Mentoring, educational services, and economic incentives longer-term evidence on risky behaviors from a randomized trial

This paper is the first to use a randomized trial in the US to analyze the short- and long- term impacts of an afterschool program that offered disadvantaged high-school youth: mentoring, educational services, and financial rewards to attend program activities, complete high-school and enroll in post-secondary education on youths' engagement in risky behaviors, such as substance abuse, criminal activity, and teenage childbearing. Outcomes were measured at three different points in time, when youths were in their late-teens, and when they were in their early- and their latetwenties. Overall the program was unsuccessful at reducing risky behaviors. Heterogeneity matters in that perverse effects are concentrated among certain subgroups, such as males, older youths, and youths from sites where youths received higher amount of stipends. We claim that this evidence is consistent with different models of youths' behavioral response to economic incentives. In addition, beneficial effects found in those sites in which QOP youths represented a large fraction of the entering class of 9th graders provides hope for these type of programs when operated in small communities and supports the hypothesis of peer effects.

Exploring educational mobility in Europe

This paper is concerned with the investigation of the intergenerational mobility of education in several European countries and its changes across birth cohorts (1940-1980) using a new mobility index that considers the total degree of mobility as the weighted sum of mobility with respect to both parents. Moreover, this mobility index enables the analysis of the role of family characteristics as mediating factors in the statistical association between individual and parental education. We find that Nordic countries display lower levels of educational persistence but that the degree of mobility increases over time only in those countries with low initial levels. Moreover, the results suggest that the degree of mobility with respect to fathers and mothers converges to the same level and that family characteristics account for an important part of the statistical association between parental education and children’s schooling; a particular finding is that the most important elements of family characteristics are the family’s socio-economic status and educational assortative mating of the parents.

What are the causes of educational inequalities and of their evolution over time in Europe? Evidence from PISA

This paper provides evidence on the sources of differences in inequalities in educational scores in European Union member states, by decomposing them into their determining factors. Using PISA data from the 2000 and 2006 waves, the paper shows that inequalities emerge in all countries and in both period, but decreased in Germany, whilst they increased in France and Italy. Decomposition shows that educational inequalities do not only reflect background related inequality, but especially schools’ characteristics. The findings allow policy makers to target areas that may make a contribution in reducing educational inequalities.

Combined Ex-PRESS LR-50/IOL implantation in modified deep sclerectomy plus pharmacoemulsification for glaucoma associated with cataract

RAPPORT DE SYNTHESEBUTLe but de cette étude est de suivre prospectivement les résultats d'une sclérectomie profonde (SP) modifiée en utilisant le tube Ex-PRJESS LR-50, associée à une phacoémulsification avec implantation d'une lentille intraoculaire (LIO), dans la chirurgie combinée du glaucome et de la cataracte.METHODENous avons inclus dans l'étude 24 yeux de 24 patients présentant un glaucome médicalement non contrôlé et une cataracte justifiant son ablation.Une phacoémulsification avec implantation d'une LIO est effectuée. Puis le tube Ex-PRESS LR-50 est inséré au niveau du canal de Schlemm, dans la chambre antérieure, sous un volet scléral. Une SP postérieure partielle est ensuite pratiquée afin de créer une bulle de filtration intrasclérale.Le taux de succès complet a été défini par une pression intraoculaire (PIO) <18 mmHg sans traitement et le taux de succès relatif par une PIO <18 mmHg avec ou sans traitement. En cas de fibrose ou de kyste de la bulle de filtration, une injection sous-conjonctivale d'une solution de Mitomycin C à 0.02% est réalisée, avec ou sans needling.RESULTATSLe suivi moyen était de 40.1±10.8 [moyenne±DS] mois. En préopératoire, la PIO se situait à 18.1 ±5.3 mmHg; la meilleure acuité visuelle corrigée (MAVC) était mesurée à 0.6±0.3 (échelle de Snellen) et le nombre de médicaments hypotenseurs oculaires était de 2.3±1.1. La PIO a diminué de 25.4% à 24 mois et de 27.0% à 48 mois. A 24 mois, 19 patients (86.3%) avaient une MAVC supérieure ou égal à 0.5, et à 48 mois la MAVC était mesurée à 0.7±0.3. Lors de la dernière visite, le nombre moyen de médicaments se situait à 0.6±0.8 (p<0.05). Des injections sous conjonctivales d'une solution de Mitomycin C à 0.02% ont été nécessaires dans 5 yeux. Aucune érosion conjonctivale n'a été constatée. Deux complications majeures ont été observées. Une endophtalmie, deux jours après l'intervention chirurgicale avec phtisis secondaire du globe oculaire. Une obstruction du tube Ex-PRESS LR-50 par de la fibrine, ayant justifié son ablation avec SP classique en un autre site.CONCLUSIONLe tube Ex-PRESS LR-50 inséré dans la chambre antérieure avec une SP modifiée réduit efficacement la PIO dans la chirurgie combinée du glaucome et prévient l'érosion conjonctivale, une complication importante lorsque l'implant n'est pas couvert par un volet scléral.

