Instructional Practices of High School Religion Teachers

High school religion teachers in Catholic schools are central to the mission of such schools and teach in every Catholic high school. Research on effective teaching has not traditionally included this subset of teachers. The overall purpose of this study was to research the best instructional practices for high school religion teachers in Washington State, explore how to best implement the best practices, and explore what opportunities for sharing best practices teachers currently have. The Survey of Instructional Practices (SIP) was created, piloted, revised, and administered in this study. The SIP provided information from high school religion teachers in Washington State about lessons deemed to engage students and enhance student learning, in addition to teachers’ opportunities for sharing ideas on best practices for teaching high school religion. The participants in this study reported on a best lesson taught in a high school religion class and many key findings emerged. The best instructional practices included: (a) discussion, (b) application to real-world situations, (c) application to student’s own life, (d) questioning by teacher, (e) cooperative or collaborative learning, and (f) identifying similarities and differences. Each of these practices is highlighted in the research on best instructional practices for teachers. Furthermore, four major themes emerged for how teachers can implement these practices, which included: (a) clear guidelines and directions, (b) students engaged, (c) student-centered, and (d) students working together. Lastly, participants in the study highlighted the opportunities for sharing best practices as being informal, yet helpful and important. Overall, the findings highlight two important themes for high school religion teachers: (a) the importance of collaboration, both for students and teachers, and (b) the importance of being engaged in the learning process

IMPACT – Information Management, Public Access, Community Transformation: Year Two Evaluation Report, September 1, 2001 through August 31, 2002

The goals of the IMPACT project are “to improve access to and delivery of human services for low-income residents, strengthen community planning and resource allocation, and enhance understanding of data on homelessness can be gathered and aggregated on local and national levels to accurately capture the scope of the problem and the effectiveness of efforts to ameliorate it.” The Center for Social Policy (CSP), McCormack Institute at the University of UMass Boston was commissioned to produce a series of evaluation reports of the IMPACT project; this is the second of three reports covering year two activity of the IMPACT. The Year One report focused on processes in place to implement the project. This report (year Two) continues to look at processes but now also starts to assess progress towards outcomes. The overall evaluation focuses on three broad categories: (1) information and referral, (2) case management, and (3) community planning

IMPACT – Information Management, Public Access, Community Transformation: Final Evaluation Report

In 2000 the Department of Commerce awarded the Lake County (IL) Department of Planning, Building and Development a Technology Opportunity Program (TOPS) Grant to implement Project IMPACT. The project’s goals were “to improve access to and delivery of human services for low-income residents, strengthen community planning and resource allocation, and enhance understanding of data on homelessness that can be gathered and aggregated on local and national levels to accurately capture the scope of the problem and the effectiveness of efforts to ameliorate it.” The Center for Social Policy (CSP) at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston was hired to produce a series of evaluation reports of Project IMPACT. This is the third and final report, which looks at year three activity as well as the overall results of IMPACT. This report covers the period of time from September 1, 2000 through the end of 2003. We ask three questions in this final report: Has the project met the goals laid out at the onset of implementation? Is Project IMPACT on track to be sustainable? Has it all been worth it? The answer to these questions is a qualified yes. That is, some vital goals have certainly been met, yet obstacles remain

Transitions at DTA: Homeless Pilot Programs at the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (2003-2005)

Towards the end of fiscal year 2004, the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA), the state’s welfare department, initiated eight pilot programs to better serve homeless families, to end the state’s reliance on placing families in hotels/motels, and to enable families living in motels to move into stable housing as quickly as possible. These initiatives were created in reaction to the unacceptably high number of motel placements of homeless families (about 600 in 2003). Motels do provide a needed alternative when emergency shelters are full, but they are a political, fiscal and moral liability. In 2004, DTA, in partnership with its shelter providers, successfully moved all homeless families out of motels and into shelters, subsidized housing, market housing or elsewhere. The savings from this move were reinvested into DTA’s homeless initiatives. Recognizing the importance of documenting changes in the State of Massachusetts’ approach to family homelessness during the past year, the Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts examined the implementation of these eight pilot initiatives interviewing officials at DTA, the Mass. Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), local housing authorities, service providers, and homeless advocates. This document provides an overview of these initiatives and details two transitional model programs in greater detail

Partners in Prevention: Community-Wide Homelessness Prevention in Massachusetts and the United States

Examines six community initiatives to prevent homelessness involving cross-organizational resource-sharing, policies, and interventions. Looks at each program's strategy, organization, interventions, and approaches to partnerships, outcomes, and funding

Effects of Material Reward on Performance in Drug Dependent Subjects

Home Economics- Family Relations and Child Developmen

IMPACT – Information Management, Public Access, Community Transformation: Year One Evaluation Report, September 1, 2000 through August 31, 2001

