Outreach Change Research Articles

Understanding Charter School Leaders' Perceptions of Competition in Arizona.

School choice policies are expected to generate competition leading to improvement in school practices. However, little is known about how competition operates in public education-particularly in charter schools. This paper examines charter-school leaders' competitive perception formation and the actions taken in response to competition. Using Arizona charter-school leaders' responses to an original survey, Arizona Department of Education data, and the Common Core of Data, we examined the factors predicting the labeling of a school as a competitor. We estimated fixed effects logistic regression models which examine factors predicting the labeling of competitor schools and of top competitors. We used logistic regression models to understand charter-school leaders' responses to competition. We find charter-school leaders in Arizona perceived at least some competition with other schools, and their perceptions vary by urbanicity. While distance between schools mattered generally for labeling a school as a competitor, distance did not factor into labeling "top competitor" schools. Student outcomes did not predict competition between schools, but student demographics were associated with labeling a school a competitor. Charter-school leaders responded to competition through changes in outreach and advertising rather than curriculum and instruction. Competitive responses were related to the respondent school's quality and the level of perceived competition. We found charter-school leaders perceive competition and respond by changing school practices. Responses typically focus on marketing activities over productive responses. The novel state-level analysis allows us to test the effects of local market conditions typically absent in the literature.

Challenges, Barriers, Strategies Implementing an Oral Hygiene Program in Assisted Living Facilities Post COVID-19

[Objective] Almost 8% of the U.S. population, 65 and older, reside in long term care facilities with limited delivery of essential dental care to prevent and manage oral health disease. By 2050, this population is expected to increase by 1.6 billion. Multiple bi-directional connections exist between oral disease and overall health. [Methods] Faculty from the Dental Hygiene Department, New York University College of Dentistry conducted an extensive outreach effort and randomly selected assisted living facilities. Facilities were offered the opportunity to receive at no-cost, a dental hygiene-led, educational, preventive oral health program delivered virtually to their residents as a community service. Incentives discussed. [Results] Twenty-one facilities were contacted, 17 (94.4%) had no oral healthcare program; one had an oral health component. In 13 (72%), the concierge functioned as gatekeeper, unwilling to transfer calls or deliver messages. In five (28%), calls were directed to the activity coordinator. Feasibility concerns and uncertainty about oral health service necessity and resident safety were voiced. Two facilities mentioned familiarity with dental hygiene professionals. Strategic changes in outreach resulted in successfully engaging with facility administrators. Strategies included identifying directors with familiarity or experience with dental hygiene profession, establishing a portfolio and utilizing technology that facilitate incorporating COVID-19 protocols. [Conclusions] Efforts to initiate a dental hygiene-led virtual oral health program encountered gatekeeper challenges. Although facility activity coordinators acknowledged benefits for their population, they were not final decision-makers. It was necessary to implement strategies that facilitated discussing the virtual oral hygiene program directly with the facility’s executive leadership.

ASSESSMENT OF THE CORIOLIS FORCE IMPACT ON THE OPERATION OF THE TOWER CRANE SWING MECHANISM

In this paper, issues of the Coriolis force impact on the operation of the tower crane swing mechanism during the starting period under combination of working motions (boom swing and outreach increase) are considered. Quantitative dependencies of the parameters characterizing the mechanism starting mode on the velocity of load trolley travel along the boom and wind load are provided. Diagrams of these dependencies conveniently illustrate a noticeable decrease in the crane output upon adverse combination of factors related to the occurring Coriolis acceleration. More specifically, if the perpendicularly directed heavy wind load influences the boom in case of combination of working motions of the boom swing and outreach change, the starting time constituting the most part of the operating time of the swing mechanism can increase by 20 and more percent. The corresponding methodology of the calculation investigation is also stated in the paper.

Shocks, Changes in Outreach and Lending Technologies in Microfinance: the Bolivian Experience

The Bolivian evidence shows that microfinance lending technologies are well designed to cope with different kinds of risk. The innovations provided in this financial sector show more strengths than weaknesses to overcome information asymmetries. Furthermore, group and individual loans are providing good mechanisms to cope with idiosyncratic and systemic shocks. Certainly, different microfinance technologies developed in Bolivia have shown good performance in terms of outreach and sustainability

Pregnant women eligible under Medicaid expansion of maternity services. Implications for outreach.

Recent reforms in federal legislation have made Medicaid-financed prenatal care available to pregnant women from households at nearly twice the poverty level. Census and birth certificate data provide little information about the newly eligible group beyond estimates of their size. This article reports on efforts to compare the Medicaid expansion group to traditional Medicaid prenatal care patients in terms of demographics, access problems, and prenatal care adequacy by employing a short-term, hospital-based survey of postpartum women in Michigan. Differences between pregnant women eligible under the expansions and traditionally eligible pregnant women suggested that major changes in outreach and enrollment activities of state Medicaid agencies may be necessary to fulfill the opportunity represented by the Medicaid expansions.

Examining design assumptions for an information retrieval service: SDI use for scientific and technical databases

AbstractThis is a failure analysis for the SDI system. The study examined some of the assumptions which underlie the design of SDI systems: the context of use, the activities supported by SDI‐based information, and characteristics which made documents useful. It was found that the design assumptions underlying the system were not appropriate for the user community. This finding may help explain why SDI has been adopted by such a small percentage of the users it was designed to serve. However, this information tool is well suited for a broader population than that intended two decades ago. While SDI remains a valuable system, attaining a higher level of usage is likely to require changes in outreach and related activities of the service providers.