When the Learning Disabled Go to College

Abstract

During the last decade, federal laws have provided for remedial education in elementary and secondary schools for students with learning disabilities, preparing large numbers of them for college. Federal law also mandates helping learning-disabled students with their needs once they matriculate. Declining numbers of high school graduates in the aftermath of the baby boom have made more colleges open their doors to these students. The disabilities, and the accommodations they require, arrive in college with the rest of a student's baggage, demanding attention. Colleges and universities have chosen a variety of approaches, from specific remedial programs and individual accomodations according to need to more general programs. Some colleges pretend these disabilities do not exist and seem oblivious to their presence on campus. Learning disabilities can have an impact in every class and lecture hall and can contribute to unhappiness and the college's attrition rate. On the other hand, responsive and responsible programs provide students with the resources for the same education, honors, and opportunities as their nondisabled peers.     

Inference in Targeted Group‐Sequential Covariate‐Adjusted Randomized Clinical Trials

This article is devoted to the construction and asymptotic study of adaptive, group‐sequential, covariate‐adjusted randomized clinical trials analysed through the prism of the semiparametric methodology of targeted maximum likelihood estimation. We show how to build, as the data accrue group‐sequentially, a sampling design that targets a user‐supplied optimal covariate‐adjusted design. We also show how to carry out sound statistical inference based on such an adaptive sampling scheme (therefore extending some results known in the independent and identically distributed setting only so far), and how group‐sequential testing applies on top of it. The procedure is robust (i.e. consistent even if the working model is mis‐specified). A simulation study confirms the theoretical results and validates the conjecture that the procedure may also be efficient.     

Response to Amundson,Lux and Hindmarch: Critique of Investigative Practices Article

ABSTRACT

This article responds to a commentary by Amundson, Lux and Hindmarch (2005), in which they offer a pejorative criticism about our article (Austin & Kirkpatrick, 2004) in which we described the investigative component within comprehensive child custody evaluations–something they label as “maximalist” evaluations and contrast with a model they prefer called the “minimalist” approach. We believe our approach to custody evaluations is in keeping with the current standard of practice and professional guidelines.     

Search for Unity: Will the Real Practicing Sociologist Please Stand Up?

In this presidential address given at the Unity 2000 Meeting held in Bethesda, Maryland, I briefly identify and define various types of applied side sociologists. My objective was twofold. First, I wanted to express my appreciation for the necessity of organizational cooperation. Second, I wanted to demonstrate that diversity among practitioners and by association representative organizations is a strength not a weakness. I conclude by identifying six collaborative paths these representative organizations could take to promote unity.     

骨科教学改革的对策与思考

以骨科教学为例,分析了当前教学中的困惑和思考①落后的教材与日益更新的诊疗技术;②应试教育的现实与素质教育的理想;③传统教学手段的根深蒂固与先进教学方法的大胆尝试;④"灌输式”教学的质疑与"创新性”教学的期盼.作者提出了对策.     

改进临床教学 培养创新型医学人才

结合医学本身的学科特点，联系实际，从教育理念的更新、学生创新素质的培养、创新型教师队伍的构建及创新环境的营造四个方面提出关于临床教学中如何培养创新型医学人才的一些建议。     

2006年11月份全国主要冶金产品产量统计

介绍了我校动物医学专业兽医临床实验课程改革的基本指导思想,分析了在实践教学中存在的主要问题和成因,对临床课程实践教学进行了改革与探索。改革结果表明;完善了实践教学方案,建立了新型的实践教学考评体系,使学生的动手能力、创新能力均得以提高。     

Physician duties in the conduct of human subject research

In this article, I examine a skeptical argument against the possibility of ethically justifying risky human subject research (rHSR). That argument asserts that such research is unethical because it holds the possibility of wronging subjects who are harmed and whose consent to participate was less than fully voluntary. I conclude that the skeptical argument is not in the end sufficient to undermine the ethical foundation of rHSR because it fails to take account of the special positive duty researchers owe their clients and future patients. Although the skeptical argument is defeated, it exacts certain novel concessions from the pro‐research position. Of particular importance are the admissions (a) that researchers presumptively owe a fiduciary duty to research subjects, (b) that because the most important risks of rHSR are unknown and unquantifiable that duty must be explicitly waived by all subjects before they participate in any protocol, and (c) that such waivers must be made by individuals who satisfy objective criteria of competence for giving fully voluntary consent. The implementation of procedures responsive to these concerns might have a dampening effect on the conduct of research. However, the article concludes with a consideration of the likely benefits to researchers and society of a more cautious ethical regime.     

Ethics of research design

Discussions of ethical issues in research involving human subjects most usually provoke concerns about valid informed consent procedures. However, considering the recognized limitations of informed consent, arguably the way a study is designed is a more consequential concern for subject well‐being. This paper summarizes ethical issues in the design of clinical research, with reference to historic and current guidelines. Special attention is given to randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and psychiatric research.     

The Devil is in the Detail: Clinicians,Academics and Researchers Resolving the Problems of Clinical Research

The difficulties associated with conducting valid family therapy research within a clinical practice discourage many potential researchers. This article will describe collaboration between a group of academics, researchers and clinicians who decided to explore the process and efficacy of systemic family therapy conducted within a working private practice. The specific questions we are addressing are, whether the requests clients bring to their first session of therapy can be reliably classified by practitioners, whether these requests change over time, and whether the nature of the request is associated with therapist and client ratings of therapeutic outcome. Additional questions about the form and nature of the therapeutic alliance as experienced by both client and practitioner are also being explored. This paper will map the passage of the work from inception to its current state where over 140 clients are active participants. In doing so attention will be paid to the obstacles encountered: practical, financial and ethical, and the solutions devised to address these.