Building a Culture of Hope: Exploring Implicit Biases Against Poverty

A Culture of Hope provides a blueprint for schools wanting to meet the social/emotional needs of youth at risk. In working with staff to develop cultures of hope, the influence of implicit biases and prejudices about people who are living in poverty must be addressed. This essay introduces information and research about implicit biases, illustrates the impact of implicit biases on teaching and learning, and shares strategies for raising awareness about implicit biases against poverty in order to build staff consensus around core beliefs and values

Building a Culture of Hope for Youth At Risk: Supporting Learners with Optimism, Place, Pride, and Purpose

A Culture of Hope provides a blueprint for schools wanting to meet the social/emotional needs of youth placed at risk. While the importance of meeting students’ social/emotional needs is clearly supported in the literature and in the media, teachers and administrators may need help in determining where and how to start. This essay introduces the Culture of Hope, provides an overview of the four Seeds of Hope, and shares links to student and staff surveys as well as methods for analyzing surveys to reveal student and staff needs

Building a Culture of Hope for At-Risk Students

Presenters will share research on the school culture differences found between high-performing and low-performing high-poverty schools. Participants will learn about A Culture of Hope and the four Seeds of Hope. After learning explicit steps and strategies for collecting and using survey data, participants will practice using surveys to assess components of school culture, and develop additional survey questions relevant to individual circumstances

Executive Summary: Evaluation of the MacArthur Foundation's Human Rights and International Justice Grantmaking in Nigeria 2000-2012

The MacArthur Foundation commissioned Itad to conduct an evaluation of the Foundation's Human Rights and International Justice (HRIJ) grant?making program in Nigeria between 2000 and 2012. During this period, the Foundation supported 102 HRIJ projects with an end?date in 2000 or later, for a total grant amount of US$23,945,010. The projects broadly fell within the following thematic categories:- Accountability of democratic institutions, including the police- Justice: legal and judicial reform, including international justice standards - Protection and promotion of human rightsThe evaluation was commissioned to seek answers to the following questions: - Approach and strategy: o What has changed in the wider Nigerian HRIJ landscape in Nigeria since 2000? o What was the Foundation's HRIJ grantmaking strategy in Nigeria over this time? o How has the Foundation responded to change in the wider environment? o How has the implementation of grants contributed to strategic aims? - Impact: o What have been the main results of the Foundation's investments? o What was the Foundation's primary contribution to Nigeria HRIJ issues? o What lessons can be drawn for future HRIJ grantmaking in Nigeria

A STYLISTIC AND PEDAGOGICAL ANALYSIS OF KAREN TANAKA’S INTERMEDIATE PIANO COLLECTION “CHILDREN OF LIGHT”

Karen Tanaka (b. 1961) is a Japanese composer based in Los Angeles, California. Highly versatile, Tanaka has composed in a wide variety of musical genres, including works for orchestra, piano and orchestra, solo piano, solo harpsichord, solo instruments, chamber music, choir, electroacoustics, and film music. She also served as the lead orchestrator in 2016 for the BBC television series Planet Earth II. Tanaka has received numerous awards for her compositions, including three Japanese prizes: the Muramatsu Prize, Keizo Saji Prize, and Bekku Prize, as well as the international Gaudeamus Prize that recognizes the excellence of young emerging composers. Tanaka’s exceptional merit allowed her to receive scholarships from the Japanese government, French government, and Nadia Boulanger Foundation to study with the composers Tristan Murail in Paris and Luciano Berio in Florence during the 1980s and 1990s. One of her most prolific compositional genres is her works for solo piano. This document examines the stylistic features and pedagogical applications of Karen Tanaka’s intermediate piano collection Children of Light (1999). Containing twenty-five pieces, this collection emphasizes themes of nature, the environment, and endangered animals. Tanaka selected twenty animals from the 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals to designate as piece titles, with the remaining five pieces inspired by various environments around the world. Children of Light is comprised of early to late intermediate piano pieces, ranging from Levels 3 through 8 in reference to Jane Magrath’s leveling system. A variety of musical styles are incorporated throughout the collection, including modernism, minimalism, neo-romanticism, French impressionism, and Japanese aesthetic influences. Chapter One provides a biographical sketch of the composer, a brief overview of her compositional style and output, the purpose, need, procedures, and limitations of the study, and a review of related literature. Chapter Two presents a detailed discussion of Tanaka’s compositional style, influences, and output, surveys her standard and pedagogical piano works, and offers an introduction to Children of Light (1999). Chapters Three through Six offer compositional and pedagogical analyses for each of the twenty-five pieces in this collection, which are presented in increasing order of difficulty. The analysis of each piece begins with a compositional overview that addresses the musical elements of form, meter, rhythm, melody, harmony, and texture. A discussion of pedagogical applications follows, including guidance for introducing pieces, approaching musical and technical challenges, and suggestions for fingering, pedaling, and performance. Chapter Eight offers a summary of the study and recommendations for further research. By closely examining the intermediate piano collection Children of Light, the author seeks to advance the visibility and knowledge of Tanaka and her piano works so that her music can be more accessible to teach, study, and perform

