Pregnant women with the highest levels of alcohol use reduced their drinking most after a brief intervention that included their partners. Recommendations include consistent screening for prenatal alcohol use followed by diagnostic assessment when indicated, and if confirmed by other studies, a patient-partner brief intervention for the heaviest drinkers.

Taking as its'central theme the need for teachers to become more. aware of their classroom behavior, this book surveys recent advances in educational research and gives detailed advice about effective teaching. 397 pp.

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The aim of the current study is to assess school leaders' perceptions and practices in the context of a new policy that emphasizes teacher evaluation. The study draws from survey data of 606 K-12 school leaders in the USA in a state implementing a new teacher evaluation model under Race to the Top. Findings illustrate that school leaders spent significant time on teacher evaluation. Some felt this was a good investment of time (e.g., rich conversations with teachers), increasing the ability for evaluations to improve instruction. Most, however, perceived the time demands as a cost (e.g., spending longer hours on the job, delegating more tasks to others). School leaders felt very confident in their ability to conduct observations and provide feedback to teachers. The opposite was found for student achievement data. Administrators' reported preparedness, confidence, and beliefs suggest that barriers exist to using student achievement data to evaluate teachers. Findings suggest that school leaders need resources to build capacity, particularly in accommodating the new time demands of teacher evaluation. Administrators could benefit from professional development that addresses the use and value of student achievement if this measure continues to be a substantial component in teacher evaluation models.

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As an intermediary between U.S. state and federal policy and the school, the school district, many scholars maintain, remains a key player in meeting the needs of school-level leadership. Moreover, the job of the principal is difficult and has become increasingly complex as a result of increased pressure, accountability, and oversight under the No Child Left Behind Act (now the Every Student Succeeds Act) in the United States. These two propositions raise important questions about what we know (and do not yet know) about how to support school leaders’ learning and development in their quest to effectively lead a school. In this review, we use extant social-cognitive theories of motivation to organize the research on district effectiveness in pursuit of the following question: How does the district as a key player in school/instructional improvement facilitate conditions under which school principals’ learning, development, and success are enhanced? In pursuing this question, we hoped to strengthen two particular weaknesses in this strand of scholarship: (1) the concern that research in this particular area is relatively atheoretical and (2) concerns about the applicability of this research to practice.

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