Schools of Distinction in Connecticut; 116 Earn Designation

Over 100 schools statewide across Connecticut have been recognized by the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) as 'Schools of Distinction' for the 2015-2016 school year. The state recognized 116 schools for high academic achievement and high growth, including 15 schools within the state's Alliance District program. The state's alliance district program is a targeted investment in Connecticut's 30 lowest-performing districts.

To qualify for the distinction designation, schools cannot have high achievement gaps or high graduation rate gaps, and must also meet participation rate requirements.  'Schools of Distinction' are schools that meet the following criteria, according to the CSDE.

• the top ten percent of schools using the Accountability Index score;
• the top ten percent of schools with the highest growth for all students or for the high-needs group (free or reduced price lunch, English language learners, and students in special education); or
• the top ten percent of schools (among those without growth) with improvement in Accountability Index.

Danbury, Greenwich and Ridgefield have six schools each on the list, the most of any district in the state.

Shelton, Stratford and Trumbull had four schools among those designated, and Glastonbury and Regional School District 12 each had three schools earn a slot on the list.  West Hartford had three schools named, Braeburn, Bugbbee and Whiting Lane..

Two Capital Region Education Council (CREC) schools made the list, The Ana Grace Academy of the Arts Elementary School and the University of Hartford Magnet School.  CREC renamed one of its magnet schools in 2014 in honor of Ana Grace Marquez-Greene, a former Hartford resident who was among the young victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting.

2015-2016 Schools of Distinction

• Anna H. Rockwell School, Bethel
• Frank A. Berry School, Bethel
• Bolton High School, Bolton
• Mary R. Tisko School, Branford
• Brass City Charter School, Waterbury
• Ana Grace Academy of the Arts Elementary School, Avon
• University of Hartford Magnet School, West Hartford
• Chapman School, Cheshire
• Norton School, Cheshire
• Lewin G. Joel Jr. School, Clinton
• M. Wright Technical High School, Stamford
• Ellsworth Avenue School, Danbury
• Hayestown Avenue School, Danbury
• Mill Ridge Primary School, Danbury
• Morris Street School, Danbury
• Park Avenue School, Danbury
• South Street School, Danbury
• Ox Ridge Elementary School, Darien
• Royle Elementary School, Darien
• Tokeneke Elementary School, Darien
• East Haddam Elementary School, East Haddam
• Dominick H. Ferrara School, East Haven
• East Lyme High School, East Lyme
• Lillie B. Haynes School, East Lyme
• Niantic Center School, East Lyme
• Windermere School, Ellington
• Burr Elementary School, Fairfield
• Timothy Dwight Elementary School, Fairfield
• Jennings School, Fairfield
• Riverfield School, Fairfield
• East Farms School, Farmington
• Noah Wallace School, Farmington
• Union School, Farmington
• West District School, Farmington
• Eastbury School, Glastonbury
• Hopewell School, Glastonbury
• Nayaug Elementary School, Glastonbury
• Wells Road Intermediate School, Granby
• International School at Dundee, Greenwich
• North Mianus School, Greenwich
• North Street School, Greenwich
• Old Greenwich School, Greenwich
• Parkway School, Greenwich
• Riverside School, Greenwich
• Northeast Academy Elementary School, Groton
• B. Butler School, Groton
• Guilford Lakes School, Guilford
• Regional Multicultural Magnet School, New London
• Litchfield Intermediate School, Litchfield
• Southeast Elementary School, Mansfield
• Casimir Pulaski School, Meriden
• Thomas Hooker School, Meriden
• Orange Avenue School, Milford
• Pumpkin Delight School, Milford
• Oakdale School, Montville
• Western School, Naugatuck
• East School, New Canaan
• New Canaan High School, New Canaan
• West School, New Canaan
• Conte/West Hills Magnet School, New Haven
• Anna Reynolds School, Newington
• Hawley Elementary School, Newtown
• Green Acres Elementary School, North Haven
• Ridge Road Elementary School, North Haven
• North Stonington Elementary School, North Stonington
• Wheeler High School, North Stonington
• Samuel Huntington School, Norwich
• Thomas W. Mahan School, Norwich
• Kathleen E. Goodwin School, Old Saybrook
• Moosup Elementary School, Plainfield
• Plainfield Central School, Plainfield
• Plymouth Center School, Plymouth
• Brownstone Intermediate School, Portland
• Redding Elementary School, Redding
• Harwinton Consolidated School, Harwinton
• Booth Free School, Roxbury
• The Burnham School, Bridgewater
• Washington Primary School, Washington Depot
• Burr District Elementary School, Higganum
• Haddam Elementary School, Higganum
• Lyme Consolidated School, Lyme
• Mile Creek School, Old Lyme
• Barlow Mountain Elementary School, Ridgefield
• Branchville Elementary School, Ridgefield
• Farmingville Elementary School, Ridgefield
• Ridgebury Elementary School, Ridgefield

