Illinois School Research Articles

Retrospective Evaluation of Factors That Influence the Implementation of CATCH in Southern Illinois Schools

Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) is a school health program implemented in southern Illinois that focuses on physical activity and nutrition and consists of a classroom curriculum, physical education framework, and cafeteria guidelines. Though many schools agreed to implement CATCH, some schools implemented it better than others. This study examined implementation practices of classroom and physical education teachers and cafeteria supervisors. We surveyed 284 school employees at 36 elementary schools located in southern Illinois. Attention focused on organizational readiness, commitment to change, school leadership, implementation barriers, and innovation perceptions concerning degree of implementation of CATCH. Organizational readiness and implementation barriers were significant predictors of degree of implementation for school employees. Additionally, organizational readiness was reported a significant predictor of classroom teacher degree of implementation whereas leadership was a significant predictor of degree of implementation by physical education teachers. Data from this study can be used to enhance implementation of CATCH as well as other school health programs. This study provides educators evidence of why school employees have different implementation practices, evidence of what constructs influence degree of implementation most, and some explanation of school employee degree of implementation.

The Impact Of Legislation On Illinois School Nurses

The State of Illinois has passed legislation mandating food allergy education including anaphylaxis drills and allowing for the use of undesignated epinephrine auto-injectors in schools. We sought to characterize the impact this legislation had on school nurses.

No Blacks Allowed: Segregated Gifted Education in the Context of <em>Brown v. Board of Education</em>

When submitting for this special issue on the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), these authors were guided by the unwavering belief that discrimination has no place in educational settings and segregation and integration are ideals that have yet to be realized in U.S. schools and gifted programs in particular. Consequently, at the forefront of this submission is the seminal case of Brown v. Board of Education in which segregated schools, classrooms, and programs based on race were declared illegal and unconstitutional. The Supreme Court avowed the ending of separate and unequal education in America; and desegregation was to occur with all deliberate speed. That was six decades ago, and this law and associated legal mandates have yet to be fulfilled, particularly in gifted education, Advanced Placement (AP) classes, and other courses for advanced learners (e.g., honors and International Baccalaureate classes).It is unprofessional and unethical to promote and permit the inequitable distribution of resources and opportunities to students based on race, which frequently occurs with Black students. Inequitable or unjust resources and opportunities contribute to and promote educational disparities, and create a vicious cycle in which Black students are denied access to school programs that are essential to reaching their academic, intellectual, socio-cultural, and fiscal potential and that can help close achievement gaps. Gifted education has promoted such racial inequities. For decades, educators, policymakers, and legal personnel have failed to recruit and retain an equitable percentage of Black students in gifted education and courses for advanced learners (e.g., Advanced Placement classes). This lack of accountability has resulted in de facto segregation and is witnessed in McFadden v. Board of Education for Illinois School District U-46, settled in 2013. In this unprecedented gifted education case, the court affirmed that, in creating a separate gifted education program for Hispanic students only, this school district violated the United States and Illinois constitutions' equal protection clauses. Rather than developing one gifted education program for elementary school students that provided language support when needed, this district created a separate gifted program for Hispanic students who had exited English Language Learner (ELL) programs. Judge Gettlemen (who presided over McFadderi) noted that establishing a separate gifted education program based on race perpetuates the problems that our nation's civil rights laws were created and authorized to prevent.This court case revives issues of disparate impact, which will be discussed later. This case is a notice to states and other districts to eliminate discrimination (intentional and unintentional) in gifted education practices for identification, programming, and services. With discrimination and under-representation in mind, these authors present trends (2009-2011) regarding the representation of Black students in gifted education using data from the Office for Civil Rights Data Collection (U. S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, 2011; CRDC: These files are state and national estimations. The 2009-10 estimations are based on a rolling stratified sample of approximately 7,000 districts and 72,000 schools and on reported data from those districts that responded to the survey). Under-representation is clearly persistent and nationally pervasive. Next, these data are positioned within the context of Brown where it is argued that gifted education must become desegregated and integrated. De facto and de jure segregation in gifted education must end, with all deliberate speed before another 60 years passes.BRIEF OVERVIEW OF GIFTED EDUCATION DEFINITIONS WITH CULTURAL IMPLICATIONSSimilarly to many terms, 'gifted' eludes consensus. Traditional definitions of giftedness (almost exclusively normed on and conceptualized on middle-class Whites) have been primarily operationalized in two ways: (a) by high scores on IQ tests (130 and higher) and (b) by high scores on achievement tests (often at or above 92nd percentile). …

