Closing the Gap: How Improving Information Flow Can Help Community-Based Organizations Keep Uninsured Kids From Falling Through the Cracks

Evaluates how community-based organizations used a tool for systematic, ongoing data exchange with the state to monitor children's enrollment and redetermination status in public health insurance. Explores its potential to boost outreach and enrollment

Optimizing Outreach and Application Assistance Services in Community-based Organizations: Evaluation Findings from The Colorado Trust's Outreach and Enrollment for Children and Youth Grant Strategy

This report discusses findings from the evaluation of The Colorado Trust's three-year, $3.3 million grant strategy (2009-2011) to help expand enrollment of children and youth in public health insurance programs in Colorado. These findings focus on how 12 community-based organizations, with little previous experience in providing application assistance to families to enroll children and youth in public health insurance, offered targeted outreach and application assistance services. These findings provide new insights into the time, effort and outcomes associated with implementing outreach and application assistance services, reinforcing and expanding upon previous literature demonstrating the promise and potential pitfalls of this approach

Teacher Perspectives on the use of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers as part of their Evaluation Process

Teacher effectiveness has a powerful impact on student performance and a teacher evaluation process that supports professional growth can be a key lever for improving teaching quality. The purpose of this study was to examine teacher perspectives on the use of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, when used as part of their evaluation process, and, to determine what other factors may need to be considered in the design and implementation of such a process. A single case study of a school in Victoria, Australia was conducted, using a pre and post interview approach with six teachers. Responses were analysed using a thematic network methodology. Findings reveal that the inclusion of The Standards as part of any evaluation mechanism is secondary to a range of other factors, including the relationship the teacher has with their evaluator; the skills of the evaluator; and the addition of a developmental plan post evaluation

Job demands and job resources as antecedents of work engagement among school educators in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.The objective of this study is to assess the relationship between work engagement, job demands and job resources in a sample of educators. A cross-sectional survey design was used. Convenience samples (N = 157) were taken of educators in an area of Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and the Job Demands Resources Scale were administered to the sample of educators. The results showed that job resources are significant predictors of work engagement. Also, growth opportunities and organisational support played a major role in educators’ engagement and thus needs to be made a priority in the education system

Automated Operation of Multiple Payloads on Agile MicroSat (AMS)

The Agile MicroSat (AMS) is a 6U CubeSat designed to operate in very low-Earth orbit (VLEO), an orbit which enables a higher ground resolution given a particular optical sensing aperture. AMS was developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory in collaboration with Blue Canyon Technologies LLC and Enpulsion GmbH. AMS is hosting three disparate payloads: an indium field effect electric propulsion (FEEP) thruster to change and maintain orbit; a laser demonstration payload called Beacon for adaptive optics experimentation; and a camera payload for visible-spectrum imaging. In order to fully exercise the capability of each payload, the AMS operations team has developed an automated end-to-end processing pipeline which handles experiment scheduling subject to constraints, upload of commands and satellite state estimates to our mission partner BCT, and download and ingest of telemetry for operations planning and the creation of data products. An example product includes a change detection algorithm and image publication workflow, using camera images to detect disaster damage. These payload operation tools have enabled daily interleaved payload operations with minimal manual overhead since the AMS launch on SpaceX\u27s Transporter 5 mission on May 25th, 2022. This paper will describe the architecture of our processing pipeline, mission outcomes, and lessons learned

A Review of Trends in the Scope of International Scholarship in Middle Level Education, 1989–2019

Middle level education as a field of study has expanded during the last thirty years to include a growing, international knowledge base. The primary purpose of this review essay is to highlight trends in the extent to which refereed scholarship in the field of middle level education has reflected international content and perspectives during the last thirty years. To accomplish this task, the authors conducted a chronological review of the major refereed publications of the Association for Middle Level Education, Adolescent Success, and the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Middle Level Education Research (MLER) SIG as well as Middle Grades Research Journal and Middle Grades Review. The authors also examined AERA conference programs between 2010 and 2019 for international content and perspectives in MLER SIG sessions. While the authors’ primary aim was to understand trends in the geographic scope of scholarship in the field, they also gleaned tentative insights about research approaches, theoretical frameworks, and editorial bias that informed a set of recommendations they offered to advance future international work in middle level education. The recommendations include (a) expanding and strengthening worldwide networks of middle grades scholars; (b) building consensus around a middle grades research agenda that has an international dimension; and (c) promoting and engaging in more international scholarship that is theory-driven; uses rigorous, appropriate comparative methodologies; and draws on perspectives from cultures and countries not well represented in the literature

