Breaking Through the Noise: Literacy Teachers in the Face of Accountability, Evaluation, and Reform

In an era of increased accountability, it is important to understand how exemplary teachers navigate the demands placed on them by their schools, districts, and states in order to support student learning aligned with their beliefs of effective instruction. To understand these negotiations, tensions facing exemplary literacy teachers were examined through a qualitative interview study. Participants included nineteen experienced PK-6th grade teachers from across the U.S. Results of the study indicate that teachers experience discrepancies between their beliefs and state and local mandates, and they discuss a variety of strategies for negotiating these discrepancies. Findings suggest that schools can support effective literacy instruction by cultivating cultures of autonomy for teachers and strengthening teachers’ sense of agency

Status of the European Green Crab, Carcinus maenas, in Oregon and Washington coastal estuaries in 2019

The European green crab (Carcinus maenas) has persisted in Oregon and Washington coastal estuaries since the late 1990s. After the arrival of a strong year class in 1998, significant recruitment to the populations occurred only in 2003, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. Warm winter water temperatures, high Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and Multivariate ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) Indices, and a high abundance of southern copepods are all correlated with strong year classes and vice versa (Behrens Yamada, Peterson and Kosro 2015; Behrens Yamada, Fisher and Kosro 2020 in review). Prior to 2015, green crabs were too rare (<0.2 per trap) to exert measurable effects on the native benthic community and on shellfish culture in Oregon and Washington. But after the 2015-2016 El Niño, we document the arrival of five strong year classes. Average catches steadily increased from 0.5 crabs per trap, in 2015 to around 3 crabs per trap in 2017 to 2019. The catches in the last 3 years are much higher than in any of the previous years, including 1998. Catches in some hot spots exceed 10 crabs per trap, a level at which measurable ecological impact can be expected (Grosholz et al. 2011). Since green crabs live for 6 years, these five consecutive year classes can produce larvae until 2025. A switch to cooler ocean conditions in the coming years will result in poor recruitment, but a return to high PDO and strong El Niño patterns would signal good recruitment and higher green crab densities. For example, green crabs were first documented in New England in 1817, but it took warm ocean conditions during the 1950s for their numbers to build to a level at which they decimated the soft-shelled clam industry in Maine (Welch 1968). With the recent warm trend on the East Coast, green crabs are again abundant. Not only are they preying on shellfish, they are also damaging valuable eelgrass habitat by ripping up the plants in their search for food (Neckles 2015). Even though green crab abundance in Oregon and Washington is still low when compared to Europe, eastern North America, Tasmania, California and the west coast of Vancouver Island, it is imperative to continue monitoring efforts for two reasons: 1) to elucidate the process of range expansion and population persistence of this model non-indigenous marine species with planktonic larvae, and 2) to predict the arrival of strong year classes from ocean conditions and alert managers and shellfish growers of possible increases in predation pressure from this invader

Increasing access to medicines in Southern Africa

Thesis: M. Eng. in Logistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2014.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (page 52).Economic instability and poor or lacking physical infrastructure are some of the factors that contribute to price inflation along the supply chain in Zimbabwe. Our research, in partnership with one of the Big Pharma companies, addressed two intertwined yet distinct research areas. On one hand, we evaluated how price reductions (i.e. subsidy) offered by our partner company to the distributor translated down the value chain. On the other, we analyzed the costs of insourcing versus outsourcing of our partner's company distribution function, and the sales volumes at which the two alternatives are equivalent. We conducted a set of field interviews with local distributors and pharmacies; this combined with data gathered by a third party market research team and input from our partner company's South African business unit equipped us with the data required to address these questions. We realized how trust, information sharing and tailored incentive schemes played a pivotal role in the rollout of the price reduction scheme, making it relatively more successful for certain distributors, pharmacies, and product lines. Specifically, we were able to demonstrate how sales volume throughout the chain increased post subsidy implementation for two key distributors who passed on the largest price reductions as compared to the other distributors who were under review. In addition, through the application of inventory policies, such as economic order quantities and the power of two policy, and Monte Carlo simulation we were able to determine the impact that forecasting error, minimum order quantities, and sales volumes can have on the decision to outsource. At the current sales volumes experienced by our partner company, the minimum order quantity was greater than the economic order quantity for 80% of the products, which resulted in a 25% increase in inventory holding costs.by Chelsey Graham.M. Eng. in Logistic

Data-drivien optimization of OFDA's disaster response capacity: Concept Note Sales & Operations Plan

