Cascadia Don\u27t Fall Apart

This short story collection explores the tenuousness of relationships--both romantic and familial--against the backdrop of Washington State\u27s regional identity. These stories feature tsunami debris washing up on the peninsula, a biologist combating wetland violations in Olympia, a funerary artist in Seattle, young lovers attempting to be sexually explorative, a young man so befuddled by college graduation that he joins the infantry, and an adult son attempting to comfort his sick father

Media Ethics: The Powerful and the Powerless

Papers presented for the Center of the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University

Teachers’ and center leaders’ sensemaking of inquiry-based professional learning in early childhood education and care programs : a multiple case study

Professional development (PD) in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is at a critical juncture within the current accountability and standards movement. Various stakeholders position PD as a necessity to ready children within a neoliberal framing of the education process and posit universal training/PD as a solution. Conversely, many scholars continue to call for more critical approaches such as inquiry-based professional learning (IBPL) to better support the linguistically and culturally diverse early childhood landscape and address larger social-justice inequities. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms responsible for sustaining such IBPL practices. This research, therefore explores how center leaders and teachers of three ECEC programs made sense of enacting and engaging in varying forms of IBPL. Specifically guided by two research questions: 1) How do school leaders and teachers make sense of PL and their experiences within them and their school community? 2) How do school leaders and teachers make sense of IBPL and their experiences within them and their school community? Chapter 1 introduces my research questions and framing of this study. Chapter 2 reviews four stands of the literature pertinent to this study. First, it explores how PD has been defined and understood by identifying current best practices as well as exploring critical understandings within ECEC. Next, the chapter synthesizes relevant literature in the areas of teacher development research and highlights how teachers learn. Then, the chapter explores IBPL specifically by first defining then illuminating the differences between PL and IBPL as well as the varying ways IBPL has been enacted in ECEC programs. Chapter 2 then closes with a review of the theoretical framework that informs this study, sensemaking. Chapter 3 details the methodology that guided this instrumental multiple case study including data collection and analysis. Chapters 4 and 5 present the findings from this research. Chapter 4 looks at how teachers and center leaders made sense of PL and Chapter 5 looks at how they made sense of IBPL specifically. Chapter 6 addresses the significance of these findings and concludes with a discussion of implications and suggestions for future researchCurriculum and Instructio

Knowing What Works: States and Cities Build Smarter Social Policy with New and Improved Poverty Measurement

To better understand poverty and find the best strategies to reduce it, states and localities need to know who is poor, why they are poor, and what policies work best for different groups. Rather than rely on the official poverty measure, in use since the early 1960s, several states and localities have taken the lead in developing new measures of poverty that more accurately account for the resources available to their residents as well as their needs. Supported by a strong body of innovative research from the federal government and public policy research organizations, these new measures not only more accurately gauge the level of poverty but offer a cost-effective way to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs. Improved poverty measurement also helps policymakers identify effective new programs to assist vulnerable populations in meeting their families’ often-pressing needs. This brief provides an up-to-date look at how pioneering states and localities are using – or plan to use – improved poverty measurement to build smarter social policy. In a difficult fiscal climate, investing in better measures to estimate poverty and evaluate the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs is sound practice that will enable policymakers to quantify whether and how interventions are improving outcomes for children and their families

Modular Configuration of an RFID-based Hybrid Control Architecture for a Situational Shop Floor Control

Nowadays, producing companies act in a turbulent environment, which is caused by the globalization of the economy and the continuous shift from seller markets to buyer markets. One central aspect is the demand for customized products at short delivery times and reasonable costs. In this context, shop floor control becomes more and more important and therefore, the complexity of its purposes increases. However, current shop floor information, which is indispensable for a targeted execution of these purposes, is often not available. The RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology enables an adequate and situational shop floor control. Since the integration and capabilities of RFID depends on specific framework conditions (e.g. forms of organization), an approach for a modular configuration of an RFID-based hybrid control architecture, that separates control efforts into centralized and decentralized control elements, is motivated. Finally, this approach could be implemented to a use case of a German automotive seat supplier

The Mesoamerican Corpus of Formative Period Art and Writing

This project explores the origins and development of the first writing in the New World by constructing a comprehensive database of Formative period, 1500-400 BCE, iconography and a suite of database-driven digital tools. In collaboration with two of the largest repositories of Formative period Mesoamerican art in Mexico, the project integrates the work of archaeologists, art historians, and scientific computing specialists to plan and begin the production of a database, digital assets, and visual search software that permit the visualization of spatial, chronological, and contextual relationships among iconographic and archaeological datasets. These resources will eventually support mobile and web based applications that allow for the search, comparison, and analysis of a corpus of material currently only partially documented. The start-up phase will generate a functional prototype database, project website, wireframe user interfaces, and a report summarizing project development

Basic Facts About Low-income Children: Children Under 6 Years, 2011

Children represent 24 percent of the population, but they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 45 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (22 percent) live in poor families. Young children under 6 years of age appear to be particularly vulnerable, with 49 percent living in low-income families and 25 percent living in poor families. Being a child in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are a range of factors associated with children’s experiences of economic insecurity, including race/ethnicity and parents’ education and employment. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of young children and their parents. It highlights important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts

Basic Facts About Low-income Children: Children Under 3 Years, 2011

Children represent 24 percent of the population, but they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty.1 Among all children, 45 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (22 percent) live in poor families. Our very youngest children, infants and toddlers under 3 years of age, appear to be particularly vulnerable, with 49 percent living in low-income families, including 26 percent living in poor families. Being a child in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are a range of factors associated with children’s experiences of economic insecurity, including race/ethnicity and parents’ educational attainment and employment. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of children and their parents. It highlights important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children from their less disadvantaged counterparts