Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Food And Health: Promoting The Importance Of Maintaining A Healthy Diet To Minimize Disease In Individuals At Greatest Risk, Nadjia Edwards

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Diets high in calories, saturated fats, sodium, and added sugars can lead to adverse health events such as; heart disease, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, stroke, osteoporosis, and certain cancers. Maintaining a healthy diet can help decrease this potential, but those experiencing food insecurity remain at risk as they may have challenges accessing and affording healthier items. Quality may be sacrificed for quantity leading to the purchasing of food that increases these health risks. Initiatives have been developed to address these obstacles, but aren’t widely utilized. This underuse can be due to a lack of emphasis on the importance of …

Advocating For Culturally Responsive Practices In The Ib Diploma Programme: Tapping In The Potential Of Acid Tests To Foster Coherence Between The Ib Principles And Teaching Practices, Timizay Ruiz Pineda

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

International education programs, like the one proposed by the IB Organization, offer students across the world education for global, internationally-minded citizens. Nonetheless, the definition and often, the use of these terms are vague and, for the most part, refers to education and practices of Western countries that are Eurocentric in nature. It is necessary to develop coherence between the principles expressed in many international education frameworks and the reality of their practices. For this, it is fundamental that explicit guidance on culturally responsive teaching practices is acknowledged and provided by organizations like the IB. This paper provides theoretical support explaining …

Developing An Online Health Community For Autoimmune Disease Patients Through Self-Managed Diet, Rachel Greene

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Part I, Autoimmune Disease Management and the Need for Intervention, discusses current and standard Autoimmune Disease- (AI/AID) management and the shortcomings within. Typical AID-management led by healthcare professionals lacks a holistic, symptom-based approach, thus further contributing to the daily chronic pain of the afflicted. This analysis indicates the need to connect those suffering with AID’s to scientific research that has determined strict dieting can significantly reduce symptoms associated with AID’s. Part II, Synthesizing A Model For Online Health Community Engagement, examines the website prototype of Greenebean, which is an online community developed via user-centric design, in a theoretical, physical, and …

Kneeling For Social Justice: Epistemologies Of Ignorance, Schemas, And Frames On Twitter, Robert J. Rice

Graduate Masters Theses

In this thesis, 6,715 tweets from September 24, 2017 that directly relate to protests during the national anthem during National Football League games are analyzed. Through a qualitative examination of the symbols and logics that are used on Twitter, mechanisms of epistemic ignorance are illuminated. These epistemic maneuvers and techniques of neutralization help to connect individual latent cultural values and the broad framing of the movement to the perpetuation of ignorance and colorblindness. Logical maneuvers that perpetuate racism through constructed ignorance, like willfully reasoned ignorance, are illustrated throughout the data. The concepts of strategic framing and frame amplification are discussed …

Characterizing The Impacts Of The Invasive Hemlock Woolly Adelgid On The Forest Structure Of New England, Peter Brehm Boucher

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Climate change is raising winter temperatures in the Northeastern United States, both expanding the range of an invasive pest, the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA; Adelges tsugae), and threatening the survival of its host species, eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). As a foundation species, hemlock trees underlie a distinct network of ecological, biogeochemical, and structural systems that will likely disappear as the HWA infestation spreads northward. Remote sensing can offer new perspectives on this regional transition, recording the progressive loss of an ecological foundation species and the transition of evergreen hemlock forest to mixed deciduous forest over the course of the infestation. …

More Seats At The Table: An Examination Of The Role Of Natural Supports In Promoting Postsecondary Transition For Students With Disabilities In Rural Maine, Elizabeth Stone-Sterling

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Students with disabilities who receive special education services are entitled under federal law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, to have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) that includes measurable postsecondary goals and identifies the transition services that are needed in order for the student to reach those goals. Transition planning for students with disabilities in rural areas can be uniquely challenging due to lack of access to transportation, service providers, and accessible programs. Failure to prepare for postsecondary education or employment is correlated with life-long challenges, including poverty, un/under-employment, and limited educational attainment. Natural supports, in the form of family …

Public-Private Partnerships In Education: A Vertical Case Study Of The Right To Education Act (2009), India, Sheetal Gowda

