Local Board Research Articles

Public common-sense assumptions about mathematics

Circulating public discourses about mathematics and mathematics learning shape how families and students make sense of their experiences with schooling. In the United States, these discourses can play a large role in how public education policy is developed due to the commitment of public school boards to hearing community voices as well as a recent (but not new) increase in the organization of well-funded conservative parent groups working to maintain–and exacerbate–the inequitable educational opportunities that persist in this country. In this paper we analyze public discourse around mathematics learning in one New York City local school board meeting. Using tools from interaction analysis, we examined the discourse surrounding a proposal to reinstate test-based screening for middle school admissions. We delineated two key features of “common-sense” assumptions around mathematics learning that circulated in this meeting–math learners stay on a one-dimensional learning trajectory, and with varying rates of advancement–and investigated how these assumptions played out in the construction of a figured world of “schooled mathematics.” We argue that the consequences that necessarily follow from these common-sense assumptions construct mathematics as hierarchical and fixed, placing learners on a one-dimensional learning trajectory. Finally, we locate this set of emergent assumptions in the neoliberal racial project and consider the ways in which they shape a particular imagination of schooling and mathematics under neoliberalism.

Reaccreditation and Pathways Recognition Experiences of Small Local and Tribal Health Departments

Context: This paper describes experiences and views of leadership teams from 4 small local health departments (LHDs) seeking Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) reaccreditation or Pathways Recognition using PHAB Standards & Measures Version 2022. The Pathways program launched in 2022 provides additional supports for improvement of public health practice. Objective: Given the need to accelerate accreditation among small health departments, the purpose of this study is to share small health departments’ strategies for overcoming accreditation challenges and actionable advice for use by other health departments. Design: In this descriptive qualitative study, the study team conducted 22 individual interviews with 4 small LHDs from January to March 2024. Setting: Participating small health departments were located in the Midwestern and Western United States with staff sizes ranging from 3 to 47. Participants: Interview participants included small health department leadership teams, a local board of health member, and a contracted external accreditation consultant. Main Outcome Measures: We used a semi-structured interview guide to elicit participant experiences and views on accreditation processes, benefits, facilitators, strategies for overcoming challenges, and advice for other small health departments. Results: Participants suggested that accreditation benefits far outweighed the challenges. Perceived benefits included improved organizational procedures, equitable delivery of needed effective programs and services, and enhanced public perception. Key strategies to overcome staff capacity challenges were establishing a team approach and orienting and mentoring new staff in the “why” and “how” of accreditation. Advice included learning what is involved, taking the time to lay a foundation beforehand, and not waiting for a perfect time as accreditation is about improvement, not perfection. Conclusions: Small health departments can achieve and maintain PHAB accreditation by strategically implementing strategies to overcome staff capacity and other challenges. The Pathways Recognition program is a supportive option for small health departments wanting to improve public health practice.

Collaboration strategies affecting implementation of a cross-systems intervention for child welfare and substance use treatment: a mixed methods analysis

BackgroundCollaboration strategies refer to policies and practices used to align operations and services across organizations or systems. These strategies can influence implementation of cross-system interventions focused on improving integration of care, but remain under-specified and under-examined. This study identifies collaboration strategies and the conditions under which they affected implementation of Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams (START), an evidence-based intervention focused on integrating child welfare and behavioral health services for families involved with both systems.MethodsOur study sample included 17 county child welfare agencies that implemented START. Data on collaboration strategies and organizational context were obtained from key informant interviews, frontline worker surveys, and contracts. Contextual data were drawn from secondary data, and fidelity data were drawn from an administrative database. Qualitative and quantitative data were integrated using coincidence analysis, and used to identify combinations of conditions that uniquely differentiated agencies with higher and lower fidelity to START.ResultsFidelity was lower for intervention components requiring cross-system collaboration. Although key informants acknowledged the importance of collaboration for START implementation, few agencies used formal collaboration strategies other than staff co-location or reported high communication quality between frontline staff in child welfare and behavioral health. In coincidence analysis, four conditions differentiated agencies with higher and lower fidelity with 100% consistency and 88% coverage. We found that either strong leadership support or, in high need communities, third-party resource support from local behavioral health boards were sufficient for high fidelity. Similarly, in high need communities, absence of third-party resource support was sufficient for low fidelity, while in low need communities, absence of communication quality was sufficient for low fidelity.ConclusionAdministrators, frontline workers, and interested third parties (i.e., other stakeholders not directly involved in implementation) can use collaboration strategies to facilitate implementation. However, the effectiveness of collaboration strategies depends on local context. In agencies where internal leadership support for implementation is low but need for intervention is high, third-party resource support may still be sufficient for high fidelity. Further research is needed to test effectiveness of collaboration strategies in different conditions and on a broader range of process and implementation outcomes.Trials registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03931005, Registered 04/29/2019, https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03931005.