Structural and convergent validity of the homework performance questionnaire

Homework is a requirement for most school-age children, but research on the benefits and drawbacks of homework is limited by lack of psychometrically sound measurement of homework performance. This study examined the structural and convergent validity of scores from the newly developed Homework Performance Questionnaire – Teacher Scale (HPQ-T). Participants were 112 teachers of 224 students in six Illinois school districts. Common factor analysis with principal axis extraction and promax rotation was used for data analysis. Results revealed three salient factors: Parent support, student competence and homework completion. Subsequently, convergent validity of HPQ-T subscale scores with subscale scores from the Learning Behaviours Scale was examined. Findings suggest that the HPQ-T may potentially be a useful tool for improving research on homework and identifying strengths and weaknesses in student homework performance. However, modifications are recommended to optimise the utility of the scores.

We Have Lost a Titan

It is with sadness that I report on the passing of one of our distinguished colleagues. Morris D. Kerstein, MD, Rear Admiral, US Navy (Ret), 75, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, died in February from renal failure complications. He was a well-respected academic vascular surgeon and leader in the wound care field. Dr Kerstein served on the peer-review panel for Advances in Skin & Wound Care for several years. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Dr Kerstein graduated from Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, and earned his medical degree from the University of Chicago Medical School in Illinois in 1963. Dr Kerstein was a renaissance man—being a physician was his job and medicine was his hobby, and he also loved music. He was active in military medicine, vascular surgery, and was a quintessential mentor—his humanity was bigger than his ego. His true passion, though, was teaching and mentoring his medical residents and fellows, said his son, Lars. “He took such pride in the success of his students and fellows and kept in touch with them throughout their careers.” Dr Kerstein held academic appointments at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; the University of Chicago; Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was also associate dean; Hahnemann University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was chairman of surgery; and Mount Sinai Hospital and Medical Center, New York, New York, where he was vice chairman and director of research in the department of surgery. He was adjunct professor at Thomas Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Academic Career Dr Kerstein’s publications number more than 700, representing manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals and abstracts. He has edited and published multiple books and numerous book chapters, periodicals, monographs, and supplements. He was a member of many professional societies and also served as a distinguished visiting professor nationally and internationally. His various leadership roles over the years included the presidency of the Vascular Society and the Wound Healing Society. Dr Kerstein was also a member of the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel. His research funding has totaled more than $1 million. In 2005, Dr Kerstein was honored by the Association of Women Surgeons, who recognized him for his advocacy of women in surgery and mentoring of women trainees. Dr Kerstein expressed that he never intended to become an advocate for women in surgery. “I never thought that women in my field could be any different than men,” he stated. “My only advice to a woman considering surgery is to follow your heart.” Dr Kerstein was an early adopter and leader in the concept of interprofessional education and practice.Morris D. Kerstein, MDService to Our Country Dr Kerstein’s ability to excel in dual career tracks was exemplified by his sustained meritorious service to our country in the US Navy Medical Corps, which he joined in 1963, serving 2 years in the Vietnam Theater of Operations as a US Navy trauma surgeon. In addition, he served in the US Navy Reserve, in support of operations in Beirut and during Desert Storm. While in the US Navy, Dr Kerstein’s research paper titled, “Water as a Tactical Weapon: A Doctrine for Preventing Heat Casualties,” was instrumental in setting new guidelines for rapid deployment of troops in hot climates. After a distinguished career in military medicine, Dr Kerstein retired in 1993 at the rank of Rear Admiral. He was also on the faculty of the Uniformed Service University in Bethesda, Maryland. His last assignment in support of our veterans was as chief of staff at the VA Medical Center in Wilmington, Delaware. Dr Kerstein was a life member of the Association of Military Surgeons and was a member of the Naval Order of the United States, which includes many prominent admirals who have distinguished themselves in the annals of our nation’s naval history. He was a recipient of many awards and decorations including the Association of Military Surgeons Medal of the United States. Personal Life In addition to his son Lars, Dr Kerstein is survived by his wife of 32 years, Margaret Schwedler-Kerstein, MD, who is a clinical associate professor of anesthesia and director of Ambulatory Anesthesia, Jefferson Surgery Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and 1 grandchild. Dr Kerstein will be laid to rest with full military honors on April 11, 2013, at Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery. We will greatly miss him in the wound care community, but his contributions to surgical medicine, wound care, and national service will continue to exemplify a higher standard that we can all strive to achieve.FigureRichard “Sal” Salcido, MD

