Accountability and transformative literacy

In a conceptual study of accountability measures and transformative teaching practices, this extensive literature review investigates the accountability measures in schools such as high-stakes tests and teacher evaluation methods. The study also examines how teachers and schools can meet obligations by federal mandates while still incorporating effective and critical literacy practices using democratic literacy frameworks and approaches toward democratic whole school reform

Students\u27 self-reported preferences for print and online newspapers

The present study investigated the self-reported print and online newspaper reading habits of students at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). . A survey was distributed to a convenience sampling of 87 students in August 2003. Respondents were asked to self-report their ideas, attitudes and opinions about and towards online and printed news. . The results support previous research, including a 1999 study at RIT as well as those conducted at Pennsylvania State University and by the Pew Research Center, which revealed that college students were not reading newspapers with any regularity, but still thought that keeping up with news was important. A majority of students prefer to receive all types of news online, with the exception of local news. Academic major has some effect on where students go to get their news information. Most students reported that online news was just as credible as online news, and most report that they would not be willing to pay for an online newspaper. Unlike previous research, the present sample of college students appear to be more accepting of the Internet as a news medium for a variety of reasons. The respondents\u27 reasons for acceptance include, but are not limited to, convenience, the number of media options available online (including archiving, streaming videos and images) and the ability to control the interaction with news

Online Resources for Identifying Evidence-Based, Out-of-School Time Programs: A User's Guide

Summarizes general information, select program outcomes, and evidence levels of searchable databases, interactive summaries, and documents online on evidence-based intervention programs. Outlines considerations and assessments for selecting programs

DNA-Based Epigenetic Changes in Recurrent and Tamoxifen-Resistant Breast Cancer

Roughly two-thirds of all breast cancers are Estrogen Receptor a (ER)-positive and can be treated with an anti-estrogen such as Tamoxifen, however resistance occurs in 33% of women who take the drug for more than 5 years. In addition to this acquired antiestrogen resistance, de novo- or intrinsic-resistance occurs primarily in ER-negative tumors but also occasionally in ER-positive tumors. Aberrant DNA promoter methylation, a major epigenetic mechanism by which gene expression is altered in cancer, is thought to play a role in this resistance. To date, few studies have examined promoter methylation and Tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer. Of the studies conducted, one detected drug-specific promoter methylation and gene expression profiles in an ER-positive, Tamoxifen-selected MCF-7 derivative cell line. However, studies using both ER-positive and –negative, Tamoxifen-selected cell lines have not been described until now. To develop an understanding of Tamoxifen-resistance and identify novel pathways and targets of aberrant methylation, I first analyzed two Tamoxifen-resistant clones of MCF-7, one that retained expression of ER (TMX2-11) and one that lost expression of the gene (TMX2-28) after 6-months of Tamoxifen treatment, by Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip (HM450BC). I found that prolonged treatment with Tamoxifen induced hypermethylation and hypomethylation throughout the genome. Compared to MCF-7, the ER-positive line, TMX2-11 had 4,000 hypermethylated sites, while the ER-negative line, TMX2-28 had over 33,000. Analysis of CpG sites in both TMX2-11 and TMX2-28 revealed that the two Tamoxifen-selected lines share 3,000 hypermethylated CpG sites with 21% of those sites being located in the promoter region. Promoter methylation and expression of two genes, MAGED1 and ZNF350, in both Tamoxifen-resistant cell lines demonstrated cell line-specific responses to treatment with 5-aza-2’deoxycitidine (5-Aza). Sixteen additional genes involved in signal transduction, cell adhesion, transcriptional repression, inflammatory response, cell proliferation and hormone response were chosen for further analysis based on their shared hypermethylation or their reduced expression in TMX2-28 as detected in a previously completed expression array. Five genes, RORA, THBS1, CAV2, TGFβ2, and BMP2 had decreased expression in TMX2-28, but not TMX2-11 as compared to MCF-7, and 5-Aza increased expression of the genes. This indicates that Tamoxifen is affecting a set of genes similarly in both the ER-positive and -negative breast cancer cell lines, however overall methylation changes are more pronounced in the ER-negative line. Our data as well as others suggest that DNA methylation may be contributing to Tamoxifen-resistance. I hypothesized that both ER-positive and ER-negative second human breast tumors occurring after anti-estrogen treatment would be hypermethylated. I characterized the methylation profiles of 70 human breast tumor samples using the HM450BC. These data confirm previous findings that ER-positive breast tumors have more hypermethylated CpG sites than ER-negative tumors. Stratification of the tumors by ER-positive first and second tumor sets shows that methylation is greater in first tumors.. Additionally, I saw that first tumors from ipsilateral pairs had higher methylation than the second tumors; in contrast, second tumors from contralateral pairs had higher methylation than in the first tumor. These data, together with the fact that tumor progression is associated with an increase in methylation, are consistent with the prediction that ipsilateral, not contralateral, tumors are more likely to be a true recurrence. Pathway analysis was conducted to provide insight into biomarkers associated with tumors that recur. Two pathways, ‘homophilic cell adhesion via plasma membrane adhesion molecules’ and ‘cell fate commitment’, were selected for further analysis. ER-positive first tumors that recurred as either ER-positive or ER-negative compared with non-recurrent tumors shared hypermethylated genes in the homophilic cell adhesion pathway. ER-positive first tumors that recurred as ER-negative compared with ER-positive first tumors that recurred as ER-positive were associated with a unique set of hypermethylated genes in the cell fate commitment pathway. To examine the association of methylation changes in my tumor data set with breast cancer patient survival data, Kaplan-Meier plots were created using TGCA breast cancer data available online. Expression of the genes only hypermethylated in each individual comparison group in the homophilic cell adhesion pathway was linked to overall survival. These data suggest that the genes hypermethylated only in ER-positive tumors recurring as ER-negative are a potential signature for poor survival. The underlying mechanisms of anti-estrogen resistance are poorly understood. Variable responses to breast cancer therapy highlights the need for biomarkers that can effectively guide treatment. The findings presented here underscore the potential use of breast tumor stratification based on methylation biomarkers in guiding treatment

