The School Finance Redesign Project: A Synthesis of Project Work to Date

Highlights the School Finance Redesign Project's early findings on the funding needed for all students to meet academic standards, promising ideas for focusing funding on promoting learning and rewarding educators, and the current system's constraints

Steps in the Right Direction: Assessing Ohio Achievement Everywhere -- the Kasich Plan

Ohio Governor Kasich issued his "Achievement Everywhere" plan in early February, and as details came out over the following weeks we again asked Professor Hill if he would provide a review of the governor's plan. Professor Hill took on the challenge and here the Thomas B. Fordham Institute proudly presents "Steps in the Right Direction: Assessing "Ohio Achievement Everywhere" -- the Kasich Plan", which should interest lawmakers, policy makers, journalists, and others concerned about the education of Ohio's children. As the title notes, Professor Hill observes that Governor Kasich's reform plan will advance Ohio and it schools, but it could be better and bolder. Or, as Professor Hill concludes, "Governor Kasich's Achievement Everywhere moves Ohio in the right direction, but it needs to go further if the ultimate goal is a world-class education for all students.

Dissertation by portfolio : an alternative to the traditional thesis

Both the absolute numbers and proportion of international students in the student cohorts of postgradute computing and engineering courses rose dramatically between 2005 and 2009. One of the hardest tasks these students have to perform is the production of a dissertation in English. This paper will concentrate on experiences with students studying computing masters level courses. This paper asks the question whether we are assessing a student's skills with academic English or their ability to meet the learning outcomes of the dissertation module. It will present an alternative to the traditional written dissertation in the form of a portfolio model which is applicable in highly technical research projects. The lessons learned from a pilot project which introduced portfolio dissertations to the Department of Computing at Sheffield Hallam University will be presented along with plans for the next stage of implementation

Multiple Pathways to Graduation: New Routes to High School Competition

Examines three approaches -- targeted population, district-wide, and linked learning -- to raising graduation rates, benefits, and challenges; what is required for implementation; and which approaches work well for different types of districts

Premarital cohabitation and divorce: Support for the "Trial Marriage" Theory?

A number of studies show that premarital cohabitation is associated with an increased risk of subsequent marital dissolution. Some argue that this is a consequence of selection effects and that once these are controlled for premarital cohabitation has no effect on dissolution. We examine the effect of premarital cohabitation on subsequent marital dissolution by using rich retrospective life-history data from Austria. We model union formation and dissolution jointly to control for unobserved selectivity of cohabiters and non-cohabiters. Our results show that those who cohabit prior to marriage have a higher risk of marital dissolution. However, once observed and unobserved characteristics are controlled for, the risks of marital dissolution for those who cohabit prior to marriage are significantly lower than for those who marry directly. The finding that premarital cohabitation decreases the risk of marital separation provides support for the "trial marriage" theory.Austria, event history analysis, rural, selection effects, union dissolution, urban

Performance Management in Portfolio School Districts

Explores the challenges of performance-based oversight of portfolio districts -- districts trying to provide diverse types of schools with common standards and accountability -- and the capacities needed. Includes profiles and best practices

Bioengineering Lantibiotics for Therapeutic Success

peer-reviewedSeveral examples of highly modified antimicrobial peptides have been described. While many such peptides are non-ribosomally synthesized, ribosomally synthesized equivalents are being discovered with increased frequency. Of the latter group, the lantibiotics continue to attract most attention. In the present review, we discuss the implementation of in vivo and in vitro engineering systems to alter, and even enhance, the antimicrobial activity, antibacterial spectrum and physico-chemical properties, including heat stability, solubility, diffusion and protease resistance, of these compounds. Additionally, we discuss the potential applications of these lantibiotics for use as therapeutics.DF,CH,PC,RR are supported by the Irish Government under the National Development Plan, through a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Technology and Innovation Development Award (TIDA14/TIDA/2286) to DF, a SFI Investigator awards to CH and RR (10/IN.1/B3027),SFI-PIfunding(11/PI/1137) to PDC and the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre under Grant Number SFI/12/RC/2273

Portfolio Strategies, Relinquishment, The Urban School System of the Future, and Smart Districts

Today, there are many new proposals about governance of K-12 Education: The portfolio strategy emphasizes a system of continuous improvement for diverse, autonomous schools governed by performance contracts; devolution models include efforts to expand the role of charter management organizations and other nonprofit providers (Andy Smarick's "Urban School System of the Future," Neerav Kingslad's "Relinquishment"); and school transformation models emphasize the role of third-party support organizations that create K-12 feeder patterns of allied schools (Bill Guenther and Justin Cohen's Mass Insight "Smart Districts" proposal).Are these really rival proposals as the authors of some are claiming? This idea is misguided; these are complemetns not alternatives

Does cohabitation prior to marriage raise the risk of marital dissolution and does this effect vary geographically?

A number of studies show that premarital cohabitation increases the risk of subsequent marital dissolution. Some argue that this is a consequence of selection effects and that once these are controlled for premarital cohabitation has no effect on dissolution. We extend this research by examining whether the effects of premarital cohabitation on marital dissolution vary across settlements within a country. Using retrospective event-history data from Austria, we model equations for union formation and dissolution jointly to control for unobserved selectivity of cohabiters or non-cohabiters. Our results show that those who cohabit prior to marriage have a higher risk of marital dissolution. However, once selection effects are controlled for, the risks of marital dissolution for those who cohabit prior to marriage are significantly lower than for those who marry directly. We show that strong selection effects relate to both cohabitation and direct marriage and these effects are consistent across all settlements.Austria, divorce, event history analysis, rural areas, urban areas