The State of Education Savings Account Programs in the United States

Arguably the most strongly promoted approach by voucher advocates is a new form of government subsidy for private education, Education Savings Accounts (ESAs). Parents are provided a set sum which they can use for a variety of educational services including private school tuition and fees, online courses, extracurricular activities and private tutoring. Students enrolled in an ESA program are not allowed to concurrently attend a public school. This policy brief examines this emerging policy, considering similarities and differences with conventional voucher approaches, and examining the legal issues that the policy raises

Introduction: Assessing the Research Base for A Blueprint for Reform

In March 2010, the Obama administration released "A Blueprint for Reform," setting forth its proposed revisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). If enacted, the Blueprint will shape the curriculum, standards, assessment and accountability systems of schools throughout the nation. It will also determine how and where federal education funds will be targeted. It will further increase federal control over K-12 education and help fund a greater private-sector role in the operation of public schools. Mirroring the administration's Race to the Top competitive grant priorities, the Blueprint pushes states to adopt its preferred policies and practices. Two months after the release of the Blueprint, the U.S. Department of Education issued a set of six documents, presented as summaries of "the research that supports the proposals in the blueprint," in order, it said, "to inform conversations around ESEA reauthorization and the reforms that research shows are necessary." NEPC asked experts in each of the six areas to review these research summaries, and those reviews find that the research cited by the Department does not provide solid support for its proposals

Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act: Time to Move Beyond Test-Focused Policies

In this Policy Memo, Kevin Welner and William Mathis discuss the broad research consensus that standardized tests are ineffective and even counterproductive when used to drive educational reform. Yet the debates in Washington over the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act largely ignore the harm and misdirection of these test-focused reforms. As a result, the proposals now on the table simply gild a demonstrably ineffective strategy, while crowding out policies with proven effectiveness. Deep-rooted trends of ever-increasing social and educational needs, as well as fewer or stagnant resources, will inevitably lead to larger opportunity gaps and achievement gaps. Testing will document this, but it will do nothing to change it. Instead, the gaps will only close with sustained investment and improvement based on proven strategies that directly increase children’s opportunities to learn

Por que teoria é importante: Uma investigação das reformas contemporâneas do tempo de aprendizagem

This article explores the contemporary policy reform push to extend and expand learning time in schools. In light of the potential and continued prominence of learning time reforms in today’s national educational landscape, this article makes visible the ways in which theory matters for the near- and long-term success of equity-focused educational reforms. Using the recent enactment of learning time reforms in Colorado as an illustration, and the zone of mediation framework as a conceptual lens, this article demonstrates how such reforms are likely to be weakened and undermined without strong theoretical grounding.Este artículo examina políticas contemporáneas que enfatizan un cambio para extender y/o dispersar el tiempo de aprendizaje en las escuelas. Dado el potencial y relevancia actual de las reformas hacia el tiempo de aprendizaje en el campo general de educación, el propósito de este articulo es brevemente enaltecer las maneras en las cuales la teoría educativa son de suma importancia, a largo y corto plazo, para asegurar el éxito de dichas reformas educativas orientadas hacia la equidad. Utilizando el ejemplo de la implementación de estas reformas en Colorado, y el instrumento teorético de la zona me mediación, este artículo demuestra como reformas similares pueden ser disminuidos por una falta de un base de teoría fuerte.Este artigo examina o promover da reforma contemporânea das regras para ampliar e expandir o tempo de aprendizagem nas escolas. Considerando o potencial e o contínuo destaque da reforma do tempo de aprendizagem no ambiente da educação nacional atualmente, este artigo ilustra as maneiras em que teoria é importante para o sucesso imediato e futuro das reformas educacionais que se focalizam em equidade. Usando a recente promulgação das reformas do tempo de aprendizagem em Colorado como ilustração, e o sistema de zona de mediação como uma lente conceitual, o artigo demonstra como tais reformas serão provavelmente enfraquecidas sem uma forte base teórica

Researchers as Resources: A List of Experts Who Can Speak to the Overall Knowledge Base on Important Education Issues

This NEPC Policy Memo offers a list of experts who can speak to the overall knowledge base — to the weight of scholarly thought and research evidence in a given education policy area

NEPC Review: Separating Fact & Fiction: What You Need to Know About Charter Schools

The irony of a recent report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is that it purports to &ldquo;separate fact from fiction&rdquo; about charter schools. Unfortunately, in addressing 21 &ldquo;myths,&rdquo; it embraces fiction whenever useful to push advocacy goals, thus perpetuating its own myths and fictions about charter schools. Since it relies overwhelmingly on other advocacy documents, it does not give a balanced or thorough examination of any of the 21 &ldquo;myths.&rdquo; But the exercise provides a useful opportunity for this review to walk through the various claims and succinctly address each. Among the areas addressed are the financial equality of charter schools, lower teacher qualifications, student selection demographics, academic outcomes, segregation, and innovation. While the NAPCS report itself may provide only sound-bite fodder for advocates, we hope that the two documents combined&mdash;report plus review&mdash;offer an overview of issues that does advance comprehensive understanding.</p

PSYCHOSES IN CHILDREN OF SCHIZOPHRENIC MOTHERS

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66064/1/j.1600-0447.1967.tb07624.x.pd

Transient Activation of Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells by IFNγ during Acute Bacterial Infection

How hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) respond to inflammatory signals during infections is not well understood. Our studies have used a murine model of ehrlichiosis, an emerging tick-born disease, to address how infection impacts hematopoietic function. Infection of C57BL/6 mice with the intracellular bacterium, Ehrlichia muris, results in anemia and thrombocytopenia, similar to what is observed in human ehrlichiosis patients. In the mouse, infection promotes myelopoiesis, a process that is critically dependent on interferon gamma (IFNγ) signaling. In the present study, we demonstrate that E. muris infection also drives the transient proliferation and expansion of bone marrow Lin-negative Sca-1+ cKit+ (LSK) cells, a population of progenitor cells that contains HSCs. Expansion of the LSK population in the bone marrow was associated with a loss of dormant, long-term repopulating HSCs, reduced engraftment, and a bias towards myeloid lineage differentiation within that population. The reduced engraftment and myeloid bias of the infection-induced LSK cells was transient, and was most pronounced on day 8 post-infection. The infection-induced changes were accompanied by an expansion of more differentiated multipotent progenitor cells, and required IFNγ signaling. Thus, in response to inflammatory signals elicited during acute infection, HSCs can undergo a rapid, IFNγ-dependent, transient shift from dormancy to activity, ostensibly, to provide the host with additional or better-armed innate cells for host defense. Similar changes in hematopoietic function likely underlie many different infections of public health importance

Identification of a targetable KRAS-mutant epithelial population in non-small cell lung cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths. Tumor heterogeneity, which hampers development of targeted therapies, was herein deconvoluted via single cell RNA sequencingin aggressive human adenocarcinomas (carrying Kras-mutations) and comparable murine model. We identified a tumor-specific, mutant-KRAS-associated subpopulation which is conserved in both human and murine lung cancer. We previously reported a key role for the oncogene BMI-1 in adenocarcinomas. We therefore investigated the effects of in vivo PTC596 treatment, which affects BMI-1 activity, in our murine model. Post-treatment, MRI analysis showed decreased tumor size, while single cell transcriptomics concomitantly detected near complete ablation of the mutant-KRAS-associated subpopulation, signifying the presence of a pharmacologically targetable, tumor-associated subpopulation. Our findings therefore hold promise for the development of a targeted therapy for KRAS-mutant adenocarcinomas