Expected impact of applying new 2013 AHA/ACC cholesterol guidelines criteria on the recommended lipid target achievement after acute coronary syndromes.

BACKGROUND 2013 AHA/ACC guidelines on the treatment of cholesterol advised to tailor high-intensity statin after ACS, while previous ATP-III recommended titration of statin to reach low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) targets. We simulated the impact of this change of paradigm on the achievement of recommended targets. METHODS Among a prospective cohort study of consecutive patients hospitalized for ACS from 2009 to 2012 at four Swiss university hospitals, we analyzed 1602 patients who survived one year after recruitment. Targets based on the previous guidelines approach was defined as (1) achievement of LDL-C target < 1.8 mmol/l, (2) reduction of LDL-C ≥ 50% or (3) intensification of statin in patients who did not reach LDL-C targets. Targets based on the 2013 AHA/ACC guidelines approach was defined as the maximization of statin therapy at high-intensity in patients aged ≤75 years and moderate- or high-intensity statin in patients >75 years. RESULTS 1578 (99%) patients were prescribed statin at discharge, with 1120 (70%) at high-intensity. 1507 patients (94%) reported taking statin at one year, with 909 (57%) at high-intensity. Among 482 patients discharged with sub-maximal statin, intensification of statin was only observed in 109 patients (23%). 773 (47%) patients reached the previous LDL-C targets, while 1014 (63%) reached the 2013 AHA/ACC guidelines targetsone year after ACS (p value < 0.001). CONCLUSION The application of the new 2013 AHA/ACC guidelines criteria would substantially increase the proportion of patients achieving recommended lipid targets one year after ACS. Clinical trial number, NCT01075868.

The Social Geography of Education: Neighborhood, Class Composition, and the Educational Achievement of Elementary School Students in Zurich, Switzerland

Despite an impressive amount of research and policy intervention no robust pattern of neighborhood effects on educational attainment has previously been identified. Adequate theoretical modeling and the sensitivity of the results to the method of the study are the major challenges in this area of research. This paper elaborates the social mechanisms of neighborhood effects and applies various methodological approaches to test them. Using data from Switzerland, the research reported here has detected heterogeneous effects of neighborhood on elementary school students’ educational achievement in Zurich. Although modest in comparison with the effects of classroom composition, these effects appear to be mediated primarily through social integration into a local peer network and are differentiated according to students’ gender and their social origin.

How gender fair are German schoolbooks in the twenty-first century? An analysis of language and illustrations in schoolbooks for mathematics and German

Schoolbooks convey not only school-relevant knowledge; they also influence the development of stereotypes about different social groups. Particularly during the 1970s and 1980s, many studies analysed schoolbooks and criticised the overall predominance of male persons and of traditional role allocations. Since that time, women’s and men’s occupations and social functions have changed considerably. The present research investigated gender portrayals in schoolbooks for German and mathematics that were recently published in Germany. We examined the proportions of female and male persons in pictures and texts and categorized their activities, occupational and parental roles. Going beyond previous studies, we added two criteria: the use of gender-fair language and the spatial arrangements of persons in pictures. Our results show that schoolbooks for German contained almost balanced depictions of girls and boys, whereas women were less frequently shown than men. In mathematics books, males outnumbered females in general. Across both types of books, female and male persons were engaged in many different activities, not only gendertyped ones; however, male persons were more often described via their profession than females. Use of gender-fair language has found its way into schoolbooks but is not used consistently. Books for German were more gender fair in terms of linguistic forms than books for mathematics. For spatial arrangements, we found no indication for gender biases. The results are discussed with a focus on how schoolbooks can be optimized to contribute to gender equality.

How Plankton Swim: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Using Mathematics & Physics to Understand the Biology of the Natural World

The authors have developed and field-tested high school-level curricular materials that guide students to use biology, mathematics, and physics to understand plankton and how these tiny organisms move in a world where their intuition does not apply. The authors chose plankton as the focus of their materials primarily because the challenges faced by plankton are novel problems to most students, forcing adoption of new perspectives and making the study of plankton exciting. Additional reasons that they chose plankton to focus on include their ecological importance, their availability to most teachers and students, the ease with which they can be collected and observed, and the current focus of some scientific researchers on their movement and behavior. These curricular materials include a series of inquiry-based, hands-on exercises designed to be accessible to students with a range of backgrounds. Many of these materials could be adapted for use by middle-school, and/or college-level students. In this article, the authors describe sample lessons, summarize what worked well, and flag obstacles they encountered while integrating mathematics and physics into the biology classroom.

