Strategies to support general education teachers serving students with mild to moderate disabilities

This action thesis project is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts in Education degree at California State University, Monterey Bay. The purpose of this action research project, Effective Strategies To Use In The Classroom, was to bring together my high school\u27s general educators and special education staff to work. together through collaboration to better serve the development and learning needs of students with learning disabilities. It examines the effectiveness of researched based instructional modifications and strategies to improve collaboration between general educators and special education teachers working as a team in support of the special needs student in the mainstream class setting. This action research project is a summary of this collaboration as a special education teacher with the focus on weekly analysis of student observations in the mainstream classroom. The collaboration team worked together to support special education students in a general education classroom setting. The weekly observations were analyzed by the volunteers and the researcher. The results revealed that the modifications by the teacher could support students to be active learners and engaged in the teacher made lesson plans. The Identification, Modifications and Strategies For Students With Disabilities booklet supported the teachers collaboration needs. The impact of this action research project improved the collaborative efforts of the general and special educators, by the implementation of the handbook so to serve all students

The Political Safeguards of Federalism Redux: Intergovernmental Immunity and the States As Agents of the Nation

This Article first develops the framers\u27 understanding that both the nation and the states would be political communities with significant political decisionmaking powers and that the actual allocation of political authority would turn on the electorate\u27s preference between the states and the nation. It explains how Congress\u27 power to regulate private activity, to regulate the states, and to require the affirmative exercise of state authority over private activity diminishes the states\u27 autonomy in making political decisions. It then analyzes the concept of state autonomy announced in National League of Cities v. Usery (NLC) and reviews lower court efforts to determine the extent to which state autonomy limits Congress\u27 authority under the war, spending, Civil War Amendment enforcement, commerce, and tax powers to regulate both private activity and the states and to employ the states as the nation\u27s agents in regulating private activity. With this background, the Article then advances a theory of political accountability as both a justification for and a limitation on Congress\u27 power over the states, and it defines the scope of Congress\u27 power to control the allocation of political authority in the federal system. The theory of political accountability advanced here is largely consistent with the existing pattern of national and state relations, although it supplies a new explanation for the results. It permits a wide range of national and state cooperation. Thus, it is consistent with a workable system of government. Moreover, it provides some protection for the states as political decisionmaking units by limiting the means that Congress can use to regulate the states and to employ the states as its agents. Most importantly, reliance on the political process to determine the allocation of political power between the states and the nation reduces the risk of substituting judicial policy for congressional policy because it provides a modest, principled basis for judicial superintendence of our federal system of government

Raising a New First Amendment Hurdle for Campaign Finance “Reform”

Proposals to regulate campaign contributions and candidates\u27 spending invariably fly the banner of campaign finance reform. The reformers, however, frequently have little or no evidence that particular campaign practices cause any real harm. Instead, they simply posit the existence of the disease-the corrosive effects of money on the political process-and assume that restrictions on the use of money will provide the cure. In Missouri, for example, both the legislature and the voters enacted laws in 1994 that set limits on political contributions to candidates and on candidates\u27 campaign expenditures. These laws imposed substantial burdens on political speech and association, but they did little more than pander to public perceptions about the amorphous evils of big money. The legislature and the voters had no evidence that contributions or expenditures in the prohibited amounts caused any identified harm, and any cure for problems in the State\u27s elections was entirely serendipitous. The frank comment of a Missouri legislator that [p]erception is more important than what\u27s real captures the substance of many measures that masquerade as campaign finance reform. The Supreme Court, unfortunately, left the door open in Buckley v. Valeo to campaign finance reform measures, like the 1994 Missouri laws, that are grounded on little more than speculation and the cynical assumption that money necessarily and inherently corrupts the political process. Although the Buckley Court held that campaign finance measures are subject to strict scrutiny, it accepted speculation about corruption and the appearance of corruption as a justification for regulating campaign contributions. Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri ( ACLU/EM ) discovered a means to close the door left open in Buckley and to provide greater First Amendment protection for political speech. They persuaded the courts in the Eighth Circuit to supplement Buckley and to impose a duty on the State to demonstrate that campaign finance regulations address a real harm. Although the Supreme Court did not review these judgments, it endorsed the Eighth Circuit\u27s new, more demanding First Amendment standard for campaign finance laws

