Philadelphia School Research Articles

Is Executive Cognitive Function Associated with Youth Gambling?

Our objectives for this report were to identify trajectories of youth gambling behavior, and to examine their relation to executive cognitive function (ECF) and associated problem behaviors. Philadelphia school children, enrolled at ages 10-12years (n=387; 49% male), completed three annual assessments of risk behaviors, ECF, impulsivity, problem behaviors and demographics. Across ages 10-15years, using methods from Nagin et al., two groups were identified: Early Gamblers (n=111) initiated early and continued in later assessments, and Later Gamblers (n=276) initiated at later ages and gambled less. Betting money on cards and sports were the most frequently reported gambling behaviors. Using gambling group as outcome, final backward selection logistic regression model showed Early Gamblers are more likely male (P=0.001), report more active coping (P=0.042), impulsive behaviors (P≤0.008), and have friends who gamble (P=0.001). Groups were similar in ECF, parental monitoring, marital status, SES, and race. Early Gamblers had higher incidence of problem behaviors and drug use (all P≤0.006). Two gambling groups were identified in early adolescence with Early Gamblers showing higher levels of impulsivity and comorbid problems but similar levels of ECF compared to Late Gamblers. As more gambling groups are identified through later adolescence, ECF may emerge as a relevant precursor of problem gambling at this later time.

Obesity and Other Predictors of Absenteeism in Philadelphia School Children

Limited data indicate that obese children are absent from school more than their normal-weight peers. We analyzed administrative data from a large urban school district to investigate the association of obesity and student sociodemographic characteristics with absenteeism. We analyzed 291,040 records, representing 165,056 unique students (grades 1-12). Obesity status was classified according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention age- and sex-specific percentiles for body mass index (BMI) and analyses were based on negative binomial regression. Overall rates of overweight and obesity were 17% and 20%, respectively, and the estimated absence rate was 17 absences per 180 student-days. Obesity was weakly associated with increased school absences. The association was present mainly among the most obese students (BMI >99th percentile), who had an 11% greater absence rate compared to normal-weight students. Compared to white students, Hispanics and African Americans had higher absence rates (14% and 10%, respectively), and Asians had lower absence rates (43%). Students eligible for free or reduced-cost meals had 24% higher absence rates than those who were not eligible. Overweight and obesity do not seem strongly associated with school absence, except among extremely obese children. Race and poverty appear to affect absences to a greater extent than overweight and obesity. Additional research is needed to investigate the contribution of contextual factors in schools and neighborhoods. This study suggests that data routinely collected in schools could be used to track childhood obesity and to efficiently evaluate public health interventions designed to decrease childhood obesity.

Recess battles: playing, fighting, and storytelling

As children wrestle with culture through their games, recess itself has become a battleground for the control of children's time. Based on dozens of interviews and the observation of over a thousand children in a racially integrated, working-class public school, Recess Battles is a moving reflection of urban childhood at the turn of the millennium. The book debunks myths about recess violence and challenges the notion that schoolyard play is a waste of time. The author videotaped and recorded children of the Mill School in Philadelphia from 1991 to 2004 and asked them to offer comments as they watched themselves at play. These sessions in Recess Battles raise questions about adult power and the changing frames of class, race, ethnicity, and gender. The grown-ups' clear misunderstanding of the complexity of children's play is contrasted with the richness of the children's folk traditions. Recess Battles is an ethnographic study of lighthearted games, a celebratory presentation of children's folklore and its conflicts, and a philosophical text concerning the ironies of everyday childhood. Rooted in video micro-ethnography and the traditions of theorists such as Bourdieu, Willis, and Bateson, Recess Battles is written for a lay audience with extensive academic footnotes. International scholar Dr. Brian Sutton-Smith contributes a foreword, and the children themselves illustrate the text with black and white paintings.