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

One of the most contentious issues that elicits heated debates in the field of international and comparative education is the role of private actors in the provision of educational services using public monies. As the programmatic idea of public-private partnerships (PPPs) gains momentum internationally, educational PPPs has emerged as a key strategy in reducing educational and social inequities. Despite growing research evidence suggesting the contrary, the neo-liberal agenda of positioning PPPs as the best mechanism for achieving educational rights enshrined in international declarations and national constitutions continue to be perpetuated. Of particular relevance to this study is Section 12(1)(c) of …

Latinos In Massachusetts: Salvadorans, Phillip Granberry, Krizia Valentino

Gastón Institute Publications

A civil war in El Salvador in the 1970s and 1980s created a need for the United States to accept refugees, but the U.S. Justice Department’s Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) seldom granted petitions for political asylum by Salvadorans. In response, the Cambridge City Council in1985 passed a resolution that gave sanctuary to Salvadoran and other refugees. This helped facilitate Salvadoran migration to Massachusetts. Now after several decades, the Salvadoran population mostly resides in several cities and towns in the Greater Boston area, and over 40% of their population is native born. The social and economic analysis that follows paints …

Lost In Translation: Understanding Education Policy Implementation In Nepal, Sushmita Subedi

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the impact of the School Sector Reform Plan (SSRP), a national education reform in Nepal, on primary and secondary education. The study uses mixed-methods to analyze indicators of educational outcomes and identify the underlying environmental, organizational, and individual factors that affect reform implementation.

The first phase of the study is a quantitative analysis of annual, district-level data on 75 districts for 10 years, from 2006 to 2016 using regression models to predict dropout and promotion rates. The second phase of the study is a qualitative analysis of the perceived effectiveness of SSRP using in-depth interviews with 33 …

Participate For Peace: The Impacts Of Participatory Deliberative Democracy On Post-Conflict Peacebuilding In Central America, Marcia D. Mundt

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Liberal peacebuilding is at the center of a critical debate amongst scholars and practitioners due to the horrific consequence of conflict relapse or escalation in the wake of failed international interventions. Despite international efforts to promote durable peace, empirical research suggests that up to one half of all civil wars relapse into conflict within five years of negotiated settlement (Collier & Hoeffler, 2002; Suhrke & Samset, 2007). As an alternative to top-down liberal peace, locally-led post-conflict peacebuilding has been proposed as an innovative solution (Mac Ginty & Richmond, 2013). Participatory deliberative democracy, when applied in post-conflict contexts, aligns with this …

How Does Grading Schools Impact Florida’S Teachers And Students? The Need For A New Approach To School Accountability, Luke Aubry Kupscznk

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

In 1999, Florida began grading schools on an A to F scale. These grades constituted part of the A+ package of policies advanced by Governor Bush’s administration. Schools then earned grades based on student standardized test scores. These changes followed a decade of increasing dismay over the trajectory of American education and preceded national moves towards test-based accountability for students and schools. While many researchers have investigated the effects of high-stakes testing on students, few have looked at the impacts of school-level accountability on non-test outcomes. This study considers the impacts of receiving a failing-grade on variables other than test …

High School Teachers' Perceptions Of Social Studies In The Context Of Accountability, Kristina M. Kelleher-Bianchi

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe urban public high school social studies teachers’ perceptions of social studies curriculum narrowing and its influence on their professional identity within the context of Massachusetts’ school accountability policies. This study gave nuance to larger quantitative studies by allowing policy and school leaders to hear directly from teachers who mediate the influence of accountability policies on students. It examined these questions: What were public school teachers’ understandings of the influence of testing pressure in their school? What were high school teachers’ experiences with social studies curriculum narrowing? How did teachers perceive their …

Socio-Economic Well-Being Of International F-1 Students Living And Working In The United States, Elena K. Taborda

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

According to United States law, international F-1 students are nonimmigrant aliens residing in the United States temporarily. Yet, they are more than just short-term visitors, as many of them live in the country for years while pursuing their postsecondary studies. Since international students are foreign citizens, their rights and freedoms are bound by the constraints of the country’s immigration policies. This study is concerned with work-related restrictions imposed on F-1 students by the U.S. government, positioning international students’ limited opportunities for employment as being in violation with their basic human right to economic and social development.

