A growing number of school systems use self-report surveys to track students’ social-emotional development as a tool to inform policy and practice. We use the first large-scale panel survey of social-emotional learning (SEL) to simulate how four constructs—growth mindset, self-efficacy, self-management, and social awareness—develop from Grade 4 to Grade 12 and how these trends vary by gender, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity among students participating in the survey for two consecutive years. With the exception of growth mindset, self-reports of these constructs do not increase monotonically as students move through school; self-efficacy, social awareness, and to a lesser degree self-management decrease after Grade 6. Female students report higher self-management and social awareness than males, but lower self-efficacy relative to males in middle and high school. Economically disadvantaged students and students of color report lower levels of each construct. These patterns highlight the need for policymakers to interpret changes in students’ self-reports over time in light of normative trends in social-emotional development and illustrate how such self-reports may nonetheless be used to set priorities and target interventions and resources.

It is a commonly understood problem in education that many highly qualified teachers tend to gravitate toward higher performing schools, including schools with lower minority enrollments and lower incidence of poverty. This article explores the distribution of a subset of teachers, namely, those who are National Board Certified. To what extent do these teachers' assignment choices mirror the pattern of their non-Board Certified colleagues and to what extent are they different? Part of a larger study of Board Certified Teachers in lower performing schools, the article examines the distribution of NBCTs in the six states with the largest number of them'California, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, and South Carolina. The research finds that, with the exception of California, Board Certified Teachers are not equitably distributed across schools that serve different populations of students. In five of the six states examined, poor, minority, and lower performing students are far less likely to benefit from the teaching of an NBCT than are their more affluent, majority, higher performing peers. The article explores some possible explanations for the California distribution pattern as well as the kinds of incentives provided across the states for teachers to seek Board Certification and for those who earn it. The authors conclude with a rationale and a set of policy suggestions for realigning the distribution of NBCTs.

This paper is the culmination of a three-year study that sought to frame an initial answer to the question, "What are the circumstances and conditions under which National Board Certified teachers (NBCTs) can have a positive impact on low-performing schools?" The study, funded by Atlantic Philanthropies, was part of the National Board's more comprehensive effort to answer a number of research questions about the impacts of board certification and board certified teachers in schools and districts across the country.

Heterocyclic amines (HAs) are carcinogens produced by high-temperature cooking of meat and animal protein; metabolism of HA is influenced by polymorphisms in the Nacetyltransferase-2 (NAT-2) gene. Data from a variety of sources suggest that HA may play a role in human carcinogenesis. We examined the associations between meat intake and cooking method, acetylator genotype and breast cancer risk in a sub-cohort of 32,826 women in the Nurses' Health Study who gave a blood sample in [1989][1990]. Women who were diagnosed with breast cancer (n ‫؍‬ 466) after blood draw and prior to June 1, 1994, were matched to 466 controls. Overall, rapid acetylators were not at increased risk of breast cancer compared with slow acetylators (multivariate OR ‫؍‬ 1.1, 95% CI 0.8-1.5), and there were no associations between meat intake or cooking method of meat and breast cancer risk. Rapid acetylators with the highest red meat intake (one or more servings per day) were not at increased risk of breast cancer compared with slow acetylators with the lowest red meat intake (OR ‫؍‬ 1.1, 95% CI 0.7-1.8). Frequent intake of charred meat among rapid acetylators (one or more times per week) was not associated with increased risk (OR ‫؍‬ 1.2, 95% CI 0.6-2.3) compared with slow acetylators who ate charred meat less than once per month. We observed no significant associations for rapid acetylators who frequently consumed beef, pork or lamb cooked with high-temperature cooking methods, such as barbecuing (OR ‫؍‬ 0.9, 95% CI 0.4-1.9) or roasting (OR ‫؍‬ 0.9, 95% CI 0.5-1.6). Our data suggest that HAs may not be a major cause of breast cancer, although we cannot exclude misclassification of HA intake as the reason for the lack of association. We observed no evidence of differential susceptibility to these exposures by NAT2 genotype. Int. J. Cancer 80:13-17, 1999. Wiley-Liss, Inc.Heterocyclic amines (HAs), such as 1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo [4,5-b]pyridine (PhiP) and 2-amino-3,8-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (MeIQx), are produced by the high-temperature cooking of animal protein (Sugimura, 1986) and are found in meats and fish cooked at typical household cooking temperatures (Layton et al., 1995). HAs are metabolically activated through N-oxidation by cytochrome P-4501A2 and further O-acetylated by the Nacetyltransferase (NAT) enzymes (Minchin et al., 1992). NAT activity is determined primarily by polymorphisms in the NAT2 and NAT1 genes (Bell et al., 1995). Slow NAT2 acetylators carry 2 germ-line copies of any of several mutant NAT2 alleles; between 50% and 60% of Caucasian populations are slow NAT2 acetylators (Bell et al., 1993).There are numerous data to suggest that HAs are mutagenic (Snyderwine, 1994). Animal studies have shown that HAs are capable of inducing tumors in rodents at multiple histologically distinct sites in both sexes and in different species. Dose-dependent tumor formation, particularly in colon and mammary tumors, has been consistently demonstrated in rats and mice administered HAs (Snyderwine, 1994). HAs transfer an arylamin...

Purpose There is a growing consensus in education that schools can and should attend to students’ social-emotional development. Emerging research and popular texts indicate that students’ mindsets, beliefs, dispositions, emotions and behaviors can advance outcomes, such as college readiness, career success, mental health and relationships. Despite this growing awareness, many districts and schools are still struggling to implement strategies that develop students’ social-emotional skills. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by examining the social-emotional learning (SEL) practices in ten middle schools with strong student-reported data on SEL outcomes, particularly for African American and Latinx students. Design/methodology/approach Case study methods, including interviews, observations and document analysis, were employed. Findings The authors identify six categories of common SEL practices: strategies that promote positive school climate and relationships, supporting positive behavior, use of elective courses and extracurricular activities, SEL-specific classroom practices and curricula, personnel strategies and measurement and data use. Absence of a common definition of SEL and lack of alignment among SEL practices were two challenges cited by respondents. Originality/value This is the first study to analyze SEL practices in outlier schools, with a focus on successful practices with schools that have a majority of African American and/or Latinx students.