Halloween Safety Tips
from the Center for Young Children at the University of Maryland
The Center for Young Children
at the University of Maryland offers great tips to make sure Halloween
is not just fun - but safe. Accredited by the National Association for the
Education of Young Children, the Center for Young Children (CYC) is a full
day developmental program that employs highly qualified teachers to educate
and care for the children of faculty, staff, and students at the University of Maryland in College Park.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/halloween-safet.php
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Block-Play May Improve
Language Development in Toddlers
Playing with toy blocks
may lead to improved language development in middle- and low-income children,
according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics &
Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "The newborn
brain triples in size between birth and 2 years of age. "In this pilot
study, we found that distributing blocks was associated with significantly
higher language scores in a sample of middle- and low-income children,"
the authors write.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/blockplay-may-i.php
Programs Show Short-Term
Benefits in Helping Children Maintain Weight Loss
Children who lost weight
were able to keep it off more effectively by participating in maintenance
treatment programs that emphasized behavioral skills or social facilitation,
although the effectiveness lessened over time, according to a study in the
October 10 issue of JAMA. The prevalence of overweight among children in
the United States has tripled in recent decades and
related health care costs have nearly quadrupled, according to background
information in the article. "Lifestyle interventions remain the most
well-established interventions for overweight 7- to 12-year-olds.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/programs-show-s.php
**Community Development
House Passes National
Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act
Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued
the following statement after the House approved H.R. 2895, National Affordable
Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007, by a vote of 264 to 148. "The National
Affordable Housing Trust Fund will help end the affordable housing crisis
in America by producing or preserving 1.5 million
units of low- and very low-income housing over the next 10 years. The bill
will assist cities and states address the most urgent affordable housing needs
in their communities while keeping our promise of fiscal responsibility to
taxpayers with no new deficit spending.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/pelosi-house-pa.php
HUD Awards More Than
$18 Million in Grants to Fight Housing Discrimination
The Department of Housing
and Urban Development today awarded 88 grants totaling $17.1 million to recipients
in 37 states and the District of Columbia to help fight housing discrimination.
Additionally, HUD awarded $1 million to New America Media, a division of Pacific
News Service, to develop the Department's first coordinated national
media campaign to educate the public about discriminatory lending. "Last
year there were a record 10,328 housing discrimination complaints filed with
HUD and its state and local partners," said HUD's Assistant Secretary
for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/hud-awards-more.php
**Economic Security
Expanding the EITC for
Childless Workers: An Important Step to Make Work Pay
A number of bills currently
before Congress would expand the component of the Earned Income Tax Credit
available to low-income working adults who are not raising minor children.
Legislation to expand the childless workers' EITC also has been introduced
this year by Senators Barack Obama and Evan Bayh, and by Senator John Kerry and Representative Bill Pascrell.
Over the past two decades, policies have been enacted to improve work incentives
for low-income working families with children and to help those families make
ends meet.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/expanding-the-e.php
Analysis of Fiscal Year
2006 TANF and MOE Spending by States
The U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services has published data concerning use of federal Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and state maintenance of effort (MOE)
funds in FY 2006. This set of state-by-state charts shows how each state used
its TANF and MOE funds in FY 2006. The Center for Law and Social Policy has
compiled worksheets analyzing how the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the nation as a whole spent the
federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grants and state
Maintenance of Effort (MOE) funds in fiscal year 2006.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/analysis-of-fis.php
**Education
$14 Million to Help States
Better Assess Students with Disabilities Under No Child Left Behind, IDEA
As part of a special education
partnership with states, the U.S. Department of Education today announced
that it has awarded more than $14 million in grants to help them meet requirements
for students with disabilities under the No Child Left Behind Act and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA). A total of 27 states will benefit from the awards in a grant program
in which states were encouraged to work together and apply for funding in
a consortium with other states.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/14-million-to-h.php
Statement by Secretary
Spellings on President Bush Signing Executive Order to Strengthen Adult Education
On September 27th, President
Bush signed an Executive Order to strengthen adult education in America. He tasked U.S. Secretary of Education
Margaret Spellings with leading an Interagency Adult Education Working Group
to coordinate a joint approach at addressing the educational needs of adults.
