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March 27, 2008Despite Little Experience, Teach for America Educators Outpace Veterans in Drawing Achievement From StudentsFrom Ascribe Newsfeed: Teach for America teachers may be new to the profession, but they are generally more effective than their experienced colleagues, finds a new Urban Institute analysis. On average, high school students taught by TFA corps members performed significantly better on state-required end-of-course exams, especially in math and science, than peers taught by far more experienced instructors. Teach for America recruits and selects high-achieving college graduates, many of whom have no prior experience or coursework in education, and places them in needy schools after short but intensive training. Xu, Hannaway, and Taylor found that TFA corps members serving in North Carolina tended to have graduated from more selective colleges and universities and to have scored higher on the Praxis, a teacher-licensing exam. These data warrant the attention of education policymakers concerned with teacher quality, says Jane Hannaway, director of the Urban Institute's Education Policy Center and the National Center for the Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER). The Effects of Teach for America in High School" is a working paper produced by the Urban Institute's National Center for the Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) and funded by the Steven L. Merrill Family Foundation and the Institute for Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. The Urban Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization that examines the social, economic, and governance challenges facing the nation. AScribe transmits news releases directly to newsroom computer systems and desktops of major media organizations via a supremely trusted channel - The Associated Press. Posted by Michael at 5:54 PM | TrackBack PTSD Associated with More, Longer Hospitalizations for Urban PoorFrom EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) have found post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with more hospitalizations, longer hospitalizations and greater mental healthcare utilization in urban primary care patients. Most of this research, however, has focused on male veterans and female sexual assault victims but the impact on healthcare use in other populations is uncertain. The researchers interviewed a sample of primary care patients to examine overall prevalence of traumatic exposure and select behavioral health outcomes in addition to PTSD, including major depression, substance dependence and chronic pain. The interview included demographic questions, the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (version 2.1 PTSD module), the Chronic Pain Definitional Questionnaire, the Patient Health Questionnaire (to measure depression) and the Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Short Form (for drug and alcohol dependence). Compared to participants with no trauma exposure, subjects exposed to trauma were significantly more likely to be males, unmarried, have substance dependence and depression. They also had more mental health visits than those with no trauma exposure. "Unexpectedly, trauma exposure by itself was not associated with increased healthcare utilization apart from mental health visits, a finding which was attenuated after adjusting for PTSD," said lead author Anand Kartha, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at BUSM. "This may be due to the fact that the non-traumatized to whom we are comparing the traumatized patients, have complex social milieu leading to high utilization," added Kartha. These findings are relevant in light of the PTSD prevalence not only in our returning veterans, but in areas of urban poor," she added. Posted by Michael at 5:52 PM | TrackBack Health Screening for California Legislators, Staff Finds Kidney Disease, Diabetes, High Blood PressureFrom Ascribe Newsfeed: To celebrate World Kidney Day and to promote early kidney health screening, The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) held a free health screening on March 11 and 12 for legislators and their staff, as well as state and governmental relations employees. The most startling result was a sharp increase in previously undiagnosed kidney disease compared to NKF's screening results in 2007. The results show the need for early screening and reflect serious health trends facing Californians: the sharp rise in conditions that are known to cause kidney failure and heart disease. This is significant when considering the long term effects of uncontrolled high blood pressure, high cholesterol and elevated blood sugar, both for the individual's quality of life and the burden of increasing health care costs on all Californians. The need for increased health screenings for at-risk Californians and for greater awareness of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) was also recognized by the state Assembly via HR 26, a resolution introduced by Assemblyman Mark Leno and passed unanimously. The resolution officially recognizes World Kidney Day in California and encourages those at-risk to be screened. The two leading causes of CKD are diabetes and high blood pressure. It is estimated that the cost of medical care per CKD patient is over $40,000 per year, more than twice that of patients of similar age/gender without CKD. We provide direct, immediate access to mainstream national media for 600 colleges, universities, medical centers, public-policy groups and other leading nonprofit organizations. AScribe transmits news releases directly to newsroom computer systems and desktops of major media organizations via a supremely trusted channel - The Associated Press. Posted by Michael at 5:49 PM | TrackBack TechSoup Announces NetSquared Top 21 Mashup Challenge Finalists; NetSquared Community Vote Picked Contenders for $100,000 PrizeFrom Ascribe Newsfeed: Hundreds of NetSquared (http://www.netsquared.org) community members cast their votes to determine the best ideas for a Web mashup designed to provide deeper insight into the social issues affecting communities around the globe. "NetSquared lives in the space between the social missions that nonprofits are seeking to achieve on the ground and the incredible communications and advocacy possibilities offered by the new social media," said Marnie Webb, co-CEO of TechSoup (http://www.techsoup.org), the nonprofit behind NetSquared. "There's a huge amount of hype out there, and consequently there is a backlash - many great nonprofits that don't allow themselves to discover what is now possible. The Top 21 projects listed above, which were chosen from a field of 122 entries, will get an opportunity to display and discuss their Mashups with the 350 conference participants - including venture capitalists, philanthropy experts, Web developers and social activists. The three top projects, as decided by a vote of conference participants, will divide most of a $100,000 Technology Innovation Fund raised by TechSoup for