Ingredients for High and Low Quality Out-of-School Programming

poster abstractAn increasing percentage of our nation’s children are participating in some form of out-of-school time (OST) programming. One estimate reports that from 1995 to 2005, the percent of K-8 students participating in OST programs rose from six to 20 percent. One of the most prevalent forms of OST programs are after-school programs (ASPs). Traditionally, ASPs vary in terms of providers and offerings. Many are community-based or take place within schools. Activities include academics, sports, arts, enrichment, or some combination of each. As a result of this convergence of stakeholders and purposes within the after-school field, assessing program quality has been notably difficult. The purpose of the current research was to investigate the strength of school and after-school partnerships in place within six ASPs and the subsequent connection between these partnerships and after-school program quality. This mixed-methods study draws from the findings of an evaluation of a multi-site school-based after-school program in a large Midwestern city as a result of funding from a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant. Data include program observations, staff questionnaires, site director interviews, and a student survey regarding the after-school environment. Findings reveal that programs with strong partnerships between the school day and after-school staff showed higher quality after-school program implementation. Conversely, when school day staff demonstrated avoidant behaviors near the after-school programs run in their schools, or considered them to be little more than after-school child care, afterschool programs showed lower quality implementation. In addition to identifying positive characteristics of school/after-school partnerships linked to overall program quality, an analysis matrix compiling high and low quality “ingredients” was created based upon these findings. Varying degrees of program features appeared to mediate a program’s implementation fidelity, level of student engagement, structural constraints, and overall program quality

Clarifying the Public-Private Line: Legal and Policy Guidance for Catholic-affiliated Charter Schools

In the past fifty years, the share of students enrolled in U.S. Catholic schools has declined from approximately 12% to 3%. In reaction, many urban Catholic schools have closed and subsequently reopened as public charter schools in order to receive governmental funding and to increase enrollment. As public schools, these Catholic-affiliated charter schools now face a complex set of legal and practical challenges. This article presents empirical research on Catholic-affiliated charter schools, and the legal issues facing them as well as the wider category of religiously-affiliated charter schools. The authors conclude by answering a number of questions that Catholic school leaders are likely to pose about this emerging trend in Catholic education

Church-State Entanglement at Religiously Affiliated Charter Schools

Several urban archdioceses across the U.S. have closed their Catholic schools and subsequently permitted charter schools to open in their places. This Article describes the possible church-state entanglement issues that arise at schools like these. We reviewed eighty-five relevant cases and found only seven cases involving existing or proposed religiously affiliated charter schools. While generalizations are difficult to draw from this small sample, trends and inferences inform the emerging research. Five of the cases arose when schools were connected with a particular religious organization, such as a church. The lawsuits alleged both explicit and implicit religious entanglement. Our analysis also found that the charter schools affiliated with Christianity typically prevailed; whereas, those affiliated with non-Christian religions were less successful. Additionally, we identified eleven cases that did not involve specific schools, but involved allegations about funding allocated to school choice programs such as charter schools and voucher programs. In each of these cases, courts held that funding did not offend the Establishment Clause. Based on our analysis, we speculate why more cases against religiously affiliated charter schools did not exist, predict that more lawsuits are probable, and provide recommendations to prevent future litigation involving religiously affiliated charter schools

Critical Theory and Catholic Social Teaching: A Research Framework for Catholic Schools