Thank You for Allowing Us To Speak

In Thank You for Allowing Us To Speak, youth pedestrian activists Nitya Jaiswal (13) and Radha Patel (18) - supported by Auckland-based urban strategist, Boopsie Maran - describe images from their parallel traffic safety campaigns. Across Auckland, families feel the streets students must use between their home and the school gate are growing to be more hostile than ever before. Particularly, in the city centre, their environment lacks shade and safe separation from car traffic, and often includes crossing the entrance to a motorway. While the kids themselves understand that walking and using active modes is a sustainable route, they just wish their streets were made safer by adult drivers, often the ones speeding to work.This photo essay highlights the inherent challenges faced by students on and off the streets—whether at a traffic circle or at local board offices sitting opposite elected members. Through captions and selected images, Jaiwal and Patel speak frankly to their intended adult audience and detail in their own words the “consequences, for [those] of you who are wondering.”

On the Estimation of Survival Rate Using Ranked Set Sampling Design

The Nigerian pensioners have high expectations from the government to ensure an effective implementation of pension regulations existing in the country. These expectations arise from the need to have sustainable standard of living in retirement and their benefits paid as at when due. However, the government does not know how many retirees will be alive at a particular period of time to draw fund from the pension account. This calls for regular verification of pensioners by Pension Transitional Arrangements Directorate (PTAD) at national level, office of the accountant general for State level and Local Government Pensions Board for Unified Local Government Council. This process exposed pensioners to stress related problems and some pensioners even die during such verification exercise. Again, it gives rise to varying set of problems that limit the capacity of the stakeholders within Nigeria pension industry to meet pensioner’s expectations. Survival rate of these retirees is key important statistic to the government for adequate preparation for their terminal benefits and to provide other social packages for this vulnerable group of people. However, this statistic is lacking in the State. Consequently, this work intends to address this problem by using the theory of Ranked Set Sampling (RSS) for Survival analysis to estimate the Survival rate of the retirees which will help the government in making adequate budgetary provisions to the Nigeria Pension Industry. Analysis and evaluation are presented.

Gastronationalism in Cornwall

Discussions of gastronationalism have largely focused on nationalist politics at the state level, especially in the realm of European integration and Americanisation. This paper, therefore, explores how gastronationalism is manifested at the subnational level by asking the question ‘What role does food play in the construction of Cornish national identity vis-à-vis England?’ This paper first reviews the literature around gastronationalism to explore how the concept has developed. It shall raise the example of Cornwall as having much in common with previous case studies of gastronationalism in how heritage foods are protected in a politics concerned with homogenisation. A contrast will then be drawn between the generally discussed contexts, with the strong economic incentives to develop an inclusive food culture as part of a national brand that appeals to tourists in Cornwall, which also contributes to the ‘lived brand’ of Cornwall. To investigate this question, a thematic and qualitative content analysis of local tourist boards’ promotional content is conducted in comparison to other English counties. Finally, it shall conclude that gastronationalism is conceptually relevant to the Cornish context, but the specific nature of cultural revivalism suggests the concept should be expanded to better account for subnational gastronationalist efforts.

Administrator Support for the Development of Culturally Responsive IEPs in Times of Anti-DEI Climates

With the increase of anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion educational policies and guidelines at local school boards and state-level agencies, campus administrators have seen an increase in complex situations as they concentrate their attention on supporting the educational needs of students from marginalized communities, including those with disabilities. This article utilized a case study focusing on challenges administrators face as they seek to support culturally responsive Individualized Education Plan (IEP) development for students with intersections of disability status, race/ethnicity, and other marginalized identities while also following revised local, state, and federal policies.