the Conference. One of the highlights of this ongoing project is the annual NetSquared conference, which will be held on May 27-28, 2008 in San Jose and will feature 21 mashup projects chosen by the community. We provide direct, immediate access to mainstream national media for 600 colleges, universities, medical centers, public-policy groups and other leading nonprofit organizations. AScribe transmits news releases directly to newsroom computer systems and desktops of major media organizations via a supremely trusted channel - The Associated Press. Posted by Michael at 5:41 PM | TrackBack Cooperative Classrooms Lead to Better Friendships, Higher Achievement in Young AdolescentsFrom EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Students competing for resources in the classroom while discounting each others' success are less likely to earn top grades than students who work together toward goals and share their success, according to an analysis of 80 years of research. Cary J. Roseth, PhD, David W. Johnson, PhD, and Roger T. Johnson, PhD, reviewed the last eight decades of research on how social relationships affect individual behavior and achievement. The researchers examined 148 studies that compared the effects of cooperative, competitive and individualistic goals on early achievement and peer relationships among 12- to 15-year-olds. The studies included more than 17,000 adolescents from 11 countries and used four multinational samples. According to the studies, adolescents in classrooms that supported cooperative learning -- studying together to complete a project or prepare for an exam -- got along better with their peers, were more accurate on academic tests and achieved higher scores on problem-solving, reasoning and critical thinking tasks compared to adolescents who were in classrooms geared toward competitive learning -- studying alone knowing that success would mean only one winner and plenty of losers. The findings suggest that when teachers structured their classrooms more cooperatively, students felt more support and connection with their peers, had better success on academic tests and tasks, and sustained higher levels of achievement because of the better peer relations, said Roseth, the lead author. The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. Posted by Michael at 5:40 PM | TrackBack Beating the Odds: The Real Challenges Behind the Math Achievement GapOne of the largest and most persistent inequities in the modern American education system is the gap in math achievement along income and race lines. Yet some secondary schools are demonstrating their capacity to "beat the odds" and produce consistently strong math performance with students who likely would fail in traditional settings. The success of high-achieving schools teaches important lessons about how to design schools, classroom-level mathematics instruction, and the preparation of math teachers to reach those who are too often considered unreachable. Posted by Michael at 1:26 PM | TrackBack Does Education Increase Economic Mobility?MDRC: In 2005, for instance, college graduates earned $25,000 more on average than high school graduates. Not only are the children of relatively well-off parents more likely to earn more as adults, but they are more likely to get a college degree than children of parents with lower incomes (as the figure below demonstrates). The policy challenge is to make it possible for more young people from the bottom quintiles of the family income distribution to access higher education and succeed in college. One promising avenue for many low-income students is community college. Because of their relative low cost and accessibility, community colleges serve large numbers of low-income and first-generation college students. MDRC has a group of projects focused on designing and evaluating promising interventions to help community college students remain in school and earn credentials. Opening Doors is testing reforms in curricula and instruction, enhanced student services, and financial aid supplements. The results from two programs --- one in Louisiana that offered performance-based scholarships and another in New York that placed incoming freshmen in "learning communities" --- are particularly encouraging. MDRC is participating in Lumina Foundation for Education's ambitious Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count initiative, which involves 82 community colleges in 15 states and many national partner organizations. Other MDRC projects are investigating emergency financial aid programs, learning communities, and programs that integrate student support services with intensive academic instruction and supports. Finally, MDRC is a partner in the National Center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR), which is housed at the Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City. Posted by Michael at 1:12 PM | TrackBack 5000 Dreams - 20 Finalists - Your Vote Helps Decide the Final FourCase Foundation - Make It Your Own The Case Foundation has announced the Top 20 Finalists in the Make It Your Own Awards. Now, its up to the online community to vote and decide which of these finalists will become the Final Four and receive an additional $25,000 to make their community dreams come true. Get $2,500 for Your Charity Background The Make It Your Own Awards are a direct response to research showing that many people feel disconnected from public leaders and institutions and don't believe they have the power to make a lasting difference in their community. These findings were the spark for a paper we released last fall, Citizens at the Center: A New Approach to Civic Engagement, which suggests that if people are actually going to get engaged and stay engaged in their communities, one thing has to happen first -- they must be given more chances to connect with one another (including those they might disagree with) and figure out how they can work together for the common good. Who Can Apply (applications now closed) We're looking for passionate individuals, or individuals working with small, local organizations or groups, who reside in one of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico, to submit an idea for one of these same locations (no international projects). Applicants must be 14 years of age or older. Twenty finalists will receive a $10,000 grant to help make their idea a reality. The Final Four (chosen by the votes of our online community) will get an additional $25,000 grant -- for a total of $35,000. Everyone who applies will receive GOOD Magazine and online tools to help them share their idea with others and raise funds online. The top 100 finalists will get $100 from the Case Foundation to jump-start their idea. How It Works * YOU HAVE A VOICE: This new grant program is part of an exciting trend--a "citizen-centered" approach to making the world a better place that is more open and more inclusive. That's why, from developing the grant guidelines to voting on the final grant recipients, we have been and will continue to involve the public