Locating Local Education Funds: A Conceptual Framework for Describing LEFs' Contribution to Public Education

With support and leadership from the Public Education Network (PEN), local education funds (LEFs) have worked for two decades to 1) educate and mobilize their communities so that citizen voices are influential in education policy discussions; and 2) support effective partnerships between school district insiders and outsiders to improve the quality of children's education. However, as Useem's study of local education funds points out, it has been difficult to identify the many roles that LEFs play in their communities, the work that they undertake, the obstacles that they encounter, and the contributions that they make. Useem also suggests why the work of LEFs defies simple description. As brokers, LEFs work behind the scenes and in partnership with others, which contributes to their invisibility as catalysts and supporters of educational improvement. LEFs also are highly adaptive organizations that typically customize their change strategies to particular communities. Such attention to local context results in tremendous variation in the organization, work, and accomplishments of LEFs. At the same time, the highly individual nature of each LEF often obscures the overarching values, purposes, and goals that these organizations share, thus obscuring a collective identity.As they mark 20 years of work in public education, LEF and PEN leaders are prescient in their insistence on further research into the role and accomplishments of local education funds in shaping the landscape of public schooling. In August 2003, at the request of PEN, Research for Action (RFA) began work on developing a conceptual framework for: 1) understanding the role and work of LEFs and the many factors that influence what they do and how they do it; and 2) assessing their contributions to public education.This framework will be used to guide future empirical research on LEFs and to develop tools that LEFs themselves can use in a process of self-assessment. Continued research and assessment will provide public education stakeholders with credible evidence and a deeper understanding about how LEFs carry out their missions and demonstrate successes. At the same time, it will provide firm ground for LEF and PEN leaders to chart the next generation of work. This report was prepared for Public Education Network by Research for Action

Career capital: Building our mobility within an evolving world of work.

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Building career mobility: A critical exploration of career capital

Work transitions can be stressful to those who experience them, and yet are happening more frequently, as the notion of a job for life fades. Ensuring smooth and successful work transitions is therefore in the direct interests of individuals and, indirectly, employers. Using the career capital construct, this article explores how work transitions can be better negotiated by individuals. After introducing career capital, the article progresses to critically review two theoretical frameworks of career capital. To illustrate the discussion, one individual, a business leader in a wider study we are undertaking, is introduced to exemplify and illuminate our discussion of career capital. The article concludes by offering strategies to support career capital development.N/

Child and young person development: biological, environmental and interpersonal influences

Chapter from book 'Contemporary issues in childhood: a bio-ecological approach', Eds. Stephen Ward and Zeta Brown

The placement journey: Do year one placement modules support Childhood Studies students��� professional development?

This study investigated changes made to the Childhood Studies placement journey of one post-1992 University in England. The Childhood Studies degree includes ���practitioner options��� that requires students to complete 200���h placement experience, including 50 h in year one. In 2014, the participant university responded to this expectation by developing a year one placement module. The study sought to investigate whether the placement module supported the development of student���s professional identities in the first year of their studies. The study primarily used questionnaires, with a small amount of interviews and focus groups during 2014���2015. It found three key themes that students associated with their year one placement and their professional development. These were the importance of placement, links made from theory to practice and links from practice to theory. Students did however state disparities in their experiences of placement, especially in the range of responsibilities they were given. Students commented generally on the benefits (to their professional development) of relating theory to their year one practice, but noted frustration that there were minimal opportunities to reflect on practice in module assessments. The study contributes to existing literature by questioning how theory to practice and practice to theory links can be made more explicit in year one programmes

Building career capital: developing business leaders’ career mobility

Career theorists have been increasingly occupied with role transitions across organisations, neglecting role transitions undertaken within single organisations. By exploring in depth the aspects of career capital that role holders need to facilitate their own organisational role transition, this article builds upon career capital theory. Adopting an interpretivist approach, this study explores the experiences of 36 business leaders who have undertaken a recent role transition within a United Kingdom (UK) construction business. The article empirically characterises 24 career capital aspects, clustered into Knowing Self, Knowing How and Knowing Whom. It argues that these aspects are important to internal role transitions and compares them to mainstream career capital theory. In addition, the concepts of connecting, crossing and investing career capital are introduced to explain how career capital supports such transitions. This study proposes a new career capital framework and refocuses debate on organisational careers. It is based on a single organisation, and it organisations. The article explores the implications of the new career capital framework for business leaders and organisational managers who wish to build individual and organisational career mobility. This study proposes a new, empirically-grounded, career capital theoretical framework particularly attending to organisational role transitions.N/

When 2 or 3 Come Together

This article investigates policies that are responsive to crime in disadvantaged, urban neighborhoods from a community-based context. The vehicle is an analysis of a community-wide prayer vigil held in Chicago in May of 1997. The vigil resulted from a collaboration between the Chicago Police Department and hundreds of (mostly) African- American churches on Chicago’s West Side. Strikingly, the local police district’s commander facilitated the vigil. We explain the sociological and political significance of this collaboration by drawing upon the “Chicago School” of urban sociology and demonstrating theoretically and empirically the potential for the collaboration, through the integration of key community institutions, to promote community capacity to resist crime and to complete other goals and projects of residents. The article’s end addresses constitutional questions. If collaboration between churches and the police through religious activity enhances the community efficacy of poor minority neighborhoods, is there any way to reconcile the benefits of such activity with constitutional concerns about religious establishment? We focus on the extent to which African Americans have been able to influence this jurisprudence through litigation rather than the internal structure of Establishment Clause jurisprudence. A review of the litigation reveals the particular nature of the involvement of African Americans in the development of Establishment Clause jurisprudence, and it demonstrates plainly the extent to which judicial sanction of church-state interaction has had, and continues to have, important racial consequences. African Americans, through representative litigating institutions, have consistently recognized the disparate impact of church-state partnerships, but the Court has never acknowledged the non-religious implications of its Establishment Clause decisions. As a result, Establishment Clause jurisprudence is disconnected from the realities of disparate impact, and that is potentially problematic for African-American communities. We believe excavation of the realities of disparate impact is critical in assessing the extent to which modern church state partnerships should be allowed or even blessed by the state