Promoting Student Collaboration in a Detracked, Heterogeneous Secondary Mathematics Classroom

Detracking and heterogeneous groupwork are two educational practices that have been shown to have promise for affording all students needed learning opportunities to develop mathematical proficiency. However, teachers face significant pedagogical challenges in organizing productive groupwork in these settings. This study offers an analysis of one teacher’s role in creating a classroom system that supported student collaboration within groups in a detracked, heterogeneous geometry classroom. The analysis focuses on four categories of the teacher’s work that created a set of affordances to support within group collaborative practices and links the teacher’s work with principles of complex systems.

The Black-White Achievement Gap Amongst Struggling Readers: A Case Study of Early Intervention Outcomes in Massachusetts

A number of analyses of large data sets have suggested that the reading achievement gap between African American and White U.S. is negligible or small at school entry, but widens substantially during the school years because African American students show slower rates of growth in elementary and secondary school. Identifying when and why gaps occur, therefore, is a an important research endeavor. In addition, being able to predict which African American children are most likely to fall behind can contribute to efforts to close the achievement gap. This paper analyzes first grade and third grade data on African American and White children in Massachusetts who all were identified in first grade as struggling readers and enrolled in Reading Recovery—an individualized intervention. All the children were low-income and attending urban schools. Using Observation Survey data from first grade, and MCAS Reading data from 3rd grade, we found that the African American and White students made equal average progress while in first grade, but by the end of third grade showed a large gap in MCAS proficiency rates. We discuss the results in terms of school quality, reading development, dialect issues, testing formats, and the need to provide long-term support to vulnerable learners.

Introductory Mathematics for Quantum Chemistry

An elementary discussion of some of the mathematics employed in studying Quantum Chemistry in a style appropriate for persons who have not taken advanced mathematical instruction.

Supporting Whole-Class Collaborative Inquiry in a Secondary Mathematics Classroom

Recent mathematics education reform efforts call for the instantiation of mathematics classroom environments where students have opportunities to reason and construct their understandings as part of a community of learners. Despite some successes, traditional models of instruction still dominate the educational landscape. This limited success can be attributed, in part, to an underdeveloped understanding of the roles teachers must enact to successfully organize and participate in collaborative classroom practices. Towards this end, an in-depth longitudinal case study of a collaborative high school mathematics classroom was undertaken guided by the following two questions: What roles do these collaborative practices require of teacher and students? How does the community’s capacity to engage in collaborative practices develop over time? The analyses produced two conceptual models: one of the teacher’s role, along with specific instructional strategies the teacher used to organize a collaborative learning environment, and the second of the process by which the class’s capacity to participate in collaborative inquiry practices developed over time.

A case study of teachers' mathematics content knowledge and attitudes toward mathematics and teaching

This study intended to measure teacher mathematical content knowledge both before and after the first year of teaching and taking graduate teacher education courses in the Teach for America (TFA) program, as well as measure attitudes toward mathematics and teaching both before and after TFA teachers’ first year. There was a significant increase in both mathematical content knowledge and attitudes toward mathematics over the TFA teachers’ first year teaching. Additionally, several significant correlations were found between attitudes toward mathematics and content knowledge. Finally, after a year of teaching, TFA teachers had significantly better attitudes toward mathematics and teaching than neutral.

A Confirmatory Factor Analytic Study Examining the Dimensionality of Educational Achievement Tests

It is important to check the fundamental assumption of most popular Item Response Theory models, unidimensionality. However, it is hard for educational and psychological tests to be strictly unidimensional. The tests studied in this paper are from a standardized high-stake testing program. They feature potential multidimensionality by presenting various item types and item sets. Confirmatory factor analyses with one-factor and bifactor models, and based on both linear structural equation modeling approach and nonlinear IRT approach were conducted. The competing models were compared and the implications of the bifactor model for checking essential unidimensionality were discussed.