in nearly every aspect of the program. * APPLY: Brief applications will be accepted online June 26-August 8. A group of people from diverse backgrounds and communities will review all the applications and select the top 100 semifinalists. These 100 semifinalists will then be invited to pitch their ideas as a full proposal. * FINALISTS: A smaller group of reviewers will then choose the Top 20 finalists, with each finalist receiving a grant of $10,000. * YOU VOTE: The online community will select four $25,000 grant recipients from the top 20 finalists. Posted by Michael at 1:06 PM | TrackBack The National Fund for Workforce Solutions: A History of CollaborationNational Fund For Workforce Solutions: In 2007, several national foundations and the U.S. Department of Labor launched the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, a $50 million effort to strengthen and expand high-impact workforce development initiatives across the country. NFWS, which builds on years of important work by many people and institutions both nationally and locally, has the potential to play a major role in improving how workforce development services are funded and delivered. This report traces how national foundations, smaller local foundations, and government agencies helped to shape this new national workforce development initiative. Posted by Michael at 12:58 PM | TrackBack Expanding the EIC in 2009Oregon Center for Public Policy: This tax season, Oregon will require a minimum wage worker who was employed full-time, year-round last year and supported one child to pay about $321 in state income taxes. By expanding the Earned Income Credit (EIC), Oregon can give a hand up to low-wage working families, rather than leaving them behind. Oregon's EIC ties for sixth smallest among 23 states (including the District of Columbia) with state EICs. At the same time, Oregon's income tax on poor families of four ranks fifth highest among states, and its income tax on near-poor families of four ranks third highest. Expanding Oregon's EIC from 6 percent of the federal credit to 18 percent would eliminate income taxes on a minimum wage worker with one child and would reduce income taxes paid by other low-wage working families. A single parent raising one child and earning the maximum state EIC would have had $342 more last year to cover the costs of necessities if Oregon's EIC had been 18 percent of the federal credit, instead of 6 percent. Increasing Oregon's EIC would bring Oregon's overall state and local tax system closer to one that is based on taxpayers' ability to pay. Adding insult to injury, while a family of four with poverty level income from work paid about $238 in income taxes last year, two-thirds of corporations operating in Oregon, including corporations with substantial profits, paid just $10 each. Posted by Michael at 12:55 PM | TrackBack March 26, 2008Why Don't Kids Walk to School Anymore?From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Maybe when we were their age, we walked five miles to school, rain or shine. According to a University of Michigan researcher, concerns about safety are the main reason that less than 13 percent of U.S. children walked or biked to school in 2004, compared to more than 50 percent who did so in 1969. "These concerns are strongly linked to the kind of physical environment children navigate between home and school," said Byoung-Suk Kweon, an environmental and landscape architecture researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR). "The greener the route, the more likely it is that children will walk and bike." Using Geographic Information System (GIS) data combined with a survey of 186 parents of 5th through 8th grade students, Kweon found that parents were most concerned about the speed and volume of traffic students would encounter en route to school; the possibility of crime; and the weather. "Parents may be concerned about the safety of bike lanes, and they may be telling their children to ride on the sidewalk because it's safer," she said. By identifying environmental elements conducive to walking and biking to school, Kweon hopes her research may help improve children's physical health and reduce the incidence of childhood obesity, especially prevalent among minority children. ISR conducts some of the most widely-cited studies in the nation, including the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, the American National Election Studies, the Monitoring the Future Study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the Health and Retirement Study, and the National Survey of Black Americans. Posted by Michael at 10:20 PM | TrackBack University of Virginia Curry School of Education Professors Release First Findings of Virginia High School Safety StudyFrom Ascribe Newsfeed: Each April, concerns about school safety rise as the anniversaries of the shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School and Virginia Tech approach. Despite these and other publicized cases of school violence, new research from the University of Virginia finds that conditions in Virginia high schools are generally safe and that serious acts of violence are rare. Read more from this post. Posted by Michael at 10:18 PM | TrackBack March 25, 2008New Pilot to Help Schools Most in Need of Intervention and ReformFrom Education Newsfeed: Deputy Secretary of Education Raymond Simon today in Indianapolis praised the hard work of students and educators in raising state test scores and meeting Adequate Yearly Progress under No Child Left Behind. He also discussed the Differentiated Accountability Program pilot, which will allow states--after meeting four specific eligibility requirements--to design a more nuanced system to distinguish between schools in need of dramatic intervention and those that are closer to meeting goals. The new pilot will assist states by helping target resources and interventions to those schools most in need of intensive interventions and significant reform. Posted by Michael at 10:17 PM | TrackBack Family Wealth May Explain Differences in Test Scores in School-Age ChildrenFrom EurekAlert! - Breaking News: A new study published in the March/April 2008 issue of the journal Child Development finds that family wealth might partly explain differences in test scores in school-age children. The study, conducted by researchers at New York University, also found that family wealth is positively associated with parenting behavior, home environment, and children’s self-esteem. Prior research has documented the association between children’s cognitive achievement and the socioeconomic status of their parents as measured by education level, occupation, and income. Many of these studies focused on the effect of poverty—defined by family income—on children’s achievement, but household wealth (i.e., net worth) has received little attention. This new study used new methods, including data from a new national study (the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and its Child Development Supplement). It explored many functional forms and