Transforming Public Education: The Need for an Educational Justice Movement

Nearly fifteen years after the passage of No Child Left Behind, the failures of our educational system with regard to low-income children of color remain profound. Traditional reform efforts have sought improvements solely within the confines of the school system, failing to realize how deeply educational failure is part of and linked to broader structures of poverty and racism. A social movement that creates political and cultural change is necessary to transform the racial inequities in public education itself and to connect this transformational effort to a larger movement to combat poverty and racism. The seeds of a new educational justice movement can be found in the rise of community and youth organizing efforts, in the development of teacher activism, and in the recent creation of new alliances at local, state, and national levels like those combating the school-to-prison pipeline. Many activists and educators have begun to offer a program for school transformation that connects to a broad agenda to combat racial segregation and economic insecurity, to improve housing, public health, and safety, and to reform immigration laws

Pesquisa colaborativa e construção de movimento multi-questão para a justiça educacional: Reflexões sobre a Urban Research Based Action Network (URBAN)

Two long-time scholar-activists reflect on a distinctive approach to research that they call collaborative research for justice, research that is conducted with community leaders and education activists to advance equity and social justice. They argue that by linking research directly with action this kind of research has the power to speak directly to the current crises not only in education, but also in the other institutions of civil society. Drawing on decades of experience in public research universities, local community based organizations, inter/national disciplinary research organizations, and distributed informal networks of engaged scholars, social justice activists, and community leaders, they reflect specifically on the more recent formation of the Urban Research Based Action Network (URBAN), a national network of people enacting a variety of forms of collaborative research for justice, now with more than 1500 members. They outline lessons that might contribute to building the multi-issue movement for educational justice that they believe is required to transform public schools to make them serve the needs of the most disadvantaged, aggrieved, and inequitably treated communities. In its short history URBAN has already impacted the academy through the gatherings and meetings it has hosted as well as through a rigorous publishing agenda, including a special issue of EPAA in which this article appears. Dos académicos-activistas reflexionan sobre un enfoque distinto a la investigación que llaman investigación colaborativa para la justicia, investigación que se dirige con líderes comunitarios y activistas de la educación para promover la equidad y la justicia social. Los autores argumentan que al vincular la investigación directamente a la acción, ese tipo de investigación tiene el poder de hablar directamente a las crisis actuales, no sólo en la educación, sino también en las otras instituciones de la sociedad civil. Con base en décadas de experiencia, reflejan específicamente la formación más reciente de la Urban Research Based Action Network (URBAN), una red nacional de personas que promueven diversas formas de investigación colaborativa para la justicia, ahora con más de 1500 miembros. Describen lecciones que pueden contribuir a la construcción de un movimiento por la justicia educativa, que creen necesario para transformar las escuelas públicas y ayudarlas a satisfacer las necesidades de las comunidades más desfavorecidas, perjudicadas e injustamente tratadas. En su corta historia, el URBAN ya impactó la academia a través de los encuentros y reuniones que organizó, así como por medio de una agenda editorial rigurosa.Dois acadêmicos-ativistas refletem sobre uma abordagem distinta à pesquisa que chamam de pesquisa colaborativa para a justiça, pesquisa que é conduzida com líderes comunitários e ativistas da educação para promover a equidade e a justiça social. Eles argumentam que ao vincular a pesquisa diretamente à ação, esse tipo de pesquisa tem o poder de falar diretamente às crises atuais, não apenas na educação, mas também nas outras instituições da sociedade civil. Com base em décadas de experiência, eles refletem especificamente a formação mais recente da Urban Research Based Action Network (URBAN), uma rede nacional de pessoas que promovem diversas formas de pesquisa colaborativa para a justiça, agora com mais de 1500 membros. Eles descrevem lições que podem contribuir para a construção de um movimento pela justiça educacional, que eles acreditam ser necessário para transformar as escolas públicas e ajudá-las a atender às necessidades das comunidades mais desfavorecidas, prejudicadas e injustamente tratadas. Em sua curta história, o URBAN já impactou a academia por meio dos encontros e reuniões que organizou, bem como por meio de uma agenda editorial rigorosa

NEPC Review: Turning Lightning into Electricity: Organizing Parents for Education Reform

This report presents the findings of research on parent organizing within what the report calls Education Reform Advocacy Organizations (ERAO), such as Stand for Children and Parent Revolution. The ERAO agendas focus on standards, test-based accountability, teacher tenure reform, and parent choice. The report recognizes that ERAOs are often criticized as astroturf organizations that mobilize parents behind their agendas instead of building authentic parent power; it then presents some evidence that many groups are committed to long-lasting parent engagement, and it reports on the community organizing practices they use to build parent leadership. Unfortunately, the report&rsquo;s presentation of research methods is so weak that the research cannot be relied upon without a better idea of the rigor or lack of rigor of its approach. The findings may be valid for the groups studied, but the selection is biased towards ERAOs that work to build sustainable forms of parent participation; it is unclear if those groups are representative of the broader field of ERAOs. While the report suggests some community organizing strategies can be used to advance the ERAO version of education reform, this approach undermines an understanding of community organizing as a democratic practice through which organizations and agendas emerge out of the concerns and through the actions of indigenous community leaders working to build a more inclusive public democracy.</p

Urban socioeconomic inequality and biodiversity often converge, but not always: A global meta-analysis