• Scotland Elementary School, Ridgefield
• Veterans Park Elementary School, Ridgefield
• West Hill School, Rocky Hill
• Chatfield-LoPresti School, Seymour
• Booth Hill School, Shelton
• Elizabeth Shelton School, Shelton
• Long Hill School, Shelton
• Sunnyside School, Shelton
• South Windsor School District, Pleasant Valley School
• Eli Whitney School, Stratford
• Nichols School, Stratford
• Second Hill Lane School, Stratford
• Stratford Academy - Johnson House, Stratford
• Booth Hill School, Trumbull
• Jane Ryan School, Trumbull
• Middlebrook School, Trumbull
• Tashua School, Trumbull
• Yalesville School, Wallingford
• Braeburn School, West Hartford
• Bugbee School, West Hartford
• Whiting Lane School, West Hartford
• Edith E. Mackrille School, West Haven
• Seth G. Haley School, West Haven
• Daisy Ingraham School, Westbrook
• Coleytown Elementary School, Westport
• Green's Farms School, Westport
• Alfred W. Hammer School, Wethersfield
• Wilton High School, Wilton
• B. Sweeney School, Windham
• Frisbie School, Wolcott

Disparities Evident As Fairfield County Considers Its Community Wellbeing

Fairfield County’s sizeable immigrant population - twenty percent of Connecticut’s most populous county - grew 89 percent from 1990 to 2014. In some municipalities, foreign-born residents make up as much as a third of the population. That is among the findings in the Fairfield County Community Wellbeing Index 2016, which examined regional demographics, economic opportunity, education, health, quality of life, and happiness.  The report includes analysis of the communities, populations, and neighborhoods of Fairfield County, as well as opportunities available and issues facing the area.

Since 1980, the size of the population living in neighborhoods that are considered most affluent – defined as those with an average family income more than 2.5 times higher than the state level - has tripled within Fairfield County. Meanwhile, the number of people living in poor neighborhoods is 3.5 times its 1980 size. The number of people in middle-income neighborhoods has decreased by sixteen percent.

Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, a major funder of the report, partnered with DataHaven, area hospitals, and government agencies to help launch a more robust and comprehensive resource that could serve as a part of the hospitals’ and health departments’ Community Health Needs Assessments as well as a broader county-wide indicators program.

“Fairfield County’s Community Foundation is committed to addressing the most pressing issues facing Fairfield County, but to do that we first need to be able to identify and understand those issues,” stated Nancy M. von Euler, Vice President, Programs, Fairfield County’s Community Foundation. “The data in the Fairfield County Community Wellbeing Index 2016 will help us to develop priorities for collective action to build a stronger, healthier Fairfield County where everyone has the opportunity to thrive, regardless of their zip code.”

The report states that "Despite its overall affluence, Fairfield County is among the nation’s most unequal metropolitan areas. Inequities in well-being appear when evidence is stratified by income, age, race, gender, and zip code. These differences are often most apparent after considering data that were collected specifically for the age groups and neighborhoods that are most impacted."

Among the findings, between 2014 and 2025, adults ages 65 and over are Fairfield County’s only age group projected to grow significantly, with a thirty-seven percent increase. Disparities in the County were also evident:

• High and rising childcare costs are often prohibitively expensive for low and middle-income families. While Fairfield County has nearly enough spaces for all 3- to 4-year-olds to attend preschool, there are only enough regulated childcare slots for fifteen percent of the county’s children ages 0 to 2, and enough subsidized slots to cover only twenty-two percent of these youngest children in low-income households.

• The issue of dental care arose as an indicator of well-being, particularly among younger adults and families. The Index shows that for every 10,000 residents living in Fairfield County, 12 residents visit an emergency room to receive treatment for preventable dental conditions in any given year, whereas on the East Side of Bridgeport, 178 residents do.

• Fairfield County residents are healthy when compared to national benchmarks. However, many conditions and risk factors—such as asthma, food insecurity, exposure to community violence, and the early onset of diabetes—are disproportionately prevalent in lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Sections of Bridgeport in particular fall very far behind the surrounding area in many of these measures.