Effective Strategies for Emergent Readers: Practical Ideas for Everyday Reading with Your Child

Three workshops, supported by research in the areas of parent-school involvement, family literacy, the development of the reading process, and reading strategies, were developed. Each workshop provides families with specific reading activities and strategies to use at home. The intent of this author is to provide valid research to demonstrate that learning to read involves the semantic, syntactic, and grapho-phonic cueing systems

Global coverage of cetacean line-transect surveys : status quo, data gaps and future challenges

Knowledge of abundance, trends and distribution of cetacean populations is needed to inform marine conservation efforts, ecosystem models and spatial planning. We compiled a geo-spatial database of published data on cetacean abundance from dedicated visual line-transect surveys and encoded >1100 abundance estimates for 47 species from 430 surveys conducted worldwide from 1975-2005. Our subsequent analyses revealed large spatial, temporal and taxonomic variability and gaps in survey coverage. With the exception of Antarctic waters, survey coverage was biased toward the northern hemisphere, especially US and northern European waters. Overall, <25% of the world’s ocean surface was surveyed and only 6% had been covered frequently enough (≥ 5 times) to allow trend estimation. Almost half the global survey effort, defined as total area (km2) covered by all survey study areas across time, was concentrated in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP). Neither the number of surveys conducted nor the survey effort had increased in recent years. Across species, an average of 10% of a species’ predicted range had been covered by at least one survey, but there was considerable variation among species. With the exception of three delphinid species, <1% of all species’ ranges had been covered frequently enough for trend analysis. We use a data-rich species, sperm whale, as an example to illustrate the challenges of using available data from line-transect surveys for the detection of trends or for spatial planning. Finally, we propose and contrast several field and analytical methods to fill in data gaps to improve future cetacean conservation management efforts.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Social Justice Feminism

For the past three years, women leaders from national groups, grassroots organizations, academia and beyond have gathered to address dissonance in the women\u27s movement, particularly dissatisfaction with the movement\u27s emphasis on women privileged on account of their race, class, or sexuality. At these meetings of the New Women\u27s Movement Initiative (NWMI), advocates who no longer want to do feminism have articulated a desire for social justice feminism. This article analyzes what such a shift might mean for feminist practice and legal theory. Drawing on history, specifically the work of the women behind the Brandeis brief in the Muller v. Oregon workers\u27 hours\u27 restriction case and the National Women\u27s Conference of 1977, this article takes initial steps at broadly defining social justice feminism as that which is productive, constructive, and healing. Moving from practice to theory, it suggests a new way of articulating and understanding the feminist work that is being done in this current stage of feminist jurisprudence, after the path-breaking interventions of anti-essentialism and intersectionality. This article also sets forth certain methodological tools for doing social justice feminism and then uses them to examine the recent Supreme Court case, Long Island Care at Home v. Coke, a case upholding the lack of wage protections for certain domestic workers. With this article, we hope to advance the conversation that has already begun, both in the world of practice as evidenced by the work of the NWMI, as well as the world of feminist legal theory. Social justice brings to feminism a particular emphasis on fairness and transformation; it is a modification that signals change. At this critical time, with efforts to exacerbate the divides of race and gender, social justice feminism provides a new paradigm for talking about and examining these and other issues that threaten movements dedicated to dismantling oppression and bettering people\u27s lives