The Impact of Work Supports: The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Illinois 2009

This document models the impact that work supports have on family income and expenses in two different ways. Both model a family with one parent and two children (a preschooler and a schoolage child) on the south side of Chicago (Cook County) Illinois. The document begins with a description of the work supports and child supports that are modeled, followed by an explanation of how and why the taxes and tax credits are treated differently in this document than in the Self-Sufficiency Standard itself. The first modeling section of this document shows the impact of work supports on monthly costs. The second modeling section in this document shows the impact of work supports on wage adequacy

The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Illinois

An introduction to the Self-Sufficiency standard and how it differs from the federal poverty measure

Overlooked and Undercounted - The Struggle to Make Ends Meet in New York City - Key Findings and Recommendations

More than two in five New York City households -- over 940,000 households -- lack enough income to mcover just the necessities, such as food, shelter, health care and child care. Yet as measured by the federal poverty level (FPL), less than half that number is officially designated as "poor." Moving from statistics to people, this translates to over 2.7 million men, women, and children struggling to make ends meet in New York City. Consequently, a large and diverse group of New Yorkers experiencing economic distress is routinely overlooked and undercounted. Many of these hidden poor are struggling to meet their most basic needs, without the help of work supports (they earn too much income to qualify for most, but too little to meet their needs). To make things even worse, their efforts are aggravated by the reality that the costs of housing, health care, and other living expenses continue to rise faster than wages in New York City.To document these trends, we use the yardstick of the Self-Sufficiency Standard. This measure answers the question as to how much income is needed to meet families' basic needs at a minimally adequate level, including the essential costs of working, but without any assistance, public or private. Once these costs are calculated, we then apply the Standard to determine how many -- and which -- households lack enough to cover the basics. Unlike the federal poverty measure, the Standard is varied both geographically and by family composition, reflecting the higher costs facing some families (especially child care for families with young children) and in some places.This report combines two series -- the Self-Sufficiency Standard plus Overlooked and Undercounted -- into one to present a more accurate picture of income inadequacy in New York City. The first section of the report presents the 2014 Self-Sufficiency Standard for New York City, documenting how the cost of living at a basic needs level has increased since 2000. The second section uses the American Community Survey to detail the number and characteristics of households, focusing on those below the Self-Sufficiency Standard

The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Illinois: Methodology Appendix

This appendix explains the methodology, assumptions, and sources used to calculate the Illinois Self-Sufficiency Standard. It begins with a discussion of how the Standard differs from the official Federal Poverty Level, followed by the methodology and assumptions of how each cost is calculated in the Standard, ending with a list of data sources used to calculate the Standard in Illinois

Toward a user-oriented analytical approach to learning design

The London Pedagogy Planner (LPP) is a prototype for a collaborative online planning and design tool that supports lecturers in developing, analysing and sharing learning designs. The tool is based on a developing model of the components involved in learning design, and the critical relationships between them. As a decision tool, it makes the pedagogical design explicit as an output from the process, capturing it for testing, redesign, reuse and adaptation by the originator, or by others. The aim is to test the extent to which we can engage lecturers in reflecting on learning design, and make them part of the educational community that discovers how best to use Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). This paper describes the development of LPP, presents pedagogical benefits of visual representations of learning designs, and proposes an analytical approach to learning design based on these visual representations. The analytical approach is illustrated based on an initial evaluation with the lecturers

Towards a user oriented analytical approach to learning design

The London Pedagogy Planner (LPP) is a prototype for a collaborative online planning and design tool that supports lecturers in developing, analysing and sharing learning designs. The tool is based on a developing model of the components involved in learning design and the critical relationships between them. As a decision tool it makes the pedagogical design explicit as an output from the process, capturing it for testing, redesign, reuse and adaptation by the originator, or by others. The aim is to test the extent to which we can engage lecturers in reflecting on learning design, and make them part of the educational community that discovers how best to use technology‐enhanced learning. This paper describes the development of LPP, presents pedagogical benefits of visual representations of learning designs and proposes an analytical approach to learning design based on these visual representations. The analytical approach is illustrated based on an initial evaluation with a small group of lecturers from two partner institutions

Chemostratigraphy of Upper Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) sequences from the Southern North Sea (United Kingdom)

