Getting In On the Act: How Arts Groups are Creating Opportunities for Active Participation

Arts participation is being redefined as people increasingly choose to engage with art in new, more active and expressive ways. This movement carries profound implications, and fresh opportunities, for the nonprofit arts sector.We are in the midst of a seismic shift in cultural production, moving from a "sit-back-and-be-told culture" to a "making-and-doing-culture." Active or participatory arts practices are emerging from the fringes of the Western cultural tradition to capture the collective imagination. Many forces have conspired to lead us to this point. The sustained economic downturn that began in 2008, rising ticket prices, the pervasiveness of social media, the roliferation of digital content and rising expectations for self-guided, on-demand, customized experiences have all contributed to a cultural environment primed for active arts practice. This shift calls for a new equilibrium in the arts ecology and a new generation of arts leaders ready to accept, integrate and celebrate all forms of cultural practice. This is, perhaps, the defining challenge of our time for artists, arts organizations and their supporters -- to embrace a more holistic view of the cultural ecology and identify new possibilities for Americans to engage with the arts.How can arts institutions adapt to this new environment?Is participatory practice contradictory to, or complementary to, a business model that relies on professional production and consumption?How can arts organizations enter this new territory without compromising their values r artistic ideals?This report aims to illuminate a growing body of practice around participatory engagement (with various illustrative case studies profiled at the end) and dispel some of the anxiety surrounding this sphere of activity

Changing the Tide: An Internet/Video Exercise and Low Fat Diet Intervention with Middle School Students

The rising tide of obesity erodes the health of youths and many times results in adult obesity. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effectiveness of an eight-session health promotion/transtheoretical model Internet/video-delivered intervention to increase physical activity and reduce dietary fat among low-income, culturally diverse, seventh-grade students. Those who completed more than half the sessions increased exercise, t(103) = −1.99, p = .05, and decreased the percentage of dietary fat, t(87) = 2.73, p = .008. Responses to the intervention by stage of change, race, and income are examined

Homology and Derived Series of Groups II: Dwyer's Theorem

We give new information about the relationship between the low-dimensional homology of a group and its derived series. This yields information about how the low-dimensional homology of a topological space constrains its fundamental group. Applications are given to detecting when a set of elements of a group generates a subgroup ``large enough'' to map onto a non-abelian free solvable group, and to concordance and grope cobordism of links. We also greatly generalize several key homological results employed in recent work of Cochran-Orr-Teichner, in the context of classical knot concordance. In 1963 J. Stallings established a strong relationship between the low-dimensional homology of a group and its lower central series quotients. In 1975 W. Dwyer extended Stallings' theorem by weakening the hypothesis on the second homology groups. The naive analogues of these theorems for the derived series are false. In 2003 the second author introduced a new characteristic series, associated to the derived series, called the torsion-free derived series. The authors previously established a precise analogue, for the torsion-free derived series, of Stallings' theorem. Here our main result is the analogue of Dwyer's theorem for the torsion-free derived series. We also prove a version of Dwyer's theorem for the rational lower central series. We apply these to give new results on the Cochran-Orr-Teichner filtration of the classical link concordance group.Comment: 26 pages. In this version, we have included a new proof of part of the main theorem. The new proof is somewhat simpler and stays entirely in the world of group homology and homological algebra rather than using Eilenberg-Mac Lane spaces. Other minor corrections. This is the final version to appear in Geometry & Topolog

School Effects: Examining the Race Gap in Mathematics Achievement

The gap in achievement between minority and non-minority students has become a national priority. To investigate the relationship between school racial composition and the race-based gaps in mathematic achievement, High School Effectiveness Study data on 3,392 students in 177 schools were analyzed. Multilevel analyses revealed that when at least half of the students in a school are Black or Hispanic, all student achievement is lower (for White as well as for ethnic minority students). Asian students’ achievement remains lowered until the percentage of Black and Hispanic students is less than 15%. However, schools that are 30–49% Black and/or Hispanic have more egalitarian achievement between White and Hispanic students. Although there is no one-size-fits-all model, this research does confirm that being in a school with a high a concentration of Black and Hispanic students lessens all students’ chances of academic achievement, even for students who otherwise should excel

Critical Race Theory as Theoretical Framework and Analysis Tool for Population Health Research

In population health research, it is important to consider socioecological perspectives that include cultural attitudes and beliefs which permeate all levels (intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional/community, and structural/policy). Given the specificity of target populations centered on identity – ethnic and others – it is appropriate and warranted to centralize cultural studies theories into health determinant investigations. Cultural studies, which focus explicitly on identity exploration and impacts, have much to contribute to health research. In accordance with the transdisciplinary nature of population health and bearing in mind the significant role of ethnic identity in health outcomes, it is beneficial to utilize critical race theory (CRT) as a theoretical framework and analysis tool for population health research. This article will: (1) briefly overview a recent mental health study employing CRT, and a commentary that emphasizes how CRT can contribute to the sociology of mental health; and (2) propose ways CRT can be used in psychosocial health research

