Problematising home education: challenging ‘parental rights’ and 'socialisation'

In the UK, Home Education, or home-schooling, is an issue that has attracted very little public, governmental or academic attention. Yet the number of children home educated is steadily increasing and has been referred to as a 'quiet revolution'. This article neither celebrates nor denigrates home educators, its aim, rather, is to identify and critically examine the two dominant discourses that define the way in which the issue is currently understood. First, the legal discourse of parental rights, which forms the basis of the legal framework, and secondly a psychoanalytical/common-sense 'socialisation' discourse within which school attendance is perceived as necessary for healthy child development. Drawing on historical, doctrinal human rights and psychoanalytical sources and post-structural and feminist perspectives, this article suggests that both discourses function as alternative methods of governance and that the conflicting ‘rights claims’ of parents and children obscure public interests and fundamental questions about the purpose of education

SB 909/HB 1408 Virginia Fair Housing Law; unlawful discriminatory housing practices

This report provides a legislative racial impact analysis of Senate Bill (SB) 909, a proposed bill in the Virginia General Assembly, to expand the Virginia Fair Housing Law to include lawful sources of income. Specifically, this report examines state and county source of income laws and their variances by race and ethnicity

System-level intersectoral linkages between the mental health and non-clinical support sectors: a qualitative systematic review

Objectives: Concerns about fragmented mental health service delivery persist, particularly for people with severe and persistent mental illness. The objective was to review evidence regarding outcomes attributed to system-level intersectoral linkages involving mental health services and non-clinical support services, and to identify barriers and facilitators to the intersectoral linkage process

Bridges and Barriers: Factors Influencing a Culture of Assessment in Academic Libraries

Article "presents the results of a survey designed to understand what factors facilitate the development of a culture of assessment of student learning in academic libraries and what factors may hinder it. Unlike previous research in this area, which has focused on case studies and surveys with nonrepresentative samples, the authors conducted a systematic survey of academic libraries at four-year institutions in the United States and achieved a 42 percent response rate. The results suggest certain factors are highly associated with a culture of assessment and provide guidance to administrators and front-line librarians working to build such a culture."Ope

Water for All: Sustainable Solutions for Reducing and Utilizing Sarvajal's Reverse Osmosis Brine in Northwestern India

An interdisciplinary team of six students from the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources & Environment (SNRE) spent twelve months working with the India based, social enterprise, Sarvajal, to help address a water resource challenge facing their organization. Sarvajal works to provide clean and affordable drinking water to rural communities in India by employing the technology of Reverse Osmosis (RO) on a local scale. This process is considered one of the best water purification technologies currently available; however, as a by-product of this process, brine is produced that contains concentrated dissolved contaminants. Finding affordable methods to treat or use this brine is difficult. The team of students worked with Sarvajal to try and help address the challenges created by this RO brine. The contents of this report outline the work of the students and their recommendations for Sarvajal. The team conducted extensive research on possible applications for the RO brine, but as the project progressed, the team noticed operational inefficiencies and data gaps that presented barriers to successfully implementing specific applications. As a result, the team developed overarching recommendations, in addition to providing research on specific applications. Applications were researched that had the potential to address environmental, social, and economic impacts of brine management. The team’s recommendations were designed to facilitate the eventual implementation of some of the brine applications and to identify promising applications that warrant further consideration from Sarvajal. These recommendations include: expanding data collection and including additional parameters in brine testing, regionalizing efficiency standards for increased production, improving communications about RO brine use amongst Sarvajal and its franchisees, and investing in further research for select promising applications.Master of ScienceNatural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89963/1/FINAL SARVAJAL.pd

The Effects of a Test-Taking Skills Intervention on Test Anxiety and Test Performance in 4th Graders

Increases in standardized testing have been accompanied by increased reports of test anxiety in younger students. School-based test anxiety interventions can be implemented to decrease test anxiety and improve test performance. Skill-based interventions have effectively addressed both of these variables; however, the research has primarily targeted secondary and university students. The purpose of the current study was to determine if a test-taking skills intervention would decrease test anxiety and improve test performance in 4th grade students. Results indicated that the test-taking skills intervention resulted only in a minor decrease in test anxiety that maintained at 1-month follow-up. Effects on test performance were mixed immediately following the intervention, and test performance was equivalent to baseline levels at the conclusion of the study. Limitations of this study and recommendations for future research are included