A One Health approach to antimicrobial resistance surveillance: is there a business case for it?

Antimicrobial resistance is a global problem of complex epidemiology, suited to a broad, integrated One Health approach. Resistant organisms exist in humans, animals, food and the environment, and the main driver of this resistance is antimicrobial usage. A One Health conceptual framework for surveillance is presented to include all of these aspects. Global and European (regional and national) surveillance systems are described, highlighting shortcomings compared with the framework. Policy decisions rely on economic and scientific evidence, so the business case for a fully integrated system is presented. The costs of integrated surveillance are offset by the costs of unchecked resistance and the benefits arising from interventions and outcomes. Current estimates focus on costs and benefits of human health outcomes. A One Health assessment includes wider societal costs of lost labour, changes in health-seeking behaviour, impacts on animal health and welfare, higher costs of animal-origin food production, and reduced consumer confidence in safety and international trade of such food. Benefits of surveillance may take years to realise and are dependent on effective and accepted interventions. Benefits, including the less tangible, such as improved synergies and efficiencies in service delivery and more timely and accurate risk identification, should also be recognised. By including these less tangible benefits to society, animal welfare, ecosystem health and resilience, together with the savings and efficiencies through shared resources and social capital-building, a stronger business case for a One Health approach to surveillance can be made

Amplifying Their Voices: Equity and Assistive Technology for Children with Disabilities

Assistive technology devices are crucial to the educational development of children who suffer from hearing loss. For some hearing-impaired children, access to hearing aids is vital to their ability to acquire language, develop speech, and socialize. Yet many hard of hearing children are unable to acquire hearing aids because most insurance policies do not cover them. Access to assistive technology devices for hard of hearing individuals has been the subject of long-standing controversy. The law recognizes the benefits of assistive technology devices and includes them within the scope of services school districts may be required to provide in order to ensure that children with disabilities have a free appropriate public education (FAPE) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). However, the Supreme Court’s FAPE standard requires only that school districts provide special education services that are “reasonably calculated to enable a child to make progress in light of the child’s circumstances.” As a result, school districts often deny requests for assistive technology, even if there is medical evidence that such services would benefit the child academically and socially, if the child is making “progress,” which is often measured by “passing grades and advancement from year to year.” This narrow interpretation of progress fails to account for the unique benefit evolving technology can have on the development of a child with a disability and the detrimental impact caused by an inability to acquire access. Additionally, children who are unable to acquire assistive technology from their school district are often left with no other options for financial support because government and private insurance funding for certain devices, such as hearing aids, is limited. Many scholars have noted the implications of the Supreme Court’s standard, including that it remains “unpredictable” and lacks clarity as to how to define “substantive appropriateness,” but the scholarship has not addressed the impact the standard has on children who do not have access to hearing aids. This Article analyzes the issues related to access to assistive technology by focusing on children with hearing loss as an illustration of the inequities caused by the limited scope of the law, the substantial cost of hearing aids, and the significant social and academic developmental cost to children who are unable to afford the technology they need. To address the legal and financial barriers to access, the FAPE standard should be interpreted to recognize the unique benefit of quickly evolving and much-needed assistive technology for children with hearing loss, and states should take steps to mandate government-based and private insurance coverage

Learning Reading Strategies while Writing: A Qualitative Study

An article by Professor Margaret Queenan on a quantitative study related to writing-based learning strategies

A Year Is not Long Enough for Learning

This qualitative study asked: “What happens when urban students are taught reading comprehension strategies?” Data comprised artifacts, field notes, and interviews. Analysis consisted of examining data for themes. Findings included the reality that the “Matthew Effect” (Stanovich, 1986)—where the rich in knowledge, vocabulary, and texts-read grow richer as new texts add knowledge, vocabulary, and textual experience while the poor grow poorer in that their limited knowledge, vocabulary, and textual experience lead to little gain—lives on. A year is not long enough for learning for such students; even the comprehension strategies advocated by the National Reading Panel (2000) do not help. Further research should examine the circumstances under which urban students build background knowledge, develop vocabulary, and become proficient in reading

President's Message

Prof. Margaret Lally Queenan's letter to the Connecticut Association for Reading Research in their 2009 CARReader

Multidisciplinary Research: Science and Reading Instruction in Third Grade

This participant observer research study focused on the reading comprehension strategies third grade readers used when reading downloaded texts about cheetahs and online texts about tigers. State standards and the district’s curriculum called for third grade students to identify the structures and behaviors that help animals survive in different environments. Using participant observation; that is, teaching the third grade classes and analyzing the artifacts produced as a result, including student products such as online and offline notes and researcher products such as lesson plans and field notes, the researcher asked and answered: What are the challenges and benefits of applying comprehension strategies online and offline

Kinds of literacy

A poster describing researching balanced literacy education