The goals of the IMPACT project are “to improve access to and delivery of human services for low-income residents, strengthen community planning and resource allocation, and enhance understanding of how data on homelessness can be gathered and aggregated on local and national levels to accurately capture the scope of the problem and the effectiveness of efforts to ameliorate it.” The first year of the IMPACT project was one of infrastructure development in a broad sense. It involved primarily the development and modification of innovative information technology tools as well as the identification, selection and deployment of other information systems designed specifically to address the project’s goals. This year was also characterized by the creation of relationships, agreements and the execution of group decisions that allowed the network of service providers and other community partners to participate in this development. The community partners include representatives from community-based non-profit organizations, public sector agencies and a private for-profit partner

A Snapshot of Individuals and Families Accessing Boston\u27s Emergency Homeless Shelters, 1997

This document summarizes key findings from a survey conducted on March 19, 1997 with 338 homeless individuals and 94 families sheltered or served by 33 of 40 shelter programs in the City of Boston. The data presented in this report were collected at one point in time. Point in time data results in an overrepresentation of the longer term homeless, and offers limited insight regarding the structural dynamics underlying movement from homelessness to residential stability (Culhane, Lee, Wachter, 1996; White, 1996). However, it does provide a snapshot of the men, women, and children who were spending the night in a Boston shelter in March 1997. This research was planned to include all of the programs serving homeless adults and families in the City of Boston, with an emphasis on those providing emergency shelter. The programs serving homeless individuals who participated in the study included 13 emergency shelters and three transitional programs, with a combined capacity to serve over 2100 individuals on any given night. The programs serving homeless families who participated in the study included: eight congregate family shelters; four scattered site shelters; four programs serving women and families escaping domestic violence; and one specialized assessment/intake center. These programs have a combined capacity to serve over 240 heads of households and their children (over 1000 family members) on any given night

Partners in Prevention: Community-Wide Homelessness Prevention in Massachusetts and the United States

A central objective of the Homelessness Prevention Initiative (HPI) is to generate information for state policymakers on viable statewide approaches for investing in homelessness prevention. Therefore, to contextualize the policy relevance of HPI evaluation findings and to add to the strength of recommendations, the evaluation team has systematically explored examples of community-wide homelessness prevention efforts already underway in Massachusetts and in other parts of the country. We selected communities that met the following criteria: The prevention network included an entire county, city, region or state. Cross-organizational resource-sharing, policies and interventions were in place. The collaboration engaged in primary prevention, that is, it addressed potential homelessness before it occurred. The cross-organization collaboration was focused on: Preventing families and/or individuals from losing their hold on housing; or preventing discharge from an institution to the streets. In addition, we include a brief write-up of two innovative prevention standalone programs. ValueOptions of Maricopa Co., AZ is a for-profit company that implements a model of prevention that creates housing; Lifelong Family connections is a program in Massachusetts that connects youth leaving the foster care system with substantive social connections for life. Note: As a companion to this report, recognizing the importance of documenting changes in the State of Massachusetts’ approach to family homelessness during the past year, the authors examined the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance’s implementation of homelessness pilot initiatives. These programs aimed to end the state’s reliance on hotel/motel shelter and to enable families living in motels to move into stable housing as quickly as possible. That report can be found at www.mccormack.umb.edu/csp. This report begins with a summary of learnings from a cross-community perspective. We contrast and compare communities’ approaches along several dimensions, including: overall strategies and philosophies; the people they serve; the range of interventions they use; organizational and leadership structures; partnership approaches; funding and sustainability strategies; outcome measurement approaches; successes and challenges. The primary focus is on highlighting lessons relevant for Massachusetts. This section ends with a set of questions that present perplexing dilemmas for any city, state or region planning body attempting to undertake a community-wide prevention initiative. Section Two of the report offers a detailed analysis of each of the six community-wide initiatives. These communities (in alphabetical order) are: Cape Cod, MA; Columbus/Franklin County, Ohio; the state of Minnesota; New York City, NY; Washington DC; and Worcester, MA. Section Three of the report describes two innovative stand-alone prevention programs. One program is a private sector response to prevention, and the other is a social support program for youth leaving foster care

Prevention at Work: Homelessness Prevention Initiative (HPI) Interim Evaluation Report, January 2004 through September 2005

This interim report summarizes what has been learned about the processes and outcomes of interventions by HPI grantees in the first 21 months of the initiative, from January 2004 through September 2005. To ground our findings, Section One begins with a discussion of the housing, economic, and policy contexts in the U.S. and the state that impact low-income households. This section focuses on the public and nonprofit sectors these households rely upon for help when their housing circumstances are precarious.Section Two describes the households served by HPI grantees and their varied circumstances. Section Three offers detail on the prevention strategies used by grantee organizations and their collaborating partners. Section Four summarizes the results to date. Section Five highlights intervention strategies uniquely tailored for diverse populations. Section Six summarizes the key learnings to date; Section Seven concludes the report by posing issues for consideration as the final year of the initiative begins