Effects of a non-traditional teacher preparation program on non-test outcomes: evidence from Relay Graduate School of Education in New York City

Physical fitness in children has many beneficial effects, including the maintenance of a healthy weight. The built environment may influence youths' physical fitness by encouraging physical activity. This paper assessed whether higher density of parks, playgrounds, and sports facilities around a school is related to improvements in fitness in middle school boys and girls. Fitness scores and other student covariates collected as part of NYC FITNESSGRAM between the 2006-2007 and 2010-2011 school years were linked with school neighborhood data on characteristics of the built environment for NYC public school students in grades 6-8. Data were analyzed in 2015. Medium, but not high, density of recreational resources in the area surrounding a school was associated with greater annual improvements in fitness for both boys and girls. This association appeared to be driven mainly by the presence of parks. Findings for sports facilities and playgrounds were inconsistent. Overall, few associations were observed between recreational resources near a school and changes in student fitness. Future studies of school influences on student fitness should consider the influence of school resources and the home neighborhood.

A common policy approach to reducing childhood obesity aims to shape the environment in which children spend most of their time: neighborhoods and schools. This paper uses richly detailed data on the body mass index (BMI) of all New York City public school students in grades K-8 to assess the potential for place-based approaches to reduce child obesity. We document variation in the prevalence of obesity across NYC public schools and census tracts, and then estimate the extent to which this variation can be explained by differences in individual-level predictors (such as race and household income). Both unadjusted and adjusted variability across neighborhoods and schools suggest place-based policies have the potential to meaningfully reduce child obesity, but under most realistic scenarios the improvement would be modest.

Exposure to the World Trade Center disaster and test performance among New York City public school students over time, 1998–2003

IntroductionAlthough studies have shown that childhood obesity overall is on the decline among New York City (NYC) public school children, the prevalence of severe childhood obesity has not been studied.MethodsWe used height and weight measurements of 947,765 NYC public school students aged 5 to 14 years in kindergarten through 8th grade (K–8), from school years 2006–07 through 2010–11. We used age- and sex-specific body mass index (BMI) percentiles according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention growth charts to define childhood obesity (BMI ≥ 95th percentile) and severe childhood obesity (BMI ≥120% of 95th percentile) and to identify biologically implausible values (BIV). Multivariable logistic models tested for trends in obesity and severe obesity prevalence. To evaluate misclassification, we recalculated prevalence estimates for the most recent school year (2010–11) including the student records identified as BIV who were also declared severely obese (BMI ≥ 120% of 95th percentile). We refer to this subgroup of BIVs as “high BIV.”ResultsSevere obesity among NYC public school students in grades K–8 decreased 9.5% from the 2006–07 school year (6.3%) to the 2010–11 school year (5.7%), and obesity decreased 5.5% (from 21.9% to 20.7%). The prevalence of severe obesity and obesity was highest among minority, poor, and male children. Severe obesity declined in prevalence among every subgroup, with the greatest effect among white students and wealthy students. Severe obesity prevalence increased with age, and obesity prevalence peaked among those aged 7 to 10 years. For the 2010–11 school year, including high BIVs increased severe obesity prevalence from 5.7% to 6.6% and increased obesity prevalence from 20.7% to 21.5%.ConclusionAmong all subgroups of NYC public school children in grades K–8, the reduction in severe obesity was greater than the reduction in overall obesity. Efforts to decrease obesity in NYC have affected the severely obese; however, monitoring of this specific subgroup should continue because of differences in trends and greater health risks.

