Restructuring plans approved for several Baltimore city schools

In this article, Jennifer O'Day builds on her earlier work defining and examining the standards-based reform movement in the United States. Here, O'Day explores accountability mechanisms currently associated with standards-based reform efforts that "take the school as the unit of accountability and seek to improve student learning by improving the functioning of the school organization." She examines such accountability mechanisms using the theoretical framework of complexity theory and focuses on how information travels through complex systems, with the understanding that information, its existence and usage, is key to improving schools. Drawing on work conducted with researchers at the Consortium for Policy Research in Education(CPRE), she contrasts the Chicago Public Schools' outcomes-based bureaucratic accountability approach with the combination of administrative and professional accountability found in the Baltimore City Schools. She argues that the combination of administrative and professional accountability presents a much more promising approach for implementing lasting and meaningful school reform.

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School mental health and prevention science in the Baltimore City schools

Psychology in the Schools ◽

10.1002/pits.20453 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 47 (1) ◽

pp. 89-100 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Mark D. Weist ◽

Kerri Stiegler ◽

Sharon Stephan ◽

Jennifer Cox ◽

Courtney Vaughan

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

School Mental Health ◽

Prevention Science ◽

Baltimore City ◽

City Schools

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Rheumatic Heart Disease and Pregnancy in Adolescent Rheumatic Fever Patients

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.40.1.103 ◽

1967 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 103-106

Author(s):

LEON GORDIS ◽

MILTON MARKOWITZ

Keyword(s):

Heart Disease ◽

Rheumatic Fever ◽

Drop Out ◽

Age Group ◽

Baltimore City ◽

Unplanned Pregnancies ◽

Putative Father ◽

New Mother ◽

City Schools ◽

Rheumatic Heart

A sociomedical problem of increasing importance is that of unplanned pregnancies in adolescents. The extent of this problem is shown, for example, by the fact that over 800 girls below the age of 16 drop out of Baltimore City schools each year because of pregnancy. Complex and often tragic problems accompany such pregnancies for the new mother, for the infant, and, often, for the putative father. Therefore, considerable attention has focused on means of preventing undesired pregnancies in this age group. The difficulties in attacking this problem lie in determining which preventive services are best suited for this age group and in identifying the population at risk to whom such services should be directed.

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