Enterprise Education in Schools and the role of Competency Frameworks

Purpose – The period 2002-2010 has seen significant growth in enterprise education in schools in England, accompanied by the growth of guidelines and frameworks to provide educational and assessment structures. This paper intends to explore the questions: What does “enterprise” mean in the context of 14-19 education? What is the purpose and contribution of competence frameworks and related structures for the learning and assessment of enterprise education? How effective are they? and How might enterprise education frameworks evolve in response to changes in the post- recessionary economic, employment and educational landscape? Design/methodology/approach – The paper conducts a critical review of competency frameworks introduced in England to assist with enterprise education primarily for the 14-19 age group. These are compared on the basis of their educational purpose and rationale (“why?”), their content (“what skills and knowledge they include”), and the approaches to teaching, learning and assessment they recommend (“how?”). Findings – The analysis discusses the following questions to reflect on the progress and direction of enterprise education: How broadly or narrowly should enterprise be defined? How useful is the term? Are the skills and related knowledge and attributes too broad or too soft?; and Is there too much emphasis on assessable outcomes, rather than on how enterprising learning takes place? Practical implications – The paper contributes to the development of enterprise education for researchers, policymakers and practitioners in schools at an important point in the economic, educational and political cycle. Originality/value – Enterprise education in schools requires critique of and reflection on what has been achieved, together with consideration of its future purpose, value, orientation and nature. There is a concern that the “delivery” of enterprise education takes place in ways which are not “enterprising” forms of learning, and that assessment drives the curriculum. Changes to definitions, frameworks and pedagogy are needed to clarify its future educational role

How Many of the Uninsured Can Purchase a Marketplace Plan for Less than Their Shared Responsibility Penalty?

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has expanded health insurance coverage by offering both penalties and incentives. The ACA expanded eligibility for Medicaid, and low and middle-income households who earn too much to qualify can purchase subsidized coverage on the health insurance marketplaces using premium assistance tax credits. Individuals, who do not obtain coverage, are subject to a tax penalty under the law's individual mandate unless they meet certain exemptions. While the percent of the population without health coverage has decreased substantially since the major coverage expansion in the ACA, about 10% of the population is still uninsured. Some of those who remain uninsured are eligible for premium subsidies large enough to cover the entire cost of a bronze plan, which is the minimum level of coverage people can buy to satisfy the individual mandate. Others could obtain coverage, after taking into account premium subsidies, for less than the penalty they would have to pay under the individual mandate. This analysis looks at the non-elderly uninsured eligible to enroll in a marketplace plan to determine how many of them would be financially better off enrolling in coverage than paying the penalty

Employer Health Benefits 2011 Annual Survey

Analyzes 2011 trends in employer-sponsored health plans, including premiums, offer rates, coverage, eligibility, enrollment, plan types and market shares, employee cost-sharing, prescription drug and retiree benefits, and the effects of health reform

Employer Health Benefits 2016 Annual Survey

This annual survey of employers provides a detailed look at trends in employer-sponsored health coverage including premiums, employee contributions, cost-sharing provisions, and employer opinions. The 2016 survey included almost 1,900 interviews with non-federal public and private firms.Annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage reached $18,142 this year, up 3 percent from last year, with workers on average paying$5,277 towards the cost of their coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Education Trust 2016 Employer Health Benefits Survey. The 2016 survey includes information on the use of incentives for employer wellness programs, plan cost-sharing as well as firm offer rate. Survey results are released here in a variety of ways, including a full report with downloadable tables on a variety of topics, summary of findings, and an article published in the journal Health Affairs

"They too easily believe what they hear" The Victorian Insane Asylum, Accountability and the Problem of Perception, 1845-1890.

In 1880 the medical profession extensively debated what it believed to be the causes of the public's perception of the insane asylum. The conclusions they came to suggested that the public had fatally misunderstood the nature of asylumdom, accountability, and the complexities of managing lunacy. Elements of the medical profession were quick to blame the failings in the legal provision for madness, for this problem of perception, exonerating themselves in the process. By charting the development of the asylum throughout the latter half of the 1800s as a legal entity, the ways in which the framework was applied on a daily basis by the medical profession will enable this thesis to compare their perception of themselves against that which the public held. Furthermore, it will question whether the problem of perception was a construction of the medical profession, a result of their personal pride and ambition, or whether the public truly feared the stories of abuses and wrongful confinement which littered papers and fiction throughout the period

The Australian Institute of Family Studies Evaluation of the 2006 Family Law Reforms: Key findings

The Australian Institute of Family Studies' Evaluation of the 2006 family law reforms was released in January 2010. It is based on an extensive amount of empirical research, unprecedented in Australia and arguably internationally, comprising 17 separate studies involving 28,000 people, 1724 court files, administrative data and legal analysis. This article presents some key findings of the Evaluation. Specifically, the Evaluation found that for the majority of families, the family law system is working satisfactorily. At the same time however, the Evaluation findings underline the existence of complex issues, including family violence and child abuse concerns, mental health problems and substance misuse which affect many families that rely on the federal family law system^ for assistance. While the introduction of family dispute resolution with exceptions+ has resulted in more disputes being resolved without court action, there is a need for refinement of processes and understandings with respect to cases that are unsuitable for such processes or cases that require additional support in order for disputes to be resolved safely and responsibly. Similarly, while children in shared care represent a minority overall, and while the majority of families with shared care appear to be doing well, there is evidence that these arrangements are sometimes being made even in circumstances where parents have safety concerns, with adverse consequences for the well-being of children