It is through urban biodiversity that the majority of humans experience nature on a daily basis. As cities expand globally, it is increasingly important to understand how biodiversity is shaped by human decisions, institutions, and environments. In some cities, research has documented convergence between high socioeconomic status (SES) and high species diversity. Yet, other studies show that residents with low SES live amid high biodiversity or that SES and biodiversity appear unrelated. This study examines the conditions linked to varying types of relationships between SES and biodiversity. We identified and coded 84 case studies from 34 cities in which researchers assessed SES-biodiversity relationships. We used fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to evaluate combinations of study design and city-level conditions that explain why SES-biodiversity relationships vary city to city and between plants and animals. While the majority of cases demonstrated increased biodiversity in higher SES neighborhoods, we identified circumstances in which inequality in biodiversity distribution was ameliorated or negated by disturbance, urban form, social policy, or collective human preference. Overall, our meta-analysis highlights the contributions of residential and municipal decisions in differentially promoting biodiversity along socioeconomic lines, situated within each city’s environmental and political context. Through identifying conditions under which access to biodiversity is more or less unequal, we call attention to outstanding research questions and raise prospects for better promoting equitable access to biodiversity

Chapter 9: Aquatic Macroinvertebrates, Section A: Aquatic Macroinvertebrates (Exclusive of Mosquitoes)

Final Report. Excerpt (Chapter 9, Section A) from The Des Plaines River Wetlands Demonstration Project, Volume II, Baseline Survey, edited by Donald L. Hey and Nancy S. PhilippiReport issued on: October 1985INHS Technical Report prepared for Wetlands Research, Inc

Preliminary analysis of LDEF instrument A0187-1: Chemistry of Micrometeoroids Experiment

The Chemistry of Micrometeoroids Experiment (CME) exposed approximately 0.8 sq. m of gold on the Long Duration Exposure Facility's (LDEF's) trailing edge (location A03) and approximately 1.1 sq. m of aluminum in the forward-facing A11 location. The most significant results to date relate to the discovery of unmelted pyroxene and olivine fragments associated with natural cosmic dust impacts. The latter are sufficiently large for detailed phase studies, and they serve to demonstrate that recovery of unmelted dust fragments is a realistic prospect for further dust experiments that will employ more advanced collector media. We also discovered that man-made debris impacts occur on the LDEF's trailing edge with substantially higher frequency than expected, suggesting that orbital debris in highly elliptical orbits may have been somewhat underestimated

Breeding Sustainable Beef Cows: Reducing Weight and Increasing Productivity

Programs for sustainable beef production are established, but the specific role of beef cows in these systems is not well defined. This work characterized cows for two traits related to sustainability, cow weight (CW) and cumulative weight weaned (WtW). Cow weight indicates nutrient requirements and enteric methane emissions. Cumulative weight weaned reflects reproductive performance and avoidance of premature culling for characteristics related to animal health, welfare, and worker safety. Both traits were evaluated with random regression models with records from a crossbred population representing 18 breeds that conduct US national cattle evaluations. The genomic REML analyses included additive and dominance components, with relationships among 22,776 animals constructed from genotypes of 181,286 potentially functional variants imputed from a low-pass sequence. Projected to 8 years of age, the additive heritability estimate for CW was 0.57 and 0.11 for WtW. Dominance heritability was 0.02 for CW and 0.19 for WtW. Many variants with significant associations with CW were within previously described quantitative trait loci (QTL) for growthrelated production, meat, and carcass traits. Significant additive WtW variants were covered by QTL for traits related to reproduction and structural soundness. All breeds contributed to groups of cows with high and low total genetic values (additive + dominance effects) for both traits. The high WtW cows and cows above the WtW mean but below the CW mean had larger heterosis values and fewer bases in runs of homozygosity. The high additive heritability of CW and dominance effects on WtW indicate that breeding to improve beef cow sustainability should involve selection to reduce CW and mate selection to maintain heterosis and reduce runs of homozygosity. Simple Summary: Improving the sustainability of beef cows involves reducing feed costs and enteric methane emissions and increasing calf production while addressing concerns including animal health and welfare and worker safety. Reducing cow weight can favorably impact feed costs and methane emissions. Cumulative weight weaned observed throughout a cow’s productive life directly addresses calf production and indirectly addresses other concerns—cumulative production is higher for cows who wean healthy calves and avoid culling because of reproductive failure, unsoundness, and dangerous behavior. Using functional variant genotypes imputed from the low-coverage whole genome sequence, this examination of cow weight and cumulative weight weaned in a herd of crossbred cattle resulted in additive heritability estimates of 0.57 for cow weight and 0.11 for weight weaned by 8-year-old cows. Corresponding dominance heritability estimates were 0.02 for cow weight and 0.19 for weight weaned. All breeds were represented by cows projected to have high and low cow weights and weight weaned. Heterosis was higher and genomic inbreeding, measured by runs of homozygosity, was lower among high-weight weaned cows. These results suggest selection should be effective in reducing cow weight. Selection to increase weight weaned will be slow but can be hastened with crossbreeding. Especially when pedigree is not available to estimate heterosis, runs of homozygosity may be a useful indicator of heterosis and a predictor of cumulative productivity. Beef cow sustainability can be improved with appropriate crossbreeding and selection, and may be accelerated by incorporating functional variants associated with sustainability-related traits

African American Ethnic and Class-Based Identities on the World Wide Web: Moderating the Effects of Self-Perceived Information Seeking/Finding and Web Self-Efficacy

The web is a potentially powerful tool for communicating information to diverse audiences. Unfortunately, all groups are not equally represented on the web, and this may have implications for online information seeking. This study investigated the role of class- and ethnic-based identity in self-perceived web-based information seeking/finding and self-efficacy. A questionnaire is administered, asking African Americans about their class and ethnic identities and web use to test a conceptual model predicting that these identities are positively related to web-based information seeking and web self-efficacy, which are then positively related to web-based information finding. Gender and previous web experience are expected to moderate the relationships. Structural equations modeling of these data support most of the predictions and indicate that these identities influence perceptions of online information seeking