sources of wealth, looking at different mediating pathways of wealth from distinct sources, and analyzing how wealth affects children’s cognitive achievement at different stages of childhood. The researchers found a marked disparity in family wealth between Black and White families with young children, with White families owning more than 10 times as many assets as Black families. The study found that family wealth had a stronger association with cognitive achievement of school-aged children than that of preschoolers, and a stronger association with school-aged children’s math than with their reading scores. Posted by Michael at 10:17 PM | TrackBack Children Who Bully also Have Problems with Other RelationshipsFrom EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Students who bully others tend to have difficulties with other relationships, such as those with friends and parents. Targeting those relationships, as well as the problems children who bully have with aggression and morality, may offer ideas for intervention and prevention. Those are the findings of a new study that was conducted by scientists at York University and Queens University. It appears in the March/April 2008 issue of the journal Child Development. The researchers looked at 871 students (466 girls and 405 boys) for seven years from ages 10 to 18. Each year, they asked the children questions about their involvement in bullying or victimizing behavior, their relationships, and other positive and negative behaviors. Bullying is a behavior that most children engage in at some point during their school years, according to the study. Almost a tenth (9.9 percent) of the students said they engaged in consistently high levels of bullying from elementary through high school. Some 13.4 percent said they bullied at relatively high levels in elementary school but dropped to almost no bullying by the end of high school. Some 35.1 percent of the children said they bullied peers at moderate levels. And 41.6 percent almost never reported bullying across the adolescent years. Posted by Michael at 10:17 PM | TrackBack Survey Gives Early Snapshot of Impact of Credit Crunch on Student Loans at Private Colleges and UniversitiesFrom National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities: A significant number of private colleges and universities report reductions in student loan availability and borrower benefits, according to the results of a survey conducted by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and released today. "While the comments offered by survey respondents indicate that there is little evidence of the credit crunch limiting access to student loans at the specific time of the survey, the data collected serves as a warning flare," said NAICU President David L. Warren. "There is widespread uncertainty about what the full extent of the credit crunch and its impact on student borrowers will be, and what safeguards the federal government will have in place to avert a crisis," Warren said. "Institutions are looking for national guidance." Posted by Michael at 10:13 PM | TrackBack Minorities and College; Teachers' UnionsFrom Ascribe Newsfeed: Even though the number of black and Hispanic students entering college has increased dramatically over the last 30 years, students from these groups still lag well behind white students in earning college degrees, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis. Michal Kurlaender, assistant professor of education at UC Davis, and co-author Erika Felts, a graduate student in sociology at UC Davis, presented their findings this morning at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in New York City. Their research will also appear in their forthcoming book, "Realizing Bakke's Legacy." Kurlaender and Felts found that between 1972 and 1992, the percentage of black high school graduates who entered college rose from 46 percent to 69.5 percent and the percentage of Hispanic high school graduates who went to college climbed from 47 percent to 70 percent. However, the college completion rate for both groups fell. In 1975, 38 percent of all blacks and 40 percent of all Hispanics who entered college completed their bachelor's degrees. By 2004, the percentages had dropped to 33 percent for blacks and 34 percent for Hispanics. The researchers based their conclusions on an analysis of data released in 2004 by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics. Posted by Michael at 10:13 PM | TrackBack Partners Can Help or Hinder Attempts at Changing DietFrom EurekAlert! - Breaking News: For people trying to make a change in their diet, significant others generally play a positive and supportive role, but sometimes respond in negative ways, according to a study in the March/April Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior (http://www.jneb.org/). Led by Judy Paisley, Ph.D., R.D., of Ryerson University, Toronto, the researchers looked at how significant others responded when their partners attempted to make a dietary change for health reasons. "For most pairs, the significant others' emotional and behavioral responses to the dietary change appeared to reflect the general dynamics of the relationship," says Dr. Paisley. The researchers conducted interviews with 21 people making dietary changes—most in response to a medical diagnosis—and with their partners or significant others. "By examining the perspectives of significant others, we hoped to deepen understanding of the social nature of dietary change," Dr. Paisley explains. The partners' emotional responses varied widely: from co-operation and encouragement to skepticism and anger. In most cases, the significant others described themselves as playing a positive, supportive role. Some facilitated the change by joining in the new diet, or by changing their shopping or cooking habits. Others helped by monitoring the dietary change, finding and sharing information, or providing motivation. Posted by Michael at 10:11 PM | TrackBack Statement on the Report of the Trustees of Social Security and MedicareFrom Ascribe Newsfeed: For journalists covering today's release of the report of the trustees of Social Security and Medicare assessing the fiscal health of the government's two biggest benefit programs (combined approximately one third of the federal budget), the authors of a popular book on the federal budget say asking the "right" questions is key. One key question: Are America's leaders so immersed in short term political positioning that we have lost the ability to chart our nation's long-term fiscal future? The trustees' report is likely to give a new date by which the programs are likely to run into trouble, but Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson, authors of "Where Does the Money Go? Your Guided Tour to the Federal Budget Crisis" published by HarperCollins, say there are even bigger questions we should be focused on. In the book, the authors lay out six reality check points to keep in mind when thinking about how to address the larger federal budget crisis. Posted by Michael at 