Ethics for the Pediatician: Disorders of Sex Development: Optimizing Care

1. Katrina Karkazis, PhD, MPH* 2. Wilma C. Rossi, MD† 1. *Center for Biomedical Ethics, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif. 2. †Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Philadelphia School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pa. Disorders of sex development (DSD) are “congenital conditions in which development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomical sex is atypical.” (1) Standard practice from the 1950s to the 1990s had been to identify the cause, assess intervention possibilities, and determine the optimal gender assignment for the child. Surgery usually was performed to make the infant's genitals more typical for the sex of rearing and to remove gonads discordant with the sex of rearing. Traditional practice also tended toward paternalistic decision-making and incomplete disclosure to parents and affected individuals about the condition and its treatment. Beginning in the 1990s, adults cared for as children voiced concerns about their care, citing problems with sexual function due to surgical complications, feelings of being on medical display, lifelong struggles with depression and shame, incomplete information about their condition, and insufficient attention by medical caregivers to quality of life issues. Based on patients' criticisms of care, medical experts and patient advocates convened to revise the model of care for DSD, resulting in the “Consensus Statement on the Management of Intersex Disorders.” (1) The Consensus Statement reflects the current standard of care for DSD and is used as the basis for the following discussion, highlighting important shifts from previous treatment paradigms. Children born with DSD need a specialized approach to facilitate the highest quality of decision-making required to achieve the best possible care. ### Team Approach Care for children who have DSD requires an experienced multidisciplinary team comprised of a range of pediatric subspecialists (eg, endocrinology, urology/surgery, psychology/psychiatry, social work, nursing, bioethics, and child life). (1)(2) The team also should include the child's pediatrician (or other primary medical …

What next?: educational innovation and Philadelphia's school of the future

offers a detailed study of the School of the Future's first three years (2006 2009) revealing what the School of the Future can teach us about high school redesign, public-private partnerships, and the use of technology in school reform. When the school district of Philadelphia teamed up with the Microsoft Corporation in 2006 to redesign the American high school, the result was the School of the Future, hailed by National Public Radio as the next big thing, by Education Week as a new high-tech school [that is] strutting its stuff, and by NBC News as next-generation education. While technology was a crucial element at the School of the Future, the redesign sought fundamentally to rethink the models for teaching and learning. Their trademark framework for decision making, the 6Is introspection, investigation, inclusion, innovation, implementation, and, again, introspection now being used by organizations in more than fifteen countries. The book s contributors researchers, educators, and practitioners offer countless insights into when and how technology-based school redesign leads to improved teaching and learning, when it does not, and what this means in terms of dramatically improving the American high school. What Next? is a volume in the new Educational Innovations series.

Portrait of General Giles by Joseph Wright

<i>Portrait of General Giles</i> by Joseph Wright

Evaluating the Outcomes of an Ementoring Program

While the term mentor can mean different things to different people, a true mentoring relationship is “characterized by a richness of interdependence between two people” (O'Neill, Wagner, &amp; Gomez, 1996, p. 42). In the last 20 years, mentoring has become more popular in education. The increased interest in mentoring has resulted in part from the development and increased popularity of e-mail and other forms of electronic communication. At Central University we have been conducting an e-mentoring program with the Philadelphia School District. This program pairs teacher candidates from an educational technology class with students from predominately African-American, inner-city elementary and middle schools. These teacher candidates were required to mentor these students while they were working on a school science project. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of this e-mentoring program upon attitudes and potential behaviors of teacher candidates.

Ethics and power in business schools and organizations

The history of the business school as an institution stretches back 127 years to its foundations in the Wharton School in Philadelphia. Initially, it was an explicitly ethical project, centred on an ethic of professionalism, an ethics that was never stabilized and settled. Instead, a managerial ethic of the organization man was established in the USA during the post‐war ascendancy and mimesis of the institution. From the 1980s onwards, in a response to the emergence of neo‐liberal governmental projects, two strong and antithetical tendencies emerged. On the one hand, there was an enormous growth in economic rationalism organized around market fundamentalism. On the other hand, there was a growth of critical management, initially Marxist in derivation but increasingly Foucauldian. Just as labour process analysis seemed to run out of steam with endless empirical accounts of resistance so the Foucault effect seems to have become fixated with the gaze of surveillance and the panopticon. What next, after the ethic of the organization man and the administered society, the ethic of disinterest of science, the ethic of the survival of the fittest of neo‐liberalism and the ethic of resistance characterizing critical management? The paper outlines some ideas from the Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos to suggest a possible ‘fifth way’ of building more positive power relations in the business school and thus rekindling an ethical spark.