The cultural roles and expectations attributed to individuals based on their sex often shape health behaviors and outcomes. Gender nonconformity (GNC) (ie, gender expression that differs from societal expectations for feminine or masculine appearance and behavior) is an underresearched area of adolescent health that is often linked to negative health outcomes. To examine the associations of GNC with mental distress and substance use among high school students. Cross-sectional study based on data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) conducted in 2015. The setting was 3 large urban US school districts (2 in California and 1 in Florida). Participants were a racially/ethnically diverse population-based sample of 6082 high school students representative of all public school students in grades 9 through 12 attending these 3 school districts. Sex-stratified adjusted prevalence ratios (APRs) (adjusted for race/ethnicity, grade, and sexual identity) for high gender-nonconforming students (very/mostly/somewhat feminine male students or very/mostly/somewhat masculine female students) and moderate gender-nonconforming students (equally feminine and masculine students) relative to a referent group of low gender-nonconforming students (very/mostly/somewhat masculine male students or very/mostly/somewhat feminine female students). Among 6082 high school students, 881 (15.9%) were white, 891 (19.1%) black, 3163 (55.1%) Hispanic, and 1008 (9.9%) other race/ethnicity. Among female students (2919 [50.0% of the study population]), moderate GNC was significantly associated with feeling sad and hopeless (APR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.05-1.41), seriously considering attempting suicide (APR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.14-1.74), and making a suicide plan (APR, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.22-1.89); however, substance use was not associated with GNC. Among male students (3139 [50.0% of the study population]), moderate GNC was associated with feeling sad and hopeless (APR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.25-1.92); high GNC was associated with seriously considering attempting suicide (APR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.16-2.56), making a suicide plan (APR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.17-2.73), and attempting suicide (APR, 2.78; 95% CI, 1.75-4.40), as well as nonmedical use of prescription drugs (APR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.23-2.67), cocaine use (APR, 2.84; 95% CI, 1.80-4.47), methamphetamine use (APR, 4.52; 95% CI, 2.68-7.61), heroin use (APR, 4.59; 95% CI, 2.48-8.47), and injection drug use (APR, 8.05; 95% CI, 4.41-14.70). This study suggests mental distress is associated with GNC among female and male students. Substance use also appeared to be strongly associated with GNC among male students. These findings underscore and suggest the importance of implementing school-based programs to prevent substance use and promote student mental health that are inclusive of gender diversity in students.

The City of New York has historically struggled with equitable funding in its public education system. As a result, funding for arts education in New York City public schools has steadily declined. This trend further perpetuates a widespread cultural attitude that undervalues the academic benefits of arts education for students. This lack of support for the arts has particularly impacted schools located in low-income neighborhoods which suffer from low engagement with—and participation in—arts programs and arts instruction. Rocco Landesman, Former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, wrote in his study on arts and achievement for at-risk youth that “the only outcomes we should need to measure for a music class is whether the child had the chance to create, enjoy, and understand music.” The New York City Department of Education has attempted to offer all students the chance to participate in arts education through various policy initiatives. In particular, New York City’s Blueprint for the Arts curriculum initiative and its supplemental accountability program, ArtsCount, were implemented to enhance students’ access to arts instruction. The decade following their implementation, however, revealed obvious shortcomings and failures. Moreover, the lack of reform of these initiatives perpetuates the culture of unequal access that is so commonly associated with arts education.
 Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act states: “[n]o person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” Particularly, Title VI imposes regulations for the implementation of federal funds. Such regulations require that recipients may not “utilize criteria or methods of administration which have the effect of subjecting individuals to discrimination because of their race, color, or national origin, or have the effect of defeating or substantially impairing accomplishment of the objectives of the program as respect individuals of a particular race, color, or national origin.”
 In 2014, the NYC Comptroller released a report describing the failures of ArtsCount, focusing in part on inequities in the distribution of arts instruction across New York City school districts. The results demonstrate a positive correlation between the presence of art instructors, art classrooms, and art programs to socioeconomic status and racial makeup of particular districts. These results are especially problematic as the very purpose of these initiatives is to enhance access to arts education for New York City students. This Note will explore several possible explanations for these failures, including societal and policy-based influences on school leaders in low-income neighborhoods, and how those influences were exacerbated by inefficient systems of reporting such as New York City’s ArtsCount.
 Prior to the implementation of BluePrint for the Arts and ArtsCount, New York City provided arts funding through Project ARTS, a grant program that provided schools with dedicated arts funding. This program required that Project ARTS funding was spent in areas related directly to the arts. Transitioning to Blueprint for the Arts and ArtsCount allows the New York City Department of Education to take a passive approach to implementing arts education funding. With ArtsCount, funding that would have previously been dedicated to the arts is now provided to school leaders through general school budgets using ArtsCount as a method to ensure accountability for investing in arts programs. However, the inadequacy of ArtsCount has led to many students in areas of lower socioeconomic status—primarily students of color—having to go without the necessary arts education curriculum as put forth by BluePrint for the Arts, the very curriculum that ArtsCount was meant to ensure.
 The inadequacy of this accountability program poses the question of possible Title VI violations. The several years following the Comptroller report have seen little change, despite recommendations for how to mitigate such discriminatory effects. In order to prove a violation of Title VI’s implementing regulations, proof of discriminatory effect will suffice to establish liability and proof of discriminatory intent is not needed. While it could be argued that such a funding structure is necessary and justified, offering less discriminatory alternatives would demonstrate that this structure is still indeed a Title VI violation. This Note explores potential alternatives to the current accountability framework, including reframing how arts education should and may be spent, and rethinking the way that data regarding arts education instruction is collected.
 Overall, the goal of this Note is to assess the current status of arts education in New York City Public Schools and how its current funding structure and accountability program impacts the presence of arts education across New York City school districts. This assessment will focus primarily on the New York City public school system, as New York City is a cultural hub of the world with communities of different races, ethnicities, and many socioeconomic backgrounds. Part I of this Note provides background information on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, societal conceptions on the value of arts education, the history of arts education funding in New York City, and the implementation of ArtsCount. Part II of this Note assesses New York City’s current accountability framework in context of Title VI’s implementing regulation, considering the history of race disparities within arts education at the national and local levels. Part III of this Note proposes an alternative which may mitigate such discriminatory implications and increase access to arts education among New York City Public School students. This solution involves a more detailed system of reporting, a mid-level compromise for discretion offered to school leaders over arts funding, and education initiatives offering incentives to increase arts integration in daily common core subject areas. Essentially, this Note articulates the need for reform of the current framework meant to create equal access to arts education for New York City public school students. While focusing on the prevalent racial and socioeconomic disparities that continue under this regime, this Note utilizes the protection offered by Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to validate the right to reformation.

