Outside Evaluation of Conecticut\u27s Family Resource Centers : Final report

In 193, the Connecticut State Department of Education received federal support for the activities of nine existing Family Resource Centers (FRC) and for funding new FRCs. The FRCs were based on the premise that many childhood and adolescent problems can be prevented by strengthening effective family management practices and establishing a continuum of child care and support services linked to public schools or located in public school buildings. This report details the evaluation of the 18 school-based/linked FRCs, describing their structure and contexts, examining evidence of service use, and presenting information on the effects of the FRCs on families and schools. Chapter 1 presents the service delivery model, describes the core services, and describes the evaluation plan. Chapters 2 through 5 summarize findings related to the following areas: (1) structure of core services, service delivery, financial supports, and staffing characteristics; (2) processes used to deliver services in a school-based/linked setting, including collaborative arrangements; (3) use of FRC services; (4) impacts of FRCs on families and children; and (5) impact of FRCs on schools. Chapter 6 discuses the patterns observed that reflect the implementation of the FRC service delivery model and implications for delivering comprehensive integrated services to families. This chapter also presents recommendations for sustaining the school-based/linked delivery model of the FRCs at meaningful levels. Chapter 7 presents profiles of the 18 FRCs, including their setting, service delivery arrangements, primary collaborative arrangements, and the school relationship. Nine appendices include a description of the Evaluation Support System and data collection instruments. (KB

Spin polarization and the Einstein--Podolsky--Rosen paradox in the Monte Carlo event records

In the future high energy physics experiments, the question of properly matching the phenomenological programs that describe different parts of the physics processes (such as hard scattering, hadronization, decay of resonances, detector response, etc.) is very important. In the past, FORTAN common blocks filled with lists of objects (particles, strings, clusters, etc.) of defined properties, origins and descendants were in use. Similar structures are now envisaged, for future programs, to be written in languages such as C++ or Java. From the physics point of view such an approach is not correct, since this kind of data structures impose certain approximations on the physics content. In the present paper, we will explore their limits, using examples from the physics of W's, tau's and the Higgs boson, still to be discovered.Comment: latex 10 pages, including 10 attachments in postscript forma

Misunderstanding Models in Environmental and Public Health Regulation

Computational models are fundamental to environmental regulation, yet their capabilities tend to be misunderstood by policymakers. Rather than rely on models to illuminate dynamic and uncertain relationships in natural settings, policymakers too often use models as “answer machines.” This fundamental misperception that models can generate decisive facts leads to a perverse negative feedback loop that begins with policymaking itself and radiates into the science of modeling and into regulatory deliberations where participants can exploit the misunderstanding in strategic ways. This paper documents the pervasive misperception of models as truth machines in U.S. regulation and the multi-layered problems that result from this misunderstanding. The paper concludes with a series of proposals for making better use of models in environmental policy analysis.The Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Busines