Toward a Conceptual Framework of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: An Overview of the Conceptual and Theoretical Literature

The United States is a diverse country with constantly changing demographics. The noticeable shift in demographics is even more phenomenal among the school-aged population. The increase of ethnic-minority student presence is largely credited to the national growth of the Hispanic population, which exceeded the growth of all other ethnic minority group students in public schools. Scholars have pondered over strategies to assist teachers in teaching about diversity (multiculturalism, racism, etc.) as well as interacting with the diversity found within their classrooms in order to ameliorate the effects of cultural discontinuity. One area that has developed in multicultural education literature is culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP). CRP maintains that teachers need to be non-judgmental and inclusive of the cultural backgrounds of their students in order to be effective facilitators of learning in the classroom. The plethora of literature on CRP, however, has not been presented as a testable theoretical model nor has it been systematically viewed through the lens of critical race theory (CRT). By examining the evolution of CRP among some of the leading scholars, the authors broaden this work through a CRT infusion which includes race and indeed racism as normal parts of American society that have been integrated into the educational system and the systematic aspects of school relationships. Their purpose is to infuse the tenets of CRT into an overview of the literature that supports a conceptual framework for understanding and studying culturally relevant pedagogy. They present a conceptual framework of culturally relevant pedagogy that is grounded in over a quarter of a century of research scholarship. By synthesizing the literature into the five areas and infusing it with the tenets of CRT, the authors have developed a collection of principles that represents culturally relevant pedagogy

Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Age: Exploring Intersections in Preterm Birth Disparities among Teen Mothers

Few studies have examined disparities in adverse birth outcomes and compared contributingsocioeconomic factors specifically between African-American and White teen mothers. Thisstudy examined intersections between neighborhood socioeconomic status (as defined by censustractmedian household income), maternal age, and racial disparities in preterm birth (PTB)outcomes between African-American and White teen mothers in North Carolina. Using a linkeddataset with state birth record data and socioeconomic information from the 2010 US Census,disparities in preterm birth outcomes for 16,472 teen mothers were examined through bivariateand multilevel analyses. African-American teens had significantly greater odds of PTB outcomesthan White teens (OR = 1.38, 95% CI 1.21, 1.56). Racial disparities in PTB rates significantlyvaried by neighborhood income; PTB rates were 2.1 times higher for African-American teens inhigher income neighborhoods compared to White teens in similar neighborhoods. Disparities inPTB did not vary significantly between teens younger than age 17 and teens ages 17–19,although the magnitude of racial disparities was larger between younger African-American andWhite teens. These results justify further investigations using intersectional frameworks to testthe effects of racial status, neighborhood socioeconomic factors, and maternal age on birthoutcome disparities among infants born to teen mothers

Relationship intentions, race, and gender: Student differences in condom use during hookups involving vaginal sex

Objective: To examine the relationship between race, gender, and pre-hookup relationship intentions and college students’ participation in condomless vaginal sex. Participants: 3,315 Black and White college students who participated in the Online College Social Life Survey (OCSLS). Methods: Secondary data analysis of the OCSLS using Chi-square and multiple logistic regression analyses. Results: The model revealed that students who did not want a relationship with their hookup partners and students unsure of their relationship intentions were more likely to use condoms during their last vaginal hookup. Further, White and Female students were less likely to have used condoms during their last vaginal hookup.Conclusions: White and female students, as well as students desiring romantic relationships with hookup partners may be at risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) due to decreased condom use. However, more research is needed to explore the factors driving STI disparities facing Black students despite higher condom use

Testing the Association Between Traditional and Novel Indicators of County-Level Structural Racism and Birth Outcomes among Black and White Women

Despite decreases in infants born premature and at low birth weight in the United States (U.S.), racial disparities between Black and White women continue. In response, the purpose of this analysis was to examine associations between both traditional and novel indicators of county-level structural racism and birth outcomes among Black and White women. We merged individual-level data from the California Birth Statistical Master Files 2009–2013 with county-level data from the United States (U.S.) Census American Community Survey. We used hierarchical linear modeling to examine Black-White differences among 531,170 primiparous women across 33California counties. Traditional (e.g., dissimilarity index) and novel indicators (e.g., Black to White ratio in elected office) were associated with earlier gestational age and lower birth weight among Black and White women. A traditional indicator was more strongly associated with earlier gestational age for Black women than f or White women. This was the first study to empirically demonstrate that structural racism, measured by both traditional and novel indicators, is associated with poor health and well being of infants born to Black and White women. However , finding s indicate traditional indicators of structural racism, rather than novel indicators, better explain racial disparities in birth outcomes. Results also suggest the need to develop more innovative approaches to: (1) measure structural racism at the county-level and (2) reform public policies to increase integration and access to resources