Stronger State School Nutrition Laws Are Associated With Healthier Eating Behaviors and Optimal Weight Status in US Adolescents

Purpose: To investigate relationships of farm-to-school, school meal, and competitive food state laws with eating behaviors and weight status and to examine interaction between different types of state laws. Design: Observational cohort study. Settings: US adolescents. Participants: The NEXT study is a nationally representative sample of adolescents assessed annually for 7 years. Data (N = 2751) from students attending public schools from the first (W1) and third (W3) assessment waves (2010 and 2012), occurring during grades 10 and 12, respectively, of the NEXT study were included. Measures: Eating behaviors and weight status of adolescents were linked with Classification of Laws Associated with School Students scoring for state laws. Analysis: Regression analyses examined associations of laws with intake and weight status, accounting for complex survey design and school-level clustering. Results: Adolescents in states with strong farm-to-school laws had greater W1 whole fruit, lower soda, and snack intakes versus those in states with no laws. Strong school meal laws were associated with lower W1 soda intake. Adolescents in states with strong competitive food laws had lower soda intake and overweight/obesity odds than those in states with no laws in W3. Strong farm-to-school laws were inversely associated with W3 overweight/obesity odds only in states with strong competitive food laws. Conclusions: Stronger laws governing school nutrition were related to healthier eating behaviors and optimal weight status in this nationally representative sample of adolescents. Further, farm-to-school laws may be more effective in reducing obesity when combined with strong competitive food legislation.

When Management Policies Collide

The public desire for school choice has led to the staggering growth of charter schools. Yet, charter schools are often criticized for their inability to maintain autonomy in the face of the requirements to provide special education services. This chapter will explore empirical research on charter schools and special education uncovering themes in policy, practice, access, funding, and parent satisfaction. The research recommendations also cluster into themes including governance, service delivery model, operations and technical assistance. Next, the charter school laws in each of the 43 states that allow charter schools were examined for evidence of the four recommended themes. The results indicated how some states were bridging the autonomous nature of charter school laws with the inflexible mandates of special education law.

Uwarunkowania historyczne roli i statusu języka polskiego w systemie edukacji w Galicji 1. połowy XIX wieku

During the partitions of Poland in 1772, 1795 and 1815 its southern part was annexed by the Habsburg Monarchy and integrated into the Austrian Empire as the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Till the end of World War I the inhabitants of Galicia were citizens of the Austrian Empire and their lives were influenced by the political and social ideology of the Austrian government. One of the most significant changes were connected to the language issue. Austrian or German-speaking officials came to Galicia and so did German as it became the main administrative language. This was also the case for the Austrian education system, which mainly focused on teaching German language as they wanted to integrate the multilingual and multicultural inhabitants of the Austrian Empire under the leadership of the Austrian rulers.This article deals with the issue how the Austrian education system influenced the development and understanding of national consciousness of the Polish population in Galicia in the first half of the 19th century by analysing which role the Polish language played in the primary and secondary school system. This period is important because it shows the main intentions of the Austrian educational system and also because the first important School Laws were passed, which influenced the education system in Galicia for over half the century.This article is structured in two parts. The first part contains an analysis of the most important School Laws. The aim is to show the intentions and the ideology which guided the Austrian government in creating the education system and to analyse which role the Polish language played in it. The second part deals with the actual effects of the Austrian education policy for the young Polish generations of Galicia. This will allow a more realistic interpretation of the influence the education system in Galicia had on building or suppressing the development of a Polish national consciousness. This part includes analyses of school statistics and most importantly memories from schooldays from former Galician school children which gives an inside on the role the Polish language played in the school and in their own lives.