Motivation and Learning in Mathematics Pre-service Teachers

Based on a review of literature of conceptual and procedural knowledge in relation to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, the purpose of this study was to test the relationship between conceptual and procedural knowledge and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Thirty-eight education students with a mathematics focus (elementary or secondary) in their junior, senior, or fifth year completed a survey with a Likert scale measuring their preference to learning (conceptual or procedural) and their motivation type (intrinsic or extrinsic). Findings showed that secondary mathematics focused students were more likely to prefer learning mathematics conceptually than elementary mathematics focused students. However, secondary and elementary mathematics focused students showed an equal preference for learning mathematics procedurally and sequentially. Elementary and secondary students reported similar intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Extrinsically motivated students preferred procedural learning more than conceptual learning. While there was no statistically significant preference with intrinsically motivated students, there was a trend favoring preference of conceptual learning over procedural learning. These results tend to support the hypothesis that mathematics focused students who prefer conceptual learning are more intrinsically motivated, and mathematics focused students who prefer procedural learning are more extrinsically motivated.

An innovative approach to impacting student academic achievement and attitudes: Pilot study of the HEADS UP Virtual Molecular Biology Lab

Objective. To evaluate the HEADS UP Virtual Molecular Biology Lab, a computer-based simulated laboratory designed to teach advanced high school biology students how to create a mouse model. ^ Design. A randomized clinical control design of forty-four students from two science magnet high schools in Mercedes, Texas was utilized to assess knowledge and skills of molecular laboratory procedures, attitudes towards science and computers as a learning tool, and usability of the program. ^ Measurements. Data was collected using five paper-and-pencil formatted questionnaires and an internal "lab notebook." ^ Results. The Virtual Lab was found to significantly increase student knowledge over time (p<0.005) and with each use (p<0.001) as well as positively increase attitudes towards computers (p<0.001) and skills (p<0.005). No significant differences were seen in science attitude scores.^ Conclusion. These results provide evidence that the HEADS UP Virtual Molecular Biology Lab is a potentially effective educational tool for high school molecular biology education.^

The association between academic achievement and health status among eighth -grade Hispanic students in Houston

This cross-sectional study examines the association between health and academic achievement among Hispanic eighth-grade students in the Houston Independent School District. As part of the district's 3 year Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative to enhance comprehensive educational programs, a brief anonymous questionnaire was administered in the classroom to 359 students in two schools during a one-month period in the early part of the 2001 school year. ^ The primary study questions are: Among this sample of Hispanic adolescents, is there a significant association between academic achievement and health status? and in this same population, is there a significant association between health risk behavior and health status? The specific aims of this research are: (1) to describe the association between academic achievement and health status; (2) to describe the association between health risk behaviors and health status; and (3) to describe the relative contribution of health risk behaviors and academic achievement to adolescent health status among this sample of Hispanic adolescents. ^ The survey instrument was a 32-item questionnaire that incorporated: several academic achievement questions measuring usual grades, school-related performance, attendance, student and perceived parental satisfaction with academic achievement, and educational aspirations; two health and quality of life scales measuring adolescent self-reported health; and specific measures of health risk behavior, e.g., frequency of tobacco cigarette smoking, alcohol and other drug use, aggression, and suicidal ideation and behavior that were incorporated from the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Questions pertaining to sexual behavior and pregnancy were omitted to comply with school district guidelines. ^ Analysis revealed that strong associations between academic achievement and health status and between health risk behaviors and health status were observed after controlling for the covariates. Eight factors were found to be significantly associated with poor health status: usual grades (low), academic performance (low), academic achievement beliefs (low), classroom and homework performance satisfaction (low), ever drinking alcohol (6 or more times), suicidality (ever thought about, planned for, or sought medical help after attempting suicide), gender (female), and age (15 years and older). (Abstract shortened by UMI.) ^

A characterisation of passive and active interactions and their influence on student's achievement using Moodle LMS Logs

During the last years, there has been much concern about learning management systems' (LMS) effectiveness when compared to traditional learning and about how to assess students' participation during the course. The tracking and monitoring capabilities of most recent LMS have made it possible to analyse every interaction in the system. The issues addressed on this study are: a) Is LMS student's interaction an indicator of academic performance?; b) Are different results in performance expected between distance and in-class LMS-supported education?; c) How can LMS interactions from logs be categorised?; d) May this categorisation detect 'learning witnesses'? To answer these questions, a set of interaction types from Moodle LMS activity record logs has been analysed during two years in online and in-class Master's degrees at the UPM. The results show partial or no evidence of influence between interaction indicators and academic performance, although the proposed categorisation may help detect learning witnesses.