Co-teaching: Perceptions of Urban, Secondary Co-Teachers

Co-teaching has been used to address access and accountability mandates for students with disabilities. Despite research regarding elements needed for co-teaching success, research shows mixed results regarding co-teaching effectiveness as it relates to student achievement. Given that teachers are the most influential school-related factor vis-a-vis student achievement, this quantitative study, utilizing a cross-sectional survey design, was employed to gain additional information regarding urban, secondary co-teacher perceptions of co-teaching. to that end the Co-teacher Perceptions Survey was administered to 95 middle and high school co-teachers in an urban school district situated in eastern Virginia. Results of this study indicate that successful co-teachers have higher perceptions of co-teaching, co-teacher philosophy and co-planning than unsuccessful co-teachers. Successful co-teachers also have different perceived use of co-teaching models than unsuccessful co-teachers as they use station and alternative teaching more often than their unsuccessful counterparts. However, no differences were noted in co-teacher perceptions for the following subgroups: general and special education co-teachers, middle and high school co-teachers, novice and veteran co-teachers, and voluntary and non-voluntary co-teachers. Implications for practice include ensuring both co-teachers are held equally responsible for student performance in co-taught classes and incorporating co-planning time in the master schedule with high expectations for deliverables from the co-planning process

Grow Your Own: Educating Social Workers in Rural and Frontier Areas to Address the Behavioral Health Workforce Crisis

Workforce shortages in behavioral health are a longstanding reality in most rural areas. Given the increasing impact of mental health and substance abuse in rural communities, it is critical to seek solutions to address the inadequate number of behavioral health professions in these areas. This paper focuses on a university’s efforts to prepare and support master’s level social workers for practice in their rural and frontier communities to address behavioral health workforce shortages

Work Arrangements in New Zealand: First Results from the Survey of Working Life

Work arrangements in New Zealand have changed substantially in the last 30 years, leading to increased diversity in contracting arrangements, hours and times worked, and terms and conditions of employment. This paper describes the current work arrangements, employment conditions and job satisfaction levels of employed people in New Zealander from data collected in the Survey of Working Life. The survey was run as a supplement to the Household Labour Force Survey in the March 2008 quarter, to answer questions such as: 'How prevalent is casual work in New Zealand?', 'How many employed people work non-standard hours?’ and 'Who is most likely to experience stress or discrimination at work?’ The focus o f the data analysis is to identify workers with different types of employment relationships (for example, temporary versus permanent employees), and describe the demographic and job characteristics associated with these different employment relationships. Working-time patterns and conditions of employment are the other key topics examined in this paper. It is intended that this supplement be repeated every three years to monitor changes in employment conditions, work arrangements and job quality in New Zealand

Assessing cost-effectiveness in obesity : active transport program for primary school children— TravelSMART schools curriculum program

Background: To assess from a societal perspective the cost-effectiveness of a school program to increase active transport in 10- to 11-year-old Australian children as an obesity prevention measure. Methods: The TravelSMART Schools Curriculum program was modeled nationally for 2001 in terms of its impact on Body Mass Index (BMI) and Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) measured against current practice. Cost offsets and DALY benefits were modeled until the eligible cohort reached age 100 or died. The intervention was qualitatively assessed against second stage filter criteria (&lsquo;equity,&rsquo; &lsquo;strength of evidence,&rsquo; &lsquo;acceptability to stakeholders,&rsquo; &lsquo;feasibility of implementation,&rsquo; &lsquo;sustainability,&rsquo; and &lsquo;side-effects&rsquo;) given their potential impact on funding decisions. Results: The modeled intervention reached 267,700 children and cost $AUD13.3M (95$6.9M; $22.8M) per year. It resulted in an incremental saving of 890 (95$AUD117,000 (95% UI dominated; $1.06M). Conclusions: The intervention was not cost-effective as an obesity prevention measure under base-run modeling assumptions. The attribution of some costs to nonobesity objectives would be justified given the program&rsquo;s multiple benefits. Cost-effectiveness would be further improved by considering the wider school community impacts.<br /

What Ambitious Donors Can Learn From The Atlantic Philanthropies' Experience Making Big Bets

By the time The Atlantic Philanthropies closes its doors in 2020, it will have distributed more than $8 billion—its entire endowment—to advance opportunity and lasting change for disadvantaged and vulnerable people worldwide. Founded in 1982, it was Founder Chuck Feeney's intention to champion "giving while living" and when the foundation closes, Atlantic will make history by becoming the largest foundation to complete its giving in the donor's lifetime.In its grant making, over 60 percent of Atlantic's overall giving ranks as big bets, investments of$10 million or more. Thirty percent of those bets went to social change causes, including gifts to human services, the environment, and international development. Such big bets have the potential to have big impacts on advancing social change goals. Yet as Bridgespan reported in the December 2015 Stanford Social Innovation Review article, "Making Big Bets for Social Change," investments of this size for social change are rare. Just 20 percent of philanthropic big bets went to social change causes between 2000 and 2012.Why? A number of barriers exist: it's hard to find and structure big bets, "shovel-ready" opportunities are few and far between, personal relationships between donors and nonprofit leaders can take years to nurture, and the long time horizons required for change and often-murky results make it difficult to measure success. In short, big bets on social change can feel risky.The story of Atlantic, however, illustrates what can happen when donors take that risk. This report, What Ambitious Donors Can Learn From The Atlantic Philanthropies' Experience Making Big Bets, looks at a number of big bets Atlantic made and how those achieved significant results. It identified four themes that ran through Atlantic's work and that were particularly evident in its most influential big bets:Pick distinctive investment spots and funding gaps in the landscape.Support organizations and strong leaders, often with unrestricted or capacity-building funding.Pursue advocacy in a complex social, policy and legal environment, and use both traditional grant funding and 501(c)(4) funding as tools.Give with the foundation's end in sight and sustainability in mind.The report also highlights the challenges and failures Atlantic faced along the way. Despite the inherent risk in big bets, Atlantic held the belief that a big bets strategy would be the best way to achieve lasting impact. It is a promising path that is yielding strong results, and Atlantic's experience offers potential strategies for other donors seeking similar goals