Involvement of Sigma-1 Receptors in the Antidepressant-like Effects of Dextromethorphan

Dextromethorphan is an antitussive with a high margin of safety that has been hypothesized to display rapid-acting antidepressant activity based on pharmacodynamic similarities to the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist ketamine. In addition to binding to NMDA receptors, dextromethorphan binds to sigma-1 (σ1) receptors, which are believed to be protein targets for a potential new class of antidepressant medications. The purpose of this study was to determine whether dextromethorphan elicits antidepressant-like effects and the involvement of σ1 receptors in mediating its antidepressant-like actions. The antidepressant-like effects of dextromethorphan were assessed in male, Swiss Webster mice using the forced swim test. Next, σ1 receptor antagonists (BD1063 and BD1047) were evaluated in conjunction with dextromethorphan to determine the involvement of σ receptors in its antidepressant-like effects. Quinidine, a cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2D6 inhibitor, was also evaluated in conjunction with dextromethorphan to increase the bioavailability of dextromethorphan and reduce exposure to additional metabolites. Finally, saturation binding assays were performed to assess the manner in which dextromethorphan interacts at the σ1 receptor. Our results revealed dextromethorphan displays antidepressant-like effects in the forced swim test that can be attenuated by pretreatment with σ1 receptor antagonists, with BD1063 causing a shift to the right in the dextromethorphan dose response curve. Concomitant administration of quinidine potentiated the antidepressant-like effects of dextromethorphan. Saturation binding assays revealed that a Ki concentration of dextromethorphan reduces both the Kd and the Bmax of [3H](+)-pentazocine binding to σ1 receptors. Taken together, these data suggest that dextromethorphan exerts some of its antidepressant actions through σ1 receptors

Involvement of Sigma-1 Receptors in the Antidepressant-Like Effects of Dextromethorphan

Dextromethorphan is an antitussive with a high margin of safety that has been hypothesized to display rapid-acting antidepressant activity based on pharmacodynamic similarities to the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist ketamine. In addition to binding to NMDA receptors, dextromethorphan binds to sigma-1 (s1) receptors, which are believed to be protein targets for a potential new class of antidepressant medications. The purpose of this study was to determine whether dextromethorphan elicits antidepressant-like effects and the involvement of s1 receptors in mediating its antidepressant-like actions. The antidepressant-like effects of dextromethorphan were assessed in male, Swiss Webster mice using the forced swim test. Next, s1 receptor antagonists (BD1063 and BD1047) were evaluated in conjunction with dextromethorphan to determine the involvement of s receptors in its antidepressant-like effects. Quinidine, a cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2D6 inhibitor, was also evaluated in conjunction with dextromethorphan to increase the bioavailability of dextromethorphan and reduce exposure to additional metabolites. Finally, saturation binding assays were performed to assess the manner in which dextromethorphan interacts at the s1 receptor. Our results revealed dextromethorphan displays antidepressant-like effects in the forced swim test that can be attenuated by pretreatment with s1 receptor antagonists, with BD1063 causing a shift to the right in the dextromethorphan dose response curve. Concomitant administration of quinidine potentiated the antidepressant-like effects of dextromethorphan. Saturation binding assays revealed that a Ki concentration of dextromethorphan reduces both the Kd and the Bmax of [3H](+)-pentazocine binding to s1 receptors. Taken together, these data suggest that dextromethorphan exerts some of its antidepressant actions through s1 receptors

The Assessment of Enterprise Education in the Secondary Sector: A new approach?

Purpose: This article explores the challenges of assessing enterprise education in the secondary education sector. It aims to provide useful insights to help practitioners understand how to evidence the impact of enterprise learning by students. It is necessary because although the assessment of enterprise education activities has been widely highlighted as a key area of concern, it continues to be under represented in the literature. Questions remain as to how educators seeking to monitor student progression can capture quality data and measure relevant aspects of development, often leading enterprise education to be monitored rather than assessed. The article challenges this position by investigating the problems of assessing enterprise in secondary education, examining what does and does not work, and providing practitioners with useful guidance. Approach: The paper has two stages; firstly by presenting a critical review of the existing literature with insights from specialist practitioners sourced through an online survey and a seminar. This provides a broad review of the field from a practitioner standpoint focusing on current assessment techniques and standards. Using this data a conceptual pedagogy is proposed for the delivery of enterprise education and a methodology for its assessment, to be developed in future work. Findings: A critical review of the assessment of enterprise education is presented. This exposes challenges of a confused field, with pockets of good practice in schools often not shared or understood out of context. The development of a novel pedagogical model for teaching enterprise education is proposed, linked to a prototype assessment methodology which presents a new approach for enterprise teaching and learning. Practical Implications: The paper provides a conceptual model for structuring enterprise education which may have relevance across the secondary sector and beyond. The work is limited at this stage since participants in the research were drawn from one geographic area in the East of England, and examples of qualifications reviewed were not exhaustive, but these limitations can be addressed in future research. Value: In this important topic it is vital that new approaches are developed which can a broader debate is created especially at a time of such great change in the educational landscape. This paper provides a platform for further development in the field