Core Academic Language Skills (CALS): An expanded operational construct and a novel instrument to chart school-relevant language proficiency in per-adolescent and adolescent learners.

Beyond academic vocabulary, the constellation of skills that comprise academic language proficiency has remained imprecisely defined. This study proposes an expanded operationalization of this construct referred to as ‘Core Academic Language Skills’ (CALS). CALS refers to the knowledge and deployment of a repertoire of language forms and functions that co-occur with school learning tasks across disciplines. Using an innovative instrument, we explored CALS in a cross-sectional sample of 235 students in grades 4-8. Results revealed between- and within-grade variability in CALS. Psychometric analyses yielded strong reliability and supported the presence of a single CALS factor, which was found to be predictive of reading comprehension. Findings suggest that the CALS construct and instrument appear promising for exploring students' school-relevant language skills

International rates of receipt of psychological therapy for psychosis and schizophrenia:Systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: International clinical practice guidelines commonly recommend the provision of psychological therapies for psychosis and schizophrenia as an adjunct to medication. However, access to recommended therapies in routine clinical practice is limited. The aim of this review was to synthesise the available data on the provision of recommended psychological therapies for psychosis and schizophrenia across international mental health systems. Methods: Electronic databases (PsychINFO, Pubmed and EMBASE) were searched for audits, service evaluation projects, or surveys, which reported data on rates of offer or receipt of any recommended psychological therapy or therapeutic intervention as part of routine clinical care.Results: Twenty-two eligible studies from 9 countries were identified (N participants = 79,407). The most commonly recommended therapies in national guidelines were Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy for Psychosis (CBTp) and Family Interventions (FI). The overall pooled prevalence of rate of receipt of CBTp was 24% [95% CI 0.15-0.32] based on 15 studies (N = 42,494), with a higher rate of receipt of therapy found when pooling data from Early Intervention services only (41% [95% CI 0.21 – 0.60], 6 studies, N = 11, 068). The overall pooled prevalence of rate of receipt of FI was 30% [95% CI 0.22-0.37] based on 14 studies (N =13, 863).Conclusions: Overall rates of receipt of recommended psychological therapies for psychosis were low across the 9 countries data were available for in this review. However, there were high rates of heterogeneity across studies, meaning that pooled estimates should be interpreted with caution. Sources of heterogeneity included different service settings (e.g. early intervention vs. non-early intervention services), and varying methods used to collect the data (e.g. audit of electronic health records vs. self-report etc.). There were no available data from the continents of South America, Asia, or Africa, meaning that a truly global picture of provision of psychological therapies for psychosis and schizophrenia is currently lacking.<br/

