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State and national school accountability policies situate preventing chronic absenteeism on par with meeting state standardized test benchmarks. We question relying on school attendance as both a component of accountability policies and a means of enhancing equity in schools. Our research suggests out-of-school factors unrelated to missed instruction account for most of the associations between absences and test score achievement—with unexcused absences driving those associations. Excessive absences—and particularly unexcused absences—don’t harm students mainly through missed instruction. Instead, they reflect out-of-school harms students endure that have produced inequalities for years—and will continue to do so even if students show up or parents call in.

In fall 2019, the National Science Foundation awarded Southern Oregon University a two-year Computer Science for All Researcher Practitioner Partnership grant focused on integrating computational thinking (CT) into the K'5 instruction of general elementary and elementary bilingual teachers. This experience report highlights the process of transitioning one essential component of the project an elementary teacher summer institute (SI) from in-person to online due to COVID-19. This report covers the approach the team took to designing the SI to work virtually, the challenges encountered, the experiences of the 15 teachers involved through observations and surveys, and the opportunities for refinement. This report will be of potential interest for other computer science (CS) education researchers who also may be working with elementary teachers to incorporate CS and CT activities into their instruction.

OBJECTIVE To assess weight and HbA1c changes in the Healthier You: National Health Service Diabetes Prevention Programme (NHS DPP), the largest DPP globally to achieve universal population coverage. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A service evaluation assessed intervention effectiveness for adults with nondiabetic hyperglycemia (HbA1c 42–47 mmol/mol [6.0–6.4%] or fasting plasma glucose 5.5–6.9 mmol/L) between program launch in June 2016 and December 2018, using prospectively collected, national service–level data in England. RESULTS By December 2018, 324,699 people had been referred, 152,294 had attended the initial assessment, and 96,442 had attended at least 1 of 13 group-based intervention sessions. Allowing sufficient time to elapse, 53% attended an initial assessment, 36% attended at least one group-based session, and 19% completed the intervention (attended >60% of sessions). Of the 32,665 who attended at least one intervention session and had sufficient time to finish, 17,252 (53%) completed: intention-to-treat analyses demonstrated a mean weight loss of 2.3 kg (95% CI 2.2, 2.3) and an HbA1c reduction of 1.26 mmol/mol (1.20, 1.31) (0.12% [0.11, 0.12]); completer analysis demonstrated a mean weight loss of 3.3 kg (3.2, 3.4) and an HbA1c reduction of 2.04 mmol/mol (1.96, 2.12) (0.19% [0.18, 0.19]). Younger age, female sex, Asian and black ethnicity, lower socioeconomic status, and normal baseline BMI were associated with less weight loss. Older age, female sex, black ethnicity, lower socioeconomic status, and baseline overweight and obesity were associated with a smaller HbA1c reduction. CONCLUSIONS Reductions in weight and HbA1c compare favorably with those reported in recent meta-analyses of pragmatic studies and suggest likely future reductions in participant type 2 diabetes incidence.

Background: Although diabetes has been associated with COVID-19 mortality, the absolute and relative risks for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are unknown brbrMe