Important gas reservoirs occur in the Upper Carboniferous coal measures and red beds of the Southern North Sea. The thick red beds of the Boulton and Ketch formations are difficult to correlate, due to poor internal seismic definition, repetitive e-log signatures, and their barren nature. Although the underlying coal measures of the Westoe, Cleaver, and Caister Formations have better seismic resolution and contain palynomorphs, coals that die out laterally and the lack of diagnostic taxa over certain intervals contribute to their correlation being problematical. However, the application of chemostratigraphy to more than sixty wells from numerous fields in UK Quadrants 44 and 49, as well as from Dutch sector Blocks E, F, and K, allows the establishment of an independent, robust, detailed correlation framework for the aforesaid red beds and coal measures. Presented in this paper are correlative chemostratigraphic reference sections for the Caister, Westoe, Cleaver, Ketch, Boulton, and Step Graben formations. The chemostratigraphic zonations erected for these formations are based on variations in silty claystone geochemistry that can be tied to changes in provenance, climate, and depositional environment. In addition, the zonations are supported by stratigraphic changes in sandstone and coal geochemistry, the geochemical correlation of tonsteins and marine bands, and the recognition of different types of paleosol in the above formations. The chemostratigraphic correlation framework enables specific broad intervals ("packages") to be correlated between fields and is also used to constrain seismic correlations with a view to highlighting potential exploration targets. Furthermore, the same framework allows much thinner intervals ("units" and "subunits") to be correlated within fields: these smaller-scale correlations enhance reservoir correlations with respect to the development of fields such as Boulton, Schooner, Tyne, Ketch, and Topaz. In addition to using inorganic geochemical data to characterize and correlate sedimentological packages, data can also used to identify and correlate marker horizons and surfaces (tonsteins, coals, marine bands, major paleosols), which may be highly correlative low-diachrony surfaces, which greatly enhance the overall validity of the stratigraphic correlation scheme

Does publishing during the doctorate influence completion time? A quantitative study of doctoral candidates in Australia.

Aim/Purpose: This paper investigates the association between publishing during doctoral candidature and completion time. The effects of discipline and of gaining additional support through a doctoral cohort program are also explored. Background: Candidates recognize the value of building a publication track record to improve their career prospects yet are cognizant of the time it takes to publish peer-reviewed articles. In some institutions or disciplines, there is a policy or the expectation that doctoral students will publish during their candidature. However, doctoral candidates are also under increasing pressure to complete their studies within a designated timeframe. Thus, some candidates and faculty perceive the two requirements – to publish and to complete on time – as mutually exclusive. Furthermore, where candidates have a choice in the format that the PhD submission will take, be it by monograph, PhD-by-publication, or a hybrid thesis, there is little empirical evidence available to guide the decision. This paper provides a quantitative analysis of the association between publishing during candidature and time-to-degree and investigates other variables associated with doctoral candidate research productivity and efficiency. Methodology: Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to examine the predictors (discipline [field of research], gender, age group, domestic or international student status, and belonging to a cohort program) of doctoral candidate research productivity and efficacy. Research productivity was quantified by the number of peer-reviewed journal articles that a candidate published as a primary author during and up to 24 months after thesis submission. Efficacy (time-to-degree) was quantified by the number of Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) years of candidature. Data on 1,143 doctoral graduates were obtained from a single Australian university for the period extending from 2000 to 2020. Complete publication data were available on 707 graduates, and time-to-degree data on 664 graduates. Data were drawn from eight fields of research, which were grouped into the disciplines of health, biological sciences, agricultural and environmental sciences, and chemical, earth, and physical sciences. Contribution: This paper addresses a gap in empirical literature by providing evidence of the association between publishing during doctoral candidature and time-to-degree in the disciplines of health, biological sciences, agricultural and environmental sciences, and chemical, earth, and physical sciences. The paper also adds to the body of evidence that demonstrates the value of belonging to a cohort pro-gram for doctoral student outcomes. Findings: There is a significant association between the number of articles published and median time-to-degree. Graduates with the highest research productivity (four or more articles) exhibited the shortest time-to-degree. There was also a significant association between discipline and the number of publications published during candidature. Gaining additional peer and research-focused support and training through a cohort program was also associated with higher research productivity and efficiency compared to candidates in the same discipline but not in receipt of the additional support. Recommendations for Practitioners: While the encouragement of candidates to both publish and complete within the recommended doctorate timeframe is recommended, even within disciplines characterized by high levels of research productivity, i.e., where publishing during candidature is the "norm," the desired levels of student research productivity and efficiency are only likely to be achieved where candidates are provided with consistent writing and publication-focused training, together with peer or mentor support. Recommendations for Researchers: Publishing peer-reviewed articles during doctoral candidature is shown not to adversely affect candidates' completion time. Researchers should seek writing and publication-focused support to enhance their research productivity and efficiency. Impact on Society: Researchers have an obligation to disseminate their findings for the benefit of society, industry, or practice. Thus, doctoral candidates need to be encouraged and supported to publish as they progress through their candidature. Future Research: The quantitative findings need to be followed up with a mixed-methods study aimed at identifying which elements of publication and research-focused sup-port are most effective in raising doctoral candidate productivity and efficacy