10:09 PM | TrackBack Housing and Credit Crisis Sink Florida Consumer Confidence Five PointsFrom Ascribe Newsfeed: Florida's consumer confidence fell five points to 68 in March, reflecting growing pessimism about the national economy in the midst of the housing and credit crisis, a new University of Florida study reports. Read more from this post. Posted by Michael at 10:06 PM | TrackBack Awards Affirm Cal State L.A.'s Recipe for Diversity, Legacy of Access; Recent Array of Honors Cites Campus, President Rosser for Decades of Helping Thousands of Underserved Students Achieve Excellence in College - and BeyondFrom Ascribe Newsfeed: For creating, following and sharing a successful recipe for diversity within higher education, California State University, Los Angeles and its president, James M. Rosser, recently received a series of national awards that spotlight decades of bolstering educational access in underserved communities and of fostering diversity with excellence beyond the baccalaureate degree. Read more from this post. Posted by Michael at 10:05 PM | TrackBack Playing numerical board games boosts number skills of low-income preschoolersFrom EurekAlert! - Breaking News: A study conducted with low-income preschoolers attending Head Start found that certain numerical board games increased early math learning. Board games with consecutively numbered, linearly arranged spaces helped children learn about counting, identifying numerals and comparing the sizes of numbers. Children playing an identical game that varied in color rather than number did not improve in these areas. Playing such board games could help lessen discrepancies in early math learning, which predicts later math achievement. Read more from this post. Posted by Michael at 10:04 PM | TrackBack Risky Teen Behavior Nay Not Occur at Home or School: But How to Track?From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: How can researchers track where teens go when not in or near home or school to see if this movement has an impact on health-related behavior such as smoking or sexual activity? The answer is through that ubiquitous teen accessory -- the cell phone. In a paper published in the April issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine report on a pilot study which evaluated the feasibility of using global position system -enabled cell phones to track where 14- to 16-year-old girls spent their time. "We didn't know if the technology would work, if the kids would take the cell phones with them or would leave them at home. But they did carry the phones and the GPS data revealed that they were spending more time away from home, school and surrounding areas than anticipated. Learning that we were able to track their movement is important because previous studies which have looked at the effect of environment on teens have focused only on home, school and surrounding areas," said Sarah Wiehe, M.D., M.P.H., an assistant professor of pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine and a Regenstrief Institute affiliated scientist. "A person's environment in some way influences or is at least associated with their health and health outcomes and in the case of adolescents their health behaviors. Based on the success of the initial project, the researchers have received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to enroll 160 urban teenage girls in a study to track their movements in spring, summer, fall and winter (to account for seasonal variations). Posted by Michael at 12:10 AM | TrackBack Payday Lending Benefits Communities Stricken By Natural Disaster Says Working StudyFrom PR Newswire: Communities affected by natural disasters are more resilient and less likely to face foreclosure, says a working study, "Payday Lenders: Heroes or Villains?" The study assesses the impact of payday lenders in California communities struck by natural disaster between the years of 1996-2005 and finds that "access to finance is welfare improving at whatever cost." Morse found that banks and other forms of credit were no substitute for payday loans, "...banks cannot serve the welfare-enhancing role for individuals in distress that payday lenders serve." "If the existence of payday lending is valuable for those facing personal disaster in a way that other financial institutions cannot provide, then regulators should strive to make access to finance easier and more affordable, not ban it," Morse wrote, "...if payday lending is welfare improving for at least some portion of the population, a move to ban payday lending is ill advised." D. Lynn DeVault, president of the Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSA), said, "We hope that legislators look at this study carefully before considering banning an industry which can make such an important difference for people coping with effects of a natural or even personal disasters. The Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSA) is the only national organization dedicated solely to promoting responsible regulation of the payday advance industry and consumer protections through CFSA's Best Practices. As such, we are committed to working with policymakers, consumer advocates and CFSA member companies to ensure that the payday advance is a safe and viable credit option for consumers. Posted by Michael at 12:06 AM | TrackBack Can Involvement in Extra-Curricular Activities Help Prevent Juvenile Delinquency?From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: The study, conducted by Northeastern University researchers, looked separately at delinquency and risky behaviors for both young men and young women in a suburban high school and how involvement in outside activities influenced those behaviors. While they found that involvement in extra-curricular activities definitely seemed to minimize the risky behaviors, there seemed to be a "tipping point" where too much participation had a counter-effect. They also found that nontraditional activities for each gender (such as sports for girls and church for boys) provided a greater protection from delinquency. The researchers believe that extracurricular involvement helps deter delinquency by reducing unstructured time, providing incentives to conform, and creating avenues for attachments with other pro-social peers and adults. "Young people who participate in sports and both community and church activities report significantly less serious delinquency as well as less problem drinking and risky sexual behavior," writes co-author Sean P. Varano, Ph.D. "A healthy and measured dose of involvement in extracurricular activities is good for young people." SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology and medicine. Crime & Delinquency is a valuable resource for policy-makers, scholars, administrators, and researchers in the criminal justice field. In addition to exploring the social, political and economic contexts of criminal justice, Crime & Delinquency also examines the victims, criminals, courts and sanctions offering sound, practical policy and program analyses. Posted by Michael at 12:02 