In-school alternatives to suspension: A description of ten school district programs

On July 1, 2013, the first group of programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) transitioned into the Next Accreditation System (NAS), and 1 year later, the remaining accredited specialties, the transitional year, and the review of sponsoring institutions will move into the NAS.1 The NAS is an outcomes-based and improvement-focused approach to the accreditation of programs and sponsoring institutions. The intent is to both ensure a level of quality (through assessment of compliance with the accreditation standards) and to promote ongoing improvement in all programs and innovation in high-performing programs.1 The added focus on improvement will be achieved through (1) a Self Study that each program will complete before its 10-year site visit and includes aggregation and analysis of data on its longitudinal improvement effort, and (2) a Self Study site visit during which the program will describe its improvement process and the outcomes achieved. The Self Study site visit will occur approximately 1 year after the program begins its Self Study.The lengthening of site visit intervals in the NAS and the focus on outcomes and continuous improvement call for a new type of site visit, and this new model requires testing. To further inform the Self Study and to increase its relevance to programs, the ACGME envisioned a new focus on programs' aims, combined with an environmental assessment that focuses on strengths, areas for improvement, opportunities, and threats.A key aim in the NAS is to reduce the burden of accreditation, and a recognized source of burden is the preparation of site visit documentation. Thus, the Self Study site visit also calls for a new approach to reporting that provides insight into programs' longitudinal improvement efforts, without that documentation either adding undue burden or affecting the ability of the program to conduct a complete and honest accounting of its strengths and its areas in need of improvement.The Self Study approach is currently being refined, with the first Self Studies for programs in Phase I of the NAS scheduled to begin in 2014, and the first Self Study site visits planned for 2015. In this brief article, we offer early information from the ongoing, conceptual testing of the Self Study site visit.By 2012, the aims and content of the 10-year Self Study and Self Study site visit (box 1) had evolved sufficiently to allow the ACGME to test the new elements of the proposed approach. This included the enhanced focus on program improvement, using the Annual Program Evaluation, and the new focus on program aims and an assessment of programs' performance and opportunities and threats in their local environment.In appreciation of the significant development the Self Study process and the new type of site visit would require, ACGME leadership thought it would be beneficial to test the emerging concepts and approaches in a sample of Self Study test visits, beginning in late 2012. It was clear that a “real” Self Study site visit would have required the programs to have completed a self-assessment and that the test visits would test only selected elements of the planned approach.To date, site visits at 3 institutions involving internal medicine and plastic and vascular surgery core programs and subspecialty programs in those areas have been completed. Test visits involved volunteer institutions, and the findings were not shared with Residency Review Committees. All test site visit programs were visited by a team, as is planned for the actual Self Study site visits. The individuals interviewed and the time commitment for participants on the day of the site visit were comparable to a “regular” site visit. The ACGME sought to ensure that preparation before a site visit would be minimal, and the site visit was limited to asking the residents or fellows in the test programs to complete a consensus list of program strengths and areas for improvement.The test visit entailed a debriefing with site visitors and program participants and produced reports for internal sharing and comprehensive field notes. In contrast to the more general compliance focus that had characterized earlier tests of Program Information Form-less site visits,2 these visits tested selected new elements planned for future Self Study visits. They included a focus onItems 2 through 4 above constituted an initial test of new dimensions the ACGME envisioned as part of a future NAS 10-year Self Study site visit. One of the key information items for this portion of the visit was the Annual Program Evaluation. To continue to preserve the ability of programs to conduct a frank assessment of areas for improvement, the test visits maintained the confidentiality of the Annual Program Evaluation, and the team asked the program director to discuss program improvement, articulating successes achieved and areas still being worked on, based on the several recent Annual Program Evaluations. The ACGME envisions that a similar approach will be used for actual Self Study visits.Although the sample is small, the test site visits to date have confirmed the feasibility and “assess-ability” of the added dimensions of a Self Study visit. Programs articulated “aims” without difficulty, although, other than efforts to address lower than desirable board