Effectiveness of Food Sustainability Education among Grade School Students

Increasingly, the human population is having an impact on the environment. Educating younger generations on sustainability issues may make a difference. This project’s goal was to raise awareness and change attitudes toward food sustainability issues by creating an effective education program for elementary age students. The project was a four-week interactive program focusing on local foods, gardening, recycling, and world hunger. Participants included 85 elementary age students from two local schools in southern Illinois. To determine the program effectiveness, a within-subjects, repeated measures design was utilized to compare mean scores of participants. Pre and post-program surveys were completed regarding awareness, attitudes, and behaviors toward the topics taught during the program. PASW (Version 18.0) was used to analyze the data. The level of significance was established at p<0.10 because of the exploratory nature of the research. Results indicated that the program was most effective with fourth grade students. Fourth grade had significant change in understanding world hunger, effects on the world around them, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and stores carrying more local foods. Eighth grade had significant change in effects on the world around them and understanding CSA. Sixth grade students had significantly higher mean scores in understanding CSA. The positive results with the youngest age group suggests that food sustainability programs introduced to this age through interactive programs can be effective at changing awareness and attitudes. The lack of positive results with the sixth and eighth grade students should be researched further. Future sustainability projects should focus on finding the most effective hands-on techniques to increase student awareness of food and the environment.

Interview

WILLIAM BROOKS RACHEL VANDAGRIFF: Do you remember when you were first exposed to Perspectives? What was that experience like? WILLIAM BROOKS: At Wesleyan University, where I was an undergrad, the library was dispersed in some ways. There was a music reading room in some little building, I cannot remember where. There was a rack of current periodicals—ten or twenty. I remember encountering Perspectives then, but I don’t have any memory of what I thought or what I read. I picked it up and looked at it, along with various other things I picked up and looked at from time to time. So I didn’t really have a view of it. VANDAGRIFF: Do you remember when you started to read it? Are there any articles that hold a particular place in your memory? BROOKS: First of all, the thing to say is that, until I went to graduate school in Illinois I had always been very musical, and I had always been William Brooks 137 interested in music, but I came into Wesleyan as a science and math guy. I double majored in math and music, but I didn’t decide to stay on and go to graduate school in music until I was halfway through my junior year. So I was not very responsible about studying stuff until I went to graduate school. Then I went to graduate school in Illinois because at Wesleyan the big presence while I was there was John Cage. Not that Cage was in residence—that was the year before I came—but Cage was back several times during the time I was there. His thinking and his aesthetic and all of that was present. Peter Yates came through several times—at least twice, I should say —and gave lectures on various things. This was only a few years after he had coined the phrase the “American Experimental Tradition” (he first started publicly pronouncing it in 1959), but before his book on twentieth-century music, which came out in 1967. I graduated from Wesleyan in 1965. So the aesthetic that I was coming from, when I went to Illinois, was this experimental music aesthetic. It was very much because of Yates, and because of the way he defined it (though I did not realize this until much, much later); it was very much a kind of “outsider” aesthetic . Cage was an outsider at that point—this was the sixties. He was not the grand old man of American music, or experimental music. He was still a pretty wide-eyed, wacky guy who was doing strange performances , who was the subject of controversy, and people were accusing him of being a charlatan, and all of that stuff. So I was very invested— and for other reasons, too. Already, before I went to Wesleyan, even in high school, I had come to know and like, but not really love, Charles Ives’s music. At Wesleyan I became a really devotee of Ives. I became very, very interested in Ives by my sophomore year, when I took an art song class in which we did some Ives songs. Then I was just amazed, and I got my own copy of the 114, songs and I was stuck into Ives from then on. Because of Cage I knew about Cowell. . . . So I was very into this notion that American music was an outsider art. I went to Illinois for several reasons, but probably the principal reason was that it matched this notion I had of experimental music. The second reason (but I didn’t make the connection at the time) was that I had come to know Ben Johnston’s music through Bert Turetsky, a double-bass player. Ben was at Illinois, and even there, I had the sense that he wasn’t Roger Sessions. He wasn’t an “in the mainstream” kind of guy. Illinois had also been doing all of the Festivals of Contemporary Music, which were wild! One thing that happened when I went to Illinois was that I almost immediately started singing with Kenneth Gaburo. Now Kenneth was wild, and weird, and wonderful, and to me he was an outsider, because 138...