Concept Note: Sales & Operations PlanThis document first reviews the general S&OP process that was originally developed for for-profit sector companies. The team then maps the for-profit S&OP application to a planning process that accommodates BHA’s organizational structure and needs. Finally, the team highlights how the model and the performance metrics can be included in the S&OP process and show a path for implementation at BHA.USAI

Data-driven optimization of OFDA's disaster response capacity: Final Report

Final ReportThis final report summarizes the research methods and results in the project “Optimization-based Evaluation of USAID/OFDA Global Logistics Capacity”. This research was a part of the MIT Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation (CITE). Throughout the period of performance from May 2019 to September 2020 a research team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab worked with the Office of Foreign Disaster Response, which was merged with USAID’s Food for Peace into the new Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), to research a model, methods, inputs, and outputs to support inventory decision-making for disaster response operations. In Phase I of the project the team worked to understand BHAs operational processes during disaster responds and collected data and information to characterize the operations. Key results are summarized in a report for Phase I and an accompanying presentation. Phase I revealed the complexities of planning disaster response operations at BHA. The team settled on researching model support for two key operational decisions: (1) How much inventory should BHA hold in each of the four global warehouses for disaster response, and (2) How much inventory in total should BHA carry in their system? The team also aimed to support decision-making through metrics that shed light into system performance and provide easy access and comparability among options. The team developed a stochastic linear program, relying on various data sets required for inputs, and created multiple methods to merge and extract important information relevant for modelling. The team created a model that supports strategic inventory decision-making in multiple ways. Results show that BHA can rely on the model to answer the strategic inventory allocation decisions raised above and use six key metrics to compare preparedness options: (i) Inventory balance metric, (ii) average time, (iii) average cost, (iv) % TAP served, (v) % fully served, and (vi) the inventory allocation metric. Over the course of the project BHA became convinced that the model can support critical decision-making. The team outlined a path towards implementing a decision-support tool and identified how a systematic decision-making process is a key prerequisite for effective implementation. Inspired by the sales & operations planning process (S&OP) used widely in the private sector, the team researched and developed a concept note for S&OP process for BHA’s disaster-response-planning activities. It highlights how such planning processes, especially in conjunction with a well-defined supply chain strategy, provide the framework for developing robust decision-support tools in the future. The work also revealed multiple interesting insights into operational strategies. For example, the research team was able to show that the number of people BHA typically seeks to serve relative to the total inventory in the system effects the level of inventory consolidation that is optimal in the network. This also underlined the importance of the disaster portfolio approach and the need for an appropriate estimation of the sets of disasters in this portfolio. The research team outlined an approach for using predictive analytics to determine a forward-looking disaster portfolio. This final report is accompanied by a set of documents that provide further details on model, methods, data, and results: (i) Phase I results presentation, (ii) Phase II results presentation, and a (iii) BHA S&OP document

Optimization-based Evaluation of USAID/OFDA’s Global Logistics Capacity: Phase II - Workshop II

Optimization-based Evaluation of USAID/OFDA’s Global Logistics Capacity: Phase II - Network Design Workshop I

Optimization-based Evaluation of Global Logistics Capacity

Humanitarian organizations, donor countries, and governments pre-position emergency supplies worldwide to facilitate rapid response to crisis needs. These organizations often pre-position stock at various warehouses around the world without formally analyzing how effectively this rapid response capacity can address future humanitarian needs. This may result in surplus stock, positioned too far for effective deployment, sitting idle (or expiring) in some locations and insufficient stock in other locations to provide timely response. USAID/OFDA has such response capacity through pre-positioned stock and could set an example for evidence-based resource allocation to address future humanitarian responses. Optimization-based metrics could assess the effectiveness of its global stock portfolio in addressing a portfolio of anticipated global disaster risks in the future. Such analysis could also be extended to consider contingent capacity from suppliers on contract, and incorporate a portfolio of transportation resources to move items from pre-positioning warehouses to disaster locations. Optimization-based metrics could then inform USAID/OFDA decision-making regarding stockpile deployment, and potentially contract negotiation for suppliers and transportation providers. This evidence base could also foster coordination efforts for humanitarian supply pre-positioning across organizations at the international, regional and national levels.United States Agency for International Developmen

Data-driven optimization of OFDA’s disaster response capacity: Final report presenation

Final Report PresentationUSAI

Data-drivien optimization of OFDA's disaster response capacity: Phase II - Workshop III

Phase II - Network Design Workshop IIIUSAI

Data-drivien optimization of OFDA's disaster response capacity: Phase II - Workshop IV

Phase II - Network Design Workshop IVUSAI