Exploring Policy Models For Extended Time Off

Whether it’s a personal health condition, the birth of a new child, or the need to address a serious health issue of an aging parent, many, if not most workers, find that at certain points in their lives, they will need an extended amount of time off from work. We refer to this as Extended Time Off (EXTO). In addition, there is a growing body of research that outlines the potential benefits of paid time off for workers, their families (and in particular children), as well as some research suggesting a benefit to employers providing paid EXTO. While the U.S. provides 12 weeks of job protected leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act to some workers, this time off from work goes largely unpaid for most workers

The arithmetic of arithmetic Coxeter groups

In the 1990s, J.H. Conway published a combinatorial-geometric method for analyzing integer-valued binary quadratic forms (BQFs). Using a visualization he named the "topograph," Conway revisited the reduction of BQFs and the solution of quadratic Diophantine equations such as Pell's equation. It appears that the crux of his method is the coincidence between the arithmetic group $PGL_2({\mathbb Z})$ and the Coxeter group of type $(3,\infty)$. There are many arithmetic Coxeter groups, and each may have unforeseen applications to arithmetic. We introduce Conway's topograph, and generalizations to other arithmetic Coxeter groups. This includes a study of "arithmetic flags" and variants of binary quadratic forms.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure

Long Run Neutrality and Superneutrality of Money: Aggregate and Sectoral Tests for Nicaragua

The Fisher-Seater (1993) methodology is applied to Nicaraguan data to test for long run neutrality and superneutrality of money. Real GDP and real output in six broadly defined sectors are I(1), while the money supply is I(2). These orders of integration imply that money is neutral with respect to both aggregate and sectoral output. However, superneutrality is rejected for real GDP as well as for all six sectors. Results of the superneutrality tests suggest that inflation driven by money growth imposed real costs on the private sector while the government sectorMonetary neutrality, superneutrality, Nicaragua

Introduction to The Chinese and the Iron Road

Excerpt from The Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the Transcontinental Railroad, edited by Gordon H. Chang and Shelley Fisher Fishkin, with Hilton Obenzinger and Roland Hs

Learning That Matters

In Georgia, kindergarten and first-grade students conduct a community mapping activity to figure out the needs of the children within the school. Kindergartners new to the school say that the school layout is confusing and it is hard to find their way to the classrooms. Each class considers solutions, and students decide to label the hallways with street signs. Each class brainstorms potential names for the hallways, and first grade students design and conduct a survey. They eliminate names that do not represent positive images. (No Shock Street because it would scare the five-year-olds.) The surveys are administered, the data are entered into a spreadsheet on the computer, and the students review the street names with the highest votes and allocate them to particular hallways. They then grapple with the question of whether the signs they make to identify the halls should be permanent or whether students each year should have the chance to name the halls so they feel more ownership of the school. They decide to poll all of the students, graph the results, and decide based on majority rule. While reviewing the polls, they decide whether bar graphs, line graphs, or pie graphs are the best way to present the data to other students so that everyone can understand the results

Research Matters

Many people are attracted to service-learning because they see what it does for students, schools, and communities. Students are more engaged in their studies, schools are revitalized, with a new sense of mission and focus, and community members, energized by working with students on service-learning projects, are more supportive of young people and their schools. This rosy picture is the reality in some settings with well-implemented service-learning, but too often this is not the case. In fact, much service-learning practice is uneven in quality, and research shows that low-quality service-learning has little impact