International rates of receipt of psychological therapy for psychosis and schizophrenia:Systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: International clinical practice guidelines commonly recommend the provision of psychological therapies for psychosis and schizophrenia as an adjunct to medication. However, access to recommended therapies in routine clinical practice is limited. The aim of this review was to synthesise the available data on the provision of recommended psychological therapies for psychosis and schizophrenia across international mental health systems. Methods: Electronic databases (PsychINFO, Pubmed and EMBASE) were searched for audits, service evaluation projects, or surveys, which reported data on rates of offer or receipt of any recommended psychological therapy or therapeutic intervention as part of routine clinical care.Results: Twenty-two eligible studies from 9 countries were identified (N participants = 79,407). The most commonly recommended therapies in national guidelines were Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy for Psychosis (CBTp) and Family Interventions (FI). The overall pooled prevalence of rate of receipt of CBTp was 24% [95% CI 0.15-0.32] based on 15 studies (N = 42,494), with a higher rate of receipt of therapy found when pooling data from Early Intervention services only (41% [95% CI 0.21 – 0.60], 6 studies, N = 11, 068). The overall pooled prevalence of rate of receipt of FI was 30% [95% CI 0.22-0.37] based on 14 studies (N =13, 863).Conclusions: Overall rates of receipt of recommended psychological therapies for psychosis were low across the 9 countries data were available for in this review. However, there were high rates of heterogeneity across studies, meaning that pooled estimates should be interpreted with caution. Sources of heterogeneity included different service settings (e.g. early intervention vs. non-early intervention services), and varying methods used to collect the data (e.g. audit of electronic health records vs. self-report etc.). There were no available data from the continents of South America, Asia, or Africa, meaning that a truly global picture of provision of psychological therapies for psychosis and schizophrenia is currently lacking.<br/

Beyond Vocabulary: Exploring Cross-Disciplinary Academic-Language Proficiency and Its Association With Reading Comprehension

Despite a longstanding awareness of academic language as a pedagogically relevant research area, the construct of academic language proficiency, understood as a more comprehensive set of skills than just academic vocabulary, has remained vaguely specified. In this study, we explore a more inclusive operationalization of an academic language proficiency construct, Core Academic Language Skills (CALS). CALS refers to a constellation of high utility language skills hypothesized to support reading comprehension across school content areas. Using the CALS-I, a theoretically grounded and psychometrically robust innovative instrument, we first examined the variability in students' CALS by grade, English proficiency designation, and socioeconomic status (SES). Then, we examined the contribution of CALS to reading comprehension using academic vocabulary knowledge, word reading fluency, and sociodemographic factors as covariates. A linguistically and socioeconomically diverse crosssectional sample of 218 students (grades 4-6) participated in four assessments: the CALS-I, a standardized reading comprehension assessment (GMRT), an academic vocabulary test (VAT), and a word reading fluency test (TOSWRF). GLM analysis of variance revealed that CALS differed significantly by grade, English proficiency designation, and SES, with students in higher grades, English proficient students, and those from higher SES backgrounds displaying higher scores, on average. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses identified CALS as an independent predictor of reading comprehension, even after controlling for academic vocabulary knowledge, word reading fluency, and socio-demographic factors. By specifying a set of language skills associated with reading comprehension, this study advances our understanding of school relevant language skills, making them more visible for researchers and educators

Safety and Tolerability of Antiretrovirals during Pregnancy

Combination antiretroviral therapy (CART) dramatically decreases mother-to-child HIV-1 transmission (MTCT), but maternal adverse events are not infrequent. A review of 117 locally followed pregnancies revealed 7 grade ≥3 AEs possibly related to antiretrovirals, including 2 hematologic, 3 hepatic, and 2 obstetric cholestasis cases. A fetal demise was attributed to obstetric cholestasis, but no maternal deaths occurred. The drugs possibly associated with these AE were zidovudine, nelfinavir, lopinavir/ritonavir, and indinavir. AE or intolerability required discontinuation/substitution of nevirapine in 16% of the users, zidovudine in 10%, nelfinavir in 9%, lopinavir/ritonavir in 1%, but epivir and stavudine in none. In conclusion, nevirapine, zidovudine, and nelfinavir had the highest frequency of AE and/or the lowest tolerability during pregnancy. Although nevirapine and nelfinavir are infrequently used in pregnancy at present, zidovudine is included in most MTCT preventative regimens. Our data emphasize the need to revise the treatment recommendations for pregnant women to include safer and better-tolerated drugs