Considering Evaluation: Thoughts for Social Change and Movement-Building Groups

The aim of this guide is to present an easy-to-use resource for evaluation and assessments of social justice, social change and movement building work. It is not meant to be a comprehensive guide to evaluation, but rather goal is to share some of our tools, resources, and lessons learned in this area. This booklet is intended for practitioners working to build organizations, organize networks, alliances and movement building projects

Double Bottom Line Progress Report: Assessing Social Impact in Double Bottom Line Ventures, Methods Catalog

Outlines methods for social entrepreneurs and their investors to define, measure and communicate social impact and return in early-stage ventures

Double Bottom Line Project Report: Assessing Social Impact in Double Bottom Line Ventures

This tool expresses costs and social impacts of an investment in monetary terms. Quantification is achieved according to one or more of three measures: NPV (the aggregate value of all costs, revenues and social impacts discounted), benefit-cost ratio (the discounted value of revenues and positive impacts divided by discounted value of costs and negative impacts) and internal rate of return (the net value of revenues plus impacts expressed as an annual percentage return on the total costs of the investment)

Secondary Education in the United States, PRP 155

This report reviews the state of secondary education in the United States by first summarizing the development of American high schools from the early 1800s through 2007. The report captures highlights of 21st century reform efforts, including a brief introduction to reform leaders in foundations and government. Following data about high school participation is a review of high school reform issues. The report presents summaries of high school reform models and strategies for improving the delivery of secondary education. It concludes with an overview of federal and state policies that aim to stimulate improvement in high schools and recommendations for continued progress.Public Affair

A review of periodical literature on merit rating.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

“Holy Agency, Batgirl!”: Evaluating Young Adult Superheroines’ Agency in Gotham Academy and Ms. Marvel

This study utilizes textual analysis to understand the representation of two female protagonists’, Kamala Khan and Olive Silverlock, agency within the first volume of Ms. Marvel and Gotham Academy. Crossing comic worlds, this study seeks to determine whether or not these representations align with any waves of feminism, or continue postfeminist dialogue within media. Panel by panel, word by word, expression by expression, this researcher notes, categorizes, and analyzes these protagonists’ words marked as text, behaviors performed, and expressions shown through artistic representation on the page. Situated on a cross-roads between postfeminism and the potential fourth wave of feminism, this study applies the Holistic Agency Spectrum Scale, constructed by Clark and Henderson (2016), to measure Kamala Khan’s and Olive Silverlock’s individual, social, and authoritative agency. As female representation within comics continues to rise, it is important to accurately determine whether these representations are a true step forward or merely a reiteration of the past

Texas Public School Finance, 1997

General dissatisfaction may lead to legislative efforts to completely revamp school finance

“No Shut-off” Policies and Natural Gas Consumption

Many U.S. states have regulations that prevent natural gas utility companies from turning off service to non-paying consumers. The goal of these policies, termed “no shut-off” (NSO) regulations, is to provide a guaranteed minimum level of residential comfort by reducing the marginal cost of consumption to zero for a period of time. This paper employs a difference-in-difference approach applied to residential U.S. Energy Information Administration data to evaluate whether NSO policies generate higher levels of gas usage. Our preferred specifications suggest that activation of a NSO policy increases natural gas consumption by between 4.7–4.8%, resulting in a total increase of between 66 and 67 billion cubic feet of natural gas consumed per winter season in covered states, at a value of as much as $950–970 million annually

Role of Lymphatics in Renal Sodium Handling: Implications for Hypertension

Hypertension is the leading risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and strokes [1]. A portion of these patients exhibit SSHTN with high cardiovascular risk and are more difficult to pharmacologically control. The etiology of chronic hypertension includes renal immune cell accumulation and sodium retention. The lymphatic system maintains interstitial homeostasis and an expansion of lymphatic vessels is necessary to resolve inflammation. We have previously demonstrated that ecifically increasing renal lymphatic density prevents HTN in mice [2]. These mice, KidVD+, undergo kidney specific lymphangiogenesis through the overexpression of VEGF-D [3]. The HTN prevention in the KidVD mice is attributed to a common role for lymphatics: a reduction in renal immune cell numbers. We have recently identified that these mice with expanded renal lymphatics demonstrate increased sodium excretion [2]. The aim of this study is to identify the mechanism by which enhancement of renal lymphatics correlates with urinary Na+ excretion, and sensitivity to hypertensive stimuli. To improve the diagnostics and increase treatment efficacy, the mechanism of lymphatic expansion and Na+ retention within the kidney lymphatics may thus prove to be a potential therapeutic target for patients afflicted with SSHTN