Opening Doors to Student Success: A Synthesis of Findings From an Evaluation at Six Community Colleges

Summarizes findings from Opening Doors Demonstration programs to raise college completion rates through financial incentives, instructional reforms, including learning communities, and enhancements in targeted student services such as academic counseling

Findings from the DUMA program: methamphetamine drug market trends

Introduction Methamphetamine is a drug of national concern, with the Australian Crime Commission assessing it to be the illicit drug posing the greatest risk to the Australian community. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) 2013 National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS) reported that approximately 400,000 Australians had used meth/amphetamines in the previous 12 months. The NDSHS reported a stable rate of meth/amphetamine use in the general community from 2010 to 2013 of 2.1 percent. However, there was a shift in the type of meth/amphetamine used, from powder to purer forms like ice or crystal methamphetamine. Specifically, powder meth/amphetamine use among recent users decreased from 51 percent to 29 percent, while ice use more than doubled from 22 percent to 50 percent. In line with this, the frequency of methamphetamine use among injecting drug users in Melbourne remained consistent from 2008 to 2014, but users reported transitioning from powder to crystal forms of methamphetamine. Frequency of use of methamphetamine has also changed across the 2010 to 2013 period. In 2013, 15.5 percent of recent meth/amphetamine users reported daily or weekly use, compared with 9.3 percent in the 2010 survey. When examining use by form, approximately a quarter of users who mainly used ice reported using it at least weekly, compared with 2.2 percent of powder users who reported weekly use. Scott et al.’s study of injecting drug users in Melbourne found that those already using methamphetamine were starting to purchase the drug more frequently in 2013 compared with 2011

Findings from the DUMA program: impact of reduced methamphetamine supply on consumption of illicit drugs and alcohol

This paper presents an analysis of retrospective self-reports from methamphetamine users (police detainees) on the impact that periods of reduced methamphetamine supply had on reported consumption of methamphetamine, alcohol and other illicit drugs. Introduction Changes in illicit drug availability have been shown to impact users’ alcohol and other drug consumption. In late 2000 and early 2001, Australia experienced a sudden and dramatic reduction in the supply of heroin which has continued to the present date. This shortage has been attributed to, at least in part, supply-side reduction strategies undertaken by law enforcement. However, the benefits associated with this shortage were to some degree offset by the unintended consequence of displacement in illicit drug use, reflected in an increase in the use of other drugs, such as cocaine. Research into the impact of the heroin shortage on illicit drug users has resulted in an awareness of the need to understand potential unintended outcomes of supply-side drug law enforcement strategies

Harnessing Technology Schools Survey 2008: report 2: data

This report provides a detailed analysis of the data and methodologies adopted in the 2008 HTSS and provides copies of all research instruments used in the survey

Harnessing Technology School survey 2008: report 3: executive summary

This document provides a summary of the key findings and implications of the 2008 HTSS in the context of the Harnessing Technology Policy, evaluating the current use and imlementation of technology in English schools

Harnessing Technology School survey 2008: report 1: analysis

This report summarises the main findings from the Harnessing Technology Schools Survey 2008, a national survey of ICT in primary, secondary and special schools. The research was carried out in 2007-08. This annual, representative survey was intended to assess the `state of the nation' in terms of the uptake and impact of educational technologies in maintained schools across England

Assessing price sustainability in the Irish housing market: a county-level analysis. ESRI Research Notes 2019/4/1

In the wake of a number of high profile property crashes, a question that has come to the fore recently is; are housing booms and busts clustered in specific areas within countries or do they tend to be more pan-regional? Within the United States for example, considerable variation in the boom-bust cycle has been experienced with the so-called ‘sand states’ (California, Florida, Arizona, and Nevada) showing much greater fluctuations in prices than other regions following the financial crisis.2 In an Irish context, a significant issue of interest is the apparent divergence between the Dublin property market and other regional markets as well as the difference between urban and rural areas

Findings from the DUMA program: drink and drug driving among police detainees

This paper finds that detainees do perceive a risk related to drink and drug driving, in terms of impairment in driving ability and potential detection by police. These conditions are likely to result in deterrence from drink and drug driving for some detainees. Introduction In Australia, random breath testing (RBT) was introduced in the mid-1970s to detect drivers under the influence of alcohol. This resulted in a reduction in fatal crashes and alcohol-related traffic accidents across Australia. The success of RBT can be explained through the classic deterrence doctrine, which suggests that decision-making is influenced by the perception of whether the benefits of the crime outweigh the risks of being caught. The introduction of RBT arguably increased the perceived and real risk of being caught, which positively influenced individuals’ decisions to refrain from driving while intoxicated. Following the successful implementation of RBT, between 2004 (in Victoria) and 2011 (in the Australian Capital Territory), random roadside drug testing (RRDT) was introduced across Australia. The aim of RRDT was to deter drug driving, decreasing both the prevalence of drug driving and the associated harms. In 2013, data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) indicated that drug driving and drink driving had been engaged in by more than one in 10 Australians (16% and 12% respectively) surveyed during the previous 12 months. Rates of drug driving are even higher in populations where illicit drug use is common, such as among police detainees, where 65 percent of detainees surveyed reported driving while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs in the previous 12 months. Examining perceptions of risk of drug driving, in terms of both being caught and legitimacy (perceptions of impairment to driving ability), will identify whether the preconditions exist to support drug driving deterrence through RRDT

A county-level perspective on housing affordability in Ireland. ESRI Research Notes 2019/4/2

The issue of housing affordability in Ireland has come to the fore in recent years as house prices have increased significantly following the recovery. In a recent survey, Corrigan et al. (2019a) find that 86.5 per cent of renters expressed a preference for homeownership. However, rising house prices have led to serious concerns about the ability of first time buyers (FTB) to enter the housing market. This group has been cited as one particular pressure point in recent assessments of market affordability (Housing Agency, 2017). Analysis published in the ESRI Quarterly Economic Commentary (McQuinn et al., 2018) finds that house price growth has been uneven across the distribution, with cheaper properties growing at faster rates than more expensive properties. This is likely to further exacerbate the affordability concerns of first time buyers, who typically enter the housing market at lower house price levels than second and subsequent borrowers