Gender, Justice, and Schooling in ‘Postfeminist’ Times: A Critical Examination of the ‘Boy Crisis’

Gender and education, as an issue of equity, has predominantly been framed as a concern about schooling the girls. However, in recent years, a growing concern for boys and their education has emerged in most Western countries, making headlines in mainstream US media with little oppositional response from high profile voices and US educational researchers. If media headlines and parental and educator concerns are right, we are in the midst of a \u22boy crisis\u22 as a result of years of feminist interventions for girls at the expense of boys. Shifting attention to boys and invoking the notion of a generalized \u22boy crisis\u22 creates an oversimplification in which many complexities are subsumed. Through my analyses in this dissertation, I aim to unravel some of these complexities of gender and schooling and identify a possible way forward that promotes justice. Using a lens of feminist political philosophy, I argue for a transformational gender agenda, grounded in justice, for schooling to benefit both boys and girls in their academic, social, and political development. I continue and contribute to an already rich discussion of theory, politics, and educational policy and practice by providing an improved understanding of how to conceive of and foster gender justice, focusing on schools as sites in which asymmetries of power are played out, which helps us to identify effective strategies for tackling inequalities in schools

An Assessment of Colorado's Charter Schools: Implications for Policy

The number of Colorado charter schools has grown from one in 1993, the year the legislature passed the Charter Schools Act, to ninety-six in 2004. Over this time period, Colorado’s education policy has become increasingly favorable toward charter schools. Among the significant changes from the original charter school bill that have since been enacted are these: removing the original cap of 60 on the number that could be created; increasing the per pupil funding that local school districts are required to pass on to the charter school (from 80% to 95%); and requiring that local districts share virtually all forms of funding with charter schools, including capital construction and Amendment 23 dollars. The implementation of the state-level Charter School Institute in 2004, which provides new or existing charter schools with complete autonomy from local school districts, is the latest and most far-reaching legislation. It virtually abandons the principle of local control and is likely to further accelerate the pace of charter school growth in Colorad

On school choice and test-based accountability.

Among the two most prominent school reform measures currently being implemented in The United States are school choice and test-based accountability. Until recently, the two policy initiatives remained relatively distinct from one another. With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), a mutualism between choice and accountability emerged whereby school choice complements test-based accountability. In the first portion of this study we present a conceptual overview of school choice and test-based accountability and explicate connections between the two that are explicit in reform implementations like NCLB or implicit within the market-based reform literature in which school choice and test-based accountability reside. In the second portion we scrutinize the connections, in particular, between school choice and test-based accountability using a large western school district with a popular choice system in place. Data from three sources are combined to explore the ways in which school choice and test-based accountability draw on each other: state assessment data of children in the district, school choice data for every participating student in the district choice program, and a parental survey of both participants and non-participants of choice asking their attitudes concerning the use of school report cards in the district. Results suggest that choice is of benefit academically to only the lowest achieving students, choice participation is not uniform across different ethnic groups in the district, and parents' primary motivations as reported on a survey for participation in choice are not due to test scores, though this is not consistent with choice preferences among parents in the district. As such, our results generally confirm the hypotheses of choice critics more so than advocates. Keywords: school choice; accountability; student testing

Dropout Policies: Research-Based Strategies

Educational research has uncovered proven remedies with the potential to lower dropout rates. Yet Colorado’s dropout problem continues at epidemic rates. Approximately 30 percent of Colorado’s students fail to graduate within four years of starting high school. This dropout crisis is costly to our state and is seriously harming children, families, local communities, and the state as a whole. Students without high school diplomas lack the skills and knowledge needed to maintain a sound economy and healthy democracy for future generations

The V471A polymorphism in autophagy-related gene ATG7 modifies age at onset specifically in Italian Huntington disease patients

The cause of Huntington disease (HD) is a polyglutamine repeat expansion of more than 36 units in the huntingtin protein, which is inversely correlated with the age at onset of the disease. However, additional genetic factors are believed to modify the course and the age at onset of HD. Recently, we identified the V471A polymorphism in the autophagy-related gene ATG7, a key component of the autophagy pathway that plays an important role in HD pathogenesis, to be associated with the age at onset in a large group of European Huntington disease patients. To confirm this association in a second independent patient cohort, we analysed the ATG7 V471A polymorphism in additional 1,464 European HD patients of the “REGISTRY” cohort from the European Huntington Disease Network (EHDN). In the entire REGISTRY cohort we could not confirm a modifying effect of the ATG7 V471A polymorphism. However, analysing a modifying effect of ATG7 in these REGISTRY patients and in patients of our previous HD cohort according to their ethnic origin, we identified a significant effect of the ATG7 V471A polymorphism on the HD age at onset only in the Italian population (327 patients). In these Italian patients, the polymorphism is associated with a 6-years earlier disease onset and thus seems to have an aggravating effect. We could specify the role of ATG7 as a genetic modifier for HD particularly in the Italian population. This result affirms the modifying influence of the autophagic pathway on the course of HD, but also suggests population-specific modifying mechanisms in HD pathogenesis

