The Benwood Plan: A Lesson in Comprehensive Teacher Reform

Chattanooga's Benwood Initiative is one of the most widely touted school-reform success stories of recent years. And many credit its success to financial incentives used to lure new teachers to low-performing schools. In this report, Senior Policy Analyst Elena Silva argues that Benwood's success was not just about attracting new talent, but helping existing teachers improve the quality of their instruction

On the Clock: Rethinking the Way Schools Use Time

In an era of increased accountability, educators are searching for new ways to boost student achievement. Is extending the school day the answer

Pathways to Improvement: Using Psychological Strategies to Help College Students Master Developmental Math

Some 60 percent of the nation's 13 million community college students are unprepared for college-level courses and must enroll in at least one developmental course....[and] less than a quarter of students in developmental math courses earn a degree or credential within eight years.Faced with a long sequence of pre-college-level, non-credit courses, often repeating math material they've failed before, half of them quit within the first few weeks of enrolling in the courses. They quit because they believe they aren't smart enough to do math, that the class itself has little relevance to their personal or academic goals, and that they don't really belong in the course or in college at all. And because such students cannot get to graduation if they cannot get past mathematics, the result is not just a dropped class, but the end of college and the economic insecurity that often results from not earning a degree. This report examines the success of the Pathways programs created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching which is currently being taught in 28 different community colleges nationwide. The Pathways program differs from traditional developmental math courses in that it is a yearlong class for academic credit with fewer students dropping out, most earning college credit toward graduation, and some even discovering a predilection for mathematics

Efficient redistribution policy: an analysis focused on the quality of institutions and public education

In this work we intend to study how the quality of the institutional factor may influence the efficiency of redistribution policy specifically associated with human capital accumulation. We develop a conceptual discussion building on the importance of income redistribution for economic growth and the key role of political institutions in securing growth-enhancing redistribution policies. We introduce endogenous growth theory elements into our analysis by considering as a fundamental source of economic growth human capital accumulation, motivated by tax-financed education secured through efficient redistribution policies. We outline crucial insights on the underlying mechanisms, emphasizing however that extensive research on the subject is undoubtedly still required. In particular, we identify the main factors negatively affecting the decisive role of political institutions and, consequently, distorting efficient redistribution policy. We then define a political-economic equilibrium as a combination of intermediately strong state and efficient control-rights institutions, implying simultaneous protection from expropriation and implementation of efficient redistribution policy, conducive to sustained economic growth.redistribution policy, human capital, institutions, taxation, public education, economic growth

Waiting to Be Won Over: Teachers Speak on the Profession, Unions and Reform

In the national conversation on teacher quality, there is considerable debate about what teachers think and what they want. Too often assumptions guide the discussion rather than actual evidence of teachers' views. In a new report, Education Sector and the FDR Group provide that evidence, detailing findings from a national survey of public school teachers

Chicano English at the Dinner Table

Dinner talk, or dinnertime conversations, have been investigated and studied by many scholars such as Blum-Kukla (1997) Ochs (1995), Haesook (2006), Arcidiacono (2009), and Herot (2002). Dinnertime conversations are the locus of family interactions and language socialization (Ochs 1986) in that they represent recurring activities or speech events in which all or most family members participate. Conversations at the dinner table serve as a daily (or near daily) forum for family members to interact and converse with each other and in so doing, instantiate their identities as parents, siblings, and children and express their stances. While dinner talk has been studied in families from various cultural and linguistic backgrounds, no study to date has looked at dinner talk in Chicano families. In this thesis, I studied how participants at a family dinner table use mainstream American English, Chicano English and code-switching to index their stances, familial and cultural roles and identities (Ochs 1992, 1996; Ochs & Taylor 1995) in this communicative event (Blum-Kulka 1997)

Technological characterization of vaginal probiotic lactobacilli: resistance to osmotic stress and strains compatibility