By bringing together all relevant Federal agencies, the Working Group aims
to strengthen existing programs and improve adult participation in post-secondary
education.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/statement-by-se.php
The Narrowing Gap in
New York City Teacher Qualifications and its Implications
for Student Achievement in High-Poverty Schools
In this research the Urban
Institute explores the how the distribution of teacher qualifications and
student achievement in New York City have changed from 2000 through 2005 using
data on teachers and students. The gap between the qualifications of New York City teachers in high-poverty schools and
low-poverty schools has narrowed substantially over this period,
the gap-narrowing associated with new hires has been driven almost entirely
by the substitution of teachers entering through alternative certification
routes.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/the-narrowing-g.php
Teacher Credentials and
Student Achievement in High School : A Cross-Subject
Analysis with Student Fixed Effects
The Urban Institute used
data on statewide end-of-course tests in North Carolina to examine the relationship between
teacher credentials and student achievement at the high school level. The
availability of test scores in multiple subjects for each student permits
us to estimate a model with student fixed effects, which helps minimize any
bias associated with the non-random distribution of teachers and students
among classrooms within schools. We find compelling evidence that teacher
credentials affect student achievement in systematic ways and that the magnitudes
are large enough to be policy relevant.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/teacher-credent.php
**Health
Patients in Medicaid
Managed Care Programs May Receive Lower-Quality Care than Commercial Programs
Medicaid managed care enrollees
appear to receive lower-quality care than patients enrolled in commercial
managed care programs, according to a study in the October 10 issue of JAMA.
Although enrollment of commercially insured individuals in health maintenance
organizations (HMOs) has decreased in recent years, HMOs continue to provide
care for an increasing proportion of the Medicaid population. Between 1994
and 2004, enrollment in Medicaid managed care tripled from 7.9 million beneficiaries
to more than 27 million beneficiaries.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/patients-in-med.php
**Nonprofit Management
Columbia Business School Recognized by Aspen Institute for
Excellence in Social and Environmental Issues
Columbia Business School has demonstrated significant leadership
in integrating social and environmental issues into its MBA program, according
to the Aspen Institute's 2007-2008 Beyond Grey Pinstripes ranking. The Social
Enterprise Program - whose mission is "to inspire and prepare leaders
who create social value in business, nonprofit and government organizations
locally, nationally and internationally" - encompasses an array of elective
courses in areas such as nonprofit and public sector management, corporate
social responsibility, international development, emerging markets and social
entrepreneurship.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/columbia-busine.php
**Substance Abuse
Friends Help Friends
Avoid Drug Use
High-risk teenagers who
participate in peer-led substance abuse prevention programs reduce their drug
use by approximately 15 percent versus traditional curricula, suggests a study
led by researchers at the University of Southern California. "Most substance abuse prevention
programs disseminate information about the bad effects of drugs and teach
resistance skills without considering the impact of peer influence,"
says an assistant professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine
of USC.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/friends-help-fr.php
Why It is Impossible for Some to 'Just Say No'
Drug abuse, crime and obesity
are but a few of the problems our nation faces, but they all have one thing
in common---people's failure to control their behavior in the face of temptation.
While the ability to control and restrain our impulses is one of the defining
features of the human animal, its failure is one of the central problems of
human society. As human beings, we have limited resources to control ourselves,
and all acts of control draw from this same source.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/why-it-is-impos.php
Research Examines Connection
between Substance Abuse and Violence
Approximately 50 percent
of Americans over the age of 12 currently drink alcohol, according to a 2003
report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
While the majority of people who drink alcohol do not become violent, overwhelming
evidence implicates alcohol in the expression of violence. "By far the
greatest support for a link between substance use and violent behavior involves
alcohol," says the project director at Kent State University's Institute for the Study and Prevention
of Violence.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/research-examin.php
Medicine Proves a Promising
Treatment in the Battle against Alcohol Dependence
Researchers at the University of Virginia have led a multisite
clinical trial showing that the drug topiramate
is significantly more efficacious than placebo at curbing alcohol dependence.
Researchers approached the results as conservatively as possible, counting
all dropouts or people who missed appointments as subjects who relapsed to
their baseline drinking level. Even so, topiramate
lowered the percentage of heavy drinking days (the number of days in which
men and women consumed e5 drinks/day and e4 drinks/day, respectively, divided
by the number of study days) by a mean of 8.44% more than placebo.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/10/medicine-proves.php