Identification of genetic variants associated with Huntington's disease progression: a genome-wide association study

Background Huntington's disease is caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the huntingtin gene, HTT. Age at onset has been used as a quantitative phenotype in genetic analysis looking for Huntington's disease modifiers, but is hard to define and not always available. Therefore, we aimed to generate a novel measure of disease progression and to identify genetic markers associated with this progression measure. Methods We generated a progression score on the basis of principal component analysis of prospectively acquired longitudinal changes in motor, cognitive, and imaging measures in the 218 indivduals in the TRACK-HD cohort of Huntington's disease gene mutation carriers (data collected 2008–11). We generated a parallel progression score using data from 1773 previously genotyped participants from the European Huntington's Disease Network REGISTRY study of Huntington's disease mutation carriers (data collected 2003–13). We did a genome-wide association analyses in terms of progression for 216 TRACK-HD participants and 1773 REGISTRY participants, then a meta-analysis of these results was undertaken. Findings Longitudinal motor, cognitive, and imaging scores were correlated with each other in TRACK-HD participants, justifying use of a single, cross-domain measure of disease progression in both studies. The TRACK-HD and REGISTRY progression measures were correlated with each other (r=0·674), and with age at onset (TRACK-HD, r=0·315; REGISTRY, r=0·234). The meta-analysis of progression in TRACK-HD and REGISTRY gave a genome-wide significant signal (p=1·12 × 10−10) on chromosome 5 spanning three genes: MSH3, DHFR, and MTRNR2L2. The genes in this locus were associated with progression in TRACK-HD (MSH3 p=2·94 × 10−8 DHFR p=8·37 × 10−7 MTRNR2L2 p=2·15 × 10−9) and to a lesser extent in REGISTRY (MSH3 p=9·36 × 10−4 DHFR p=8·45 × 10−4 MTRNR2L2 p=1·20 × 10−3). The lead single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in TRACK-HD (rs557874766) was genome-wide significant in the meta-analysis (p=1·58 × 10−8), and encodes an aminoacid change (Pro67Ala) in MSH3. In TRACK-HD, each copy of the minor allele at this SNP was associated with a 0·4 units per year (95% CI 0·16–0·66) reduction in the rate of change of the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS) Total Motor Score, and a reduction of 0·12 units per year (95% CI 0·06–0·18) in the rate of change of UHDRS Total Functional Capacity score. These associations remained significant after adjusting for age of onset. Interpretation The multidomain progression measure in TRACK-HD was associated with a functional variant that was genome-wide significant in our meta-analysis. The association in only 216 participants implies that the progression measure is a sensitive reflection of disease burden, that the effect size at this locus is large, or both. Knockout of Msh3 reduces somatic expansion in Huntington's disease mouse models, suggesting this mechanism as an area for future therapeutic investigation

Educational policy analysis archives

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Observation from Earth of an atypical cloud system in the upper Martian atmosphere

International audienceContext. The atmosphere of Mars is characterised by a complex seasonal cycle of cloud formation related to the condensation of CO2 and H2O, and to the lifting of surface dust. Several decades of spacecraft observations have provided an impressive amount of data to constrain cloud properties. However, observations of a given cloud obtained from Mars orbit are typically limited in time sampling and spatial coverage. As a complement to this existing dataset, Earth-based telescopic observations have the potential to provide a global and dynamic view of some large-scale Mars clouds.Aims. On 17 November 2020, Mars and Earth were close to opposition. We took advantage of this configuration to attempt observing large-scale high-altitude atmospheric phenomena from Earth with a high time sampling, over several hours.Methods. Ten amateur astronomers were coordinated along with professional astronomers to observe Mars.Results. We observed the occurrence of a large-scale high-altitude cloud system, extending over thousands of kilometres from the equator to 50°S. Over 3 h, it emerged from the night side at 92−16+30 km and dissipated on the dayside. It occurred at a solar longitude of 316° (southern summer) concomitantly to a regional dust storm and west of the magnetic anomaly. Despite its high altitude, it was composed of relatively large particles (effective radius in the 1–2 µm range). While dust appears an unlikely candidate, possible composition by CO2 or H2O are both conceivable, although the whole properties of the cloud makes it atypical compared to previously reported clouds. We discuss the possible connections with the dust storm, along with the hypothetical role of nucleation from cosmic particle precipitation.Conclusions. We continuously followed a high-altitude huge cloud system on Mars from Earth, emerging from the Martian night, from its appearance at the terminator until its complete dissipation. It is either a large-grained water ice cloud system or an extended mid-summer dawn CO2 cloud system