Incremental Effectiveness of Second Dose Varicella Vaccination for Outbreak Control at an Elementary School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2006

In 2006, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health conducted an investigation of a varicella outbreak at an elementary school in which second-dose vaccination for outbreak control (VOC) was implemented. We evaluated the effectiveness of this intervention. Self-administered questionnaires collected varicella disease and vaccination information. Students eligible for second-dose VOC were 1-dose vaccine recipients without prior varicella disease. A breakthrough varicella case was defined as a maculopapulovesicular rash in a student with onset >42 days after 1-dose vaccination without other apparent cause. Vaccine effectiveness was evaluated using survival analysis techniques and analyzed by vaccine status (first dose versus second dose). Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were used to identify statistical interactions and adjust for confounders. The questionnaire response rate was 92% (342/370). Of the 286 eligible students, 187 (65%) received a second-dose VOC. The crude attack rate was 9/187 (5%) among second-dose VOC recipients; 43/99 (43%) among 1-dose recipients, and 5/6 (83%) among unvaccinated students. Second-dose VOC recipients had milder rashes, compared with 1-dose or unvaccinated students. The adjusted incremental second-dose vaccine effectiveness was 76% (95% confidence interval: 44%-90%) for students with classroom exposure. Incremental effectiveness was similar (79%) when we extended the immune response time from 4 days to 7 days after second-dose VOC. Second-dose VOC resulted in a substantial reduction in varicella incidence for students with classroom exposure. Until high rates of routine second-dose vaccine coverage are achieved, clinicians should consider second-dose VOC an appropriate intervention to reduce disease transmission in institution-based outbreaks.

Evaluating the Relationship Between Student Attendance and Achievement in Urban Elementary and Middle Schools

Researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and parents have assumed a positive relationship between school attendance and academic success. And yet, among the vast body of empirical research examining how input factors relate to academic outcomes, few investigations have honed in on the precision of the relationship between individual attendance and student achievement. The purpose of this article is to provide insight into this relationship. Specifically, this study has evaluated the hypothesis that the number of days a student was present in school positively affected learning outcomes. To assess this, a unique empirical approach was taken in order to evaluate a comprehensive dataset of elementary and middle school students in the Philadelphia School District. Employing a fixed effects framework and instrumental variables strategy, this study provides evidence from a quasi-experimental design geared at estimating the causal impact of attendance on multiple measures of achievement, including GPA and standardized reading and math test performance. The results consistently indicate positive and statistically significant relationships between student attendance and academic achievement for both elementary and middle school students.

The shaping of the American Empire

This paper creates a traditional, counterfactual, historical geography that proposes the rise of an American Empire in the 1800s instead of the British. The industrialization of the British world-economy of the early 1800s, victory in the Napoleonic Wars, and the consequent success of the British Empire fundamentally depended on cotton textiles, thus on American cotton agriculture. Cotton was, to the economies of the nineteenth century, very much like oil is to those of the late twentieth and early twenty-first enturies. The development of the American cotton South after 1800 was based heavily on the reproduction of slaves within the South. Had Jefferson ended slavery, as he at one time considered, I suggest that an alternative America would have arisen in which Jeffersonian idealism would have encouraged family farms as the principal units of agricultural production. I further argue that, absent the availability of cheap British manufactures, the Philadelphia School of Protectionists would also have likely triumphed early and an American industrial development based on internal growth fueled by cotton grown on family farms would have allowed America to come to dominate the world-economy of the late 1800s. Protectionist policies would have similarly excluded French manufactures and the industrial development based on cotton the French were also attempting in the late 1700s would have failed just as did that of Britain. French military victory in the Napoleonic Wars would not have produced a French world-economy. An America without serious global opposition would not have resisted annexing all of Mexico and Canada in the 1840s and expanding aggressively into Asia via the Pacific basin and Hawaii to create an American Empire.

Attitudes and Concerns of Pre-Pubescent and Pubescent Girls about Breast Health and Breast Cancer: An Unmet Need.