PROGRESS: A patient-centered engagement infrastructure and multi-level approach to enrich diversity, equity, and inclusion in a national randomized online behavioral pain treatment study

Twenty percent of individuals experience chronic pain worldwide posing significant challenges to those living with it. Pain research is crucial for developing and characterizing effective strategies to reduce the burden of chronic pain. Traditional research approaches often yield homogeneous study samples that poorly generalize and have unknown applicability across diverse patient populations. The Pain Relief with Online Groups that Empower Skills-based Symptom Reduction (PROGRESS) study aims to address disparities in pain research engagement and patient outcomes through the intentional inclusion of people with varied backgrounds and experiences of pain, and through a multilevel design informed by diverse stakeholder recommendations. The composition of three advisory boards (Patient Engagement and Diversity Board, Local Patient Advisory Board, and the National Patient Advisory Panel) prioritized diversity in patient/expert advisor background, geographic location, race, and ethnicity. Our engagement approach aligns with the Foundational Expectations for Partnerships in Research by Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), which emphasizes diverse representation, early and ongoing engagement, dedicated funds for advisor compensation, collaborative decision making, meaningful participation, and continuous assessment. The first 24 months of study advisor engagement has yielded multiple recruitment strategies resulting in a study population enriched with a breadth of identities within PROGRESS (e.g., inclusive patient-facing materials). Lessons learned underscore the importance of investing time in building patient and stakeholder relationships, trust, and embracing diverse viewpoints amongst the study team. PROGRESS demonstrates the potential of diverse patient-centered engagement to support evidence-based outcomes and practices that are more inclusive, equitable, and representative of the broader population. PerspectiveThe PROGRESS study demonstrates how diverse patient engagement and inclusive advisory boards enhance research outcomes. By aligning with PCORI standards and employing innovative recruitment strategies, it highlights the vital role of stakeholder relationships and diverse perspectives. Key lessons learned emphasize adaptive strategies and continuous feedback for advancing equitable pain research.

The effect of board chairs’ hometown identity on labor cost stickiness

In this study, we examine the impact of board chairs' hometown identity on labor cost stickiness in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Using data from China, our findings demonstrate that local board chairs can effectively mitigate labor cost stickiness by leveraging their communication advantages. Mechanism analyses reveal that local board chairs primarily achieve this through salary reductions rather than layoffs. We validate two plausible channels, cultural alignment and social trust, through a series of heterogeneity tests. Our results indicate that the influence of board chairs' hometown identity is more pronounced in SOEs located in provinces with smaller dialect diversity, less population mobility, and lower social trust levels, as well as those led by board chairs without overseas experience, serving longer terms, and far from retirement. Overall, this study contributes to existing literature by providing empirical evidence on how board chairs’ hometown identity facilitates the alleviation of labor cost stickiness in SOEs.

Abstract B093: Facilitating conversations on cancer genomic education: Development of a toolkit for community advisory boards

Abstract Community Advisory Boards are representative groups of individuals that reside in a particular area and serve an important role in the research process. Often CABs are the voice of the community, rather it be key community stakeholders, business, or community organizations. The purpose of this project is to describe the development of a cancer genomic toolkit and initial introduction of the toolkit to local community advisory boards to CAB members interested in cancer genomic topics to increase inclusion and awareness of emerging topics and activities around cancer genomic research. Existing CAB members from the Meharry Medical College/Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center/Tennessee State University Cancer Partnership (MVTCP) and the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) at Meharry Medical College were introduced to a cancer genomic toolkit that is in development. CAB members were presented the toolkit during a regularly scheduled CAB meeting for approximately 30 minutes and were allowed 10 minutes to answer questions. After the presentation of the cancer genomic toolkit, CAB members were sent a word document version of the toolkit to provide any feedback for improvement during the development stage. CAB members were allowed up to two months to review the cancer genomic toolkit. Directions for review were to use track changes and leave comments or provide direct feedback via email response. To date, one CAB member has provided individualized feedback. Group feedback included questions and open discussion around historic research participation. Next steps are to introduce the tool to a newly formed genomic community advisory board and begin to reiterate the toolkit for evaluation and implementation for other local CABs. Citation Format: Calandra G. Whitted. Facilitating conversations on cancer genomic education: Development of a toolkit for community advisory boards [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 17th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2024 Sep 21-24; Los Angeles, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2024;33(9 Suppl):Abstract nr B093.

A governance framework for facilitating cross-agency data sharing

Linking data across local authorities and health boards has the potential to reduce inequalities and improve outcomes. However, cross-agency data sharing leads to complexities around data ownership, legal conditions for processing, organisational controls and risk assessments to ensure privacy and confidentiality of subjects whilst facilitating research and service improvements. We share a governance framework for cross-agency data sharing between a local authority and regional health board in Scotland. A cross-sector Child Neglect working group was established with representation from public sector agencies, the NHS, University researchers and a Trusted Research Environment to support research on children’s mental health prescribing and secondary specialist services provision and linking to the Aberdeen City Council Child Protection Register. Lessons learned were captured throughout the governance, data transfer and data linkage phases. Communication is the most important driver, with key individuals, deputies and routes of escalation agreed and involved throughout for clarity of roles and expectation setting. Key lessons learned include requiring input from all parties at the project initiation stage, particularly IG teams, including agreements on necessary templates. Knowledge exchange is required between the research team, data owners and data processors to ensure research protocol requirements are correctly understood and data transfer is supported. If possible, internal and/or external validation of data should also be performed before data is linked. Cross-agency data sharing is a vital means to understanding and improving outcomes for individuals and populations. Critical to this is establishing an action plan and formalised project process to achieve outcomes.