AM | TrackBack March 24, 2008Obesity May Keep Some Women from Getting Screened for Breast, Cervical CancerFrom EurekAlert! - Breaking News: A review of cancer screening studies shows that white women who are obese are less likely than healthy weight women to get the recommended screenings for breast and cervical cancer, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Public Health. The trend was not seen as consistently among black women; however there were fewer high quality studies that examined black women separately. "Obesity is increasing, and so is the evidence that obesity increases the risk of certain cancers like colorectal cancer and post-menopausal breast cancer," said Sarah S. Cohen, lead author of the article published online today by the American Cancer Society. "It's a disturbing trend, then, to see that women who are at increased risk of cancer because of their body size are less likely to be receiving screening tests that can detect cancer early, when it is treatable." Cohen and her colleagues from the UNC School of Public Health's epidemiology department and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center reviewed 32 relevant published studies on breast, cervical and colorectal cancers that considered associations between obesity and screening tests recommended for women in the United States. The most consistent associations reported across all the studies were for cervical cancer screenings, with fewer women getting the recommended screening test (Papanicolaou -- or Pap -- tests) as body mass index increased. Body size was not consistently related to screening for colorectal cancer among any groups of women in the studies that were reviewed. Posted by Michael at 8:29 PM | TrackBack Computer Games Can Make Kids More Social, Not LessFrom Ascribe Newsfeed: Contrary to common education wisdom, computer games and other technologies can foster community-building, a strong sense of identity and higher-level planning even in very young students, UC Davis researchers report. "There is a lot of hemming and hawing among educators about the introduction of technology in the early grades," said Cynthia Carter Ching, associate professor of education at the University of California, Davis. Technology can facilitate creativity and social awareness, even when we don't design the use of it to do so. And when we do design technology activities with these things in mind, the possibilities are endless." According to Ching, early childhood educators often argue that technology can squelch young children's creativity and social interaction in the classroom. But in two recent studies of kindergarten and first-grade students, Ching has observed that children find ways to transform their experiences with technology into fun, highly organized group activities. She also found that technology-based activities can be explicitly designed to foster social reflection and advanced planning among young children. In their first study, Ching and Wang observed children who chose to play a computer game during their free time. Though only one child could play at a time, the children negotiated turns and gave each other advice about how to play the game. AScribe Newswire distributes news from nonprofit and public sector organizations. Posted by Michael at 8:20 PM | TrackBack Medicare Out-of-Pocket Costs: Can Private Savings Incentives Solve the Problem?From The Commonwealth Fund: Medicare's benefit structure leaves beneficiaries with significant out-of-pocket costs, particularly if they lack supplemental coverage; such costs disproportionately affect low-income, old, and chronically ill beneficiaries. This report analyzes the extent to which incentives for private saving could relieve the burden of post-retirement health care costs. Focusing on low-income participants as part of a broader analysis of families of varying income levels, the analysis projects the savings potential for individuals if they could save a modest percentage of their income tax free and receive a rate of return equivalent to that in a basket of U.S. Treasury bonds. The authors conclude that enhanced savings offer only a partial solution to this problem for low-income seniors, and that a strong fiscal case can be made for partly or totally limiting such tax incentives to low-income and lower-middle-income individuals. Out-of-pocket costs disproportionately affect low-income, old, and chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries: in 2003, the elderly with incomes under 135 percent of federal poverty level (FPL) spent one-third of their income on uncovered medical care, on average. (The 2007 Federal Poverty Level for a non-elderly adult is $10,787, and it is $9,944 for an elderly adult.) Although Medicare added an outpatient prescription drug benefit in 2006, poor and sick beneficiaries still face a substantial cost burden. Private savings may seem to be the most realistic path for doing something to address the growing problem of post-retirement medical expenses, particularly given competing budget priorities such as the Medicare drug benefit and the renewed focus on the nonelderly uninsured. Posted by Michael at 8:19 PM | TrackBack Youth Sports Concussion Program Points to Need for Proper Treatment of Concussion in ChildrenFrom EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Traumatic brain injury expert Gerard Gioia, PhD, Chief of Neuropsychology at Children's National Medical Center and director of the Safe Concussion Outcome, Recovery and Education (SCORE) Program, has published a successful concussion management program for children based on his pioneering work in this area. The program is one of the first of its kind. Currently, most concussion management programs for youth sports lag behind collegiate and professional sports, despite the serious consequences of brain injury on a developing brain. "Management of this serious injury must consider the various effects in the home, school, social and sports environments." This work, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), uses computer-based testing and standardized parent/ teacher reports of the student athlete's neurocognitive functioning to better guide recovery after a mild TBI. Research into mild traumatic brain injury, and education about proper treatment of mild TBI, helps change the mindset among young athletes, parents, coaches, teachers, and physicians about the seriousness and long term effects of these injuries, and assists in defining more accurately when it is safe to return to the field -- and the classroom. Dr. Gioia is a primary author of the CDC tool kit that instructs physicians on proper diagnosis and management of concussions, also based on this research. The toolkit employs the Acute Concussion Evaluation (ACE), developed by Dr. Gioia and his colleague, Dr. Micky Collins, to improve the physician's initial identification and treatment of mild TBI. The SCORE clinics see over 700 children each year. Posted by Michael at 8:15 PM | TrackBack Adolescents with Chronic Insomnia Report Increase in Personal ProblemsFrom EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Documenting a "twofold to fivefold" increase in personal problems among adolescents with persistent sleeplessness, public health researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston say they have completed the first prospective study demonstrating the negative impact of chronic insomnia on 11 to 17 year olds. More than one fourth of the youths surveyed had one or more symptoms of insomnia and almost half of these youngsters had chronic conditions. Findings appear in the March issue of the "Journal of Adolescent Health" and are based on interviews with 3,134 adolescents in metropolitan Houston. "The data indicate that the burden of insomnia is comparable to that of other psychiatric disorders such as mood, anxiety, disruptive and substance abuse disorders. The study involved adolescents enrolled in health maintenance organizations who were screened for sleep problems and issues affecting physical health, psychological health and interpersonal relationships at the beginning and end of a 12-month-period. "Almost half of the adolescents who reported one or more symptoms of insomnia during the initial screening had similar issues a year later," Roberts said. The symptom criteria for insomnia, according to the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) IV, includes difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, early morning awakening and nonrestorative sleep over the past four weeks. In the initial screening, 27 percent had one of more symptoms of insomnia, 7 percent had one or more symptoms of insomnia plus daytime fatigue or sleepiness or both, and 5 percent met the DSM clinical diagnosis criteria, which attempts to rule out other psychiatric disorders, as well as the effects of alcohol, drugs or medication, which can be confused with chronic insomnia. Posted by Michael at 8:15 PM | TrackBack Childhood Personality Can Predict Important Outcomes in Emerging AdulthoodFrom EurekAlert! - Breaking News: A new study in the Journal of Personality reveals the extent to which children's personality types can predict the timing of key transitional moments between childhood and adulthood. The study set out to examine whether childhood personality would predict the timing of important transitional events moving into adulthood, including leaving the parents' home, establishing a romantic relationship, and entering the world of part-time work. Participants consisted of 230 children who were studied every year from their first or second year in preschool until age 12. Researchers led by Jaap Denissen of Humboldt-University Berlin assessed degrees of shyness and aggressiveness through parental scales and teacher reports. Resilient personality is characterized by above average emotional stability, IQ, and academic achievement. Overcontrol is characterized by low scores on extraversion, emotional stability, and self-esteem. Undercontrol is characterized by low scores on emotional stability and agreeableness and high scores on aggressive behavior. The 19-year longitudinal study illustrated that childhood personality types were meaningfully associated with the timing of the transitions. Resilient males were found to leave their parents' house approximately one year earlier than overcontrolled or undercontrolled children. Resilient boys and girls were faster in getting a part-time job than their overcontrolled and undercontrolled peers. "Studies of so-called natural experiments will continue to be useful in elucidating the effects of life experiences on personality development," the authors conclude. Wiley-Blackwell publishes approximately 1,400 scholarly peer-reviewed journals and an extensive collection of books with global appeal. For more information on Wiley-Blackwell, please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com or http://interscience.wiley.com. Posted by Michael at 8:13 PM | TrackBack March 20, 2008Money Buys Happiness when You Spend on OthersFrom EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Researchers at the University of British Columbia and the Harvard Business School have found that it's possible to buy happiness after all: when you spend money on others. In a series of studies, UBC Asst. Prof. Elizabeth Dunn found that individuals report significantly greater happiness if they spend money "pro-socially" -- that is on gifts for others or charitable donations -- rather than spending on themselves. Her findings will appear in the March 21 edition of the journal Science. "We wanted to test our theory that how people spend their money is at least as important as how much money they earn," says Dunn, who teaches in the UBC Dept. of Psychology and is lead author of the study. The researchers looked at a nationally representative sample of more than 630 Americans, of whom 55 per cent were female. They asked participants to: rate their general happiness; report their annual income; and provide a breakdown of their monthly spending, including bills, gifts for themselves, gifts for others and donations to charity. The study also measured the happiness levels of employees at a firm in Boston before and after they received their profit-sharing bonus, which ranged between $3,000 and $8,000. The employees who devoted more of their bonus to gifts for others or toward charity consistently reported greater benefits than employees who simply spent money on their own needs. Participants who spent the windfall on others reported feeling happier at the end of the day than those who spent the money on themselves. "These findings suggest that very minor alterations in spending allocations -- as little as $5 -- may be enough to produce real gains in happiness on a given day," says Dunn. Posted by Michael at 6:28 PM | TrackBack Counselors Should Target Discrimination and be Advocates for Transgender ClientsFrom EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Two University of Oregon doctoral students dove into issues of transgender identities -- in the workplace and professional counseling -- and surfaced with a call for psychologists and vocational counselors to not only treat but to act as advocates for their clients -- and to help end discrimination in the workplace. "One of the main points of our paper is that not only do we need to be, as vocational psychologists or career counselors, working with transgender people at an individual level to help them get hired, but we also need to be doing a lot of social advocacy work -- working with employers and workplaces -- improving antidiscrimination policies and doing legal advocacy," said lead author Maya Elin O'Neil. The study, co-authored by their doctoral adviser Ellen Hawley McWhirter, a professor of counseling psychology, provides transgender-issue terminology related to gender identity, suggestions for addressing problems of both clients and on-the-job difficulties and lists available resources -- filling a void in both the academic literature and support possibilities. "We've had lots of requests for reprints of the article from people who have