Aims: The aim was to evaluate the osmotic stress resistance of vaginal beneficial probiotic strains, their growth kinetics and parameters when growing in salt-added culture media, and their compatibility to go further in the design of a probiotic formula for reconstitution of vaginal microbiome in women. Methods and Results: The resistance to osmotic stress of the lactobacilli was evaluated by determining their growth in MRS (as control) added with NaCl (2–8%). The most resistant strains were Lactobacillus gasseri CRL1509, L. rhamnosus CRL1332 and L. reuteri CRL1327 selected by statistical approaches and growth parameters. Electron microscopy was applied to determine changes. They maintain probiotic properties and viability. Some strains showed incompatibility, then they cannot be included in multistrain formulas. Conclusions: The resistance to different salt concentrations in vaginal lactobacilli is strain-specific, because the behaviour is different in strains identified into the same species. The resistance is not related to the metabolic groups. Significance and Impact of the Study: The resistance and survival to extreme osmotic resistance is one of the specific requirements of beneficial bacteria after the technological processes for their inclusion in probiotic formulas, in a way to express their beneficial characteristics and exert the effect on the host.Fil: Silva, Jessica Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos; ArgentinaFil: Marchesi, Antonella. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos; ArgentinaFil: Birgitt, Wiese. Hannover Medical School; AlemaniaFil: Nader, Maria Elena Fatima. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos; Argentin

Pautas educativas parentales ante el divorcio

Treball Final de Grau en Mestre o Mestra d'Educació Primària. Codi: MP1040. Curs acadèmic: 2016/2017La finalidad de este trabajo es llegar a conocer la mejor manera de trasmitir el divorcio por parte de los padres, a sus respectivos hijos/as a través de libros que explican dicho acto. Así pues, con los resultados obtenidos después de leer a 45 alumnos/as de dos cursos diferentes de educación primaria, dos libros relacionados con el divorcio, y pasarles un cuestionario relacionado con dichos libros, lo que se pretende es conocer la forma en la que ellos han vivido esta situación (si se da el caso que la han vivido) y como los padres se lo han comunicado. Una vez leídos los libros, comentarlos y realizar el cuestionario, se han recogido los resultados en unas tablas y posteriormente en unos gráficos para poderlos visualizar más fácilmente. Finalmente, comparando los resultados con las teorías de diversos autores, se ha podido observar que cada niño vive el divorcio de sus padres de manera diferente y que la manera de trasmitir el divorcio a los hijos/as es muy variada en función del tipo de familia. No obstante, se ha llegado a la conclusión de que hay que trasmitir el divorcio de manera positiva y no como un echo negativo ya que eso, puede generar problemas en el progenitor.The aim of this paper is getting to know, the best way to let the children know about the divorce using books that explain it. After, analyzing the results obtained by reading different books with 45 students from two grades and pass them a questionnaire about them, we pretend to know the way they have lived the situation and how the parents let them know about it. Once, the students have read the books and completed the questionnaires the data is passed to graphs and charts to make it easier to visualize. Finally, comparing the findings with theories from different authors it can be said that every child lives the divorce in their own way and that the way of letting them know about varies depending on the type of family and their relationship. However, it has come to the conclusion that divorce has to be transmitted in a positive way and not as a negative fact because that can cause problems to the parent

Memoria e historia del exilio en México desde una perspectiva de género

Este trabajo analiza la influencia que tuvo la guerra y la derrota en la reformulación de las identidades de género de los republicanos exiliados en México, especialmente la crisis del modelo de masculinidad de la época. Analizaremos los mecanismos culturales adoptados para superar el trauma que supuso la derrota en la Guerra Civil Española, y su influencia en la reformulación de los roles de género en el exilio. Además de la familia, analizaremos los espacios que permitieron la recuperación de la asculinidad: el trabajo y la política, fuente de frustraciones y desengaños para muchos exiliados. Por último, nos detendremos en el testimonio de los exiliados antropólogos. Tanto por su actitud frente a la derrota como la forma de vivir el propio exilio representarían una forma de masculinidad alternativa

El método Doman desde una perspectiva constructivista

El presente Trabajo de Fin de Grado está centrado en el aprendizaje de la lectura y la escritura en el segundo ciclo de Educación Infantil. Sobre todo, se hace referencia al proceso de aprendizaje de la lectura, por lo que se ha investigado en los diferentes métodos de enseñanza de la misma. Concretamente se ha profundizado en el Método Doman desde una perspectiva constructivista, que es el eje principal del trabajo. Del mismo modo, se ha puesto en práctica una propuesta didáctica, basada en la metodología de Doman, así como otra actividad ligada a esta metodología donde se trabaja la lectoescritura. Para finalizar, se exponen las conclusiones extraídas de la investigación y la práctica, así como una prospectiva del trabajo.Departamento de Didáctica de la Lengua y LiteraturaGrado en Educación Infanti