• By Kevin Mount
  • Posted on Monday 24th December, 2007

Looking forward to reading the pulse of 2008

Our daily articles about programs for improving the health and development of children around the world – and scrutiny of the science behind them – will resume at the start of the new year.…

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  • By Kevin Mount
  • Posted on Thursday 20th December, 2007

Time to remarry politics to the evidence on family life?

George W Bush, Tony Blair, David Cameron, administrations and government oppositions before them – at one time or another all seem to be drawn to the marriage counseling business. In George Bush’s case it happened early on – based on a reading of statistics that show that kids who live with their mothers but not their fathers tend to be poorer and to have more health and behavior problems th…

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  • By Kevin Mount
  • Posted on Monday 17th December, 2007

Before you take the therapy be sure to read the label

Usually the worst verdict evaluation will bring in on a human service is that it is ineffective – a waste of time and money. Rarely will researchers go as far as damning a treatment program for being downright harmful, especially if they are comparing it to one designed by their own Center. But work by Jose Szapocznik and Guillermo Prado, both of whom are well-known in the US for their preventiv…

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  • By Kevin Mount
  • Posted on Friday 14th December, 2007

We can transform education for the benefit of all

The Institute for Effective Education (IEE) represents an extraordinary opportunity to move forward evidence-based reform in education. With significant pump-priming funding from The Bowland Charitable Trust, a supportive Strategy Board led by former UK Secretary of State for Education Estelle Morris, talented colleagues, and collaborations with like-minded colleagues throughout Britain and the w…

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  • By Kevin Mount
  • Posted on Thursday 13th December, 2007

Proving that it's the teachers who are readiest to learn

When people speak of resistance to evidence-based policies in general and randomized controlled trials in particular, there’s a common assumption that the die-hard opponents are the practitioners, who refuse to allow the strictures of science to enter their relationship with the unpredictable clutter of everyday life.But in his first months as director of the UK Institute for Effective Education…

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  • By Kevin Mount
  • Posted on Wednesday 12th December, 2007

The Bee all and end all of best evidence

If research evidence is to become the basis for policy and practice in education, there is a clear need for reliable, educator-friendly information sources. A number of websites have already begun to offer educators reviews of research. In Britain London University's Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI) is one such provider; a US equivalent is the What Works…

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  • By Kevin Mount
  • Posted on Tuesday 11th December, 2007

Co-operative learning makes things better all round

The question that launched the Success for All program in 1987 involved us in a return to basics. We wanted to discover if it would be possible to design a primary school in such a way that every child who went there would be successful from their very first day.With our colleagues at Johns Hopkins University, Robert Slavin and I began the experiment in five of the most impoverished schools in Bal…

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  • By Kevin Mount
  • Posted on Monday 10th December, 2007

Injecting evidence into UK schools: the perfect opportunity

No-one could accuse Robert Slavin of keeping his cards close to his chest when he made his debut as director of the Institute for Effective Education, last month. Evidence-based reform is the only really fundamental way forward in education, he said. “It transformed medicine, it transformed agriculture, it transformed technology. I don't know why that shouldn't be the case in education."For Slav…

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  • By Kevin Mount
  • Posted on Saturday 08th December, 2007

TUESDAY Sucess for all

Answering the question that launched the Success for All programme in 1987 involved a return first principles. We wanted to discover if it would be possible to design a primary school in such a way that every child who went there would be successful from their very first day…

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  • By Kevin Mount
  • Posted on Saturday 08th December, 2007

TUESDAY success 4 all

Answering the question that launched the Success for All programme in 1987 involved a return first principles. We wanted to discover if it would be possible to design a primary school in such a way that every child who went there would be successful from their very first day…

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  • By Kevin Mount
  • Posted on Friday 07th December, 2007

How do you measure what's been tailor-made?

Mental illness might appear to be the most private of struggles. However, the US government is investing over $1 billion in making these interior problems a more public concern and it is marshaling community resources to provide better care for children with mental health problems.The 125 communities receiving the federal funds are developing co-ordinated “systems of care”. They can involve a…

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  • By Kevin Mount
  • Posted on Thursday 06th December, 2007

Results of treating postpartum depression are – in a word – depressing

Postpartum depression is not rare; nor is it trivial for being so common. Nearly one in five women experience major or minor depression in the first three months after giving birth. And their children are at greater risk for developing emotional or behavior problems than other children. Therapy can help those who struggle. What isn’t clear is whether their children benefit from the therapy too.…

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  • By Kevin Mount
  • Posted on Wednesday 05th December, 2007

Treating the sins of the fathers benefits the children

Children are not generally immune to their parents’ problems. Children with alcoholic or drug-abusing parents often develop behavior or emotional problems of their own, which commonly dissipate if and when their parents get effective treatment. Interested in this good side-effect of substance abuse treatment programs, researchers Michelle L. Kelley and William Fals-Stewart wondered whether certa…

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  • By Kevin Mount
  • Posted on Monday 03rd December, 2007

Passing down trauma from generation to generation

Does trauma linger in families? Are the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors likely to have been scarred by stressful family environments, guilt, and poor parenting? Or will they have learned resilience from their parents and grandparents? The research on these matters is not clear. Some studies suggest that the offspring of Holocaust survivors are more prone to psychological problems…

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