In this article, the authors share findings from an ethnographic study drawn from an evaluation of an after-school program directed by a Catholic diocese to meet the educational needs of children attending urban Catholic schools. The authors used critical research methods within the context of Catholic social teaching (CST) as a theoretical framework for the data presented in this article. Two themes emerged during this data collection and analysis. The first theme, student interactions, describes the helpful ways that students engaged with each other during the after-school program, and also the manner in which students exhibited a need for greater supports. The second theme, staff-student and staff-families interactions, explains how staff members connected with students in the after-school program, and their families and experiences. The focus on relationships emerged as an explicit connection to the CST themes of care, solidarity, and community within the after-school program sites. These findings have implications for researchers and educators working in Catholic and/or urban schools, or their respective after-school programs. Résumé Dans cet article, les auteurs évoquent les conclusions d’une étude ethnographique tirée de l’évaluation d’un programme d’activités après les cours organisé par un diocèse catholique pour répondre aux besoins éducatifs des enfants fréquentant des écoles catholiques en milieu urbain. Les auteurs ont utilisé des méthodes de recherche critique dans le contexte de la doctrine sociale de l’Église catholique (DSE) pour servir de cadre théorique aux données présentées dans cet article. Deux thèmes sont ressortis pendant le recueil des données et l’analyse. Le premier thème, les interactions parmi les élèves, décrit les moyens efficaces par lesquels ils sont entrés en relation au cours du programme d’activités après les cours, et de quelle manière des élèves ont montré qu’ils avaient besoin d’être davantage aidés. Le deuxième thème, les interactions personnel – élèves, personnel - familles, explique comment les membres du personnel ont communiqué avec les élèves au cours du programme d’activités après les cours, et avec leurs familles, et ce qu’ils ont ressenti. Le fait de se concentrer sur les relations entre les personnes est explicitement lié aux thèmes de la DSE, le souci des autres, la solidarité et l’appartenance à une communauté, sur les lieux des activités après les cours. Ces constatations ont des incidences pour les chercheurs et les éducateurs qui travaillent dans des écoles catholiques ou en milieu urbain, ou les programmes d’activités après les cours de ces établissements. Resumen En el presente artículo, los autores comparten hallazgos de un estudio etnográfico extraídos de una evaluación de un programa extraescolar dirigido por una diócesis católica para lograr las necesidades educativas de los niños que asisten a escuelas católicas. Los autores emplean métodos de investigación crítica en el contexto de la enseñanza social católica (ESC) como marco teórico para los datos presentados en este artículo. Durante la recolección y análisis de datos emergieron dos temas. El primero, las interacciones entre estudiantes, describe las maneras útiles de cómo se relacionaron los estudiantes durante el programa extraescolar y también el modo en el que los estudiantes mostraron la necesidad de mayor apoyo. El segundo tema, las interacciones estudiantes-personal y familias-personal, explican cómo el personal del centro se conectó con los estudiantes en el programa extraescolar, así como con sus familias y experiencias. El foco en las relaciones surgió como conexión explícita a los temas de la ESC de cuidado, solidaridad y comunidad en el centro del programa extraescolar. Estos hallazgos tienen implicaciones para los investigadores y educadores que trabajan en escuelas católicas y/o urbanas, o en sus respectivos programas extraescolares

Church-State Entanglement at Religiously Affiliated Charter Schools

Several urban archdioceses across the U.S. have closed their Catholic schools and subsequently permitted charter schools to open in their places. This Article describes the possible church-state entanglement issues that arise at schools like these. We reviewed eighty-five relevant cases and found only seven cases involving existing or proposed religiously affiliated charter schools. While generalizations are difficult to draw from this small sample, trends and inferences inform the emerging research. Five of the cases arose when schools were connected with a particular religious organization, such as a church. The lawsuits alleged both explicit and implicit religious entanglement. Our analysis also found that the charter schools affiliated with Christianity typically prevailed; whereas, those affiliated with non-Christian religions were less successful. Additionally, we identified eleven cases that did not involve specific schools, but involved allegations about funding allocated to school choice programs such as charter schools and voucher programs. In each of these cases, courts held that funding did not offend the Establishment Clause. Based on our analysis, we speculate why more cases against religiously affiliated charter schools did not exist, predict that more lawsuits are probable, and provide recommendations to prevent future litigation involving religiously affiliated charter schools

The ERLIN1-CHUK-CWF19L1 gene cluster influences liver fat deposition and hepatic inflammation in the NHLBI Family Heart Study

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) ranges from simple steatosis to hepatic inflammation to cirrhosis. We sought to identify common genetic variants contributing to NAFLD, using CT measured fatty liver (FL), and alanine aminotransferase levels (ALT), as a biochemical marker of hepatic inflammation