• Disparities in access to reliable transportation persist between racial and income groups. A majority of Fairfield County workers, regardless of income, commute to another town for work. Many low-income (annual wages under $40,000) workers leave Bridgeport for work, while large shares of high-income workers commute to New York City.

“The process of developing this report allowed local partners and community members to identify links between the well-being of residents and the places where they live. Looking beyond typical measures like income levels or unemployment rates, the Community Wellbeing Index reveals a much more uneven distribution of opportunities in areas such as neighborhood walkability, economic development, public health, and education,” said Mark Abraham, Executive Director of DataHaven and a lead author of the report. “The impact that these barriers to opportunity have on overall well-being and happiness will serve as a call to action for many groups working to improve Fairfield County’s diverse neighborhoods and towns.”

The Fairfield County Community Wellbeing Index 2016 was based on a variety of federal and statewide data sources. Partners of DataHaven’s Fairfield County Community Wellbeing Index 2016 include Fairfield County’s Community Foundation; Bridgeport Hospital; Danbury Hospital; Greenwich Hospital; Norwalk Hospital; St. Vincent’s Medical Center; and Stamford Hospital.

Healthy Eating Not So Great Among Children, Community Can Help

Only one-third of parents of children ages 4-18 feel they’re succeeding at fostering healthy eating habits in their kids, according to a recent national survey.  The University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health found that just over half of parents believe their children eat mostly healthy, and only one in six parents rate their children’s diets as “very nutritious,” according to a press release. A fourth of parents polled said their child’s diet is “somewhat or not healthy at all.” Common challenges – not surprisingly - get in the way, according to experts: price, picky eaters and convenience.

“Most parents understand that they should provide healthy food for their children, but the reality of work schedules, children’s activities and different food preferences can make meal preparation a hectic and frustrating experience,” poll co-director Sarah Clark explained. “The tension between buying foods children like, and buying foods that are healthy, can be an ongoing struggle. Many of us know the feeling of spending time and money on a healthy meal only to have our children grimace at the sight of it and not take a single bite.”

Other data from the poll – which involved 1,767 parents – include that one in five parents don’t think limiting their child’s intake of fast food or junk food is important, and that 16 percent said limiting sugary drinks is “somewhat or not important.”

In general, parents of teens were less worried about unhealthy eating habits compared to parents of younger children.

The C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health measures current national public opinion, perceptions and priorities regarding major health care issues and trends for U.S. children and people in their communities.

Also this month, the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut found that residents of one Maryland county bought fewer sugary drinks after a campaign to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages that included policy changes and public health outreach efforts.

The Rudd Center study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, is the first to use objective retail sales data to measure the effectiveness of a community-led campaign to reduce consumption of sugary drinks.

“This study demonstrates the power of a community-based public health campaign that combines health-supporting policy changes with extensive outreach. The residents of Howard County have been engaged in every phase of this effort and their commitment to switching their drinks showed up in the supermarket sales data,” said Marlene Schwartz, Director of the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, and the study’s lead author.

Beverages with added sugars are among the leading sources of empty calories—calories that supply little or no nutrients—for both children and adults, and overconsumption of sugar is associated with obesity and increased risk of heart disease.

The study’s key findings show that based on sales data from Howard County supermarkets:

• Sales of sugar-sweetened soda declined nearly 20 percent.
• Sales of 100 percent juice fell 15 percent.
• Sales of fruit drinks with added sugars fell a little more than 15 percent.

Comparing sales data in 2012, before the Howard County Unsweetened campaign, to sales data in 2015, researchers found notable declines in purchases over the three-year period.

In determining the campaign’s impact, researchers compared weekly beverage sales of top-selling brands in 15 Howard County supermarkets with a matched group of 17 supermarkets in southeastern Pennsylvania. The study did not include sales data from non-supermarket vendors such as convenience stores.

The Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at the University of Connecticut is a distinguished multi-disciplinary policy research center dedicated to promoting solutions to childhood obesity, poor diet, and weight bias through research and policy.  The study was funded primarily by the Horizon Foundation, with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and from the Rudd Foundation to support data collection. Voices for Healthy Kids, a joint initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the American Heart Association, is a strategic partner of both Howard County Unsweetened and Sugar Free Kids Maryland.