This multi-method project drew …

Educators Bailan With Policy Et Le Pouvoir In The Educação Of Multicultural And Multilingual Learners (Wida Eld Standards And The Education Of English Learners), Fernanda Marinho Kray

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The larger frame of this study contributes to the literature that examines how educators negotiate, contest, appropriate, and reconstruct federal and state-level policy in their classrooms. More specifically, the study contributes to the field of language education policy, and in particular to how educators make sense of, and implement, English Language Development (ELD) Standards. I focus on WIDA ELD Standards, as they are currently in use in 42 U.S. states, territories, and federal agencies as well as more than 500 international schools throughout the world. The literature review identifies a problem for standards-based education systems using the 2012 WIDA Standards …

The Influence Of Medicare Insurance Type – Traditional Fee-For-Service V. Medicare Advantage – On Rehospitalizations For Patients With Heart Failure In Skilled Nursing Facilities, Andrea Elizabeth Lane Daddato

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of rehospitalizations for Medicare beneficiaries from skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). This research sought to determine if HF patients’ insurance type (Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) vs. Medicare Advantage (MA)) influences their risk for readmission within 30 days of hospital discharge to a SNF. This research is particularly timely in light of new penalties under the Protecting Access to Medicare Act SNF Value-Based Purchasing (SNF-VBP) program directed at SNFs for 30-day rehospitalizations. Previous literature finds FFS beneficiaries with HF in SNF at greater risk for rehospitalization compared to MA members. This research contributes to the literature …

When We Tell You We Can Do It, Believe Us: An Analysis Of The Legislation And Policies Related To The Employment Of Women With Disabilities In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, Sarah M. Alem

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation aims at exploring the barriers to the adequate implementation of the legislation, policies and regulations related to the employment of women with disabilities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the private sector. It uses Article 27 of the United Nations Convention for Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as an international standard. This dissertation explores the strengths and challenges of Saudi Arabia’s Labor Law and regulations in protecting the employment related rights of women with disabilities in Saudi Arabia. It adopts a multi-component analysis by comparing standards (a, b, e and h) of Article 27 of the CRPD with …

A Case Study On A Grassroots, Student-Led Facebook Community For Online Graduate Students And Alumni, Caroline E. Frankel

Instructional Design Capstones Collection

This case study explores the evolution of a grassroots, student-led Facebook graduate student community to support graduate students within the University of Massachusetts Boston Instructional Design Program. The study explores literature supporting social presence construction within formal course environments, informal learning networks, and how social media can help bridge the gap between the formal and informal course space. A questionnaire administered to graduate students and alumni within the Instructional Design Facebook community suggests that a grassroots model has been highly effective at helping students feel more connected to each other. Conclusions and recommendations provided by this study will help inform …

Team Building & Coaching, Daniel Kelley

Instructional Design Capstones Collection

A supervisor’s ability to make proper hires and coach existing employees is related to the creation of a pipeline of future supervisors. As corporations grow, so does its personnel. As the personnel grows, so does the need for more leaders that can appropriately manage personnel without human resource intervention. This paper discusses the need for an internally designed program created to help existing supervisors build a bench of future company leaders. Background information of the company is discussed along with the importance of staff development in achieving its mission. A literature review was performed to determine the benefits of an …

Support After Hire, Alberto Migliore

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

Employment support doesn’t end when a job seeker finds work. This brief shares strategies for supporting an individual after hire.

Finding Tasks And Jobs, Alberto Migliore

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

Finding tasks and jobs is a core element of the comprehensive model of employment supports. Learn more about how to make this happen.

Latinos In Massachusetts: Dominicans, Phillip Granberry, Krizia Valentino

Gastón Institute Publications

Since the early 1980s, there has been a notable increase in the number of Dominicans in Massachusetts due at first to international migration and later due to nativity. Dominican migration is primarily circular. Dominican migrants embody the notion of transnationalism, that is, they have ties to both the United States and the Dominican Republic. Now after several decades, nearly half of their population is native born. The largest Dominican populations in the state are in Lawrence and Boston. The social and economic analysis that follows paints a mixed picture of their incorporation into Massachusetts. Dominicans have higher labor force participation …

Latinos In Massachusetts: Brazilians, Phillip Granberry, Krizia Valentino

Gastón Institute Publications

Early Brazilian migration to Massachusetts traces itself to the 1970s, and large-scale migration began in the mid-1980s. Though earlier Brazilian migrants settled in Boston and Somerville, by 1990s Brazilians had begun to disperse to Framingham and other cities and towns across the Boston metropolitan area and on Cape Cod. Brazilians have a large unauthorized population and have few avenues to obtain citizenship. Due to their precarious legal status in the United States, many believe that the American Community Survey (ACS) estimates used for this report undercounts the Brazilian population. In 2015, the Brazilian Consulate in Boston estimates 350,000 Brazilians living …