Association of sICAM-1 and MCP-1 with coronary artery calcification in families enriched for coronary heart disease or hypertension: the NHLBI Family Heart Study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Data accumulated from mouse studies and in vitro studies of human arteries support the notion that soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) play important roles in the inflammation process involved in atherosclerosis. However, at the population level, the utility of sICAM-1 and MCP-1 as biomarkers for subclinical atherosclerosis is less clear. In the follow-up exam of the NHLBI Family Heart Study, we evaluated whether plasma levels of sICAM-1 and MCP-1 were associated with coronary artery calcification (CAC), a measure of the burden of coronary atherosclerosis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>CAC was measured using the Agatston score with multidetector computed tomography. Information on CAC and MCP-1 was obtained in 2246 whites and 470 African Americans (mean age 55 years) without a history of coronary heart disease (CHD). Information on sICAM-1 was obtained for white participants only.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In whites, after adjustment for age and gender, the odds ratios (ORs) of CAC (CAC > 0) associated with the second, third, fourth, and fifth quintiles of sICAM-1 compared to the first quintile were 1.22 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.91–1.63), 1.15 (0.84–1.58), 1.49 (1.09–2.05), and 1.72 (1.26–2.36) (p = 0.0005 for trend test), respectively. The corresponding ORs for the second to fifth quintiles of MCP-1 were 1.26 (0.92–1.73), 0.99 (0.73–1.34), 1.42 (1.03–1.96), and 2.00 (1.43–2.79) (p < 0.0001 for trend test), respectively. In multivariable analysis that additionally adjusted for other CHD risk factors, the association of CAC with sICAM-1 and MCP-1 was attenuated and no longer statistically significant. In African Americans, the age and gender-adjusted ORs of CAC associated with the second and third tertiles of MCP-1 compared to the first tertile were 1.16 (0.64–2.08) and 1.25 (0.70–2.23) (p = 0.44 for trend test), respectively. This result did not change materially after additional adjustment for other CHD risk factors. Test of race interaction showed that the magnitude of association between MCP-1 and CAC did not differ significantly between African Americans and whites. Similar results were obtained when CAC ≥ 10 was analyzed as an outcome for both MCP-1 and sICAM-1.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study suggests that sICAM-1 and MCP-1 are biomarkers of coronary atherosclerotic burden and their association with CAC was mainly driven by established CHD risk factors.</p

Genomic Relationships, Novel Loci, and Pleiotropic Mechanisms across Eight Psychiatric Disorders

Genetic influences on psychiatric disorders transcend diagnostic boundaries, suggesting substantial pleiotropy of contributing loci. However, the nature and mechanisms of these pleiotropic effects remain unclear. We performed analyses of 232,964 cases and 494,162 controls from genome-wide studies of anorexia nervosa, attention-deficit/hyper-activity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and Tourette syndrome. Genetic correlation analyses revealed a meaningful structure within the eight disorders, identifying three groups of inter-related disorders. Meta-analysis across these eight disorders detected 109 loci associated with at least two psychiatric disorders, including 23 loci with pleiotropic effects on four or more disorders and 11 loci with antagonistic effects on multiple disorders. The pleiotropic loci are located within genes that show heightened expression in the brain throughout the lifespan, beginning prenatally in the second trimester, and play prominent roles in neurodevelopmental processes. These findings have important implications for psychiatric nosology, drug development, and risk prediction.Peer reviewe

No Reliable Association between Runs of Homozygosity and Schizophrenia in a Well-Powered Replication Study

It is well known that inbreeding increases the risk of recessive monogenic diseases, but it is less certain whether it contributes to the etiology of complex diseases such as schizophrenia. One way to estimate the effects of inbreeding is to examine the association between disease diagnosis and genome-wide autozygosity estimated using runs of homozygosity (ROH) in genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism arrays. Using data for schizophrenia from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (n = 21,868), Keller et al. (2012) estimated that the odds of developing schizophrenia increased by approximately 17% for every additional percent of the genome that is autozygous (β = 16.1, CI(β) = [6.93, 25.7], Z = 3.44, p = 0.0006). Here we describe replication results from 22 independent schizophrenia case-control datasets from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (n = 39,830). Using the same ROH calling thresholds and procedures as Keller et al. (2012), we were unable to replicate the significant association between ROH burden and schizophrenia in the independent PGC phase II data, although the effect was in the predicted direction, and the combined (original + replication) dataset yielded an attenuated but significant relationship between Froh and schizophrenia (β = 4.86,CI(β) = [0.90,8.83],Z = 2.40,p = 0.02). Since Keller et al. (2012), several studies reported inconsistent association of ROH burden with complex traits, particularly in case-control data. These conflicting results might suggest that the effects of autozygosity are confounded by various factors, such as socioeconomic status, education, urbanicity, and religiosity, which may be associated with both real inbreeding and the outcome measures of interest