Accountability, Fiscal Management, and Student Achievement in East St. Louis, Illinois 1994-2006

This instrumental case study reviews the 1994-2004 period of state financial oversight in East St. Louis, Illinois School District 189, with a secondary review of the initial years of NCLB implementation. Although the oversight panel’s fiscal management did generate financial stability, case findings indicate that its accountability processes did not result in sustained improvements in student achievement indicators despite anticipated links between the two in the panel’s reporting. Furthermore, the oversight process operated as a hierarchical structure without identification of cultural implications. Attention to culture and subsidiarity are indicated for future state–district partnerships oriented toward urban educational reform.

PCV10 Anti-Glycemic Medication Treatment Patterns Among Type II Diabetes Mellitus Patients Initiating Lipid-Altering Regimens

ANTI-GLYCEMIC MEDICATION TREATMENT PATTERNS AMONG TYPE II DIABETES MELLITUS PATIENTS INITIATING LIPID-ALTERING REGIMENS Simko RJ1, Koselleck D2, Quimbo RA3, Cziraky MJ4, Toth PP5 1Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL, USA, 2Abbott Labs, Abbott park, IL, USA, 3HealthCore, Wilmington, DE, USA, 4HealthCore, Inc., Wilmington, DE, USA, 5Sterling Rock Falls Clinic, Ltd.; University of Illinois School of Medicine, Sterling, IL, USA OBJECTIVES: To evaluate changes in anti-glycemic treatment patterns in patients newly augmenting statin therapy with niacin extended-release (NER S), relative to patients initiating alternative lipid regimens. METHODS: An observational cohort study was conducted using integrated administrative claims and laboratory result data within the HealthCore Integrated Research Database. T2DM patients aged 18 to 64 initiating statin-augmenting therapy (NER S, ezetimibe (EZE S), or fenofibrate (FFB S)) or statin monotherapy (SM) between 1/1/2005-11/30/2008 (index date) were included. Patients with 12 months of pre-index eligibility and 1 laboratory result for hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) within the 12-month period were included. The utilization and average daily dose (ADD) of anti-glycemic medications during the 12-month pre-index and follow-up period were compared between cohorts. RESULTS: A total of 42,250 patients were identified: 2,041 NER S, 6,915 EZE S, 3,095 FFB S, and 30,199 SM. Compared to each cohort, NER S patients were more likely to be male (P 0.0001), and have higher prevalence of preexisting ischemic heart conditions (P 0.0001). NER S patients had lowest preindex total cholesterol (174.3 55.2; P 0.0001), HDL-C (37.2 10.1; P 0.0001), second lowest LDL-C (93.7 38.4), and second highest TG (245.3 307.0) prior to the index date. Among oral anti-glycemic therapies, NER S patients were observed to have the largest decrease in ADD (mg/day) for biguanides (metformin: -155.9 788.0; P 0.0001), sulfonylureas (glimepiride: -0.1 1.9; P 0.0053; glipizide: -0.8 20.8; P .0001), TZD’s (pioglitizone: -0.8 8.2; P 0.0210), and incretin mimetic agents (exenatide: -0.1 3.5; P 0.0012) from pre-index to follow-up. Furthermore, NER S patients had the smallest increase in ADD of DPP-4’s (sitagliptin: 0.3 17.6; P 0.0067). CONCLUSIONS: Despite studies indicating the potential for NER to antagonize glycemic control among T2DM patients, patients initiating NER S were observed to have decreased utilization and average daily dose of anti-glycemic medications, relative to alternative treatment regimens.

