We describe the "Welfare to Work" scenario, and the software we are designing to support case managers' planning for their clients. The Changing World of Welfare to Work President Clinton signed the revised welfare legislation, "Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA)" in 1996. This legislation stipulates a set of supports and regulations for welfare recipients that aim to move those recipients into the paid labor force. Through federal block grants to the states, "Welfare to Work" (WtW) recipients may access such services as financial support, health and mental health services, child care, transportation, and literacy and jobskills training. Each recipient, or client, may receive a total of sixty months of services. These 60 months need not be contiguous; clients strategize how to go in and out of the programs to establish economic selfsufficiency and/or maintain later WtW eligibility. The key decision making to access benefits and services occurs during discussions between the WtW clients and program case managers, who play the role of advisors and regulators. The programs are affected by a plethora of frequently changing mandates, laws, rules and regulations. For instance, agencies must maintain a certain proportion of their clients' time in federally defined "countable" activities, namely those leading directly to employment. These requirements are often at odds with the needs and preferences of the clients. Services recommended by a particular agency or a particular case manager depend

The project described in this paper originated with an observation by the AI group at the University of Kentucky, that, individually, stochastic planning and constraint satisfaction are well-studied topics that resulted in efficient software, but stochastic planning in the presence of constraints on the domains and actions is an open area of investigation. We were interested in an advising scenario, and chose the US social welfare system, a.k.a. "Welfare to Work" as our test domain. This required computer scientists to learn more than expected about social science as well as the local welfare system. This paper discusses the discipline specific assumptions we brought to this project, and how they served as impediments to research. We also show how the different perspectives have sparked new ideas in knowledge elicitation.

We introduce a new variant of Markov decision processes called MDPs with action results, and a variant of dynamic Bayesian networks called bowties, for modeling the effects of stochastic actions. Bowties grew out of our work on decision-support systems for advisors in the US social welfare system. Bowties, and our elicitation process for them, are designed to elicit dynamic Bayesian network fragments from domain experts who think narratively instead of quantitatively. Our elicitation process has worked well with the welfare case managers and other domain experts, in the sense of capturing consistent and validated models.

We introduce a suite of interlinked software tools for eliciting preferences, doing decision-theoretic planning, and displaying the plans. The software allows a user to walk through possible trajectories, adjust preferences, and compare potential trajectories. This paper focuses on the elicitation process, the plan display, and interactions between the two.

In 2013, as part of US AID's Higher Education Leadership and Management initiative in Indonesia, Universitas Cenderawasih began an action research project to address the under-employment of UNCEN graduates through purposeful entrepreneurship education. Although entrepreneurship education had been introduced previously, it had not integrated theory and practice appropriate to Papua. Core principles of the action research process (ARP) were used to develop and implement a locally effective curriculum for students enrolled in UNCEN's Faculty of Economics. A central commitment underlying the project was to design a curriculum that could address social inequalities in Papua, specifically the significant under-representation of Papuan native peoples in the entrepreneurship sector. Through a mixed methods approach that used demographic, attitudinal and outcome data as well as observational, interview and focus group data, the ARP team designed an experientially-based learning module, documented implementation of the pilot learning module, evaluated its effectiveness, and developed proposals for improvement and institutionalization. Based on outcomes that showed persistent gender and ethnic differences, future iterations of UNCEN's entrepreneurship curriculum will adopt a culturally responsive pedagogy (Gay, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 1995) that addresses the disparities in cultural and social capital shown to be significant to entrepreneurship education.

In 2013, as part of the Higher Education Leadership and Management national initiative sponsored by US AID, Universitas Cenderawasih proposed an action research project to address the under-employment of UNCEN graduates through purposeful entrepreneurship education. Although entrepreneurship education had been introduced previously at UNCEN, it had never been custom designed to integrate theory and practice appropriate to Papua as part of the formal curriculum.  This paper focuses on the use of core principles of the action research process (ARP) to develop and implement a locally effective curriculum for students enrolled in UNCEN’s Faculty of Economics. A central value underlying the project was the development of a curriculum that could address social inequalities in Papua, specifically the significant under-representation of Papuan native peoples in the entrepreneurship sector.Through a mixed methods approach that used demographic, attitudinal and outcome data as well as observa...

As is evidenced by the associated AI, Ethics and Society conference, we now take as given the need for ethics education in the AI and general CS curricula. The anticipated surge in AI ethics education will force the field to reckon with delineating and then evaluating learner outcomes to determine what is working and improve what is not. We argue for a more descriptive than normative focus of this ethics education, and propose the development of assessments that can measure descriptive ethical thinking about AI. Such an assessment tool for measuring ethical reasoning capacity in CS contexts must be designed to produce reliable scores for which there is established validity evidence concerning their interpretation and use.

This article analyzes how Black Consciousness and Citizenship (CCN), a curriculum produced at the Steve Biko Cultural Institute (Biko) in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, is influential to the production of a Black identity. In addition, I assess "the relationship between Black identity and education" at Biko through the lens of Zirkel and Johnson's strengths-based narratives as a counternarrative to anti-Blackness and Afrophobia in Brazilian society. CCN is elevated in analysis as a culturally representative model of education for Afro-Brazilian youth in Salvador and the city's periphery. Culturally representative education here refers to a racially, culturally, and socially inclusive educational mode. Zirkel and Johnson's recommended approaches are parallel to those employed through CCN to produce a positive identification with Black racial identity which counters anti-Black and Afrophobic sentiment.

