Dr. Bruce Bracken, Ph.D., ABAP
As a Fellow in the Divisions of School Psychology and
Clinical Child Psychology of the American Psychological Association, Dr.
Bruce Bracken was invited to
edit a book for the Association on psychological assessment. Editing
one of five volumes in a series (i.e., psychological assessment in
counseling, clinical, educational, industrial/organizational, and
school psychology), Dr. Bracken is responsible for the school
psychology edition and has written a chapter on preschool assessment
for the volume as well. This book is in press and will be published in
late 2011. Dr. Bracken also recently contributed a chapter on the
relevance of intellectual assessment in gifted identification for Tracy
and Jennifer Cross’s edited Handbook for Counselors Serving Students with Gifts and Talents.
In addition to his ongoing work on psychological test development or revision, Dr. Bracken published a large scale study that investigated the normalcy of depressive symptoms among a nationally representative sample of 1,900 children, adolescents, and adults (950 males and 950 females) divided across four age-levels. The intent of the investigation was to map the developmental progression of depressive symptoms within the general population by age (i.e., 8 to 79 years), race/ethnicity, and gender. The Clinical Assessment of Depression (CAD; Bracken & Howell, 2004) was used in this study. Contrary to the findings of some small, regionally specific, and age-restricted previous studies, this investigation revealed that depressive symptoms are experienced at fairly uniform levels within the general population across the age-span, by both genders, and among Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics; that is, depression appears to be a nondiscriminatory disorder that affects people of all walks of life in a similar manner and to a comparable degree.
Dr. Carol Tieso & Dr. Jeremy Stoddard
Project Civis, Co-principal Investigators
Currently in the second year of implementation, Project Civis is a middle school social studies research demonstration project for underachieving promising learners. The curriculum team has developed four units of study that are being implemented in over fifty experimental classrooms in multiple states. We hope to demonstrate how the implementation of advanced, research-based curriculum in social studies, combined with the major components of enrichment and talent development, can raise achievement and motivation levels, improve creative and critical thinking skills, and enhance civic awareness and involvement, for underachieving, yet promising learners in diverse settings. In addition, we expect that all learners will benefit from immersion in skills and content aligned with democratic education and the methodologies, tools, and dispositions of practicing historians and social scientists.
