How Christianity is Experienced on a College Campus

This is a qualitative study of the experiences of traditional college students who choose to attend a Christian organization on the University of New Hampshire campus. Information was gathered through both ethnographic research and two indepth interviews. The results of this study showed that college had a significant impact on how religion was experienced, whether it increased religious inclinations or decreased them. The social expectations of the Christian organization represented a specific way of life, with specific rules to follow. Most students expressed dedication to these rules and adopted them into their own life. A few members chose to only include some aspects of the religion, and the group, into their lives. Results show that involvement in this organization and religion had affect on daily life. The larger implications of this research show the importance of the unique experience being Christian in a college setting

Scaling-up Early Learning in Ethiopia: Exploring the Potential of O-Class

SDG Target 4.2 identifies ‘pre-primary education’ as a strategy to strengthen school readiness and contribute to the quality and outcomes of education, which is supported by the powerful evidence from evaluation research. The challenge faced by many countries is to deliver the proven potential of well-planned, quality programmes to scale. This working paper summarises Ethiopia’s growing commitment to pre-primary education and reports recent Young Lives engagement with the Ministry of Education in Ethiopia and other partners to support scale-up. Ethiopia’s most recent ambitious targets for early learning have been set out in the Fifth Education Sector Development Programme (ESDP V 2015), with pre-primary classes (known as O-Class) within primary schools being seen as the most rapid route to scale-up. The paper reports on the progress and the challenges in delivering ambitious targets. We report key findings from exploratory fieldwork on two key themes, namely the response of Regional Education Bureaus in planning, financing, management and ensuring human capacity for scale-up; and the potential of Ethiopia’s Colleges of Teacher Education to supply sufficient trained teachers to work with young children, especially in the rapidly expanding O- Classes. The final section draws on parallel experiences of other countries, notably Grade R in South Africa, and reports on six key challenges for scale-up; equity; age-appropriateness; cross- sectoral coordination; capacity building; and research and evidence. Other key challenges go beyond the scope of this working paper, notably the models for governance and financing that can deliver quality early education for all. While Ethiopia’s initiative to scale-up O-Class is a welcome indicator of policy commitment to SDG Target 4.2, we conclude that there is a risk that low quality pre-primary programmes will not deliver on the potential of early childhood education and that children (especially poor children) will be the losers

External pressures on teaching: three years on

n August 2001, I wrote an information article called ‘External Pressures on Teaching’, which was published in the then PRSLTSN Journal, 1.2, Winter 2002, pp. 98–129. It is now time to update that article, and to add a number of subsequent developments. However, the original article, which explains the logic of the various QAA initiatives, is still valid apart from some points of detail that I shall highlight here. It is available on our website at: http://prs.heacademy.ac.uk/publications/discourse/winter2002.pd

Measuring educational efficiency at student level with parametric stochastic distance functions: An application to Spanish PISA results

This study explicitly considers that education is a multi-input multi-output production process subject to inefficient behaviors that can be identified at student level. Therefore a distance function allows us to calculate different aspects of educational technology. The paper presents an empirical application of this model using Spanish data from the Programme for International Student Assessment implemented by the OECD. The results provide insights into how student background, peer-group and school characteristics interact with educational outputs. Findings also suggest that, once educational inputs are taken into account; there is no statistically significant difference in efficiency levels across schools regarding public-private ownership.Secondary schools, technical efficiency, stochastic frontier, distance function.

Staying On Track: Testing Higher Achievement's Long-Term Impact on Academic Outcomes and High School Choice

Higher Achievement is an intensive summer and after-school program that began in its current form in 1999 in Washington, DC. Today there are Higher Achievement programs in Washington, DC/Alexandria, VA; Richmond, VA; Pittsburgh, PA; and Baltimore, MD. The study includes the five Higher Education Achievement Centers that were operating in DC and Alexandria when the study began. Each center serves about 85 students, or "scholars", recruited mainly through school referral. Starting the summer before youth enter fifth or sixth grade and extending through eighth grade. Higher Achievement provides scholars with up to 650 hours of academic instructio0n per year, as well as enrichment activities and targeted, academic mentoring

Exploring Patient Satisfaction among Transgender and Non-Binary Identified Healthcare Users: The Role of Microaggressions and Inclusive Healthcare Settings

Patient satisfaction is an important indicator of quality of healthcare delivery. Transgender and non-binary (TGNB) people regularly report experiencing discrimination when in healthcare settings and few TGNB-inclusive services are available. Researchers have not examined how discrimination and access to TGNB-inclusive services are associated with patient satisfaction among TGNB healthcare users. Among a convenience sample of TGNB people (n = 146) from Canada and the United States, I examined the relationship between patient satisfaction, experiencing microaggressions from primary healthcare providers, and receiving care in a TGNB-inclusive healthcare setting. The results from a multivariable linear regression suggest that experiencing microaggressions is negatively associated with patient satisfaction while obtaining services from an inclusive healthcare setting is positively associated with satisfaction. These findings emphasize the importance of preparing healthcare providers to engage in inclusive practice with TGNB healthcare users, especially in terms of avoiding microaggressions. They also highlight the importance of creating TGNB-inclusive healthcare settings in fostering patient satisfaction. Researchers, medical professionals, and others working towards health equity, should consider the implications of these findings when developing solutions to improve healthcare access and patient satisfaction

Summer Snapshot: Exploring the Impact of Higher Achievement's Year-Round Out-of-School-Time Program on Summer Learning

Assesses the impact of a multiyear, intensive, academically focused OST program for motivated but underserved middle school students on test scores, summer program participation, and summer learning loss. Examines contributing factors and implications

The Diversity Distraction: A Critical Comparative Analysis of Discourse in Higher Education Scholarship

This critical literature review investigates how diversity and equity are employed in top-cited higher education scholarship published between 2000 and 2015. No analysis to date has offered such a comparative exploration relative to well-recognized racial disparities in higher education. Findings reveal a divergence with diversity largely attending to affirmative action concerns and equity to analyses of the pursuit of equity in higher education. The article concludes with advocacy for the equity frame because of its presumption of a normative justice-oriented standard and embedded orientation toward inquiry and action, both of which offer greater promise for policy, practice, and research that aim to enhance racial justice in higher education