Abstract Background: Prior research has indicated that girls have unaddressed fears about breast health and breast cancer. In a Breastcancer.org online survey (SABCS 2008 Abstract#5078), 26% of girls have already worried they may have breast cancer and 73% reported that a relative or close acquaintance had already been diagnosed. Their fears are magnified by the current trend of early onset of breast development and their sensitivity to high media coverage of breast cancer. We hypothesize that girls have limited opportunities and are without the emotional capacity and communication skills necessary to gather and process this information at home, in school, and in the doctor's office.Methods: Breastcancer.org, the Taking Care of Your “Girls” book project, and the Lankenau Hospital Health Education Center conducted an online survey of girls in middle and high schools prior to the delivery of its in-school Basic Breast Health Assembly Program in 13 Philadelphia, Atlanta, Washington, and Los Angeles area schools. 4246 girls attended an assembly, of which 3397 participated in the student survey. 1067 adult female family members (AFFM)—mostly mothers—completed the family member survey.Results: In total, 33% of girls had already learned about breast health and breast cancer in school. 48% of girls wanted to attend the Assembly Program; 93% of AFFMs wanted their girls to participate in the Assembly Program. 50% of girls said they felt uneasy starting the conversation about these topics with their AFFM, 97% of AFFMs said they felt comfortable starting the conversation with their girls, but only 43% of the girls report having the conversation. Of the girls who talked to a parent, 91% talked to their mothers and only 1% talked with their fathers. Girls and AFFMs offered many tips on how to start and sustain a healthy dialogue on these topics: listen, be open, make it fun, pick a private place and time, share experiences, provide facts, and call in experts when you need more information.42%, 18%, and 23% of girls, respectively, have talked to a doctor, sister, or friend about these topics. 50% of girls want to learn breast self-exams from their doctors.Discussion: This survey indicates that girls have unmet informational needs on breast health and breast cancer. This was a source of anxiety for both girls and their AFFMs. There was a willingness to engage in educational activities by both girls and AFFMs, but the dialogue opportunities and communication skills were seen as lacking. Girls identified AFFMs, schools, and doctors as their preferred sources of this information.Girls' ability to express their anxiety, replace fears with facts, learn breast healthy behaviors, and deal with a loved ones' diagnosis requires education, modeling, and an ongoing dialogue. This survey provides guidance for educators and healthcare professionals regarding research into interventions seeking to correct this previously underappreciated gap in public health education. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 1037.

Excused Versus Unexcused: How Student Absences in Elementary School Affect Academic Achievement

The literature on school absences has focused predominantly on the reasons for student truancy, or it has assessed only aggregate student absences in their effect on achievement. However, this study brings forth a new issue: the relationship between types of absences—excused versus unexcused—and school performance. With a quantitative model of educational achievement on a longitudinal multilevel data set of all second-through fourth-grade students in the Philadelphia School District from 1994 to 2000, this study disaggregated absence information to provide new insight on the attendance–achievement relationship. Specifically, a model using fixed effects with classroom-level clustering was employed to determine how the distinction among varying proportions of excused versus unexcused absences related to students’ standardized test performance in reading and math. This article demonstrates that distinguishing between students with high rates of excused or unexcused absences is significant. Having a higher proportion of excused absences to total absences exhibits a positive relationship between reading and math test scores. Conversely, students with a higher proportion of unexcused absences places them at academic risk, particularly in math achievement and as early as in elementary school. Implications for policy are discussed.

Getting a Feel for the Market: The Use of Privatized School Management in Philadelphia

This study evaluates the impact of the privatization of education services in the Philadelphia School District, using an interrupted time series design. The sample observes 88 middle‐grades schools, beginning with the 1996–97 school year, and finds that, by 2006, four years postintervention, the achievement growth rate of schools run by educational management organizations (EMOs) had fallen significantly below the growth rate of district‐run schools in both reading and mathematics, whereas, in 2002, immediately prior to privatization, those schools later run by EMOs had achieved growth rates significantly higher than the rest of the district in reading and statistically equivalent in mathematics.