performance, offering general information on preparing residents for academic careers, and in 1 instance, starting a primary care track, respondents were less clear about their ongoing activities to enhance performance relevant to these aims.Discussion during the assessment of strengths, areas for improvement, opportunities, and threats focused primarily on national threats, particularly changes in federal support for graduate medical education (GME). Local opportunities and threats were less readily identified in the conversations with program leadership. This suggests that these new site visit dimensions would benefit from ongoing assessment over time, and it is expected that these areas would be more developed in a “real” Self Study, which would have been preceded by a formal Self Study process.The early test site visits also highlighted several areas of emerging focus, some likely prompted by the increased emphasis on educational outcomes in the NAS. During the site visits, programs discussed new modes of evaluation on the Milestones; on initiatives to restructure their didactic programs, focusing on scheduling and delivery models to maximize access and participation; and on measuring the effect of the didactic offerings. Preparation for the board examination, as the most visible element of outcomes focus in the current system, constituted a major focus of the discussion of educational outcomes across programs at the programs sites visited to date. Another focal area likely resulted from new roles for faculty in the NAS, particularly professional development for assessing performance on the milestones and participation on Clinical Competency Committees. In addition to faculty development content, discussions addressed approaches to encourage participation, including scheduling strategies and financial and other incentives, such as academic promotion and recognition.Finally, the visits highlighted some beneficial approaches for tracking data on longitudinal improvement, using simple, common institutional formats that allowed programs to record and report their improvements and areas still being worked on. This longitudinal tracking of improvement will gain in importance in the NAS, as much of the focus of the Self Study visit will be on programs' effectiveness in making ongoing improvements.The early tests contributed significantly to the development and refinements of the program Self Study approach and the associated site visits envisioned for the NAS. This work will continue with a focus on (1) offering guidance to programs about effective and efficient approaches for longitudinal improvement, including sessions at the ACGME Annual Educational Conference; (2) developing a report that aggregates NAS performance data the ACGME would provide to programs at the “kick-off” of their Self Study effort, approximately 1 year before the scheduled site visit; and (3) formulating a succinct document for programs to complete in preparation for a Self Study site visit.During the early test visits, it became clear that a truly meaningful Self Study visit would require the prior completion of a Self Study process. The concept is widely used in educational accreditation, yet it remains one of the more debated elements. The ideal approach for an NAS Self Study would produce a self-assessment that aids in the acquisition of knowledge about the program and identifies areas of real, tangible improvements.3 At the same time, organizational and programmatic Self Studies, although valuable from an improvement perspective, carry significant time, financial, and opportunity costs.4 It is clear that, given the smaller size of residency programs or even a core programs and its associated subspecialty programs compared with universities or medical schools and the resource constraints in the GME environment, the Self Study approach will need to be adapted and streamlined for use in the NAS. It also became apparent that the process would need to address scheduling challenges for programs, particularly when core programs and their subspecialty programs are seen as a group, as is planned in the NAS. The rationale and anticipated benefits for having a collective Self Study and Self Study site visit for core programs and their associated subspecialty programs are shown in box 2.The exploration of elements of the Self Study and the associated visit confirmed the feasibility of the approach and acceptance by program and institutional participants, although the sample was limited and the use of the information for internal improvement may have produced a more receptive and less critical audience. Future challenges and areas to further develop and refine the site visit approach in the NAS will need to deal with efforts to assess programs' ongoing focus on improvement while ensuring the confidentiality of the data underlying that process.Additional site visits are planned, with a particular focus on tapping into programs' ongoing improvement efforts, and how those efforts could be documented without impinging on their ability to conduct frank and forthright assessments of strengths and areas for improvement. Future work will also explore formats that offer added value to programs, such as a Self Study or site visit that yields valuable insight for programs in key areas, particularly recognition of opportunities and threats within their environment.

