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Pushback against the perceived federal overreach into educational reform has led to renewed calls for a return to local control of schools. In contrast to this general trend, there has continued to be a strong national role for English learner (EL) accountability policies related to EL identification, monitoring and reclassification processes. In this article, we seek to bring attention to the historical development and contemporary instantiation of these EL accountability policies. The general accountability system has typically focused on coercive strategies connected to rewards and sanctions. In contrast, the EL accountability system has typically focused on harnessing the expertise of research to provide increasingly specific guidelines for how to meet federal mandates related to supporting students officially classified as ELs. This approach may help explain how national actors have been able to maintain an active role in shaping these policies without being perceived as a threat to local control. We conclude with implications for national educational actors interested in using authority to shape other areas of educational policy as well as possible limitations of this approach.

This study identifies seven major trends in how states and districts are implementing college- and career-ready standards for general education students and for two special populations often the target of education policy--English language learners (ELLs) and students with disabilities (SWDs). We draw on state-representative teacher, principal, and district surveys in three states--Kentucky, Ohio, and Texas--and case studies in nine districts. We ground our study in the policy attributes framework, which suggests implementation is stronger the more specific, authoritative, powerful, consistent, and stable a policy is. We find states are being less prescriptive in their policies surrounding the standards and are including fewer or less forceful rewards and sanctions (power). Local districts are providing more detailed, standards-aligned professional development (specificity) and supporting materials to guide teachers' standards implementation (consistency). Districts are using "softer" power mechanisms instead of the "strong" rewards and sanctions of earlier waves of reform. This results in higher buy-in (authority) but creates challenges for districts in providing the necessary supports for teachers. In ELL policy, two national organizations are providing much of the specificity and consistency for standards implementation, and they do this through mechanisms of authority rather than through power mechanisms. For SWDs, implementation support is focused on compliance, and the enduring tension between standardization and individuality persists. Creative district approaches and moderate to high levels of authority hold promise for this wave of college- and career-ready standards.

In this paper, we report findings from the second year of a three-year research and professional development program designed to help elementary school teachers engage in dialogic teaching to support the development of students' argument literacy. We define argument literacy as the ability to comprehend and formulate arguments through speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The professional development program was focused on promoting teachers' use of a specific type of talk called "inquiry dialogue" to achieve the goal of developing students' argument literacy. We used a single-group pretest-posttest design to assess the impact of the professional development on teachers' epistemological beliefs and their enactment of inquiry dialogue in text-based discussions. Our analyses of videotaped discussions at the beginning and end of the year showed that there were substantial improvements in teachers' facilitation of inquiry dialogue and in the quality of students' argumentation during discussions. Contrary to expectations, however, there were no changes in teachers' epistemology; teachers' beliefs about knowledge and knowledge justification remained at a relativist stage throughout the course of the program, suggesting that teachers continued to view all opinions as equally valid and regard arguments and the use of reasons and evidence as idiosyncratic.

This article reports on the use of single-case accountability designs for examining outcomes and evaluating the Ohio Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) project. Procedure guidelines were successfully used to help structure the process of ecobehavioral analysis, collaborative consultation, and naturalistic intervention design for 34 children (ages 3-5) referred to the ECI project. (Author/CR)

School districts held an exclusive franchise on public education services until 1991, when Minnesota passed the first law permitting public charter schools. Charter schools are publicly funded, authorized by various agencies designated in public law, but independently managed. They operate outside district control, and most can draw students from all across town, not just those who live within neighborhood boundaries. Virtual charter schools can attract students from all around the state, without regard to any traditional school-district boundary. Parents have a choice, competition has arrived, and innovation can flourish. But there's a catch: traditional public-school districts still own the great majority of school buildings, and with rare exceptions, public charter schools have no legal claim to them. If charters want to build their own facilities, they face enormous obstacles. The lack of available facilities is a direct and pressing constraint on the growth of high-quality charter schools. According to a recent survey by the National Charter School Research Project, scarcity of facilities was listed first among all reported external barriers to growth of charter management organizations, mentioned in 89 percent of responses. The author explores the sources and consequences of the iron grip school districts typically enjoy over the financing, development, ownership, and deployment of public school facilities--and some promising strategies for breaking it. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

Among hospitalized patients, malnutrition is prevalent yet often overlooked and undertreated. We implemented a quality improvement program that positioned early nutritional care into the nursing workflow. Nurses screened for malnutrition risk at patient admission and then immediately ordered oral nutritional supplements for those at risk. Supplements were given as regular medications, guided and monitored by medication administration records. Post-quality improvement program, pressure ulcer incidence, length of stay, 30-day readmissions, and costs of care were reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the historical significance of the second siege of Fort Meigs near Perrysburg, Ohio, between July 21, 1813, and July 28, 1813, during the War of 1812. According to the article, British and Native American forces assaulted the fort twice in 1813. The article states that during the second invasion, the British and Native Americans hoped to capture the fort but failed because U.S. military forces, commanded by U.S. general William Henry Harrison, stayed at their posts. The article examines the history of the construction of Fort Meigs, the strategic importance of the fort, and the post's function as a supply depot. The article discusses the strategy of British general Henry Procter during the second siege of Fort Miegs and the role of U.S. brigadier general Green Clay.

