The Public Education Network Study of LEF Leadership: Report on Baseline Survey Findings

Many nonprofit organizations seek to make change. To that end, much needed "capital" -- variously described as social, public, professional, and human -- is being brought to bear upon pressing social issues. Researchers across the country are attempting to understand how these resources are being generated, deployed, and administered, and to what avail. Of particular interest here are local education funds (LEFs) and their leaders. LEFs are a set of voluntary, intermediate, and mission-driven organizations, conceived by the Ford Foundation in 1983, which sit strategically at the nexus of educational and civic capacity building. This report provides the results of the first phase of the Public Education Network (PEN) leadership study, a baseline survey administered to 59 LEF executive directors.The survey had two purposes: to provide a snapshot of leadership characteristics and perceptions of executive directors -- information never before compiled and examined -- and to gather contextual information on the LEFs and the communities they serve. The results will be used as a foundation for subsequent research on LEF leadership. In time, the findings from this research will assist PEN in its efforts to nurture and sustain LEF leadership

Leading Ways: Preliminary Research on LEF Leadership for the Public Education Network

In the early 1980s, public schools, particularly in urban areas, were struggling with changing demographics and a need for greater community commitment to public education. Small independent community-based organizations, called local education funds (LEFs), were first established at this time by community leaders to bridge the gap between communities and their schools. Twenty years later, the Public Education Network (PEN), the national organization of more than 70 of the country's LEFs, is championing LEFs' unique contributions to educational reform and planning new methods to continue to support their work. One important aspect of PEN's efforts is the development of a research agenda around LEF leadership and effectiveness.The Urban Institute has supported the emerging research on LEF leadership in several ways. First, in 2001, researchers administered and analyzed results of a survey of all current LEF executive directors. The results provided a snapshot of leadership characteristics and attitudes. Second, in 2002, researchers reviewed existing literature on LEFs and nonprofit leadership and interviewed several individuals about the founding of LEFs. Third, also in 2002, researchers conducted 60-to 90-minute telephone interviews with 10 founding directors of early LEFs.This report describes efforts by the Urban Institute and PEN to better understand and describe leadership in LEFs. The research conducted to date reveals the following common features of LEF leadership:LEF leaders create a space for sustained collaboration in communities. Founders, in particular, see their work as establishing unique and lasting forums in their communities.LEF leadership fits well in an adaptive leadership framework, in which the director educates him or herself about community values and exposes issues that must be resolved through collaborative action. Adaptive leaders mobilize others around a community consensus rather than dictate a solution. In the case of LEFs, developing key relationships contributes to successful leadership.These relationships involve community members, principals, government officials, local businesses, and other stakeholders. Because LEFs are meant to provide a permanent venue for collaboration, these relationships are not only instrumental but also ends in themselves.Although LEF leaders are extremely invested in their communities in terms of socioeconomic status and race, they are not typically representative of the communities their LEFs serve. This gap in constituency and representation leads to uncertainty about whether LEFs effectively engage all segments of the community in their work. More inclusive leadership, then, is an issue worth exploring.LEF leadership appears to involve making strategic choices in an environment of constraints. With limited human and financial resources, LEFs must attempt to achieve their goals through a complex interaction with their communities and schools. Key stages in LEF development include the shift to greater community engagement and systemic reform. However, not all LEFs follow the same developmental pattern

How much radioactive nickel does ASASSN-15lh require?

The discovery of the most luminous supernova ASASSN-15lh triggered a shock-wave in the supernova community. The three possible mechanisms proposed for the majority of other superluminous supernovae do not produce a realistic physical model for this particular supernova. In the present study we show the limiting luminosity available from a nickel-powered pair-instability supernova. We computed a few exotic nickel-powered explosions with a total mass of nickel up to 1500 solar masses. We used the hydrostatic configurations prepared with the GENEVA and MESA codes, and the STELLA radiative-transfer code for following the explosion of these models. We show that 1500 solar masses of radioactive nickel is needed to power a luminosity of 2x10^45 erg/s. The resulting light curve is very broad and incompatible with the shorter ASASSN-15lh time-scale. This rules out a nickel-powered origin of ASASSN-15lh. In addition, we derive a simple peak luminosity - nickel mass relation from our data, which may serve to estimate of nickel mass from observed peak luminosities.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter

Report to Congress on Waivers Granted Under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

This is the third annual report to Congress on waivers granted by the U.S. Department of Education, mandated under section 14401(e)(4) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Three education laws passed in 1994 — the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, the School-to-Work Opportunities Act, and the reauthorized ESEA — allow the Secretary of Education to grant waivers of certain requirements of federal education programs in cases where a waiver will likely contribute to improved teaching and learning. States and school districts use the waiver authorities to adapt federal programs and use federal funds in ways that address their local needs. The waiver authorities provide additional flexibility to states and school districts in exchange for increased accountability for improving student achievement. The law requires that waiver applicants describe how a waiver would improve instruction and academic performance, and that the waivers conform to the underlying intent and purposes of the affected programs. This report contains five sections. Section I gives an overview of waivers requested and granted from the establishment of the waiver authorities in 1994 through September 30, 1999. Section II provides details about the focus of the waivers that have been granted. Section III examines the progress school districts and states have made under waivers that have been effective for at least two years, as reported by states to the U. S. Department of Education. Section IV reviews the federal and state roles in the administration of the waiver authorities, and Section V contains some conclusions about how waivers contribute to the broader effort to improve teaching and learning for all students