It has been theorized that there are highly lawful relationships among levels of pseudoword decoding, word identification, spelling, listening, and reading that can be represented by relatively simple mathematical formulas. This theory was tested by reanalyzing data collected from 55 parochial school students in Grades 3 to 6 (Study I) and 83 public school students in Grades 4 and 5 (Study II). These students were given a battery of reading-related tests that included measures relevant to the theory noted previously. The results from Study II replicated those from Study I, indicating that (a) level of word identification and level of spelling are equal, (b) level of pseudoword decoding (or word attack) and level of ability to pronounce unknown real words are equal, (c) level of word identification equals the average of the level of reading and the level of pseudoword decoding, and (d) level of reading equals the average of the level of listening and the level of word identification. These data, along with previously collected data, suggest that measures of the aforementioned reading-related variables are so closely connected that (a) highly reliable measures of spelling level and word attack level for a student could be used to estimate or predict that student's levels of reading, listening, and word identification, and (b) highly reliable measures of reading level and word identification level for a student could be used to estimate or predict that student's levels of listening, spelling, and word attack.

Use of marijuana at an early age can affect memory, school performance, attention, and learning; conclusions have been mixed regarding its impact on mental health conditions, including psychosis, depression, and anxiety (1-3). Medical marijuana has been legal in Washington since 1998, and in 2012, voters approved the retail sale of marijuana for recreational use to persons aged ≥21 years. The first retail stores opened for business in July 2014. As more states legalize marijuana use by adults aged ≥21 years, the effect of legalization on use by youths will be important to monitor. To guide planning of activities aimed at reducing marijuana use by youths and to inform ongoing policy development, Public Health-Seattle & King County assessed trends and characteristics of past 30-day marijuana use among King County, Washington, public school students in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12. This report used biennial data for 2004-2016 from the Washington State Healthy Youth Survey. Among grade 6 students there was a decreasing trend in self-reported past 30-day marijuana use from 2004 to 2016, while the percentage of grade 8 students who had used marijuana during the past 30 days did not change during that period. Among students in grades 10 and 12, self-reported past 30-day use of marijuana increased from 2004 to 2012, then declined from 2012 to 2016. In 2016, the percentage of students with past 30-day marijuana use in King County was 0.6% among grade 6, 4.1% among grade 8, 13.9% among grade 10, and 25.5% among grade 12 students. Among grade 10 students, 24.0% of past 30-day marijuana users also smoked cigarettes, compared with 1.3% of nonusers. From 2004 to 2016 the prevalence of perception of great risk of harm from regular marijuana use decreased across all grades. Continued surveillance using consistent measures is needed to monitor the impact of marijuana legalization and emerging public health issues, given variable legislation approaches among jurisdictions.