Illinois Statewide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

More than 1,000 Illinois schools are implementing schoolwide positive behavior support (SWPBS) to enhance outcomes for students and staff. Consequently, Illinois established layered support structures to facilitate scaling up SWPBS. This paper describes the development of this infrastructure and presents the results of HLM analyses exploring the effects of implementing SWPBS, with and without fidelity across time, on student behavior and academic outcomes (office discipline referrals, suspensions, and state-wide test scores in reading and math) for a sample of 428 Illinois schools implementing SWPBS. Results indicate that (a) most schools implemented with fidelity and maintained or improved student performance across time and (b) implementation fidelity was associated with improved social outcomes and academic outcomes in math. Study limitations and implications are discussed.

Predictors of retention among undergraduate students attending associate-degree nursing programs in Illinois

The purpose of the study was to determine what the relationship is between emotional intelligence, motivation, demographic variables, and retention. The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and the Assessing Emotions Scale garnered data submitted from 390 first-year students attending nine associate-degree nursing schools in Illinois. Statistically significant differences in the mean scores for several motivation subscales were noted. Age, race/ethnic background, and school were predictors with retention. Emotional intelligence was not predictive with retention.

Editorial

Editorial Bethany SpielmanMedical Humanities, Southern Illinois School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USATwenty five years ago, the terms “nanomedicine,” “neuroethics,” and “global health law” did not exist. The Human Genome Project had not yet begun, and most human subjects research took place in North America and Europe. No World Wide Web or open access journals existed. All that has changed. As part of the new wave, Dove Press is launching a new journal, Medicolegal and Bioethics as an online, open-access, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary and international journal we aim to meet rigorous intellectual standards, yet deliver content rapidly. The journal will grow from cross-fertilization and creative tension not only among disciplines but also among cultures.

Rebuttals to Critics of Studies of the Decline of Empathy

In Reply: We thank the authors of the three letters to the editor for their constructive comments regarding our review. The possibility of empathy decline during medical education is a serious issue that needs to be carefully considered and further discussed. First, all three letters recommend the use of statistical effect-size measures, given the “different types of Likert scales.” We agree that this is a potential problem, and in our review we specifically reported results in Table 1 for each of the 11 studies separately, so readers could see that empathy decline was quite small in every study—regardless of scale. We also reported in the text the mean decline for each of the three empathy instruments separately (−0.2 for the Interpersonal Reactivity Index–Empathy Concern subscale with a five-point scale, −0.2 for the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy [JSPE] with a seven-point scale, and −0.3 for the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale with a nine-point scale) to further emphasize that the declines were nearly identical and quite small—regardless of instrument. We thought that, for these studies, the results reported in terms of the original measurement scale were more direct and more meaningful (actual magnitude of decline in empathy scores in terms of the rating scale anchors) than results on a standardized effect-size scale (reported in standard deviation units). We agree that the JSPE is based on an extensive research base and has a solid psychometric foundation—possibly the most researched and widely used instrument in medical education. Our question is whether physicians' self-reports of empathy are indicators of patients' perceptions of physician empathy—two recent studies showed modest (r = 0.48) and nonsignificant (r = 0.24) correlations—and in particular whether the very small/weak declines in physician self-reported empathy in the 11 studies warrant concerns about diminished patient perceptions and impact on care. We also agree that a 100% response rate may be “unobtainable” in most studies, and we certainly do not have an “expectation of a 100% response rate.” However, we stress that the self-report empathy declines reported were small and that response bias is an especially plausible threat to the validity of small effects. In brief, the 11 studies we reviewed are exemplary quasi-experimental studies, but as with all quasi-experimental studies, plausible threats to validity necessarily qualify research conclusions (such as empathy decline), as must the meaning of the measures (self-reports) used to assess empathy.1 Jerry A. Colliver, PhD Professor, Department of Medical Education, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, Illinois; [email protected]. Melinda J. Conlee Editorial writer, Department of Medical Education, and managing editor, Teaching and Learning in Medicine, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, Illinois. Steven J. Verhulst, PhD Professor, Department of Medical Education, and director, Statistics and Research Consulting, Southern Illinois School of Medicine, Springfield, Illinois. J. Kevin Dorsey, MD, PhD Professor, dean, and provost, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, Illinois.