Eficacia del implante Ex-press en el tratamiento del glaucoma crónico de ángulo abierto

Estudi observacional i prospectiu que analitza la eficàcia de l’Ex-press mini glaucoma shunt en 20 ulls que presenten un control deficient de la PIO amb el tractament mèdic i es practica cirurgia. El període de seguiment és d’un any i s’analitza el descens de la PIO a la setmana, al mes, als 6 mesos i a l’any en relació amb la PIO prèvia. Al mateix temps analitzarem la necessitat d’utilitzar tractament mèdic posterior a la intervenció quirúrgica i les complicacions derivades de la utilització de l’implant.

Deciding where to belong: gender differences in educational trajectories and migration in a rural Spanish town

From an anthropological perspective, formal post-secondary schooling is not an abstractentity with an intrinsic value that everyone finds desirable, but rather one alternative among many that young people evaluate from their different positions in the social field. The problem discussed in this paper is the diverging life trajectories that young men and women in a concrete rural context, at the end of the 20th century, shape for themselves at the ages of 14-16, a moment of decision created by national legislation regarding mandatory education (LGE, 1970, General Education Law, and LOGSE, 1990, General Organic Law of the Education System). Despite a strong cultural norm of equal inheritance divided among all children, male and female, and despite the equal educational opportunities provided by the Spanish State, different meanings of possession and use-rights over land and the resulting culturally accepted gendered division of work converge to orient men and women differently towards post-secondary schooling. Observation of the age, gender, and civil status structure of the population led to the preliminary query: Why do men and women, in this town, behave differently with respect to migration and marriage? The main hypothesis was that women’s longer school trajectories and resulting migration and men’s anchoring in the town and their higher rates of celibacy were not drastic changes in values, in the positional-relational sense of Bourdieu (1988, 2002), but the current outcome of previously existing dissimilar relations to property that produce dissimilar mobility. Through their schooling and work choices, young men and women, at very early ages, locate themselves in, or decide to belong to, different contexts that later reveal very different possibilities of finding marriage partners. This paper is based on an ethnographic study of a small rural town (302 inhabitants in 1950; 193 in 2000) near Leon. Although this paper deals with the situation in the final decades of the 20th century, we must also consider the first half of the century, where some elements that shape this situation have their roots. Fieldwork was carried out between 1988 and 2001, in periods of differing length and intensity. The social subjects discussed here are the domestic unit and its component members. They were studied in conjunction, analyzing the life-trajectory decisions of specific persons in the framework of the domestic unit and the relations among people and property which comprise it. The tried-and-true methods of ethnographic research –participant observation, interviews, and life-histories, etc.- were employed. Archival research was also important for producing demographic data. Demographic analysis, the analysis of the composition and transformation of domestic units, and the creation of life trajectories were among the principal techniques used. The theoretical analysis was oriented by Bourdieu’s (2002) framework of the social field, habitus, and difference.

Educational pathways of minority youth in Norway: intersections of gender, ethnicity and social class

Educational aspirations during lower secondary school and choice of upper secondary education are important for young people’s future trajectories into higher education and labour market positions. In line with ideas about reflexive, autonomous individuals (Giddens, 1991), choice of education is often represented as a young person’ individual decision, and educational guidance as aimed at discovering what ‘fits’ an individual’s personality, interests and abilities. Educational aspirations and choices are also social patterns that are reproduced. Some population categories represent exceptions from expected patterns of social reproduction of educational level and professions. In several countries, one such category is young people from families with migration experiences (Lauglo, 2000; Modood, 2004). In Norway, students have a legal right to non-compulsory upper secondary schooling and 96 percent of the students continue from lower to upper secondary school. In spite of positive developments regarding minority youths’ completion of upper secondary and higher education in later years, studies still persistently show lower educational attainment among minority youth, particularly among boys (Fekjaer, 2006). However, in lower secondary school, minor ity youth tend to have markedly higher educational aspirations and stronger learning motivation than their majority peers, as well as greater effort in school and strong adherence to school values (Lauglo, 2000) despite lower educational attainment or lower socio-economic backgrounds. In addition, gender differences in educational aspirations seem to be smaller among minority youth. The principal objective of the study in progress that will be presented in this paper, is to describe how processes relating to gendered, ethnic and class-based identities influence young people’s educational choices. The study is undertaken as a PhD project in social anthropology. The methodological approach is ethnographic longitudinal fieldwork in two multicultural lower secondary schools in Oslo. The study is part of a larger project that also include quantitative analyses of longitudinal data covering 9th graders in Oslo 2006 through four data collections during lower and upper secondary school.

Dementia educational needs analysis

A report from the Dementia Elevator project��at Dublin City University��highlights��the gaps that exist in dementia skills and knowledge in Ireland. It considers��models of��best practice in dementia training and education, and hopes to��inform ��the development of appropriately tailored dementia-related training and education programmes in��Ireland.��Read the report here.