Policymakers and educational leaders continue to use school district decentralization as a reform effort that attempts to shift power and authority from central office administration to school-level leadership. In 2015, the Nevada Legislature passed legislation to restructure the Clark County School District (CCSD), the state’s largest school district, with the intent of breaking it up into smaller districts but instead evolving to decentralization. In this article, we use case study methods to explore the events leading up to the reorganization of CCSD. We take a critical perspective on Kingdon’s multiple streams framework to analyze the reorganization efforts, focusing specifically on how Nevada’s political context provided a window of opportunity for the reorganization to occur. We also examine the extent to which equitable educational opportunity was a factor in these efforts. Our analysis of the reorganization of CCSD contributes to a wider understanding of state-level policy development and politics within contemporary educational contexts. In this case, we find that state-level policymakers successfully leveraged the opportunity to enact the power and authority necessary to significantly and rapidly impact the structure of one of the largest school districts in the United States.

The problems faced by many small city school districts are often overshadowed by concerns for big city and rural school districts. We focus on some of the challenges faced by three small city school districts in Massachusetts with high percentages of students from low-income homes. Comparisons are made between these districts and three relatively affluent, high-achieving districts along with three big city districts, also in Massachusetts. We found that the three small city districts with high percentages of low-income homes struggle to provide significant percentages of their students with a high-quality education. We hope policy makers and researchers devote greater attention to helping small city educators overcome their challenges.

How do district schools respond to competition from charter schools? To explore this question, we examine four small Arizona school districts which lost from a tenth to a third of enrollment to charter schools in a short time period. Districts lost market share to charter schools because they did not satisfy significant constituencies, thus providing demands for education alternatives. District responses to market pressure depend on overall enrollment trends, the quality of the charter competition, the quality of district leadership, and the size of the district. Districts respond to competition in various ways, including reforming curricula, changing leadership, vilifying charter competitors, and attempting to absorb those competitors. Responses suggest that competition improves schools, but that markets do not work quickly or without friction and must be understood in context.

The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem, by Deborah Meier. Boston: Beacon Press, 1995. 190 pp. $12.00, paper. Reviewed by Herbert J. Walberg, The University of Illinois at Chicago. From 1940 to 1990, the number of public school districts in the United States declined from 117,108 to 15,367 while the average number of students enrolled in them rose more than 10 times, from 217 to 2,637. During this same half century, the number of schools in these larger districts declined from approximately 200,000 to 62,037 while their average enrollments rose from 127 to 653 (Walberg & Walberg, 1994). Notwithstanding, a huge and increasing amount of research suggests that, other things being equal, students achieve more in smaller districts and smaller schools (Walberg & Walberg, 1994). Yet, big city school systems cannot easily be broken up and it would cost too much to replace the larger schools within them with more intimate buildings. Thus, at least for the time being, school districts are stuck with facilities whose large size has been shown to contribute, to some extent, to the failure of large numbers of students. New York City, with about 900,000 students and nearly a thousand schools, is home to our nation's biggest school system. Yet it is within one high-poverty and majority minority district of this mammoth entity that much of the work of developing and refining a more intimate educational setting has taken place. Indeed, the author of this book and the staff of the four innovative public schools she established in New York City's Central Park East District 4 can take much of the credit for the school-within-aschool concept of separate, smaller schools of choice with distinct identities, staffing, and students housed within larger school buildings. This work-which is part autobiography, part excerpts from personal diaries, and part reworked essays published elsewhere-presents Meier's own story and educational philosophy as much as it reveals the nature and extent of the educational reform that has occurred within her East Harlem schools. Describing herself as the product of a private progressive school, Meier repeatedly iterates her faith in the potential of public education while delineating a pattern of failure in big city schools and in the involvement of urban parents in their children's education. She nonetheless maintains, however, that the schools where she has labored as a principal, teacher, and educational reformer for the past 21 years show that it is possible to break that pattern. These schools, Meier claims, follow the tradition of many of New York's private schools by challenging the low and trivial expectations of students held by teachers, parents, and administrators of most urban public schools. She describes in this book many of the activities that have taken place within the Central Park East schools, identifying as key elements their small size, smaller student bodies, emphases on cooperative learning and curriculum integration, longer class periods (one or more hours) and full-length advisory periods as well as the on-site decision making that takes place at the schools and the intensive parental involvement they demand. According to Meier: Each of the four schools offers a rich and interesting curriculum full of powerful ideas and experiences aimed at inspiring its students with the desire to know more, [and] a curriculum that sustains students' natural drive to make sense of the world and trusts in their capacity to have an impact upon it. (p. 16) But have the Central Park East schools really been successful? Then, if they have, what factors or conditions have contributed to that success? Can these elements be successfully implemented beyond the District 4 community? These are the big questions most educators would like to see answered. Although Meier provides in this book some statistics on dropout and college attendance rates showing that her Central Park East students fare better than their peers in many other New York City public schools, she can cite no studies using control groups of strictly comparable students to substantiate her claims because no such studies have been done to date. …

