Learning in Context: Reflections on the Education Teams Approach to Evaluation

The S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, a spend-down foundation sunsetting in 2020, invested in four major education initiatives during its final decade of grantmaking. A firm believer in the importance of building and sharing knowledge, the Foundation also made significant, complementary investments in evaluation that were intended to help grantee partners improve their work and to capture lessons learned that funders, nonprofits, policymakers, and other education actors might benefit from. This essay offers a high-level comparison of the evaluation approach taken in each initiative and shares reflections on why we took the paths we did

Hiring an External Evaluator

Done well, evaluation is an authentic learning process that supports nonprofits, foundations, and their partners to make better decisions as they work to solve a range of complex problems. Most nonprofits and foundations engage in some form of evaluation, but few have dedicated evaluation staff. As a result, external evaluators play an important role in the sector. Responsibility for hiring them often falls to executives and program staff.Finding an evaluator may feel like a daunting task if you don't have a research or evaluation background. This essay seeks to help you put the hard-earned experience of others to use through a set of practical steps, prompts, and tips for matching the right evaluator to your need

Final Master\u27s Portfolio

Practical matters of teaching college writing are the primary focus of this portfolio. Specific topics include an exploration of best practices in preparation for teaching an online college writing course, a rationale for introducing technical writing into an institution as a co-taught interdisciplinary course, a four-week teaching unit for teaching grammar concepts through creative writing, and a resource guide for teaching an introductory technical writing course at the college level

A criticism of present methods of determining the effectiveness of programs of moral education

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

End-Game Evaluation: Building a Legacy of Learning In a Limited-Life Foundation

This article shares the emerging hypotheses of two foundations, The Atlantic Philanthropies and the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation — each four years from sunset — about the opportunities and challenges for evaluation in the limited-life context. Few, if any, of the problems philanthropy seeks to address can be solved within a brief, defined time frame. Limited-life foundations can only strive to move the ball down the field before they sunset, and then enlist others to carry the work forward. Given this reality, these foundations are obligated to make a deliberate effort to share what they have learned with the players who remain. The article argues that systematically capturing and sharing knowledge — about programs, as well as social-change methods and grantmaking practices — can increase a foundation’s influence and impact during its final years and beyond

Oral Memoirs of Donald Halverstadt

An oral history interview with Donald Halverstadt, MD, former provost at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.N

Interleukin-6 (IL6) Genotype, Plasma Lipoprotein Lipids, and Their Response To Exercise Training

Substantial evidence indicates that plasma lipoprotein-lipid levels are related to cardiovascular disease, are highly variable among individuals, and have a strong genetic component. They are also modifiable with exercise training, and these responses are heritable. A small body of literature suggests an association between the interleukin-6 (IL6) 174G/C gene polymorphism and plasma lipoprotein-lipid levels such that the G allele may be associated with a more pro-atherogenic lipid profile than the C allele. We hypothesized that the IL6 174G/C gene polymorphism would be associated with variation in plasma lipoprotein-lipid profiles at baseline and with their response to exercise training. Sixty-five sedentary, healthy 50- to 75-year-old Caucasians were studied before and after 24 weeks of aerobic exercise training. Significant differences existed among genotype groups for change with exercise training in high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-C, HDL3-C, HDL5NMR-C, HDL4NMR-C, integrated HDL4,5NMR -C, and HDLsize. For HDL-C, the CC group increased significantly more than both the GG (7.0 ± 1.3 v. 1.0 ± 1.1 mg/dL, p=0.001) and the GC group (3.3 ± 0.9 mg/dL, p=0.02). For HDL3-C, the CC group increased significantly more than both the GG (6.1 ± 1.0 v. 0.9 ± 0.9, mg/dL p<0.001) and the GC group (2.5 ± 0.7 mg/dL, p=0.006). For HDL5NMR-C, the GC group increased significantly less than both the CC and GG groups (0.0 ± 0.7 v. 3.4 ± 1.0 mg/dL, p=0.02 and 1.4 ± 0.8 mg/dL, p=0.04). For HDL4NMR-C, the GG group changed significantly differently from both the GC and CC groups with the GG group decreasing and the GC and CC groups increasing HDL4NMR-C (-0.4 ± 1.1 v. 3.1 ± 0.9 mg/dL, p=0.02 and v. 3.2 ± 1.3 mg/dL, p=0.05, respectively). For integrated HDL4,5-C, the CC group increased significantly more than the GG group (6.5 ± 1.6 mg/dL v. 1.0 ± 1.3 mg/dL, p=0.01). For HDLsize, the CC group increased significantly more than both the GG (0.3 ± 0.1 v. 0.1 ± 0.1 nm, p=0.02) and the GC groups (0.0 ± 0.0 nm, p=0.007). These findings suggest that the IL6-174G/C polymorphism influences HDL-C and HDL-C subfraction changes with exercise training

Effect of 6-months of physical exercise on the nitrate/nitrite levels in hypertensive postmenopausal women