heard about it, and they've repeatedly said that there is nothing out there about the workplace angle," O'Neil said. Request for copies have come from psychologists, vocational counselors, university administrators, especially those dealing with diversity issues and planning, and even workforce managers, said co-author Alison Cerezo. O'Neil and Cerezo both are pursing doctorates in counseling psychology. Borrowing from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the authors define "transgender" as an umbrella term that refers to individuals whose gender identity or gender expression falls outside of the stereotypical gender norms. Posted by Michael at 6:26 PM | TrackBack Some Moms Quit Cigarettes, Marijuana, Alcohol during Pregnancy, but Dads Don'tFrom EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Despite public health campaigns, a surprising number of women continue to use substances such as tobacco, marijuana and alcohol during pregnancy and their usage rebounds to pre-pregnancy levels within two years of having a baby, according to a new University of Washington study. Men typically are not targeted by these campaigns, and their levels of binge drinking, daily smoking and marijuana use remained fairly stable before, during and after pregnancy, the study showed. This is important, according to the study's lead authors Jennifer Bailey and Karl Hill, because men's substance use may make it harder for women to stop using while they're pregnant and may make it more likely that mothers will resume smoking or drinking after their child is born. "The months after childbirth are critical for intervening with mothers," said Bailey, who is a UW research scientist. "For example, many already have done the hard work of quitting smoking and haven't smoked a cigarette in six months or more. While overall rates of cigarette and marijuana use and binge drinking for women declined during pregnancy, those rates began rising again during the first six months following the birth of a baby. Data for the study came from the Seattle Social Development Project which is following the development of 808 Seattle children who are now young adults. Pregnancy seems like such a great public health opportunity to reach parents, but no one is talking to dads and this study shows that they are not changing their substance use behavior. Posted by Michael at 6:14 PM | TrackBack Most Republicans Think the US Health Care System is the Best in the World; Democrats DisagreeFrom EurekAlert! - Breaking News: A recent survey by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Harris Interactive, as part of their ongoing series, Debating Health: Election 2008, finds that Americans are generally split on the issue of whether the United States has the best health care system in the world (45% believe the U.S. has the best system; 39% believe other countries have better systems; 15% don't know or refused to answer) and that there is a significant divide along party lines. Nearly seven-in-ten Republicans (68%) believe the U.S. health care system is the best in the world, compared to just three in ten (32%) Democrats and four in ten (40%) Independents who feel the same way. This poll was conducted during a period of debate over the comparative merits of the U.S. health care system and the health care systems in other countries. President Bush and other prominent political figures have claimed that the U.S. has the best system in the world. At the same time, the World Health Organization and other organizations have ranked the U.S. below many other countries in their comparisons, while Michael Moore presented a similarly negative assessment of the U.S. health system in a popular format with his film Sicko. So how might this issue impact how Americans vote in the upcoming presidential election" When asked if they would be more likely to support or oppose a presidential candidate who advocates making the U.S. health care system more like health systems in other countries, specifically Canada, France, and Great Britain, only one in five (19%) Republicans say they would be more likely to support such a candidate. Over half (53%) of Americans say they don't know how the U.S. generally compares to France and four in ten (40%) say they don't know if the U.S. system is better or worse than Great Britain's. Posted by Michael at 6:11 PM | TrackBack Health Insurance for All Americans? Facts vs. Fiction -- by Walter J. Laughery IIIFrom Ascribe Newsfeed: The following commentary is by Walter J. Laughery III, a Senior Consultant specializing in health, life and disability insurance benefits for small and large corporations in New York. Read more from this post. Posted by Michael at 6:03 PM | TrackBack Education and Training for TANF Recipients: Opportunities and Challenges under the Final RuleFrom Center for Law and Social Policy: On February 5, 2008, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published the final rules implementing changes in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program made by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. This paper explains the changes in the new rules that affect recipients' access to education and training, and the actions that states will need to take in order to take advantage of these changes. Many welfare recipients lack the education needed to successfully compete in the labor market. By enabling recipients to participate in education and training activities, states can help improve their long-term employment and earnings outcomes as well as increase their participation rates. Posted by Michael at 5:49 PM | TrackBack Children with Healthier Diets Do Better in SchoolFrom EurekAlert! - Breaking News: A new study in the Journal of School Health reveals that children with healthy diets perform better in school than children with unhealthy diets. Read more from this post. Posted by Michael at 5:49 PM | TrackBack March 19, 2008U.S. Secretary of Education Highlights Findings of the National Mathematics Advisory PanelFrom Education Newsfeed: U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced the release of the final report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel. Created in April 2006 by President George W. Bush, the historic panel worked for more than two years reviewing the best available scientific evidence to advance the teaching and learning of mathematics. The final report and its findings were passed unanimously at the panel's meeting today at Longfellow Middle School in Falls Church, Va. "This report represents the first comprehensive analysis of math education to be based on sound science," said Secretary Spellings. "The National Math Advisory Panel's findings and recommendations make very clear what must be done to help our children succeed in math. We must teach number and math concepts early, we must help students believe they can improve their math skills and we must ensure they fully comprehend algebra concepts by the time they graduate from high school. Instead of definin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