The Changing Distribution of Teacher Qualifications Across Schools: A Statewide Perspective Post-NCLB

A number of recent policy initiatives, including NCLB's highly qualified teacher provisions, have sought to improve the qualifications of teachers and their distribution across schools. Little is known, however, about the impact of these policies. In this study, we use population data on teachers and schools in Illinois to examine changes in the level and distribution of teacher qualifications from 2001 to 2006. We find that schools in Chicago, especially those serving the highest percentages of low-income and minority students, experienced the greatest improvements in teacher qualifications during the period. In addition, high-poverty schools in most other locales in the state registered small to moderate improvements, which narrowed the gap in teacher qualifications between high- and low-poverty schools across Illinois. Improvements in the certification status of experienced teachers and the recruitment of new teachers with stronger academic qualifications both contributed to these gains. The results reveal a tradeoff for disadvantaged schools seeking to improve both teacher qualifications and teacher experience levels, thereby calling into question the near-term feasibility of NCLB provisions that aim to simultaneously eliminate inequities across schools in both.

Substitutes for School Nurses in Illinois

The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore utilization of nurse substitutes in the school setting in Illinois. The literature described personnel who staff the school health office in the absence of the school nurse and the barriers to obtaining nurse substitutes. There were no empirical studies conducted on school nurse substitutes in the literature. Thus, a sample of 148 Illinois school nurses was recruited to complete a 20-item online survey. In the absence of a school nurse, 10.1% of health offices were not staffed, 37.8% were covered by a nurse who was simultaneously responsible for their usual assignment, and 25.7% were staffed by non-licensed personnel. Therefore, 73.6% of the respondents' assignments had no registered nurse immediately available the most recent day the nurse was absent.

Special Education Teachers' Perceptions of Benefits, Barriers, and Components of Community-Based Vocational Instruction

This study investigated special education teachers' perceptions of the benefits, barriers, and components of community-based vocational instruction (CBVI). Participants included special education teachers (N 68) from randomly selected high schools in Illinois who had experience delivering vocational curriculum to students with disabilities. Data collection occurred via a survey. Special education teachers perceived CBVI to result in numerous benefits for students with disabilities. Limited resources, requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, and student issues were identified as barriers to implementation. Incongruence existed between teachers' ratings of the importance and use of the components of CBVI. Years of teaching experience, types of students with disabilities served, size of school, and experience with CBVI affected teachers' perceptions of CBVI.

Beyond the black box: drug- and device-associated hypersensitivity events

Drug- and device-associated hypersensitivity reactions are serious toxicities that can result in respiratory failure or acute cardiac ischemic events, or even severe hypersensitivity syndromes such as Stevens-Johnson syndrome. These toxicities are usually poorly described in the "black box" warnings section of the product labels. Adverse event reports contained in databases maintained by the Project on Medical Research on Adverse Drug Events and Reports (Med-RADAR), product labels, safety advisories disseminated by pharmaceutical manufacturers, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were reviewed. Adverse event reports identified three health care workers who developed nevirapine-associated Stevens-Johnson syndrome following occupational exposure to HIV-infected blood or blood products; four persons with localized hypersensitivity and fatal cardiac events associated with rapamycin- or paclitaxel-coated coronary artery stent placements; and six persons with breast cancer who developed severe or fatal anaphylaxis after receiving adjuvant chemotherapy with Cremophor-EL containing paclitaxel. Safety advisories from the FDA, CDC, and the relevant pharmaceutical manufacturers were ambiguous in their description in "black box" warning sections of package inserts describing these serious and potentially fatal toxicities. Improvements are needed in pharmacovigilance and subsequent dissemination of safety advisories for drug/device-associated hypersensitivity reactions.

