Improving the educational achievement of young people in out-of-home care

A strong link between research and practice is essential to ensure
that the best available evidence gets into the hands of child welfare
practitioners, who are faced with the daunting task of making decisions
about vulnerable children on a daily basis. In 2007, a group of
senior child welfare leaders in the province of Ontario (Canada) created
a research dissemination model that replicated the worldrenowned
UK program, Research in Practice (http://www.rip.org.
uk). Practice and Research Together (PART; www.partontario.org) is
an Ontario consortium of 45 child welfare organizations whose mandate
is to disseminate research to its member agencies, which include
85% of the local child welfare organizations in the province. Each
member pays an annual membership-fee that is based on its size
(Dill & Shera, 2011). A key factor in PART's success has been its ability
to link its program offerings (i.e., webinars, literature reviews, conferences,
and publications) to issues of real-world relevance to child
welfare practitioners and senior leaders. A central and highly anticipated
program offering is PART's annual conference (learning
event). These conferences bring evidence to bear on practice in priority
areas in child welfare.
On May 31 and June 1 and 2, 2011, PART, in collaboration with the
Centre for Research on Educational and Community Services (CRECS)
at the University of Ottawa, co-hosted an international conference in
Ottawa that was focused on improving the educational achievement
of young people in out-of-home care (hereafter, in care). Speakers
from five countries – Canada, USA, Germany, Sweden, and UK – presented
the results of their research at the conference. The speakers
addressed three main topic areas: the disadvantaged socio-political
status of young people in care, many of whom do not complete secondary
or post-secondary education; innovative interventions to improve
their educational outcomes; and the effectiveness of tutoring,
which is the most common educational intervention for young people
in care.

CSI 2264: Simultaneous Optical and Infrared Light Curves of Young Disk-bearing Stars in NGC 2264 with CoRoT and Spitzer—Evidence for Multiple Origins of Variability

We present the Coordinated Synoptic Investigation of NGC 2264, a continuous 30 day multi-wavelength photometric monitoring campaign on more than 1000 young cluster members using 16 telescopes. The unprecedented combination of multi-wavelength, high-precision, high-cadence, and long-duration data opens a new window into the time domain behavior of young stellar objects. Here we provide an overview of the observations, focusing on results from Spitzer and CoRoT. The highlight of this work is detailed analysis of 162 classical T Tauri stars for which we can probe optical and mid-infrared flux variations to 1% amplitudes and sub-hour timescales. We present a morphological variability census and then use metrics of periodicity, stochasticity, and symmetry to statistically separate the light curves into seven distinct classes, which we suggest represent different physical processes and geometric effects. We provide distributions of the characteristic timescales and amplitudes and assess the fractional representation within each class. The largest category (>20%) are optical "dippers" with discrete fading events lasting ~1-5 days. The degree of correlation between the optical and infrared light curves is positive but weak; notably, the independently assigned optical and infrared morphology classes tend to be different for the same object. Assessment of flux variation behavior with respect to (circum)stellar properties reveals correlations of variability parameters with Hα emission and with effective temperature. Overall, our results point to multiple origins of young star variability, including circumstellar obscuration events, hot spots on the star and/or disk, accretion bursts, and rapid structural changes in the inner disk. Based on data from the Spitzer and CoRoT missions. The CoRoT space mission was developed and is operated by the French space agency CNES, with participation of ESA's RSSD and Science Programmes, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, and Spain.

Service Provision for Children and Young People with Acquired Brain Injury; Practice Recommendations: – International Paediatric Brain Injury Society (IPBIS).

Background: Providing appropriate rehabilitation services for Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) in childhood presents a number of challenges for caregivers, health and education professionals and the young person as they develop.
Primary Objective: To record the challenges and possible creative solutions generated by an international group of professionals to address the needs of children with ABI.
Review of Information: Recommendations were generated from children’s special interest group meetings of the International Brain Injury Association (Turin Italy, 2001, Stockholm Sweden, 2003, Melbourne Australia, 2005, Lisbon Portugal, 2008) and through meetings of the International Paediatric Brain Injury Society (IPBIS), formed in 2009. Delegates participating in the workshops were representative of nations from around the world and included The Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, UK, Finland, Germany, South Africa, USA, Canada, Sweden, Brazil and Italy.
Outcomes: The information presented is based on a retrospective review of those meetings and the summaries of the topics considered.