Cost-effectiveness of active transport for primary school children - Walking School Bus program

Background : To assess from a societal perspective the incremental cost-effectiveness of the Walking School Bus (WSB) program for Australian primary school children as an obesity prevention measure. The intervention was modelled as part of the ACE-Obesity study, which evaluated, using consistent methods, thirteen interventions targeting unhealthy weight gain in Australian children and adolescents. Methods : A logic pathway was used to model the effects on body mass index [BMI] and disability-adjusted life years [DALYs] of the Victorian WSB program if applied throughout Australia. Cost offsets and DALY benefits were modelled until the eligible cohort reached 100 years of age or death. The reference year was 2001. Second stage filter criteria (\u27equity\u27, \u27strength of evidence\u27, \u27acceptability\u27, feasibility\u27, sustainability\u27 and \u27side-effects\u27) were assessed to incorporate additional factors that impact on resource allocation decisions. Results : The modelled intervention reached 7,840 children aged 5 to 7 years and cost $AUD22.8M ($16.6M;$30.9M). This resulted in an incremental saving of 30 DALYs (7:104) and a net cost per DALY saved of$AUD0.76M ($0.23M;$3.32M). The evidence base was judged as \u27weak\u27 as there are no data available documenting the increase in the number of children walking due to the intervention. The high costs of the current approach may limit sustainability.Conclusions : Under current modelling assumptions, the WSB program is not an effective or cost-effective measure to reduce childhood obesity. The attribution of some costs to non-obesity objectives (reduced traffic congestion and air pollution etc.) is justified to emphasise the other possible benefits. The program\u27s cost-effectiveness would be improved by more comprehensive implementation within current infrastructure arrangements. The importance of active transport to school suggests that improvements in WSB or its variants need to be developed and fully evaluated.<br /

Analysis Algorithm for Sky Type and Ice Halo Recognition in All-Sky Images

Halo displays, in particular the 22∘ halo, have been captured in long time series of images obtained from total sky imagers (TSIs) at various Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) sites. Halo displays form if smooth-faced hexagonal ice crystals are present in the optical path. We describe an image analysis algorithm for long time series of TSI images which scores images with respect to the presence of 22∘ halos. Each image is assigned an ice halo score (IHS) for 22∘ halos, as well as a photographic sky type (PST), which differentiates cirrostratus (PST-CS), partially cloudy (PST-PCL), cloudy (PST-CLD), or clear (PST-CLR) within a near-solar image analysis area. The color-resolved radial brightness behavior of the near-solar region is used to define the discriminant properties used to classify photographic sky type and assign an ice halo score. The scoring is based on the tools of multivariate Gaussian analysis applied to a standardized sun-centered image produced from the raw TSI image, following a series of calibrations, rotation, and coordinate transformation. The algorithm is trained based on a training set for each class of images. We present test results on halo observations and photographic sky type for the first 4 months of the year 2018, for TSI images obtained at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) ARM site. A detailed comparison of visual and algorithm scores for the month of March 2018 shows that the algorithm is about 90 % reliable in discriminating the four photographic sky types and identifies 86 % of all visual halos correctly. Numerous instances of halo appearances were identified for the period January through April 2018, with persistence times between 5 and 220 min. Varying by month, we found that between 9 % and 22 % of cirrostratus skies exhibited a full or partial 22∘ halo

Beckton Sustainable Living Initiative, Working Paper 4.

This working paper reflects the authors’ involvement with a civic engagement project funded by the University of East London’s (UEL) Institute for Civic Engagement. It was a collaborative initiative between the Centre for Social Justice and Change, School of Social Sciences, and UEL’s Sustainability Research Institute. The initiative commenced in November 2015 and was completed in July 2016. The civic engagement project is part of an ongoing sustainable living project in Beckton. Situated in the hinterland of UEL’s Docklands campus in the London Borough of Newham this initiative provided an opportunity to work with communities local to UEL. Our involvement in a civic engagement initiative raised issues about what our role as students representing a University might involve, how we may contribute rather than replicate or duplicate ongoing local activities, and what additional skills we could bring to make a positive contribution. Our project was about taking practical actions; by completing a communal garden in a local park and distributing water-saving devices to enable households to reduce their expenditure and contribute towards sustainable living. Research findings informed these practical actions and we were able to use our knowledge concerning environmental sustainability and research in discussions with residents and local agencies. Our experience also raised issues about how best to do research that can be used to inform and facilitate social action. This is particularly challenging in local communities which are ethnically diverse and culturally fragmented. This working paper describes our experiences and reflections