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Evidences have showed that the incidence of arterial hypertension is greater in postmenopausal women as compared to premenopausal. Physical inactivity has been implicated as a major contributor to weight gain and abdominal obesity in postmenopausal women and the incidence of cardiovascular disease increases dramatically after menopause. Additionally, more women than men die each year of coronary heart disease and are twice as likely as men to die within the first year after a heart attack. A healthy lifestyle has been strongly associated with the regular physical activity and evidences have shown that physically active subjects have more longevity with reduction of morbidity and mortality. Nitric oxide (NO) produced by endothelial cells has been implicated in this beneficial effect with improvement of vascular relaxing and reduction in blood pressure in both laboratory animals and human. Although the effect of exercise training in the human cardiovascular system has been largely studied, the majority of these studies were predominantly conducted in men or young volunteers. Therefore, the aim of this work was to investigate the effects of 6 months of dynamic exercise training (ET) on blood pressure and plasma nitrate/nitrite concentration (NOx^-) in hypertensive postmenopausal women.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Eleven volunteers were submitted to the ET consisting in 3 days a week, each session of 60 minutes during 6 months at moderate intensity (50% of heart rate reserve). Anthropometric parameters, blood pressure, NOx^-concentration were measured at initial time and after ET.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A significant reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure values was seen after ET which was accompanied by markedly increase of NOx^-levels (basal: 10 ± 0.9; ET: 16 ± 2 μM). Total cholesterol was significantly reduced (basal: 220 ± 38 and ET: 178 ± 22 mg/dl), whereas triglycerides levels were not modified after ET (basal: 141 ± 89 and ET: 147 ± 8 mg/dl).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study shows that changing in lifestyle promotes reduction of arterial pressure which was accompanied by increase in nitrite/nitrate concentration. Therefore, 6-months of exercise training are an important approach in management arterial hypertension and play a protective effect in postmenopausal women.</p

Role of Hepatic Lipase and Endothelial Lipase in High-Density Lipoprotein—Mediated Reverse Cholesterol Transport

Reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) constitutes a key part of the atheroprotective properties of high-density lipoproteins (HDL). Hepatic lipase (HL) and endothelial lipase (EL) are negative regulators of plasma HDL cholesterol levels. Although overexpression of EL decreases overall macrophage-to-feces RCT, knockout of both HL and EL leaves RCT essentially unaffected. With respect to important individual steps of RCT, current data on the role of EL and HL in cholesterol efflux are not conclusive. Both enzymes increase hepatic selective cholesterol uptake; however, this does not translate into altered biliary cholesterol secretion, which is regarded the final step of RCT. Also, the impact of HL and EL on atherosclerosis is not clear cut; rather it depends on respective experimental conditions and chosen models. More mechanistic insights into the diverse biological properties of these enzymes are therefore required to firmly establish EL and HL as targets for the treatment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease

Variable number of tandem repeat polymorphisms of the interleukin-1 receptor antagonist gene IL-1RN: a novel association with the athlete status

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The interleukin-1 (IL-1) family of cytokines is involved in the inflammatory and repair reactions of skeletal muscle during and after exercise. Specifically, plasma levels of the IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) increase dramatically after intense exercise, and accumulating evidence points to an effect of genetic polymorphisms on athletic phenotypes. Therefore, the IL-1 family cytokine genes are plausible candidate genes for athleticism. We explored whether IL-1 polymorphisms are associated with athlete status in European subjects.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Genomic DNA was obtained from 205 (53 professional and 152 competitive non-professional) Italian athletes and 458 non-athlete controls. Two diallelic polymorphisms in the IL-1β gene (<it>IL-1B</it>) at -511 and +3954 positions, and a variable number tandem repeats (VNTR) in intron 2 of the IL-1ra gene (<it>IL-1RN</it>) were assessed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found a 2-fold higher frequency of the <it>IL-1RN </it>1/2 genotype in athletes compared to non-athlete controls (OR = 1.93, 95% CI = 1.37-2.74, 41.0% vs. 26.4%), and a lower frequency of the 1/1 genotype (OR = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.40-0.77, 43.9% vs. 58.5%). Frequency of the <it>IL-1RN </it>2/2 genotype did not differ between groups. No significant differences between athletes and controls were found for either -511 or +3954 <it>IL-1B </it>polymorphisms. However, the haplotype (-511)C-(+3954)T-(VNTR)2 was 3-fold more frequent in athletes than in non-athletes (OR = 3.02, 95% CI = 1.16-7.87). Interestingly, the <it>IL-1RN </it>1/2 genotype was more frequent in professional than in non-professional athletes (OR = 1.92, 95% CI = 1.02-3.61, 52.8% vs. 36.8%).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study found that variants at the IL-1ra gene associate with athletic status. This confirms the crucial role that cytokine IL-1ra plays in human physical exercise. The VNTR <it>IL-1RN </it>polymorphism may have implications for muscle health, performance, and/or recovery capacities. Further studies are needed to assess these specific issues. As VNTR <it>IL-1RN </it>polymorphism is implicated in several disease conditions, athlete status may constitute a confounding variable that will need to be accounted for when examining associations of this polymorphism with disease risk.</p