Land Stewardship Project

As disparities in health and well-being outcomes continue to widen in the United States, despite good-willed investments in programs and services, a revolutionary shift in how we support families before they are in crisis is necessary to ensure they have what they need to be happy, healthy, and economically secure. To address these challenges, Prevent Child Abuse America developed a theory of change to address the root causes of child abuse and neglect, and balance the use of programs and systemic interventions to bring about a Primary Prevention Ecosystem to advance equitable outcomes for all children, youth, and families. As this Primary Prevention Ecosystem is realized in communities across the United States, there will be less need for the formal child welfare system as it exists today. This article describes the theory of change, the participatory methods used to develop it, and its implication for use within the broader primary prevention field.

We used triannual reading curriculum-based measurement of oral reading fluency data from 11,834 U.S. students in Grades 2 and 3 enrolled in an evidence-based Tier 2 reading intervention program (Reading Corps) to investigate the extent to which family involvement in the intervention might buffer against a negative effect of lower intervention dosage. The relation between family involvement in Reading Corps and growth in oral reading fluency was stronger when students spent fewer hours in tutoring, suggesting that family involvement in tiered reading intervention can compensate for receiving less intervention dosage. There was noticeable variation in this effect across tutors, suggestive of tutor-level heterogeneity of this relation. The relation between sending family engagement materials to families and the materials that are returned to tutors also substantially varied across tutors. We discuss findings in terms practical significance for school-based academic intervention systems. We highlight limitations and opportunities for future directions as well.

Little is known about the behaviour of Common Loon (Gavia immer) during the critical overwintering period, let alone the behaviour of the small, but increasing number of loons that overwinter on freshwater lakes in North America. We examined the diurnal time-activity budgets of Common Loon overwintering on a large reservoir in northwest South Carolina between 2018 and 2020. Similar to previous studies of breeding individuals and individuals that overwinter in marine waters, loons (n = 132) overwintering on this reservoir spent most of their time (52%) foraging. However, we found distinct differences in the activity budgets of individuals associated with their degree of sociality. Solitary birds (individuals spending 0–20% of time within 20 m of conspecifics) spent significantly more time foraging than did those that were either loosely-social (>20–<70% of time within 20 m of conspecifics) or strongly-social (70–100% of time). Although solitary loons made as many foraging dives as social birds, their dives were much longer, likely reflecting dives for larger predatory fish. In contrast, social individuals made much shorter, shallower dives, often foraging on shallower baitfish that they appear to pursue to the water surface and consume collectively. Such findings add to our understanding of loon winter behaviour and raise interesting questions regarding social behaviour and the short- and long-term trade-offs associated with social foraging in this species.

Although overall smoking prevalence in Minnesota has declined, the proportion of current smokers who smoke menthol cigarettes has increased. While studies have examined associations between smokers' perceived risks of smoking and quitting, similar studies on menthol smoking are lacking. This study examined whether perceived harm of menthol cigarettes was associated with menthol smokers' quitting behaviors. Data from the 2018 Minnesota Adult Tobacco Survey were examined. Respondents were categorized as current menthol smokers (n=200), current nonmenthol smokers (n=527), or nonsmokers (n=5324). All were asked four questions to assess their perceptions of menthol cigarettes' harm compared to nonmenthols. Sum scores were calculated (range 0-4); higher scores indicated perceptions of similar or greater harm. Data on menthol smokers' quitting behaviors were analyzed to identify associations between sum scores and quitting behavior. Data were analyzed using Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests and Spearman Rank Correlation tests. Additional analyses examined whether gender, age, race/ethnicity, education or income moderated the association between sum scores and past 12-month quit attempts. Menthol smokers were less likely to answer the harm perception questions correctly than nonmenthol smokers. Among menthol smokers, perceived harm of menthol cigarettes was positively associated with past 12-month quit attempts (p=0.006), use of counseling/behavioral support (p=0.012), and number of quit attempts (p=0.004). No demographic characteristics moderated the association between sum scores and past 12-month quit attempts. Findings suggest that efforts to increase menthol smokers' perceptions of menthol cigarettes' harm may potentially increase quitting behaviors. Understanding this association can inform interventions to increase quit attempts.

This study examined reading tutors’ interpretation of reading progress-monitoring graphs. A think-aloud procedure was used to evaluate tutors at two points in time, before and after a year of service as an AmeriCorps reading tutor. During their service, the reading tutors received extensive training and ongoing coaching. Descriptive results showed a positive change from the Time 1–think-aloud (pretest) to the Time 2–think aloud (posttest). There were statistically significant changes from Time 1 to Time 2 for the majority of graph interpretation variables measured. Data suggest that the right type of support and training may serve to enable reading tutors to develop the skills to contribute to data-based decision-making within multitiered systems.

Studies demonstrate poor guideline adherence by health care providers for the treatment of upper respiratory infections, particularly acute bacterial rhinosinusitis (ABRS), in the appropriate prescribing of antibiotic medications. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate the effect of implementing interventions for improving adherence to a clinical practice guideline for the management of ABRS for patients treated in the e-visit setting. Interventions included: providing a report to providers of their adherence to the ABRS clinical guideline prior to the intervention, providing updated education on the ABRS guideline, and implementing a clinical decision support system reminder. A pre and post intervention evaluation design was used. Data were obtained from a retrospective electronic health record (EHR) data extract of all 316 diagnoses for ABRS in the pre-intervention 2-month time period and all 368 diagnoses of ABRS in the post-intervention 2-month time period. A review of the structured clinical data elements was performed to determine whether the provider adhered to the clinical guideline, meaning that only patients meeting the criteria for ABRS were to receive an antibiotic prescription. The interventions resulted in a 3.3% improvement in adherence to the ABRS clinical guideline from 95.25% adherence pre-intervention to 98.4% post-intervention. These results demonstrated that the use of an educational intervention and clinical decision support resulted in improved adherence to the ABRS clinical guideline in the e-visit setting. The implications for practice could be significant in that these quality improvement interventions improve guideline adherence and reduce unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics.

This essay addresses the absence of the image in recent theories of the common by outlining a concept of the cinematic common. A “specter” of this common is identified in the contemporary discourse of film heritage. Here, the cinematic common begins to come into view as a living archive of communicative and cognitive procedures embedded in the networks of immaterial labor. In order to develop the cinematic common further, particularly in relation to the contemporary usage of Marx's concept of the “general intellect,” the essay presents an analysis of Harun Farocki's experimental film Arbeiter verlassen die Fabrik [Workers Leaving the Factory] (1995). In a final section, film heritage is re-theorized in order to present the cinematic common in a prognostic capacity as part of the revolutionary project of the multitude.