An International Study of Programs That Prepare Teachers of Young Adolescents

This article highlights an upcoming multi-phase, international comparative research study on higher education institution-based programs that prepare teachers of young adolescents. The purpose of this investigation is multifaceted. The investigators aim to (a) document the programmatic and pedagogical features of higher education institution-based programs that prepare teachers of young adolescents in diverse national, regional, cultural, and institutional contexts; (b) identify and describe relationships between higher education institution-based programs that prepare teachers of young adolescents and the socio-cultural, historical, and institutional contexts in which they are embedded; (c) identify and describe patterns of philosophy, programming, and practice evident across higher education institution-based programs that prepare teachers of young adolescents; (d) assess the extent to which higher education institution-based programs that prepare teachers of young adolescents operating in diverse contexts are aligned with the AMLE’s Middle Level Teacher Preparation Standards, and (e) investigate relationships among higher education institution-based programs’ design elements, contexts, implementation processes, and outcomes that prepare teachers of young adolescents

Complex genome evolution in Anopheles coluzzii associated with increased insecticide usage in Mali.

In certain cases, a species may have access to important genetic variation present in a related species via adaptive introgression. These novel alleles may interact with their new genetic background, resulting in unexpected phenotypes. In this study, we describe a selective sweep on standing variation on the X chromosome in the mosquito Anopheles coluzzii, a principal malaria vector in West Africa. This event may have been influenced by the recent adaptive introgression of the insecticide resistance gene known as kdr from the sister species Anopheles gambiae. Individuals carrying both kdr and a nearly fixed X-linked haplotype, encompassing at least four genes including the P450 gene CYP9K1 and the cuticular protein CPR125, have rapidly increased in relative frequency. In parallel, a reproductively isolated insecticide-susceptible A. gambiae population (Bamako form) has been driven to local extinction, likely due to strong selection from increased insecticide-treated bed net usage

Re-Examining School Structures of People, Place, and Time to Promote Equity at the Middle Level

In 2018 we published a chapter entitled “Middle Grades Schools and Structures” (Ellerbrock et al., 2018a) in Literature Reviews in Support of the Middle Level Education Research Agenda (Mertens et al., 2013). Building on the earlier work of Ellerbrock et al. (2018a), this chapter reviewed literature between 2000 and 2018 that reported on the organizational structures of middle level education settings in the United States of America and Australia. Though the findings highlighted the dearth of research specifically examining the organizational structures of middle level education, the literature examined supported the original three key interconnected themes of people, place, and time (Ellerbrock et al., 2018b) as being key features necessary for the implementation of effective middle schooling practices. In our conclusion, we called for more robust research in this area to guide policy and enact practices across different jurisdictions. At the same time, Bishop and Nagle (2018) noted the many increasing disparities in access to quality education and invited readers to consider how schools can serve all students both equitably and well. Equitable access is first and foremost, but equitable outcomes for all students is paramount. At the time of publication of all of these works, no one could have predicted the significant negative impact of COVID-19 and the resultant exacerbation of the already challenging inequities in education across the globe. However, research over the last five years, and particularly since 2020, has placed a greater focus on policy, system, and grassroots pedagogical changes to bridge this widening gap. In light of this heightened focus, this essay aims to reexamine the three key themes of people, place, and time and, when implemented with integrity, the ways middle grades schools and structures can contribute to creating both developmentally responsive and equitable educational experiences for young adolescent learners

The education change model as a vehicle for reform: shifting Year 7 and implementing junior secondary in Queensland

Queensland schools are engaged in change as they shift Year 7 from primary to high school settings from the start of 2015 and implement junior secondary in all public schools in Years 7, 8, and 9. This agenda signals one of the most significant reforms undertaken in Queensland education. It is accompanied by a systemic policy commitment, including resource allocation, to ensure it is supported at the individual school level and in the wider schooling system. In this paper, we outline the Leading Change Development Program undertaken in 2014, which was designed to enable school leaders to facilitate these reforms in their unique school contexts. The program — conceptualised around the Education Change Model — is outlined and data are presented that indicate school leaders’ assessment of the stage of reform their school was located at, according to the reform model