In multilingual sub-Saharan African countries, many children attend school and learn to read in a language that they do not speak at home. This mismatch between home and school language may contribute to poor learning outcomes, including low literacy rates. Bilingual education that includes a local language of instruction has become more prevalent in an effort to improve primary school children's learning. Indeed, high-quality bilingual programs are associated with favorable language, literacy, and learning outcomes (Berens et al., 2013;Bühmann & Trudell, 2007;Takam & Fassé, 2020). Yet, little is known about how home and school language environments support skilled reading in multilingual communities with low literacy rates. In this study, we assessed primary school children's (N = 830) French and local language (Abidji, Attié, Baoulé, Bété) phonological awareness, vocabulary, and oral language comprehension skills and French reading skills. Further, we explored differences in quality between monolingual French and bilingual local language-French schools that may contribute to differences in children's language and literacy performance. We found that bilingual local language-French homes were associated with better language outcomes than local language-only homes, reflecting advantages associated with early bilingual exposure. On the other hand, monolingual French schools were associated with better language and literacy outcomes than bilingual local language-French schools. We found that monolingual French schools were of higher quality than bilingual schools, likely contributing to the discrepancies in language and literacy results. Our results emphasize the importance of monitoring program quality to allow children to reap the benefits associated with bilingual education. Educational Impact and Implications StatementThe present study suggests that bilingual home environments (French-Ivorian language) are advantageous for children's spoken Ivorian language skills and for their French literacy skills. However, children from monolingual French schools had better spoken language and literacy skills overall than children from bilingual schools. Monolingual schools had access to better resources and greater support, indicating that high quality education is important for children's literacy outcomes.

The recent reports of atypical femoral fracture (AFF) and its possible association with prolonged bisphosphonate (BP) use highlighted the importance of a thorough understanding of mechanical modifications in bone due to bisphosphonate treatment. The reduced compositional heterogeneity is one of the modifications in bone due to extensive suppression of bone turnover. Although experimental evaluations suggested that compositional changes lead to a reduction in the heterogeneity of elastic properties, there is limited information on the extent of influence of reduced heterogeneity on fracture resistance of cortical bone. As a result, the goal of the current study is to evaluate the influence of varying the number of unique elastic and fracture properties for osteons, interstitial bone, and cement lines on fracture resistance across seven different human cortical bone specimens using finite element modeling. Fracture resistance of seven human cortical bone samples under homogeneous and three different heterogeneous material levels was evaluated using a compact tension test setup. The simulation results predicted that the crack volume was the highest for the models with homogeneous material properties. Increasing heterogeneity resulted in a lower amount of crack volume indicating an increase in fracture resistance of cortical bone. This reduction was observed up to a certain level of heterogeneity after which further beneficial effects of heterogeneity diminished suggesting a possible optimum level of heterogeneity for the bone tissue. The homogeneous models demonstrated limited areas of damage with extensive crack formation. On the other hand, the heterogeneity in the material properties led to increased damage volume and a more variable distribution of damage compared to the homogeneous models. This resulted in uncracked regions which tended to have less damage accumulation preventing extensive crack propagation. The results also showed that the percent osteonal area was inversely correlated with crack volume and more evenly distributed osteons led to a lower amount of crack growth for all levels of material heterogeneity. In summary, this study developed a new computational modeling approach that directly evaluated the influence of heterogeneity in elastic and fracture material properties on fracture resistance of cortical bone. The results established new information that showed the adverse effects of reduced heterogeneity on fracture resistance in cortical bone and demonstrated the nonlinear relationship between heterogeneity and fracture resistance. This new computational modeling approach provides a tool that can be used to improve the understanding of the effects of material level changes due to prolonged BP use on the overall bone fracture behavior. It may also bring additional insight into the causes of unusual fractures, such as AFF and their possible association with long term BP use.

The value of collaboration between parents and educators is well-recognized. However, many preservice educators feel they lack the skills and confidence needed to establish and maintain effective partnerships with parents. This qualitative study was designed to explore one approach to improving teacher preparation with respect to parent/professional partnerships. An undergraduate course for preservice special educators was modified to provide students with multiple opportunities for meaningful interaction with parents of children with disabilities. One parent served as co-instructor of the course while six additional parents were embedded in the course for the entire semester. Pre-and postintervention focus groups were conducted to describe the impact of this course innovation on the preservice students' dispositions and competencies regarding parent/professional partnerships. Results suggest that student dispositions changed from viewing parents as uncaring, uninvolved, and unknowledgeable to valuing them as experts on the child and partners in the decision-making process.

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Few standardized language assessments are adapted to different cultural and linguistic contexts to assess children’s first language (L1) abilities. We introduce the Ivorian Children’s Language Assessment Toolkit for measuring phonological awareness, vocabulary, oral comprehension, and tone awareness in the Abidji, Attié, and Baoulé languages of Côte d’Ivoire. Six hundred and three primary-school children (age 4–14) completed language assessments in their L1 and French. The toolkit provided a reliable and comprehensive assessment of children’s language abilities. We observed age- and grade-related increases in all subtest scores. Still, children scored higher in their L1 compared to French, highlighting the need for language assessments in a bilingual’s two languages to achieve an accurate measure of children’s language abilities. The ability to benchmark children’s scores relative to age- and grade-norms are discussed in the context of language of instruction education policies as well as the potential use of age- and grade-norms in identifying children with language impairment and/or children who are at risk for reading difficulties due to poor language skills.