Effective Implementation Capacity to Impact Change Within State Education Systems to Support Students With Disabilities

There is a continued call for the use of practices supported by evidence to improve the quality and effectiveness of services provided for students with disabilities. Despite best intentions, our education systems continue to struggle to adopt these practices and transfer them into consistent, sustained use by practitioners. Implementation science, the multi-disciplinary study of methods and strategies to promote use of research findings in practice, seeks to address this by providing frameworks to guide creation of conditions that facilitate use of evidence-based practices. The present article describes how an implementation science approach, Active Implementation Frameworks, was used by a national technical assistance center to cultivate systemic change and create improved outcomes for students with disabilities within several state, regional, and local education agencies. A summary of the lessons learned thus far and resulting considerations for practice and policy are presented. A key lesson was that state education agencies (SEAs) supporting districts and schools in implementation of a specific, educator-student-level practice realized improved outcomes for their students with disabilities. SEAs implementing frameworks or processes without an operationalized and measurable educator-student level practice had limited or no evidence of improved student outcomes

Wissenschaft als Beruf: Wissenschaftsforschung Jahrbuch 2020

Peer Reviewe

Predicting the Spread of White-Nose Syndrome in Bats: A Strategy for Prioritizing Resources

In 2006, cavers near Albany, New York first documented a few hibernating bats with a curious white fungus growing on their muzzles. Over the next seven winters, the aptly named white-nose syndrome (WNS) has decimated bat populations throughout the eastern United States, causing average declines of over 70%. The migration of WNS westward into regions with higher bat diversity and more extensive cave systems has potential catastrophic consequences for species populations and the ecosystem services they provide. Predicting areas particularly susceptible to WNS as well as potential pathways for transmission of its fungal spores across the U.S. can inform targeted management practices. However, data on bat population sizes, locations, and dynamics is scarce. This analysis uses the limited data available to highlight areas of particular concern. Susceptibility to WNS infection at the county level was calculated using three variables: number of potential roost sites, bat species, and approximated cave temperature. Potential pathways of spore transmission were identified using susceptibility ratings and estimates of past dispersal distances. The results identify counties of interest in the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest as well as a potential corridor facilitating transport of fungal spores into western states from Oklahoma and north Texas to eastern Colorado. Targeting these areas for future research and monitoring efforts could be an efficient use of limited resources and potentially curtail the impacts of this devastating epizootic

Breathless for Blue Jeans: Health hazards in China's denim factories

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.CCC_2013_Report_Breathless_for_Blue_Jeans.pdf: 644 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Executive Summary: Breathless for Blue Jeans

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.CCC_2013_Report_Breathless_for_Blue_Jeans_Executive_Summary.pdf: 118 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020