Analyses of school commuting data for exposure modeling purposes

Human exposure models often make the simplifying assumption that school children attend school in the same census tract where they live. This paper analyzes that assumption and provides information on the temporal and spatial distributions associated with school commuting. The data were obtained using Oak Ridge National Laboratory's LandScan USA population distribution model applied to Philadelphia, PA. It is a high-resolution model used to allocate individual school-aged children to both a home and school location, and to devise a minimum-time home-to-school commuting path (called a trace) between the two locations. LandScan relies heavily on Geographic Information System (GIS) data. With respect to school children attending school in their home census tract, the vast majority does not in Philadelphia. Our analyses found that: (1) about 32% of the students walk across two or more census tracts going to school and 40% of them walk across four or more census blocks; and (2) 60% drive across four or more census tracts going to school and 50% drive across 10 or more census blocks. We also find that: (3) using a 5-min commuting time interval - as opposed to the modeled "trace" - results in misclassifying the "actual" path taken in 90% of the census blocks, 70% of the block groups, and 50% of the tracts; (4) a 1-min time interval is needed to reasonably resolve time spent in the various census unit designations; and (5) approximately 50% of both the homes and schools of Philadelphia school children are located within 160 m of highly traveled roads, and 64% of the schools are located within 200 m. These findings are very important when modeling school children's exposures, especially, when ascertaining the impacts of near-roadway concentrations on their total daily body burden. As many school children also travel along these streets and roadways to get to school, a majority of children in Philadelphia are in mobile source-dominated locations most of the day. We hypothesize that exposures of school children in Philadelphia to benzene and particulate matter will be much higher than if home and school locations and commuting paths at a 1-min time resolution are not explicitly modeled in an exposure assessment. Undertaking such an assessment will be the topic of a future paper.

Breast cancer fear in girls: a major “side effect” of breast cancer in loved ones and a backlash of ubiquitous media coverage.

Abstract Abstract #5078 Background: Breast cancer significantly impacts girls' lives: it affects 1:8 women and directly impacts those most influential in girls' lives (e.g. mothers, friends' mothers, teachers, coaches). Plus, girls are often exposed to powerful media messages meant to raise breast cancer awareness. Our hypothesis is that these factors could generate significant fear and misunderstanding in adolescent and pre-adolescent girls.&amp;#x2028; Methods: To better understand the impact of breast cancer fear in girls, the nonprofit organization Breastcancer.org and the Taking Care of Your “Girls” book project, together with the Lankenau Hospital Health Education Center, conducted an in-school online survey in girls ages 8 to 18 years (median 15), prior to the delivery of a Breast Health Assembly in 7 Philadelphia and Atlanta areas schools. 2450 girls attended the assemblies, of which 1709 participated in the survey (about 70% question completion rate).&amp;#x2028; Results: In total, 73% of girls had a relative or close acquaintance who had had breast cancer (most often: a friend's mother [49% n=580/1201]). Although only 3.34% (n=40/1196) of girls' mothers had had breast cancer, girls were most fearful of breast cancer affecting their mothers. While only 46% (n=768/1573) thought breast cancer was common in grandmothers, 76% (n=1192/1572) reported it was most common in mothers. Although only 3.35 % (n=53/1580) believed that breast cancer was common in teens, 26% (477/1554) said that they've already feared having breast cancer themselves. The most common triggers for this fear were a misinterpretation of a normal breast finding, a news report on breast cancer, or a new breast cancer diagnosis in someone they knew. Over 20% believed that infection, drug use, stress, and tanning could cause breast cancer; and 10-20% reported their belief that caffeine, getting bumped or bruised in the breast, and antiperspirants could cause it. In addition, 8.5% thought that breast-feeding increased breast cancer risk.&amp;#x2028; Discussion: 73% of the girls in this study have one or more women close to them who've had breast cancer and all girls are sensitive to the media. These factors seem to contribute to their fear of the disease and their tendency to overestimate breast cancer risk (in themselves and their mothers). Furthermore, they were un- or misinformed about true breast cancer risk factors and effective breast health measures. The impact of a girl's unrealistic fear of breast cancer is unknown. We are concerned that it may deter rather than motivate healthy behaviors. Breast health programs are necessary to replace fear and inaccurate information with facts and reassurance. These results might be useful in the design of education and intervention strategies to improve psychological wellbeing and the achievement of long-term public health goals. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(2 Suppl):Abstract nr 5078.

