Avoiding Accountability: How Charter Operators Evade Ohio's Automatic Closure Law

Ohio's charter-closure law is touted as one of the toughest in the nation because it requires the automatic closure of charter schools that consistently fail to meet academic standards. The law has been showcased by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) in its "One Million Lives" campaign, which calls for tougher state laws to close failing charter schools.The widespread attention and support of the NACSA campaign has pushed Ohio's closure law into the spotlight as a model of accountability for low-performing charter schools. However, The Plain Dealer's editorial board, in a commentary on NACSA's praise of Ohio's charter school accountability standards, pointed out what NACSA did not: Ohio's charter school laws, while they may have stronger mandates for closure than those of other states, are still replete with loopholes. Since the charter-closure law went into effect in 2008, 20 schools across the state have met closure criteria, and all are currently listed as closed by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE). But an investigation of the schools by Policy Matters revealed that eight schools -- and the management companies that run them -- have found ways to skirt the closure law and remain open, severely undermining the law's effectiveness and highlighting the lax accountability that prevails in Ohio's charter sector. For-profit managers -- the Leona Group, Mosaica Education and White Hat Management -- operate six of the reopened schools

Obstetric Triage Improvement

The objective of the obstetric triage improvement project is to decrease the average length of stay for perinatal patients presenting to the obstetric triage. The setting is a university hospital in a large urban city. The population includes pregnant patients with obstetric complaints presenting to triage for further evaluation. Methods used include a root cause analysis, process mapping, lean transformation methodology, and standardization of workflow. The results of the project include reducing the average length of stay in obstetric triage from a baseline of 152 minutes to 120.58 minutes, which represents a 21% decrease. The creation of standard workflows, the addition of dedicated triage staff, and improved communication methods will continue to improve the triage process. Indirect results include increased throughput, increased patient satisfaction, reduced treatment wait times, and increased employee satisfaction. Future steps include the implementation of a maternal fetal triage index, and the creation of nursing-driven protocols and order sets

Beaver, Blankets, Liquor, and Politics Pemaquid’s Fur Trade, 1614-1760

The trading posts at Pemaquid typified the transactions, administrative phases, and cross-cultural contacts that made up the New England fur trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Using archaeological and documentary evidence, Neill DePaoli explores this important yet volatile industry through several stages, including early informal transactions, a merchant entrepreneurial phase, provincial supervision, and illegal exchanges during the closing years of the fort\u27s significance

"No Podemos Comer Billetes": Climate Change and Development in Southern Ecuador

This project investigates the relationship between autochthonous people and immigrants in a valley of southern Ecuador, specifically in terms of climate change and related moves toward sustainable development. The landscape and environment are frequent topics of conversation, especially concerning the increasingly dry climate. Engagements between individuals often result in dynamic relationships in which people take active steps to curtail human impacts, such as developing new land-use and livelihood strategies. Southern Ecuador has historically experienced the effects of periodic drought, and land degradation is exacerbating the problem. This and other factors, including the relative isolation and lack of rural development in Loja province and the overall economic situation in Ecuador, has resulted in large-scale migration of Ecuadorians from the province of Loja. Paradoxically, the valley in which fieldwork was carried out is also known as the Valley of Longevity and has attracted immigrants from various other countries. Some of these expatriates have lived in the valley for long periods of time and have developed working relationships with Ecuadorians that have proved beneficial in terms of development. This dissertation is the result of 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork that included participant observation, formal and informal interviews, and the analysis of written materials. The project focused specifically on how the local-nonlocal relationship impacts livelihoods, land use change, sustainability, and the perception of and attention to issues surrounding climate change. These themes help us to understand the distributional consequences of changes in agri-food systems, and have led to concern over where food is going to come from because, as some informants have said, “no podemos comer billetes” (we can’t eat dollar bills). Research shows that the social heterogeneity of the valley fosters mutual learning and benefits and contributes to more varied views of the natural environment and of the use of natural resources. This project demonstrates how responses to climate change and land degradation may be integrated into emerging sustainable development strategies, particularly important because human activity will both drive and mediate the impact of climate change during the next century

SME E-BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: AN INTERACTION BASED APPROACH

E-business stage/maturity models for SMEs have been criticized for their predominantly technocentric and rather mechanistic character, not suited for this kind of firms. Based on a conceptual and qualitative research, the paper proposes an e-business development model to factor in the interaction sparked by the coming together of technology and organization. Given that e-business is distinguished by different levels of supplier/customer information exchanges, the model (tested in three small firms) envisages five digital and non digital interaction levels so that small business owners can better understand and evaluate the interplay of organization and technology in relation to business opportunities