Special Editor’S Closing Comments, Michael A. Cowan

New England Journal of Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Reinventing The New Orleans Public Education System, David Osborne

New England Journal of Public Policy

If we were creating a public education system from scratch, would we organize it as most of our public systems are now organized? Would our classrooms look just as they did before the advent of personal computers and the internet? Would we give teachers lifetime jobs after their second or third years? Would we let schools survive if, year after year, half their students dropped out? Would we send children to school for only eight and a half months a year and six hours a day? Would we assign them to schools by neighborhood, reinforcing racial and economic segregation?

Few …

Across Racial Lines: Three Accounts Of Transforming Urban Institutions After A Natural Disaster, James Carter, Nolan Rollins, Gregory Rusovich

New England Journal of Public Policy

At 1:30 p.m. on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina grazed the mostly evacuated city of New Orleans, reserving its most devastating force for coastal Mississippi, just to the east. During the next two days, the federal levees protecting the city failed in multiple places. Sixteen hundred people died in the metropolitan area. Residences and businesses in 80 percent of the city went underwater. Public officials warned residents and business owners that they might not be able to return for two to three months. The scope of devastation in certain parts of the city made ever returning questionable for many residents. …

Rising From Katrina’S Ashes But Still In Crisis: Public Defense In New Orleans, Derwyn Bunton

New England Journal of Public Policy

New Orleans’ nickname “Big Easy” was based on the “anything goes” perception of the city. Feeding this perception was a sense of lawlessness, that New Orleans was a place where the rules changed depending on who you were and who you knew. So when Hurricane Katrina hit the city in August 2005 and tossed everything around—flooding mansions and missions, damaging the Superdome and supermarkets—the storm challenged old perceptions and presented unique challenges. Katrina made at least one thing clear: New Orleans could no longer wait for change, pretend nothing happened, or look back. The city’s survival depended on its ability …

How Data Became Part Of New Orleans’ Dna During The Katrina Recovery, Lamar Gardere, Allison Plyer, Denice Ross

New England Journal of Public Policy

Data intermediaries have a symbiotic relationship with government as the source of most of their information. The open-data movement in government and development of software-as-a-service technologies shaped the data landscape after Katrina. Through relationships and talent transfers with The Data Center, the City of New Orleans went from having its chief technology officer in federal prison and its data systems in shambles to being a nationally recognized leader in open and accountable government. To be effective during disasters, an intermediary should be (1) in place and widely respected before the event, (2) ready to respond immediately after the event and …

Editor’S Note, Padraig O’Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

The lessons of Katrina are the subject of this special issue. The eighteen articles were assembled and overseen by Michael Cowan, the guest editor. Michael founded Common Good, a civil society action network, after Hurricane Katrina. He is Senior Fellow in the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict and Research Affiliate in the Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion, both in the University of Oxford. He is also a Visiting Research Associate in the Irish School of Ecumenics in Trinity College Dublin.

Reconnecting The Broken Post-Katrina New Orleans Criminal Justice System, Graymond Martin

New England Journal of Public Policy

When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the levees protecting the city gave way in August 2005, an already struggling and weakened criminal justice system collapsed in spectacular fashion.

Damage within New Orleans extended far beyond the loss of physical infrastructure. The city’s population was depleted by more than half. For those who remained or returned within the first year, spirits were crushed, uncertainty abounded, and the hard work of restoration was riddled by anxiety, conflict, opportunism, and battles for precious resources.

Longtime judge Leon Cannizzaro Jr., appalled at the near-complete dysfunction of the local criminal justice system, entered and …

Slaying Two Sacred Cows: One Group’S Part In Helping New Orleans Reform, Rebuild, And Renew, Ruthie Frierson

New England Journal of Public Policy

Citizens for One Greater New Orleans was a volunteer group of women that exemplified the surge of citizen activism that flourished in New Orleans after Katrina. Alarmed by their realization that local government was too dysfunctional to direct a successful comeback, citizens mobilized and charged at two seemingly untouchable local institutions they deemed ripe for reform, the ineffectual levee board and the notoriously biased board of tax assessors. Using skills honed through years of volunteer work, they mobilized public opinion, lobbied reluctant state lawmakers, and finally achieved success through the passage of constitutional amendments in two separate statewide referendum elections. …