IntroductionFoods and beverages marketed in schools are typically of poor nutritional value. School districts may adopt policies and practices to restrict marketing of unhealthful foods and to promote healthful choices. Students’ exposure to marketing practices differ by school demographics, but these differences have not yet been examined by district characteristics.MethodsWe analyzed data from the 2012 School Health Policies and Practices Study to examine how food and beverage marketing and promotion policies and practices varied by district characteristics such as metropolitan status, size, and percentage of non-Hispanic white students.ResultsMost practices varied significantly by district size: a higher percentage of large districts than small or medium-sized districts restricted marketing of unhealthful foods and promoted healthful options. Compared with districts whose student populations were majority (>50%) non-Hispanic white, a higher percentage of districts whose student populations were minority non-Hispanic white (≤50% non-Hispanic white) prohibited advertising of soft drinks in school buildings and on school grounds, made school meal menus available to students, and provided families with information on school nutrition programs. Compared with suburban and rural districts, a higher percentage of urban districts prohibited the sale of soft drinks on school grounds and used several practices to promote healthful options. ConclusionPreliminary findings showing significant associations between district demographics and marketing policies and practices can be used to help states direct resources, training, and technical assistance to address food and beverage marketing and promotion to districts most in need of improvement.

School segregation has serious consequences for educational opportunity and success. Across the nation, school segregation by race and poverty is deepening and varies by state. Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data, this study explores the relationship between fragmentation—the degree to which metropolitan areas are split into many separate school districts—and segregation. Three measures of segregation—exposure, concentration, and evenness—are employed to analyze state- and metropolitan-level data between 1989 and 2010 in four states with different school district structures. Findings in this exploratory study indicate that states and metropolitan areas with more fragmented district structures are associated with higher levels of segregation. In comparison with the less fragmented states of North Carolina and Virginia, in the highly fragmented states of New York and New Jersey, the typical black and Latino student are exposed to smaller shares of white students, the typical white student is more isolated with other white peers, there are greater disparities in exposure to low-income students by race, the share of non-white segregated schools is substantially larger, and levels of multiracial unevenness are higher. (These states were selected from a set of in-depth state studies by the Civil Rights Project of the states from Maine to North Carolina; comparable data are not available for many other states.) Highly fragmented states and metropolitan areas with numerous small school districts cannot confront segregation by exclusively focusing their efforts within districts; in these areas, segregation is fundamentally occurring among districts rather than within districts. Instead, highly fragmented areas could use regional strategies, such as interdistrict transfer programs, regional magnet schools, and district consolidation, to make progress in desegregating their schools across school district lines.

Can school districts become too large whereby their size exceeds their point of efficiency? To investigate this question, all K-12 school districts in New Jersey were divided into three groups based on student body size. In a comparison of six average cost measures, larger districts were found to be more efficient on only one of the six measures. A more optimum size for school districts appeared to be in moderate sized districts. The theoretical grounds for this investigation regarded the suggested effects of vertical and horizontal decentralization.

An integer programming approach to school district financial management

This article examines the types of recurring problems that can inhibit K-12 mentoring team relationships and intervention strategies to remedy those problems. The study examines 149 mentoring teams in four school districts over a 2-year period. Data collection was coordinated by the researcher who was also the trainer for the four school districts’ mentoring programs. Each year of the study, the survey and interview processes were repeated. From the analysis of data, the research team identified a common set of recurring problems during both years. Intervention strategies were then identified, introduced, and assessed. Results indicate the need for continual assessment of mentoring programs and mentoring team relationships, financial commitment from the school district, a rigorous mentor selection process, and providing in-service and workshop opportunities for problem solving.