Findings From South Korea Provide Insight Into XDR-TB

tee of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) recommends CBT-I as first-line treatment for people with both primary and secondary chronic insomnia, including chronic hypnotic users (Morgenthaler T et al. Sleep. 2006; 29[11]:1415-1419). CBT-I usually reduces symptoms of chronic insomnia by 50%, according to Michael Perlis, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, and director of its behavioral sleep medicine program. Patients who stick with CBT-I tactics—usually taught in 4 to 8 weekly individual or group sessions—often see symptoms fade by another 25% over the next few months. Treatment gains also last at least 2 years, said Perlis, who conducted a 3-day course to train physicians, psychologists, nurses, and others in CBT-I in Arlington, Va, in October. The University of Rochester Medical Center sponsored the event. One hurdle to broad use of CBT-I is the still small population of trained practitioners. To date, 136 doctorallevel US sleep specialists, including 42 physicians, have received AASM’s certification in behavioral sleep medicine, demonstrating knowledge and skill in CBT-I and other behavioral therapies. The AASM will start certifying master’s level practitioners in psychology, nursing, and other healthrelated fields in CBT-I in 2010 (http: //www.aasmnet.org/BSM.aspx). The nearly 1600 AASM-accredited sleep centers are required to have behavioral services available. Because CBT-I is time intensive for both clinician and patient, some sleep specialists are exploring shorter variants that, if effective, would be more practical in primary care settings. One such approach is a brief behavioral treatment for insomnia devised by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. It consists of a 45-minute session in the primary care office, plus a booster session 2 weeks later. A master’s level nurse practitioner reviews sleep diaries, suggests ways to regularize daily schedules, advises patients to limit time in bed to time spent asleep, and provides a workbook with further instructions. Sleep quality and efficiency improved significantly more in 17 older adults receiving such help than in a matched control group receiving routine sleep habit advice (Germain A et al. J Clin Sleep Med. 2006;2[4]:403406). Self-directed computerized or Web-based CBT-I programs also are under evaluation, but Perlis remains skeptical about their utility. “CBT-I uses evidence-based methods, delivered in a way the patient finds compelling,” he said, “with a coach to follow up and foster compliance.” “Asking every patient, ‘How are you sleeping?’” he said, “elicits an excellent indicator of overall health. Some patients with insomnia can be managed medically, and some need referral to a sleep specialist. Proper treatment will reduce subsequent morbidity and health care utilization.”

A Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design study of Philadelphia Schools; What is old is new again.

The Philadelphia School District has a stock of over 90 school buildings listed on the National Register that were constructed between 1920 and 1940, most of which are still in use today. With a minimum size of 50 000 sq ft per building, this resource of over 5×106sq ft of building area is likely to remain in use for at least another generation. The classrooms in the buildings are very similar in construction consisting of large windows, narrow floor plates, and concrete construction. The School District has also adopted the policy that every one of their new and renovated schools will be LEED certified under LEED For Schools 2007. Since it is not practical to raze these buildings, what can be done to meet the LEED certification? It is surprising how “green” they are. What is old is new again.

School Violence: Bullying Behaviors and the Psychosocial School Environment in Middle Schools

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among a school's psychosocial environment and the prevalence and types of bullying behaviors that either lead to or result from that environment. More specifically, this study examined how the frequency of aggressive behaviors (for example, bullying) experienced by students (as perpetrators and as victims) contributed to their interpretation of their school's psychosocial environment and how those environments affected the existence of ongoing aggressive and avoidance behaviors. The data for this study were archival, having originally been collected for a study of school culture, climate, and violence from the Philadelphia School District during the 1993-94 school year. To understand the consequences of bullying in schools, the authors used structural equation modeling analyses to develop a theoretical model of predictive relationships among (1) students' perceptions of bullying behaviors and safety at school, (2) the schools' psychosocial environment as measured by the students, and (3) the students' reactionary behavior to both (1) and (2). Direct practice applications for school social work practice are discussed.

Ralph Shapey's Apprenticeship with Stefan Wolpe

Shapey studied with Stefan Wolpe from 1939 to 1942 at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia and again from 1946 to 1949 in New York. He was Wolpe's assistant at the Contemporary Music School from 1948 to 1950 and became a leading exponent of his music during the ensuing decades. Wolpe in turn regarded Shapey as the most brilliant and accomplished of his students. After Shapey's studies with Wolpe ended, they enjoyed a fruitful collaboration until their relationship soured and they broke off personal communications in the early 1960s. When asked in later years what he had learned from Wolpe, Shapey said that he could not really remember. This article provides an account of Wolpe's pedagogical ideas from his lectures and from accounts of students Eli Yarden, Elmer Bernstein, Eddie Sauter and others. Compositions are discussed that Shapey wrote between 1940 and 1949—the year he left the Wolpe workshop.