Edwin Chadwick: A Pioneer of Public Health Reform and His Role in Sanitary Awakening.

Edwin Chadwick (1800-1890) was a central figure in the 19th-century public health reform movement in Britain. His work was instrumental in the sanitary awakening, a movement that revolutionized public health through the systematic improvement of urban sanitation and hygiene. As a lawyer by training, Chadwick was deeply influenced by Jeremy Bentham's welfare maximization theory, which emphasized the greatest good for the greatest number. His most significant contribution was his 1842 publication, "The Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population," in which he documented the deplorable conditions faced by the working class and the link between poor sanitation and disease. Chadwick's advocacy led to the passage of the Public Health Act of 1848, which established local health boards and marked the beginning of modern public health systems. His focus on clean water, efficient sewage systems, and waste management not only reduced the spread of diseases like cholera and typhoid but also set the stage for future public health initiatives globally. The sanitary awakening, largely driven by Chadwick's efforts, highlighted the critical connection between environment and health, a principle that continues to underpin public health practices today. Chadwick's legacy lives on in the ongoing efforts to improve urban living conditions and prevent disease through public health infrastructure.

Policy Solutions: Pandemic recovery will depend on political rediscovery

The current culture wars have been showing up in schools and districts, making local school board races increasingly partisan. The 2024 presidential race is placing even more attention on the partisan divide in local education policies and decisions. Columnist Jonathan E. Collins writes that education advocates can leverage this focus and help put aside partisan politics and meet the post-pandemic challenges students face.

Duration of face down positioning following full-thickness macular hole repair: A protocol for a randomized pilot study.

Full-thickness macular holes (FTMH) are defects in the fovea involving all neural retinal layers. They reduce patients' visual acuity (VA) and impact their quality of life. FTMHs are repaired with pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) with intraocular gas tamponade and post-operative face-down positioning (FDP). There is no consensus regarding the ideal positioning requirements following FTMH repair and there lacks clear guidelines on the topic. While analysis of global practice patterns indicates that between 5-7 days is the most common duration suggested by surgeons, there is significant heterogeneity in surgeon preferences. There is, however, biological plausibility to support minimal or even no FDP following surgery and given the disabling nature of FDP for patients, there is a need to better assess key patient outcomes with different FDP durations. As such, this prospective randomized controlled pilot trial will compare 3-days of FDP to 7-days of FDP following PPV for FTMH. This single-centered, parallel-group randomized controlled pilot trial will randomize patients 1:1 following PPV to 3 days or 7 days of FDP. This investigation has been approved by the local ethics board (HiREB # 16100) and has been registered on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT06000111). The primary objective will be focused on assessing the feasibility of a larger trial; this will be determined through an assessment of the recruitment rate, retention rate, completion rate and recruitment time. The secondary outcomes involve assessment of the following patient-important outcomes a) macular hole closure rate, b) best-recorded VA, c) a general quality of life measure and vision-specific quality of life measure, d) patient compliance and e) complication rates. Outcomes will be evaluated at 3 months following surgery. The results of this pilot study will determine the feasibility of a larger-scale trial that will answer a patient important question with clinical equipoise.

The NCCB Case Example: Reflections on a Successful Fourteen-Year CBPR Partnership

The Newark Community Collaborative Board (NCCB) is in its fourteenth year of operation with nine successful research projects and more than six million dollars in funding. The NCCB began with a community needs assessment in Newark, New Jersey, that led to the subsequent establishment of a community collaborative board (CCB) of consumers, researchers, service providers, and residents committed to advocating for health equity through community engagement and research informed by critical thinking. This paper explores the NCCB’s history and processes that allowed conducting community-based participatory research (CBPR) to reduce inequities related to social determinants of health (SDH). This conceptual manuscript draws on data from NCCB meeting minutes and a group interview with three of the five founding members. We detail the collaborative process used to develop and assess Community Wise, a multilevel, group-based intervention designed to reduce substance use among formerly incarcerated men in Newark, funded by the National Institutes of Health. Review of documentation and interview transcripts revealed the following key ingredients for success: 1) Having a north star; 2) Functional diversity; 3) Challenges as learning opportunities; 4) Board structure and healthy relationships; and 5) Funding and resources. The NCCB has undergone multiple transformations, including a name change to the New Jersey Critical Consciousness Collaborative Board (NJ-3CB), representing its growth from being a small local board to becoming part of a network of community collaborative boards across the United States and a chapter of the global campaign against racism. These and future transitions will help sustain the collaborative journey.

