The effect of a state department of education mentoring program for teachers on science student achievement

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of the Georgia Department of Education Science Specialist teacher-mentoring program on student achievement on science standardized tests. This study analyzed the impact this program has had on student achievement in participating high schools when compared with high schools across the state where the program had not intervened. The Georgia High School Graduation Test, physical science end-of-course, and biology end-of-course test data, from a three year period, we re collected from the Georgia Department of Education website and analyzed using an independent-t test and the Mann-Whitney test. While test score improvements cannot be entirely attributed to the Science Specialist mentoring program, the study revealed state-wide increase s in physical science end-of-course tests and the Georgia High School Graduation Test scores over the three-year period in those schools participating in the teacher-mentoring program. Significant increases in students with disabilities populations and economically disadvantaged populations were also noted

Panel Discussion

Engage in a conversation over breakfast with Robert “Bob” Mayes the Institute for Interdisciplinary STEM Education Director, The Center for Excellence in STEM Education iSTEM Consultant and conference key note Chris Anderson, Gilda Lyon Georgia Department of Education STEM Coordinator and Gulf Stream Executive David Mining about the impact of STEM in education and industry

Age and frailty are independently associated with increased COVID-19 mortality and increased care needs in survivors: results of an international multi-centre study

Introduction: Increased mortality has been demonstrated in older adults with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but the effect of frailty has been unclear. Methods: This multi-centre cohort study involved patients aged 18 years and older hospitalised with COVID-19, using routinely collected data. We used Cox regression analysis to assess the impact of age, frailty and delirium on the risk of inpatient mortality, adjusting for sex, illness severity, inflammation and co-morbidities. We used ordinal logistic regression analysis to assess the impact of age, Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) and delirium on risk of increased care requirements on discharge, adjusting for the same variables. Results: Data from 5,711 patients from 55 hospitals in 12 countries were included (median age 74, interquartile range [IQR] 54–83; 55.2% male). The risk of death increased independently with increasing age (>80 versus 18–49: hazard ratio [HR] 3.57, confidence interval [CI] 2.54–5.02), frailty (CFS 8 versus 1–3: HR 3.03, CI 2.29–4.00) inflammation, renal disease, cardiovascular disease and cancer, but not delirium. Age, frailty (CFS 7 versus 1–3: odds ratio 7.00, CI 5.27–9.32), delirium, dementia and mental health diagnoses were all associated with increased risk of higher care needs on discharge. The likelihood of adverse outcomes increased across all grades of CFS from 4 to 9. Conclusion: Age and frailty are independently associated with adverse outcomes in COVID-19. Risk of increased care needs was also increased in survivors of COVID-19 with frailty or older age.</p