Report to Congress on Waivers Granted Under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

This is the third annual report to Congress on waivers granted by the U.S. Department of Education, mandated under section 14401(e)(4) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Three education laws passed in 1994 — the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, the School-to-Work Opportunities Act, and the reauthorized ESEA — allow the Secretary of Education to grant waivers of certain requirements of federal education programs in cases where a waiver will likely contribute to improved teaching and learning. States and school districts use the waiver authorities to adapt federal programs and use federal funds in ways that address their local needs. The waiver authorities provide additional flexibility to states and school districts in exchange for increased accountability for improving student achievement. The law requires that waiver applicants describe how a waiver would improve instruction and academic performance, and that the waivers conform to the underlying intent and purposes of the affected programs. This report contains five sections. Section I gives an overview of waivers requested and granted from the establishment of the waiver authorities in 1994 through September 30, 1999. Section II provides details about the focus of the waivers that have been granted. Section III examines the progress school districts and states have made under waivers that have been effective for at least two years, as reported by states to the U. S. Department of Education. Section IV reviews the federal and state roles in the administration of the waiver authorities, and Section V contains some conclusions about how waivers contribute to the broader effort to improve teaching and learning for all students

Report to Congress on Waivers Granted Under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

This is the third annual report to Congress on waivers granted by the U.S. Department of Education, mandated under section 14401(e)(4) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Three education laws passed in 1994 — the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, the School-to-Work Opportunities Act, and the reauthorized ESEA — allow the Secretary of Education to grant waivers of certain requirements of federal education programs in cases where a waiver will likely contribute to improved teaching and learning. States and school districts use the waiver authorities to adapt federal programs and use federal funds in ways that address their local needs. The waiver authorities provide additional flexibility to states and school districts in exchange for increased accountability for improving student achievement. The law requires that waiver applicants describe how a waiver would improve instruction and academic performance, and that the waivers conform to the underlying intent and purposes of the affected programs. This report contains five sections. Section I gives an overview of waivers requested and granted from the establishment of the waiver authorities in 1994 through September 30, 1999. Section II provides details about the focus of the waivers that have been granted. Section III examines the progress school districts and states have made under waivers that have been effective for at least two years, as reported by states to the U. S. Department of Education. Section IV reviews the federal and state roles in the administration of the waiver authorities, and Section V contains some conclusions about how waivers contribute to the broader effort to improve teaching and learning for all students

The s-Process Nucleosynthesis in Low Mass Stars : Impact of the Uncertainties in the Nuclear Physics Determined by Monte Carlo Variations

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019We investigated the impact of uncertainties in neutron-capture and weak reactions (on heavy elements) on the s-process nucleosynthesis in low-mass stars using a Monte-Carlo based approach. We performed extensive nuclear reaction network calculations that include newly evaluated temperature-dependent upper and lower limits for the individual reaction rates. Our sophisticated approach is able to evaluate the reactions that impact more significantly the final abundances. We found that -decay rate uncertainties affect typically nuclides near s-process branchings, whereas most of the uncertainty in the final abundances is caused by uncertainties in neutron capture rates, either directly producing or destroying the nuclide of interest. Combined total nuclear uncertainties due to reactions on heavy elements are approximately 50%

What kind of home is your care home? A typology of personalised care provided in residential and nursing homes

This paper examines how care home managers in England conceptualised the approach to delivering personalised care in the homes they managed. We conducted interviews with care home managers and mapped the approaches they described on two distinct characterisations of personalised care prominent in the research and practitioner literature: the importance of close care relationships and the degree of resident choice and decision-making promoted by the care home. We derived three ‘types’ of personalised care in care homes. These conceptualise the care home as an ‘institution’, a ‘family’ and a ‘hotel’. We have added a fourth type, the ‘co-operative’, to propose a type that merges proximate care relationships with an emphasis on resident choice and decision-making. We conclude that each approach involves trade-offs and that the ‘family’ model may be more suitable for people with advanced dementia, given its emphasis on relationships. While the presence of a range of diverse approaches to personalising care in a care home market may be desirable as a matter of choice, access to care homes in England is likely to be constrained by availability and cost

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF PUPILS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT PLACED ON THE INTEGRATED EDUCATION PROGRAMME IN THE HOHOE MUNICIPALITY, GHANA

This research analyzed the academic performance of pupils with visual impairment placed on the integrated education programme in the Hohoe Municipality. The study was an evaluation research which employed pre-experimental research design. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the respondents for the study. A total of 25 respondents, comprising 12 boys with visual impairment and 13 girls with visual impairment were drawn for the study. The instruments used for data collection was test. The data was analyzed using mean and standard deviation using Microsoft Excel. The study revealed that the integrated education programme had a positive influence over the academic performance of the visually impaired pupils. Finally, teachers need to be given in-service training to use appropriate methodologies in teaching mathematics and English language to enhance academic performance.  Article visualizations

Facilitators of, and barriers to, personalisation in care homes in England: evidence from Care Quality Commission inspection reports

The personalisation of residential care services is based on three broad principles of valuing personal identity, empowering resident decision-making and fostering care relationships. We analysed 50 Care Quality Commission care home inspection reports to identify factors that the reports indicate facilitate or hinder the delivery of personalised residential care in England. Findings suggest that the provision of personalised services is affected by staff skills, attitudes and availability, as well as the quality of care home leadership. Future care policy should consider addressing external pressures facing the care home sector, including inadequate funding and too few staff, to mitigate barriers to delivering high-quality, personalised care