Demographics, Fiscal Health, and School Quality: Shedding Light on School Closure Decisions

In our current challenging budgetary environment, school closures remain a potentially attractive choice. With a large panel of Illinois schools from 1991 to 2005, I investigate which factors contribute to school closures. Among elementary schools, declining enrolments and rural locations coincide with closures. However, schools with higher per-pupil spending are ceteris paribus less likely to close. Furthermore, better test scores also yield lower probabilities. High expenditures contribute to junior high closure, but the most significant predictors are the proportions of black and low income students. Administrators may claim that low enrolments and high spending motivate school closures, but in Illinois, that is not the whole story.

Engaging Youth Through Volunteer Service Travel: In Service of the Common Good

Volunteer Tourism is becoming a popular topic in the travel literature. These experiences combine the adventure of travel with opportunities to serve the communities visited. This burgeoning field of tourism may provide an attractive outlet for generating positive developmental assets and for encouraging future civic engagement. This paper highlights a study which explored the relationship of wisdom and social capital and also discussed the influence of a voluntourism experience on wisdom and social capital domains. The sample consisted of 68 high school youth from the various high schools in Illinois. Results indicate that wisdom and social capital are positively and significantly related. In addition, wisdom and social capital indicators increased significantly over the course of the experience.

Economic Justice, Labor and Community Practice

1. Introduction - Scott Harding and Louise Simmons, both at University of Connecticut School of Work Economic Realities, History and Framing 2. Inequality and Its Discontents: The Threatened Middle Class - Jill Littrell, Fred Brooks, Jan Ivery, Mary Ohmer, all of Georgia State University 3. Economic Justice in a Global Context: International Comparisons of Policies that Support Economic Justice - Cynthia Rocha, University of Tennessee, College of Work 4. Workers, Unions and Low Wage Workers: A Historical Perspective - Michael Reisch, University of Maryland School of Work 5. Where's the Freedom in Free Trade? Framing Practices and Global Economic Justice - Loretta Pyles, University of Albany, State University of New York Labor-Community Partnerships for Economic Justice 6. The Politics and Practice of Economic Justice: Community Benefits Agreements as Tactic and Strategy of the New Accountable Development Movement - Virginia Parks, University of Chicago, and Dorian Warren, Columbia University 7. Evolving Strategies of Labor-Community Coalition Building - David Dobbie, Wayne State University 8. Organizing Community and Labor Partnerships for Community Benefits Agreements in African American Communities: Ensuring Successful Coalitions - Bonnie Young Laing, Youngstown State University 9. Critical Pedagogy as a Tool for Labor-Community Coalitions - Roland Zullo & Gregory Pratt, both at University of Michigan On the Front Lines, In the Classrooms 10. Social Justice Infrastructure Organizations as New Actors from the Community: the Case of South Florida - Bruce Nissen, Center for Labor Research and Studies at Florida International University 11. Working Hard, Living Poor: Work and the Movement for Livable Wages - Susan Kerr Chandler, University of Nevada, Reno, School of Work 12. Organizing for Immigrant Rights: Policy Barriers and Community Campaigns - Jill Hanley, School of Work, McGill University and Eric Shragge, School of Community and Public Affairs, Concordia University 13. Outcomes of Two Construction Trades Pre-Apprenticeship Programs: A Comparison - Helena Worthen, University of Illinois School of Labor and Employment Relations and Anthony Haynes, Building Bridges Project, Arise Chicago 14. One Small Revolution: Unionization, Community Practices and Workload in Child Welfare - Tara LaRose, Ryerson University