days of training for teachers from 25 of the  117 schools in the district on how to identify and support troubled students. The training is costing the district approximately $200,000 to pay for substitutes for the teachers being trained. 

Written by Taylor McCulloch.