A Social Model for Health Promotion for an Aging Population: Initial Evidence on the Experience Corps Model

This report evaluates whether a program for older volunteers, designed for both generativity and health promotion, leads to short-term improvements in multiple behavioral risk factors and positive effects on intermediary risk factors for disability and other morbidities. The Experience Corps® places older volunteers in public elementary schools in roles designed to meet schools\u27 needs and increase the social, physical, and cognitive activity of the volunteers. This article reports on a pilot randomized trial in Baltimore, Maryland. The 128 volunteers were 60-86 years old; 95% were African American. At follow-up of 4-8 months, physical activity, strength, people one could turn to for help, and cognitive activity increased significantly, and walking speed decreased significantly less, in participants compared to controls. In this pilot trial, physical, cognitive, and social activity increased, suggesting the potential for the Experience Corps to improve health for an aging population and simultaneously improve educational outcomes for children

Early Educational Intervention, Early Cumulative Risk, and the Early Home Environment as Predictors of Young Adult Outcomes Within a High-Risk Sample

The extent to which early educational intervention, early cumulative risk, and the early home environment were associated with young adult outcomes was investigated in a sample of 139 young adults (age 21) from high-risk families enrolled in randomized trials of early intervention. Positive effects of treatment were found for education attainment, attending college, and skilled employment; negative effects of risk were found for education attainment, graduating high school, being employed and avoiding teen parenthood. The home mediated the effects of risk for graduating high school, but not being employed or teen parenthood. Evidence for moderated mediation was found for educational attainment; the home mediated the association between risk and educational attainment for the control group, but not the treated group

Adult outcomes as a function of an early childhood educational program: An Abecedarian Project follow-up.

Adult (age 30) educational, economic, and social-emotional adjustment outcomes were investigated for participants in the Abecedarian Project, a randomized controlled trial of early childhood education for children from low-income families. Of the original 111 infants enrolled (98% African American), 101 took part in the age-30 follow-up. Primary indicators of educational level, economic status, and social-adjustment were examined as a function of early childhood treatment. Treated individuals attained significantly more years of education, but income-to-needs ratios and criminal involvement did not vary significantly as a function of early treatment. A number of other indicators were described for each domain. Overall, the findings provide strong evidence for educational benefits, mixed evidence for economic benefits and little evidence for social-adjustment outcomes. Implications for public policy are discussed

The evolving landscape of COVID‐19 and post‐COVID condition in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia: A study by ERIC, the European research initiative on CLL

In this retrospective international multicenter study, we describe the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and related disorders (small lymphocytic lymphoma and high-count monoclonal B lymphocytosis) infected by SARS-CoV-2, including the development of post-COVID condition. Data from 1540 patients with CLL infected by SARS-CoV-2 from January 2020 to May 2022 were included in the analysis and assigned to four phases based on cases disposition and SARS-CoV-2 variants emergence. Post-COVID condition was defined according to the WHO criteria. Patients infected during the most recent phases of the pandemic, though carrying a higher comorbidity burden, were less often hospitalized, rarely needed intensive care unit admission, or died compared to patients infected during the initial phases. The 4-month overall survival (OS) improved through the phases, from 68% to 83%, p = .0015. Age, comorbidity, CLL-directed treatment, but not vaccination status, emerged as risk factors for mortality. Among survivors, 6.65% patients had a reinfection, usually milder than the initial one, and 16.5% developed post-COVID condition. The latter was characterized by fatigue, dyspnea, lasting cough, and impaired concentration. Infection severity was the only risk factor for developing post-COVID. The median time to resolution of the post-COVID condition was 4.7 months. OS in patients with CLL improved during the different phases of the pandemic, likely due to the improvement of prophylactic and therapeutic measures against SARS-CoV-2 as well as the emergence of milder variants. However, mortality remained relevant and a significant number of patients developed post-COVID conditions, warranting further investigations

COVID-19 severity and mortality in patients with CLL: an update of the international ERIC and Campus CLL study

Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) may be more susceptible to Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to age, disease, and treatment-related immunosuppression. We aimed to assess risk factors of outcome and elucidate the impact of CLL-directed treatments on the course of COVID-19. We conducted a retrospective, international study, collectively including 941 patients with CLL and confirmed COVID-19. Data from the beginning of the pandemic until March 16, 2021, were collected from 91 centers. The risk factors of case fatality rate (CFR), disease severity, and overall survival (OS) were investigated. OS analysis was restricted to patients with severe COVID-19 (definition: hospitalization with need of oxygen or admission into an intensive care unit). CFR in patients with severe COVID-19 was 38.4%. OS was inferior for patients in all treatment categories compared to untreated (p < 0.001). Untreated patients had a lower risk of death (HR = 0.54, 95% CI:0.41–0.72). The risk of death was higher for older patients and those suffering from cardiac failure (HR = 1.03, 95% CI:1.02–1.04; HR = 1.79, 95% CI:1.04–3.07, respectively). Age, CLL-directed treatment, and cardiac failure were significant risk factors of OS. Untreated patients had a better chance of survival than those on treatment or recently treated

Using the Scientific Method to Guide Learning: An Integrated Approach to Early Childhood Curriculum

Researchers and practitioners have become increasingly interested in how early childhood programs prepare young children for science. Due to a number of factors, including educators’ low self-efficacy for teaching science and lack of educational resources, many early childhood classrooms do not offer high-quality science experiences for young children. However, high-quality science education has the potential to lay an important foundation for children’s knowledge and interest in science as well as reinforcing and integrating critical language, literacy, and math readiness skills. This paper examines the current research on science in preschool classrooms and provides suggestions on how to teach science that supports children’s development across domains. Using the scientific method to explore science with young children provides a systematic model for engaging children in observation, questioning, predicting, experimenting, summarizing, and sharing results. These processes encourage children’s use of language, literacy, and mathematics skills in authentic ways. Suggestions are provided for teachers to use the scientific method as their guide for generating scientific discovery in their classroom

Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk: Report #14

The Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR) was established in 1994 and continued until 2004. It was a collaboration between Johns Hopkins University and Howard University. CRESPAR’s mission was to conduct research, development, evaluation, and dissemination of replicable strategies designed to transform schooling for students who were placed at risk due to inadequate institutional responses to such factors as poverty, ethnic minority status, and non-English-speaking home background.The America Reads Challenge makes a national commitment to the goal that every child will read independently and well by the end of third grade. The primary means of achieving this goal is to place one million volunteers in schools to tutor children in reading. However, we know very little about the effectiveness of using volunteer tutors in our schools. This report reviews 16 volunteer tutoring programs. Only two of these programs had an evaluation comparing equivalent treatment and comparison groups to determine the effectiveness of the program. Five of the programs had no evaluations at all.Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education (R-117-D40005

Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk: Report #14

The Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR) was established in 1994 and continued until 2004. It was a collaboration between Johns Hopkins University and Howard University. CRESPAR’s mission was to conduct research, development, evaluation, and dissemination of replicable strategies designed to transform schooling for students who were placed at risk due to inadequate institutional responses to such factors as poverty, ethnic minority status, and non-English-speaking home background.The America Reads Challenge makes a national commitment to the goal that every child will read independently and well by the end of third grade. The primary means of achieving this goal is to place one million volunteers in schools to tutor children in reading. However, we know very little about the effectiveness of using volunteer tutors in our schools. This report reviews 16 volunteer tutoring programs. Only two of these programs had an evaluation comparing equivalent treatment and comparison groups to determine the effectiveness of the program. Five of the programs had no evaluations at all.Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education (R-117-D40005