Prior research on environmental and sustainability education policies has largely focused on the international to national policy uptake. This article explores such policies at the subnational level in a fragmented education system. Over the past two decades, a growing number of school districts in the United States have enacted sustainability-oriented policies through the implementation of simultaneous efforts to green their facilities and provide related educational programming. This article explores the breadth of this approach in the 200 largest school districts in the country. In examining policy predictors at the district, municipal, and state levels, the study combines National Center for Education Statistics data and information from a systematic web scan. Using logistic regression, the analysis is grounded in an expanded Advocacy Coalition Framework and reveals four main findings. First, school districts under mayoral control are more likely to have a policy than districts governed by a school board. Second, the study underscores the interconnectedness of these policies with the sustainability efforts of the municipalities they are located in. Third, school districts located in large cities are more likely to have a policy. Fourth, a strong environmental movement in the state is associated with the presence of a policy.

Online site visits using virtual collaborative spaces: A plan-reading activity on a digital building site

The ARTCC programme was developed and funded by ESHRE, covering expenses associated with the meetings. The Steering Committee members who are the authors of this article did not receive payments for the completion of this study. The inspectors were remunerated for their work with an honorarium. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Urbanization is closely associated with land use land cover (LULC) changes that correspond to land surface temperature (LST) variation and urban heat island (UHI) intensity. Major districts of Bangladesh have a large population base and commonly lack the resources to manage fast urbanization effects, so any rise in urban temperature influences the population both directly and indirectly. However, little is known about the impact of rapid urbanization on UHI intensity variations during the winter dry period in the major districts of Bangladesh. To this end, we aim to quantify spatiotemporal associations of UHI intensity during the winter period between 2000 and 2019 using remote-sensing and geo-spatial tools. Landsat-8 and Landsat-5 imageries of these major districts during the dry winter period from 2000 to 2020 were used for this purpose, with overall precision varying from 81% to 93%. The results of LULC classification and LST estimation showed the existence of multiple UHIs in all major districts, which showed upward trends, except for the Rajshahi and Rangpur districts. A substantial increase in urban expansion was observed in Barisal > 32%, Mymensingh > 18%, Dhaka > 17%, Chattogram > 14%, and Rangpur > 13%, while a significant decrease in built-up areas was noticed in Sylhet < −1.45% and Rajshahi < −3.72%. We found that large districts have greater UHIs than small districts. High UHI intensities were observed in Mymensingh > 10 °C, Chattogram > 9 °C, and Barisal > 8 °C compared to other districts due to dense population and unplanned urbanization. We identified higher LST (hotspots) zones in all districts to be increased with the urban expansion and bare land. The suburbanized strategy should prioritize the restraint of the high intensity of UHIs. A heterogeneous increase in UHI intensity over all seven districts was found, which might have potential implications for regional climate change. Our study findings will enable policymakers to reduce UHI and the climate change effect in the concerned districts.

Abtsrcat The Michigan Educational Assessment Program, known as MEAP, conducted by the state department of education, is a standardized test. The test is taken by all public school students in Michigan and the results are being used for comparing schools and school districts. Because of widely varying school districts in size, the direct use of average score could be misleading. The direct averages for small school districts are, in particular, quite unstable. This requires “smoothing” the data before they can be used. There are several smoothing procedures available in statistical literature that “borrow strength” from other areas. We choose to apply small area estimation technique to analyze 4-th grade average math score available in MEAP. The standard small area estimation methods shrunk the direct averages towards overall statewide average but it can suffer from over-shrinkage problem. To resolve over-shrinkage, a clustering based small area estimation technique has been applied to the data. This allows borrowing strength both locally and globally. In terms of mean squared error and coefficient of variation, the resultant estimates are more stable and hence are more reliable to use.