This is a study of the practices utilized by four school districts, two with high and two with low retention rates of teachers, to examine how similarities and differences in selected human resources practices relate to the successful retention of teachers in these districts. The factors studied that may impact teacher retention included…

This study examines elementary school nurses' perceived efficacy expectations, perceived barriers, and perceived benefits to measuring body mass index (BMI) in students in schools with mandated BMI policies versus schools without mandated policies. Of the 2,629 school nurses participating in the study, 67% believe nurses should measure BMI in…

Emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) are common in children, and forecasting their prevalence in schools is of interest to both academic researchers and local authorities. Percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals is one measure often used for this purpose. The article presents the first independent validation of a simple…

Neurological examination of children includes the screening for soft neurological signs (NSS). There is little knowledge about their evolution during adolescence, except that their lasting presence has been associated with developmental, psychological, and cognitive disorders. We report the results of a NSS exam (assessing gross and fine motor…

When students analyze and present original data they have collected, and hence have a cultivated sense of curiosity about the data, student learning is enhanced. It is often difficult to provide students an opportunity to practice their skills, use their knowledge, and gain research experiences during a typical course laboratory. This article…

Both nationally and within the State of California, it is unlikely that those children most susceptible to lead exposure are adequately screened for blood lead levels. New and creative approaches are necessary to reach these individuals. In-home phlebotomy was employed to test blood lead levels of 128 San Diego households containing Latino…

Despite lower incidence, African American women are at increased risk of dying from breast cancer relative to their European American counterparts. Although there are key differences in both screening behavior and tumor characteristics, an additional part of this mortality difference may lie in the fact that African American women receive…

Reduced HIV risk behavior and increased use of care and support services have been demonstrated among adults accessing HIV voluntary counseling and testing (VCT). The impact of VCT on adolescents is, however, not known. Focus group discussions were held with adolescents and parents in two South African townships to establish the perceptions of and…

Long-standing policy controversies have heated up as a result of increasing proposals for using schools to screen for mental health problems (e.g., depression screening). This brief highlights the following issues: (1) How appropriate is large-scale screening for mental health problems? (2) Will the costs of large-scale mental health screening…

In 2002, the United States Supreme Court confirmed that in the school's role of in loco parentis, drug testing of students who were involved in athletics and extracurricular activities was constitutional. In a state of the union address, George W. Bush stated that drug testing in schools had been effective and was part of "our aggressive…

The Voice-Interactive Depression Assessment System (VIDAS) is a computerized speech recognition application for screening depression based on the Center for Epidemiological Studies--Depression scale in English and Spanish. Study 1 included 50 English and 47 Spanish speakers. Study 2 involved 108 English and 109 Spanish speakers. Participants…

The article describes characteristics of pregnant women presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) who are experiencing current violence and presented a screening tool to identify pregnant women experiencing violence. Women completed an in-person interview regarding violence, sociodemo-graphic factors, health status, and drug use. Fifteen percent…

An exploratory factor analysis and several confirmatory analyses were performed to evaluate the factorial structure of the Revised Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (RMARS) through the responses of 805 college students. On 559 students' scores, the instrument's construct validity was tested through a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and was found…

This article presents findings of two studies, one conducted with middle school students (n = 500) in a rural setting and a second conducted with middle school students (n = 528) in an urban setting, of the reliability and validity of the "Student Risk Screening Scale" (SRSS; Drummond, 1994). Results revealed high internal consistency, test-retest…

The current study examined the initial psychometrics of the "Early Childhood Behavior Problem Screening Scale" (ECBPSS; Epstein & Nelson, 2006), namely the factor structure and associated internal consistency of factor items of parent and teacher versions as well as interrater reliability. Data came from samples of preschool- and…