A Phenomenological Approach to Examining Perceptions of Middle School Students and Their Educators about Their Service-learning Experiences

A primary purpose of public education is to ensure that all citizens have the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to participate in a democracy. Service learning is a democratic, constructivist, instructional strategy that connects academic learning with community needs. This phenomenological study described: (a) how youth, their educators, and community partners who experience service learning perceive its effects on themselves, their schools, and their community lives and (b) how professional-development opportunities need to be structured in order to encourage high quality civics education instruction. The problem this study addressed was how to solve youth civic and political disengagement. This study relied heavily upon in-depth interviews of nine middle school students, six middle school educators, and one community partner from a rural community in the northeastern United States. In addition, participant journals and grant documents were reviewed. Rubin and Rubin\u27s guidelines and Tesh\u27s eight step coding process were used to analyze each transcript, journal, and document. Results showed that service learning promoted the application of academic content, motivated students, appealed to various learning styles, built relationships, encouraged collaboration, and provided leadership opportunities. By better understanding the benefits and challenges of service learning projects as described by participants, this study could facilitate positive social change and improvements to current civic education instruction, including higher quality service-learning projects. By working collaboratively, youth, educators, and community partners can address the problem of youth disengagement from civic and political life, thus ensuring the continuation of a healthy democracy

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

The gallery walk: Educators step up to build assessment literacy

If you were given a two-hour time block for professional development on a Friday afternoon just before the school district is to go on a week-long vacation, what kind of professional learning would you offer to maintain adult learners’ interest and meet their learning needs? The authors chose an interactive immersion gallery walk to present information about foundational classroom assessment literacy concepts and skills. A gallery walk is a discussion technique that gets learners out of their seats and invites them to become active participants in the learning process

Teaching Strategies That Create Assessment-Literate Learners

Your go-to guide for using classroom assessment as a teaching and learning tool! How can we bring students into the assessment process as full partners in ways that help them become owners of learning? Becoming an assessment-literate learner means understanding where you are going as a learner, where you’re at now, and what you need to do to reach a learning goal. This book unpacks seven strategies of assessment for learning, along with the five keys of quality assessment, in a practical vision of quality assessment used to support and certify learning. With a focus on high-impact classroom practices, this book offers Clear and relevant examples of assessment for learning strategies in specific subject matter contexts Visual learning progressions for use in a self-assessment checklist and professional development Additional material and examples on an author-created website When we take a balanced approach to assessment and give students the tools and skills to support their own progress, students and teachers win. This book gives you the strategies and examples to make this possible

Implementation of a Proficiency‐Based Diploma System in Maine: Phase II ‐ District Level Analysis

This report describes the findings from Phase II of a study of Maine\u27s implementation of a proficiency‐based diploma system. At the request of the Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs of the Maine Legislature, the Maine Policy Research Institute (MEPRI) has conducted a two‐phased study of the implementation of Maine law LD 1422: An Act to Prepare Maine People for the Future Economy. Phase I of the study in 2012‐2013 reported on the preliminary development, costs and impacts of standards‐based school programs in Maine. Phase II of the study focused on examining school districts in Maine implementing a proficiency-based diploma system. Eight Maine school districts, representing different school district sizes, geographic areas, and years of implementing proficiency‐based reforms were examined through site visits, interviews, and focus groups. Implementing a proficiency‐based diploma system by 2018 represents a sea change in the way education is provided for Maine children. The evidence from both phases of this study indicated that many school districts are working diligently to fulfill the state mandate. In so doing school districts are seeing some key benefits from this work. At the same time, school districts are facing some key challenges in completing this work. Each of these key benefits and challenges are described in the report, along with a series of recommendations to facilitate future work in implementing Maine’s proficiency‐based diploma system

Empagliflozin in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

Background The effects of empagliflozin in patients with chronic kidney disease who are at risk for disease progression are not well understood. The EMPA-KIDNEY trial was designed to assess the effects of treatment with empagliflozin in a broad range of such patients. Methods We enrolled patients with chronic kidney disease who had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of at least 20 but less than 45 ml per minute per 1.73 m(2) of body-surface area, or who had an eGFR of at least 45 but less than 90 ml per minute per 1.73 m(2) with a urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (with albumin measured in milligrams and creatinine measured in grams) of at least 200. Patients were randomly assigned to receive empagliflozin (10 mg once daily) or matching placebo. The primary outcome was a composite of progression of kidney disease (defined as end-stage kidney disease, a sustained decrease in eGFR to &lt; 10 ml per minute per 1.73 m(2), a sustained decrease in eGFR of &amp; GE;40% from baseline, or death from renal causes) or death from cardiovascular causes. Results A total of 6609 patients underwent randomization. During a median of 2.0 years of follow-up, progression of kidney disease or death from cardiovascular causes occurred in 432 of 3304 patients (13.1%) in the empagliflozin group and in 558 of 3305 patients (16.9%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.72; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.64 to 0.82; P &lt; 0.001). Results were consistent among patients with or without diabetes and across subgroups defined according to eGFR ranges. The rate of hospitalization from any cause was lower in the empagliflozin group than in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.78 to 0.95; P=0.003), but there were no significant between-group differences with respect to the composite outcome of hospitalization for heart failure or death from cardiovascular causes (which occurred in 4.0% in the empagliflozin group and 4.6% in the placebo group) or death from any cause (in 4.5% and 5.1%, respectively). The rates of serious adverse events were similar in the two groups. Conclusions Among a wide range of patients with chronic kidney disease who were at risk for disease progression, empagliflozin therapy led to a lower risk of progression of kidney disease or death from cardiovascular causes than placebo