Using agency data for evidence-based programming: a university-agency collaboration

Agencies providing residential treatment are encouraged, or even mandated, to collect outcomes data and to implement evidence based practices, yet little guidance has been provided on how to do so using agency administrative data that are collected on an ongoing basis. We examined data on Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) scores for 1608 admissions to a residential treatment center from 2002 through 2008. CAFAS scores were measured every 90 days, providing multiple CAFAS scores for each individual. Results demonstrated that on average residents improved in functioning over time. Sensitive to the evolving needs of residents who had been entering the program, the treatment center made significant program changes in 2006 to attempt to better serve residents through a broad array of specialized programming. Compared to the overall results, the analysis suggested that residents who entered the program since October 2006 appeared to have made larger improvements in their CAFAS scores. Results were derived by employing multilevel models appropriate for estimating growth trajectories with repeated measures data. Conversations with agency staff suggested that using administrative data, and advanced statistical models, were extremely helpful for organizational decision making and evidence-based programming.     

Correlates of perceived effectiveness of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative

A three-level growth-curve model was applied to estimate perceived impact growth trajectories, using multi-year data from project and school surveys on outcome and program implementation collected from 59 sites and approximately 1165 participating schools in the Safe Schools and Healthy Students Initiative. Primary interest is to determine whether and how project-level and school-level correlates affect schools’ perceptions of the Initiative's effectiveness over time when the effects of the pre-grant environmental conditions, grant operations, and near-term outcomes are considered. Coordination and service integration, comprehensive programs and activities for early childhood development, and change in school involvement were found to be significant predictors of school-perceived overall impact when the effect of poverty was considered. Partnership functioning, perceived importance of school resources, and school involvement were found to be significant predictors of school-perceived impact on substance use prevention when the effect of poverty was considered.     

Trains,chains, blame,and elephant appeal: A case study of the public relations significance of Mary the Elephant

Using the media coverage of the hanging of Mary the Elephant, the purposes of this article are to discuss the major implications of the press agentry model of public relations, the impact of corporate decisions on the reputation of its surrounding community, and how the values related to societal issues such as animal cruelty change over time. Findings reveal that public pressure, intense police attention, and the counsel of a master press agent led the circus owner to make the decision to hang Mary and ultimately adulterate the reputation of the town of Erwin, Tennessee indefinitely.     

英语专业基础英语课程教学模式改革与实践

根据国家教育部2000年颁布的新《高等学校英语专业英语教学大纲》,本文论述了英语专业基础英语课程教学中存在的具体问题,对吉林农业大学英语专业基础英语课程教学模式的系列改革进行了分析,并总结了所取得的成果与经验。     

基于网络环境的研究生英语教学模式研究

传统的非英语专业研究生英语教学模式已不能适应为社会培养创新复合型人才的需要,对其进行改革势在必行。文章以建构主义学习理论和语言输入与输出理论为基础,构建了一种利用互联网资源辅助研究生英语课堂的教学模式,目的旨在提高非英语专业硕士研究生的英语交际能力。     

少数民族高考加分政策的公正性探究

少数民族高考加分政策实施多年,其公正性屡遭质疑,根本原因在于对该政策的根据缺乏深入而系统的认识。事实上,理性约定和平等原则构成其法律基础,循环累积因果论和帕累托最优为其提供经济学上的理论依据,唯有从这两方面厘清该政策的正当性根据,方可消除种种分歧以及在执行和实施过程中的异化和不合理现象。     

大都市服务经济发展的劳动力因素——基于从业人口数据模型的分析

本文在对比分析纽约、东京两个国外大都市服务经济发展的一般规律和劳动力变动特征基础上,以服务业从业人口结构和规模的历史数据作为切入点,对比分析上海服务业的发展状况,指出上海与纽约、东京服务经济发展的差距及存在的主要问题。并进一步构建了基于从业人口数据回归分析的服务经济发展预测模型,运用该模型对上海市未来服务经济从业人口的比重进行预测．分析表明上海的服务业发展正处于加速增长期,并仍将保持快速发展的势头,按此速度到2020年其从业人数比重可达80％;要实现上海服务经济的健康、快速发展应采取积极的人才引进战略和人口政策。     

The sustainability of Egan’s Skilled Helper Model in students’ social work practice

This paper investigates the nature of students’ learning of the Egan Skilled Helper model in enabling them to develop collaborative communication skills which place service-users at the centre of decision making. The paper is a follow-up to an earlier paper which found that the Egan model was helpful to students as a communication and problem management tool and that they had transferred their learning into practice. The current study involves seven students from the first study and examines whether their knowledge and skills from learning the model in year one have been sustained two years later during their third year practice placement. A key finding is that participants were continuing to use most stages of the model (with the exception of challenging skills) with service-users in a variety of settings. Further findings are that the model is still useful in situations where goals are set by social workers rather than by service-users; and that it is the utilisation of role-play when learning the model which most embeds skills. The implications of these findings for skills training are discussed together with suggestions for further focus.     

Foreign aid and domestic taxation: multiple sources,one conclusion

There are influential studies that argue that foreign aid displaces domestic tax revenue when it is given in the form of grants. These claims are based on data that are deeply problematic: several different sources are amalgamated into one dataset, with no apparent checks on compatibility. In this article, a variety of econometric strategies are used to overcome these issues of data quality. The resulting weight of evidence points to a modest but positive effect on the part of foreign aid generally on domestic tax revenue. Fears over a negative effect for aid grants appear unwarranted, and are accounted for by the inappropriate use of data or endogeneity issues.