This descriptive study used the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire to obtain data from a convenience sample (N = 192) of three rural public school students in grades 3 through 8. The objectives of the study were to determine the type and frequency of bully-victimization experienced by male and female students relating to gender and grade level. Using frequencies and percentages, elementary school males and females described, weekly or more, relational (or verbal) victimization (26%) similar to middle school students (22%); threatening bully-victimization (6%) different from middle school youth (3%), and physical bully-victimization (17%), quite unlike middle school students (6%). These findings were inconsistent with previous findings that verbal bully-victimization tends to increase as children age. Gender and grade level data identified females as chronically exposed to threatening and physical bully-victimization unlike males; contradicting a common theme in preliminary bully-victim research that males experience greater frequencies of overt bullying than females. Additionally, gender and grade level frequency demonstrated that males, in this study, reported consistent exclusion victimization different from females. A comprehensive system level prevention program should begin with a school wide bullying and victim survey. Once awareness of the extent of the bullying problem occurs, staff training may be required for effective intervention.

Problems related to gangs have been noted in large cities and in many schools across the United States. This study examined the patterns of alcohol, drug use, and related exposures among male and female high school students who were gang members. Analyses were based on the Youth Violence Survey, conducted in 2004, and administered to over 80% of eligible public school students in grades 7, 9, 11, and 12 (N = 4131) in a high-risk, urban school district. The self-administered survey, completed during a class period, included measures of alcohol and drug use and related exposures. Tests of associations were determined using chi-square tests and logistic regression analyses. In this study, 8.8% of students reported gang membership. Students who initiated alcohol use prior to age 13 (OR = 4.90; 95% CI: 3.65-6.58), who drank alcohol 3 or more times per week (OR = 9.57; 95% CI: 6.09-15.03) and who used drugs 3 or more times per week (OR = 6.51; 95% CI: 4.59-9.25) were more likely to report gang membership than students who did not report alcohol or drug use. Boys were more likely than girls to report alcohol-related fighting and drug selling. Gang members were significantly more likely than non-gang members to have initiated alcohol early, to have reported a high prevalence of alcohol use, to have engaged in alcohol-related physical fighting, peer drinking, drug use, drug selling, peer drug selling, and having seen drug deals in their neighborhood. Schools may serve as a critically important source for intervention and prevention efforts for gang members, especially those in 7th grade, who still attend school.

Food, Health & Choices (FHC): Using Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) to Determine if Scaling Up is a Wise Investment

Does the timing and frequency of program benefits influence student school outcomes? The poor may be especially vulnerable to income scarcity at the end of welfare program benefit cycles. Such scarcity may strain other aspects of family life and exacerbate children’s behavior problems. We use data from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and school disciplinary records to compare the incidence of disciplinary infractions at the beginning and end of months among Chicago Public School students in grades 5–8 whose families did and did not receive SNAP. Controlling for student and school characteristics, our estimates show that student disciplinary infractions generally spike at the end of the month irrespective of SNAP receipt status. However, spikes are exacerbated among students who receive SNAP benefits. The within-month difference in disciplinary infractions for students in SNAP recipient families is 7 percentage points larger than for nonrecipients. These differences are particu...

The Relative Importance of Social Versus Commercial Sources in Youth Access to Tobacco, Alcohol, and Other Drugs

We compared the prevalence of current homelessness among adolescents reporting a minority sexual orientation (lesbian/gay, bisexual, unsure, or heterosexual with same-sex sexual partners) with that among exclusively heterosexual adolescents. We combined data from the 2005 and 2007 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a representative sample of public school students in grades 9 though 12 (n = 6317). Approximately 25% of lesbian/gay, 15% of bisexual, and 3% of exclusively heterosexual Massachusetts public high school students were homeless. Sexual-minority males and females had an odds of reporting current homelessness that was between 4 and 13 times that of their exclusively heterosexual peers. Sexual-minority youths' greater likelihood of being homeless was driven by their increased risk of living separately from their parents or guardians. Youth homelessness is linked with numerous threats such as violence, substance use, and mental health problems. Although discrimination and victimization related to minority sexual orientation status are believed to be important causal factors, research is needed to improve our understanding of the risks and protective factors for homelessness and to determine effective strategies to prevent homelessness in this population.

Correlates of Inadequate Consumption of Dairy Products among Adolescents