It has been reported that orthodontic services are being provided to a larger segment of the population by an increasing number of providers. The present study surveyed the dental and orthodontic experiences of 10th grade students attending 16 public and two parochial high schools in suburban Cuyahoga County, Ohio, as well as two schools from the city of Cleveland. Questionnaires were distributed in the classroom and data obtained for 2808 students. Approximately 50% of the sample were girls with an average age of 15.5 ± 0.8 years. Results of the survey revealed that 84% (2371/2808) had seen a dentist within the past year, and 37% (1047/2808) of the students had received orthodontic treatment from 171 different providers. Of those treated, 87.2% (913/1047) were treated by a specialist in orthodontics, 10.8% (114/1047) by a general dentist, and 0.7% (7/1047) by a pediatric dentist, with 1.3% missing or unknown (13/1047). Patients who had seen a dentist within the past year were more likely to have had orthodontic treatment. Only 7% of the untreated students were told by a dental professional that they needed braces compared with 71% of the treated group. Therefore, we conclude that orthodontic specialists provide most of the orthodontic services in the suburbs of Cuyahoga County, and visiting a general dentist positively influences the utilization of orthodontic services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Dentistry has organized a research network of 210 general dentists in northern Ohio. Seventeen of these dentists have volunteered to serve on a steering committee, for the purpose of generating research questions and helping with network organization. To enable the practitioners to investigate questions of interest in their practices, faculty in the CWRU schools of Dentistry and Medicine provide consultation to network dentists, as needed, with regard to research design, implementation, and analysis. In turn, the network serves as a resource for the dental school, facilitating faculty development, encouraging the development of new research programs, and providing an opportunity for students throughout the university to become involved in dental practice research. To date, faculty members have initiated studies of dental practice that include a survey of dentists' attitudes toward tobacco, a weekly return caries study, and a direct observation study of general dental practice. The network provides a research "laboratory" for the dental school, enabling clinical faculty to participate in research concerning dental practice. It has also stimulated a major re-examination of several curriculum elements in the school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the College of Communication at Ohio University. The College of Communication began in 1968 when Ohio University united a School of Journalism with a School of Interpersonal Communication, a School of Radio and Television, a School of Speech Pathology and Audiology and a Telecommunications Center. Being organized into a College of Communication with Directors of Schools brings certain advantages, including at promotion and tenure time, the faculty in the school make the primary decision, a professional orientation encourages support from outside constituencies and internship programs in every School across the College provide job opportunities and valuable experience for students among others.

Study Objective: The objective of our study is to evaluate the association between Ohio's April 2012 emergency physician guidelines aimed at reducing inappropriate opioid prescribing and the number and type of opioid prescriptions dispensed by emergency physicians.Methods: We used Ohio's prescription drug monitoring program data from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2014, and included the 5 most commonly prescribed opioids (hydrocodone, oxycodone, tramadol, codeine, and hydromorphone). The primary outcome was the monthly statewide prescription total of opioids written by emergency physicians in Ohio. We used an interrupted time series analysis to compare pre- and postguideline level and trend in number of opioid prescriptions dispensed by emergency physicians per month, number of prescriptions stratified by 5 commonly prescribed opioids, and number of prescriptions for greater than 3 days' supply of opioids.Results: Beginning in January 2010, the number of prescriptions dispensed by all emergency physicians in Ohio decreased by 0.3% per month (95% confidence interval [CI] -0.49% to -0.15%). The implementation of the guidelines in April 2012 was associated with a 12% reduction (95% CI -17.7% to -6.3%) in the level of statewide total prescriptions per month and an additional decline of 0.9% (95% CI -1.1% to -0.7%) in trend relative to the preguideline trend. The estimated effect of the guidelines on total monthly prescriptions greater than a 3-day supply was an 11.2% reduction in level (95% CI -18.8% to -3.6%) and an additional 0.9% (95% CI -1.3% to -0.5%) decline in trend per month after the guidelines. Guidelines were also associated with a reduction in prescribing for each of the 5 individual opioids, with various effect.Conclusion: In Ohio, emergency physician opioid prescribing guidelines were associated with a decrease in the quantity of opioid prescriptions written by emergency physicians. Although introduction of the guidelines occurred in parallel with other opioid-related interventions, our findings suggest an additional effect of the guidelines on prescribing behavior. Similar guidelines may have the potential to reduce opioid prescribing in other geographic areas and for other specialties as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]