Beverage Intake and Drinking Patterns—Clues to Support Older People Living in Long-Term Care to Drink Well: DRIE and FISE Studies

Low-intake dehydration, due to insufficient beverage intake, is common in older people and associated with increased mortality and morbidity. We aimed to document drinking patterns of older adults living in long-term care and compared patterns in those drinking well with those not drinking enough. 188 people aged ≥ 65 years living in 56 UK long-term care homes were interviewed and hydration status assessed in the Dehydration Recognition In our Elders (DRIE) study. In 22 DRIE residents, the Fluid Intake Study in our Elders (FISE) directly observed, weighed and recorded all drinks intake over 24-hours. Twenty percent of DRIE participants and 18% of FISE participants had low-intake dehydration (serum osmolality > 300 mOsm/kg ). Mean total drinks intake was 1787 mL/day (SD 693) in FISE participants (2033 ± 842 mL/day in men; 1748 ± 684 mL/day in women). Most drinks intake was between meals (59%, including 10% with medications). Twelve (55%) FISE participants achieved European Food Safety Authority drinks goals (3/6 men drank ≥ 2.0 L/day , 9/16 women drank ≥ 1.6 L/day). Those drinking well were offered beverages more frequently, drank more with medications and more before breakfast (beverage variety did not differ). Promising strategies to support healthy drinking include offering drinks more frequently, particularly before and during breakfast and with medication

Crafting a Civic Stage for Public Education: Understanding the Work and Accomplishments of Local Education Funds

The Education Fund in Miami and other local education funds (LEFs) across the country have toiled for more than two decades -- often behind the scenes -- to strengthen public schooling and raise the academic achievement of students in lowincome communities. With support and leadership from Public Education Network (PEN), local education funds have educated citizens in almost 90 communities across the United States about important public education issues and mobilized community coalitions to bring much-needed resources and give input to public schooling policy discussions. LEFs have also worked directly with districts, schools, students, and parents to bring robust innovation to public education and institutionalize high-quality programs and practices that strengthen children's learning. Like Miami's Education Fund, LEFs throughout the country have made education a civic enterprise in their communities. In this report, we argue that local education funds are uniquely positioned to create a supportive civic environment for improving public education. Historically underappreciated, a civic environment that supports school reform has more recently been recognized by researchers and public education advocates as a necessity. This report identi?es key elements of such an environment and shows how LEFs contribute to its existence. We also argue that local education funds are highly adaptive organizations that customize their change strategies to particular communities. While the individual nature of each LEF may obscure the overarching values, purposes, and goals that these organizations share -- thus masking their collective identity -- customization is at the heart of why LEFs are such effective change agents. They apply deep knowledge of local contexts and strong commitment to core values in order to make strategic decisions about how to position themselves and their work in the local reform landscape. After more than 20 years of work in public education, LEF leaders and PEN continue to be forward-looking in their insistence on research that examines the role and accomplishments of LEFs. In August 2003, at PEN's request, Research for Action (RFA) began to lay a foundation for understanding and assessing how LEFs carry out their missions and how they demonstrate success. In this report we offer stories of LEF work and suggest a conceptual model for understanding the decisions LEFs make as they shape their organizational identity and an approach to their work

Sense about science - making sense of crime

Booklet 'Making Sense of Crime' published by registered charity 'Sense About Science'There’s always heated debate about crime in the media and a lot of political argument about how we should respond to it. But these arguments rarely provide insight into what actually causes crime, what lies behind trends over time and in different places, and how best to go about reducing it. Values inform how a society decides to deal with crime. We may decide that rehabilitation is a better principle than punishment, and this will influence how we decide what is most effective. However, we also expect these choices to be disciplined by sound evidence, because if crime policy ignores what works and what doesn’t, there are likely to be bad social consequences. And with over £10bn spent annually on tackling crime through the police, prisons, probation and courts, unless we look at evidence we can’t see how effective any of it is. Crime policy usually has twin aims – to prevent crime, and to seek justice by punishing those who commit offences. Research shows there’s only a loose link, if any, between the way offenders are punished and the number of offences committed. There is no reliable evidence for example, that capital punishment reduces serious crimes as its supporters claim. Yet politicians and commentators regularly claim that more punishments are a way to cut crime. Academic, government and community organisations have all said crime policies need to be based more on evidence, but much of the evidence available at the moment is poor or unclear. Debates about crime rarely reflect how strong the evidence behind opposing policies is, and even when politicians honestly believe they’re following the evidence, they tend to select evidence that supports their political views. This guide looks at some of the key things we do know and why it has been so difficult to make sense of crime policy. An important point throughout is that policymakers sometimes have to make decisions when things are not clear-cut. They have a better chance of making effective policies if they admit to this uncertainty – and conduct robust research to find out more. In the following pages we have shared insights from experts in violent crime, policing, crime science, psychology and the media’s influence on the crime debate. They don’t have all the answers, but we hope they leave you better-placed to hold policymakers and commentators to account and promote a more useful discussion about crime