Investigating the Role of Local Board of Health Governance on Local Health Department Policymaking Behavior.

This study sought to identify groupings of policymaking behavior among local governmental health departments (LHDs) across the country and assess whether such groupings were associated with the governance activity of their board of health (BOH). We conducted latent class analysis (LCA) to identify possible classes of policymaking behavior among LHDs. Once classes were identified, we used multinomial logistic regression (MLN) to estimate the association between an LHD's policymaking behavior and the governance activity of their BOH. 2019 wave of the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO) Profile Survey. All LHDs with BOHs in the 2019 NACCHO Profile Survey (n=1003). Within our MLN, our primary outcome of interest was the association between an LHD's policymaking class (the main dependent variable) and the governance activity of its BOH (the main independent variable). Based on our LCA, we determined our sample to be composed of what we characterized as "Limited Policy-Involvement," "Average Policy Involvement," and "Expanded Policy Involvement" LHDs. Those in the Expanded Class were more likely to be involved across all policy areas compared to the Limited and Average class, especially among social determinants of health (SDOH)-related areas. Our MLN estimated that having a BOH active in legal authority was associated with an 86% increased chance that an LHD would be in the "Average Class" compared to the "Limited Class" and having a BOH active in partnership engagement was associated with an 86% more likely chance that an LHD is in the "Expanded Class" compared to the "Average Class." Using nationally representative data on LHD activity, we found distinct groups of policymaking behavior, including a quarter of LHDs that are highly active in traditional and SDOH-related policy areas. We also found that groupings of policymaking behavior, as indicated by class designation, are strongly associated with the BOH's governance activity.

Mentalisation-based online intervention for psychologically distressed parents: protocol of a non-randomised feasibility trial of the Lighthouse Parenting Programme-Online (LPP-Online)

IntroductionOnline-based interventions provide a low-threshold way to reach and support families. The mentalisation-based Lighthouse Parenting Programme is an established intervention aimed at preventing psychopathological development in children. The objective of...

Solving placement problems: local decision-making and the Finnish correctional labour facility system c.1920–1980

ABSTRACT Finnish correctional labour facilities, which were closed institutions that operated on the basis of forced labour from the 1920s to the 1980s, were designed mainly to detain individuals perceived to be vagrant, maladjusted or alcoholic and those who were defaulters on child maintenance or the paying back of poor relief. These people had committed no crimes but were detained as a result of administrative decision-making. This article considers what grounds there were for sending people to correctional labour facilities from the perspective of the local level of the municipalities in which the individuals lived and were most likely known (including as neighbours) to the local social board members who made decisions. The main argument is that local social boards in northern municipalities primarily used correctional labour facilities to solve problems of placement originating within institutions themselves or, if outside, typically in family life. By analysing the types of cases that, in the view of social board members, were sufficiently problematic to require intervention, the article shows that everyday experiences might differ significantly from the legal grounds for detention.

Understanding the outcome and management of children aged 2–59 months with chest indrawing pneumonia: a study protocol for an observational study in Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Uganda and Zambia

IntroductionChildhood pneumonia is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children aged 2–59 months, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), where healthcare providers face significant challenges in diagnosing...

Infant mortality and social causality: Lessons from the history of Britain's public health movement, c. 1834-1914.

What are the historical conditions under which a sociologically informed understanding of health inequality can emerge in the public sphere? We seek to address this question through the lens of a strategically chosen historical puzzle-the stubborn persistence of and salient variation in high infant mortality rates across British industrial towns at the dawn of the previous century-as analysed by Arthur Newsholme, the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board. In doing so, we retrace the historical processes through which the evolving public health movement gradually helped crystallise a scientific understanding of the social causes of excess mortality. We map the dominant ideology of the public sphere at the time, chart the shifting roles of the state, and retrace the historical origins and emergence of 'public health' as a distinctive category of state policy and public discourse. We situate the public health movement in this historical configuration and identify the cracks in the existing ideological and administrative edifice through which this movement was able to articulate a novel approach to population health-one that spotlights the political economy of social inequality. We relate this historical sequence to the rise of industrial capitalism, the social fractures that it spawned, and the organised counter-movements that it necessitated.