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, Political Parties, and the First Amendment: Lessons from Missouri

In Shrink Missouri Government PAC v. Nixon (Shrink Missouri) and FEC v. Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee (Colorado II), the Supreme Court tipped the First Amendment balance in favor of government regulation and against political speech and association. The Eighth Circuit’s recent decision upholding Missouri limits on campaign contributions made by state political parties to their candidates demonstrates how heavily the scales are weighted in favor of regulation. If protection of political speech really is at the core of the First Amendment, then the Court must put the burden of justifying campaign contribution limits—like the burden of justifying all other limits on political activity—on the government. It must examine critically claims that contributions, pejoratively labeled “soft money,” create an appearance of corruption. Appearances are in the eye of the beholder, and an appearance of corruption may arise whenever an official votes or takes other actions consistent with the position of a contributor. Most importantly, the Court must examine critically the effects of contribution limits on our basic political freedoms

Changes in neuronal CycD/Cdk4 activity affect aging, neurodegeneration, and oxidative stress.

Mitochondrial dysfunction has been implicated in human diseases, including cancer, and proposed to accelerate aging. The Drosophila Cyclin-dependent protein kinase complex cyclin D/cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CycD/Cdk4) promotes cellular growth by stimulating mitochondrial biogenesis. Here, we examine the neurodegenerative and aging consequences of altering CycD/Cdk4 function in Drosophila. We show that pan-neuronal loss or gain of CycD/Cdk4 increases mitochondrial superoxide, oxidative stress markers, and neurodegeneration and decreases lifespan. We find that RNAi-mediated depletion of the mitochondrial transcription factor, Tfam, can abrogate CycD/Cdk4's detrimental effects on both lifespan and neurodegeneration. This indicates that CycD/Cdk4's pathological consequences are mediated through altered mitochondrial function and a concomitant increase in reactive oxygen species. In support of this, we demonstrate that CycD/Cdk4 activity levels in the brain affect the expression of a set of 'oxidative stress' genes. Our results indicate that the precise regulation of neuronal CycD/Cdk4 activity is important to limit mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production and prevent neurodegeneration

Assessing Child Obesity and Physical Activity in a Hard-to-Reach Population in California's Central Valley, 2012-2013.

IntroductionIn California's agricultural Central Valley, the rate of childhood obesity is higher than the national average. Adequate physical activity contributes to obesity prevention and its assessment is useful to evaluate the impact of interventions.MethodsNiños Sanos, Familia Sana (Healthy Children, Healthy Family [NSFS]) uses community-based participatory research to implement an intervention program to reduce childhood obesity among people of Mexican origin in the Central Valley. Anthropometric measurements were conducted on more than 650 children enrolled in NSFS. Physical activity data from a subgroup of children aged 4 to 7 years (n = 134) were collected via a wearable accelerometer.ResultsChildren were classified on the basis of age and sex-adjusted body mass index as healthy weight (57.7%); overweight (19.3%), or obese (23%). Logistic regression showed that moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was associated with a child's likelihood of having a healthy BMI (odds ratio: 1.03; 95% CI, 1.01-1.05; P = .017).ConclusionNSFS's community-based participatory approach resulted in successful use of a commercial electronic device to measure physical activity quantity and quality in this hard-to-reach population. Promotion of adequate daily MVPA is an appropriate and necessary component of NSFS's childhood obesity prevention strategy

Being backed by extended party networks can mean a greater chance of electoral success for a Congressional challenger

Political parties play a central role in democracies, helping to mediate between citizens and governing elites by running candidates for office who promise to pursue policy programs. But what if “the party” is really more of a collection of interest groups than a traditional party organization? Using data from US congressional elections and campaign finance, Bruce Desmarais, Ray La Raja and Mike Kowal show that parties are networks of partisan groups that converge on select groups of challengers. They explain that parties in the U.S. have become so distinctive and polarized, because they represent unique coalitions of policy demanders that influence the ideological composition of Congress