The Steve Biko Cultural Institute (Biko) is one of various institutions that aim to educate civically active Afro-descendant youth in Salvador who hope to enter higher education spaces. From this institution emerge the Bikudas, the female students. This paper analyzes semi-structured interviews and observations of this group from 2015 to 2016 and their shared experiences. The three aims of the paper are as follows regarding analysis of: (1) the plurality of Black identity; (2) the intersectionality Bikudas navigate as part of their social positioning within family, and relationships; and (3) how Black womanhood manifests on the body. This paper discusses how participants described their social standing as the lowest rank and struggled with their interactions with others on the basis of color, were often rejected by family members for wearing their hair naturally and assuming outward markers of Black identity, and endured greater socioeconomic burdens than their male counterparts.

Across the Central American region, several groups received political autonomy by the end of the 20th century. By granting autonomy to these groups, countries like Nicaragua acknowledged certain populations as members of distinct ethnic groups. This was not the case for every country or group in the region, and the lack of effective ethno-racial policy-making considerations across Central America has led to language attrition, loss of land and water rights, and commodification of historic communities. This article focuses on Honduras and Belize as unique sites of ethno-racial and socio-cultural policy making, group identity making and unmaking, and group rights for the Garinagu. Specifically, this work forwards a re-examination of national ethno-racial policy and a critical assessment of political models based on ethno-cultural collective rights intended to combat racial discrimination.

This study utilized data from the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment Hong Kong sample to investigate the factors that impact the science achievement of 15-year-old students. A multilevel model was used to examine the factors from both student and school perspectives. At the student level, the results indicated that male students, students from high socioeconomic status (SES) families, students with higher motivation and higher self-efficacy, and students whose parents highly value science are more likely to demonstrate achievement in science. At the school level, the results showed school science achievement differences can be explained by school enrolment size, school SES composition, and instruction time per week. Contrary to the negative influence of school size that was reported in previous studies, our findings suggested a positive relationship between school enrolment size and science achievement. This finding leads to an international discussion of school size.

This study examined the influence of school computer use frequency on the test scores of 15-year-old students in the United States using data from the 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). A MANCOVA test found that students who use computers almost
every day at school performed better than the students from the group who used computers between once a week and once a month, after controlling for students’ SES backgrounds. Students who had never used a computer at school were found to be highest achievers among all
comparison groups. These findings suggest that frequency of computer use might not be a good indicator of academic achievement. Results lead to the discussion of educational input. A further study should be conducted to investigate the characteristics of students who never use computer at school in order to interpret their high achievements in math, science and reading.

OF DISSERTATION PARENT INVOLVEMENT AND SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT DURING STUDENTS’ TRANSITION YEARS FROM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TO MIDDLE SCHOOL: A CROSS-LAGGED PANEL ANALYSIS USING ECLS-K Transitioning from elementary school to middle school can be a difficult time for many adolescents. It is a period often correlated with a decline in students’ academic achievement, perceptions of performance, potential, and value in schooling. Research has shown evidence that parents’ involvement in their children’s education significantly influences children’s academic achievement. However, there are many conflicting findings regarding this relationship. The primary purpose of this study is to extend existing research on academic achievement by examining the causal relationship between parent involvement and science achievement during the transition years, using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K). The results not only reaffirms that parent involvement an...

Article Info School educational resources are key when studying school improvement due to their influence on learning outcomes. Because of this, careful attention should be given to the way educational resources are operationalized and measured. Using the 2006 PISA American sample containing 166 schools, this study aims to validate the 13-item PISA School Educational Resource Scale with Rasch analysis. Winsteps software was used in the analysis and results were used to evaluate how well the instrument measured the construct of school educational resource. Findings revealed that the PISA 2006 data gave an overall indication of good fit to the model, despite the instrument not separating respondents well. In regards to the quality of the scale, the majority of items perform consistently with the model. However, for schools above the average educational resource threshold, it appears there is a need for more items to discriminate the situation.

The purpose of this study was to examine the quality of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)2009 school climate survey instrument and evaluate perceptions of secondary school principals' located in the UnitedStates about school climate using an Item Response Theory (IRT) methodological approach. In particular, this studysought to determine if the instrument’s items are of sufficient psychometric quality to effectively measure schools'climate status in the United States. Collectively, results indicate the School Climate Assessment (SCA) scale is ofsufficient psychometric quality to effectively measure schools' climate status in the United States. However, there areareas for which the instrument can be improved. Recommendations for improvement are provided.

This presentation is focused on analysis of Islam increasing in present-day Kazakhstan particularly in education. I would apply some anthropological theories to this analysis such as the Talal Asad’s critique of the Clifford Geertz’s theory of religion in the book of Amy Stambach “Faith in Schools” (2010). My consideration includes the following key aspects: 1) anthropology of religion; 2) religion and education; 3) education and government; and 4) religion and government. On the basis on this analysis I would attempt to interpret today changes in Kazakhstan in educational, religious (Islamic) and governmental institutions. I also would like to note that this presentation is a result of my current studying at the University of Kentucky, where the seminar on Comparative Education is the main theoretical resource for this presentation.