Showing papers by "David Cohen published in 1999"

Instruction, Capacity, and Improvement

Abstract: Since World War II, efforts to improve schools have numbered in the thousands. Most efforts have concentrated on improving the curriculum materials used in schools or on "training" teachers in new instructional methods. Many of these efforts have gone under the banner of "building instructional capacity," a term that for decades has been featured prominently in conversations about educational reform. Unfortunately, three decades of research has found that only a few interventions have had detectable effects on instruction and that, when such effects are detected, they rarely are sustained over time. A review of research and professional experience with school improvement suggests several explanations for these disheartening findings. One is that schools are complex social organizations situated within, and vitally affected by, other complex social systems including families, communities, and professional and regulatory agencies. The larger social environment of schools constrains and shapes the actions of teachers, students, and administrators, often in ways that greatly complicate the work of school improvement. Challenges to school improvement are particularly acute in highpoverty settings where recruiting wellqualified teachers is difficult and where the emotional and health problems of students often deflects attention to educational issues or impedes work on them. As a result, many researchers now believe that school improvement involves much more than efforts to change interactions occurring within schools. To succeed, school improvement interventions also must attend to the complex relationships that exist among intervention agents, schools, and their social environments. Disciplines Curriculum and Instruction | Curriculum and Social Inquiry | Educational Administration and Supervision | Educational Methods | Education Policy | Teacher Education and Professional Development Comments View on the CPRE website. This report is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/cpre_researchreports/8 Instruction, Capacity, and Improvement David K. Cohen and Deborah Loewenberg Ball CPRE Research Report Series RR-43

Law, Violence and Community in Classical Athens

Abstract: Preface Part I. The Realm of Theory: 1. Law and order 2. Theorising Athenian society: the problem of stability 3. Theorising Athenian society: the rule of law Part II. The Realm of the Courts: 4. Rhetoric, litigation and the values of an agonistic society 5. Litigation as feud 6. Violence and litigation 7. Hubris and the legal regulation of sexual violence 8. Litigation and the family Conclusion: litigation, democracy and the courts Bibliographical essay Bibliography Index.

[Study of the relationships between self-injurious behavior and pain reactivity in infantile autism].

Abstract: Autism can be considered as an early general developmental disorder, characterized by problems of social interaction, problems of verbal and non verbal communication, and behavioral or ideational stereotypes. However, within autism we observe a clinical heterogeneity of autistic disorders which suggests the possibility of autistic subtypes. Several authors hypothesize an analgesia among autistic children; this analgesia may be related to self-mutilation found among autistics. The current research had two objectives: 1) to develop and validate evaluation tools for measuring aggression directed towards the self (Yale-Paris Self-Injurious Behavior Scale: YAPA SIB) and pain reactivity (Pre-Linguistic Behavioral Pain Reactivity Scale: PLBPRS); instruments appropriate for autistics and capable of showing different behavioral sub-types; 2) to study in 80 autistic children pain reactivity, self-injurious behavior, and their relation in different observational situations. The results show that the scales of self-injurious behavior and pain reactivity have good discriminative capacity, good test-retest reliability, and good validity. The results suggest additionally that the apparent decreased pain reactivity observed in autistics does not derive from a real analgesia but from a different mode of pain expression related to difficulties with verbal communication, body representation and certain cognitive disorders (learning disorders, problems representing sensations and emotions, problems establishing cause-effect relationships). Additionally, there is a significant relationship between certain self-injurious behaviors and the apparent reduced pain reactivity. Interpretations of this result are presented and the possible role of stress in autism is discussed.

Benchmarking cardiac catheterization laboratories: the impact of patient age, gender and risk factors on variable costs, device costs, total time and procedural time in 53 catheterization laboratories.

Abstract: Coronary catheterization laboratories (CCLs) are the cornerstones of the delivery system for many cardiovascular procedures performed in the United States. However, few comprehensive data exist benchmarking physician activities in CCLs. This study benchmarks cost and time data on 82,548 consecutive patient encounters in 53 CCLs for the 18-month period of January 1997 through June 1998. The data are compiled from the OEP program, a relational database developed by Boston Scientific/Scimed (Maple Grove, Minnesota) for use in CCLs. CCL productivity (total time and procedure time) and cost (variable costs and device costs) benchmarks are created for: 1) left heart catheterization; 2) right and left heart catheterization; 3) percutaneous transluminal coronary balloon angioplasty (PTCA); 4) atherectomy; and 5) coronary stents. Results show the variable costs (those costs that vary in direct proportion to changes in CCL activities) for the five procedures are: $308, left heart catheterization; $395, right and left heart catheterization; $841, PTCA; $2,768, atherectomy; and $3,186, coronary stent. These variable costs are lower than the typical average costs reported for these procedures because they do not include hospital, laboratory, and physician costs, only the procedure-specific activity-related costs most directly controlled and/or influenced by CCL physicians or administrators. The total time for the left heart catheterization averaged 64 minutes and 84 minutes for the right and left heart catheterization, respectively, and procedural times averaged 25 and 32 minutes, respectively. For the major interventional procedures N PTCA, atherectomy, and coronary stents, total times averages were 102, 135, and 117 minutes, respectively. Procedural times for these procedures averaged between 60 and 65 percent of the total time. The major implications of these findings are discussed and limitations noted.

Phil Ochs: A Bio-Bibliography

Abstract: Preface Biography Writings by Ochs Writings about Ochs Album Reviews Concert Reviews Interviews Discography Tapes Film and Video Songs Covers Tributes Appendix Index