CT Ranks 5th in U.S. in Dental Health, Best in New England

The neighboring states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and North Dakota have the best dental health in the nation, but Connecticut and Massachusetts break the mid-west logjam, ranking fifth and sixth in a new survey of nearly two dozen dental-health related categories by the financial website WalletHub. Connecticut ranked second in a series of oral health categories and 17^th in a group of dental habits and care categories, according to the survey, resulting in the 5th place finish overall.  Connecticut and Massachusetts ranked one-two in the highest percentage of adults who visited a dentist in the past year, and Connecticut placed third, after New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, in the highest percentage of adolescents who visited a dentist in the past year.

Connecticut also topped the list in two additional categories:  Lowest Percentage of Adults Who Experienced Pain in the Past Year Due to Oral Condition and Lowest Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption Among Adolescents.  The state also ranked in a tie for third for having the lowest percentage of elderly population with no natural teeth.

Data used to create the ranking were collected from U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Healthy Grid, American Dental Association, Health Resources & Services Administration, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and Oral Health America, according to WalletHub.

With the state’s ranking in the background, the Connecticut Oral Health Initiative (COHI) will host a session on health equity during Oral Health Day at the State Capitol on Wednesday, March 8, from 10 am to 3 pm in the Legislative Office Building.

Connecticut oral health-related organizations will on hand throughout the day to raise awareness and educate decision-makers and the public about policies to improve the oral health of Connecticut residents. The organization’s focus this year is on preserving Medicaid coverage for adults and children, allowing children to remain on their parents' dental insurance until age 26, and integrating oral health into health systems.

Other legislative initiatives include a proposal to increase the number of adults aged 19 to 26 years covered by dental insurance to provide continuity of dental care into adulthood, and another to decrease the incidence of oral and other cancers by decreasing tobacco use by Connecticut residents. By raising the Legal Age For Purchase and Use of Tobacco Products.

COHI leads and collaborates in statewide oral health advocacy efforts; promotes the necessity of oral health to overall health; serves as an expert resource on oral health policy; and publicizes oral health policy analysis and recommendations.

Also at the Capitol, the Department of Public Health is proposing a mandate for dental hygienists to have at least one contact hour in cultural competency prior to the renewal of their license, as part of the commitment to health equity.

Health Consultants For Pre-School Age Children Can Improve Health; Report Urges Policy Changes in CT

Research shows that the presence of a health consultant, usually a nurse by training, in child care centers leads to positive outcomes including improved nutrition, better sanitation and infection control, increases in access to preventive health care, specialty health care, mental health care, and oral health services. That’s according to a report by the Child Health and Development Institute (CHDI), which recommends health consultation as a “key strategy for integrating health into early learning systems and maximizing the contribution of early learning programs to children’s healthy development.”

“We rely on child care health consultants to ensure children’s health and safety in early care settings according to child care licensing regulations, but these providers are not fully supported nor utilized by our child health systems,” said Lisa Honigfeld, co-author of the report and vice president for health at CHDI. “Policy reform can strengthen and expand the role of child care health consultants to connect parents, child health providers, and child care centers to better promote health and developmental outcomes for children.”

CHDI’s “IMPACT, Promoting Children’s Health in Early Care and Education Settings by Supporting Health Consultation,” summarizes research on the role and benefits of health consultation in early learning settings, and reviews policies, regulations, training, and payment structures used in Connecticut and other states. The report concludes that Child Care Health Consultants (CCHC) can be “instrumental in contributing to the achievement of pediatric population health goals in Connecticut by monitoring the health of young children at the community level and contributing to community health system efforts.”

The 30-page report provides a framework for Connecticut to integrate health into early learning systems by taking advantage of opportunities presented as part of the state's overall health reform efforts. Recommendations include:

1. Develop infrastructure within the State to support health consultation with training, reimbursement, and quality improvement.
2. Strengthen licensing requirements to collect and report detailed health consultation information for all licensed child care sites.
3. Advocate for inclusion of CCHCs in Connecticut’s health reform plans.
4. Use a multi-disciplinary oversight group to develop a system of health consultation services to the meet the needs of Connecticut’s child care programs.

The report notes that a majority of children younger than age five spend “significant time” in early care and education settings, with more than 98,000 children enrolled in licensed child care centers, Head Start programs, and family child care homes.

“Unlike mental health consultation,” the report states, “overall health consultation is not supported with state level infrastructure and payments for health consultants to early Childhood Education sites. For private child care or preschool programs, the cost to hire a health consultant is borne by the program, with no system in place to ensure the quality of the CCHC workforce or ensure that health consultation is implemented to maximize the health and safety of children in child care.”

Connecticut regulations allow child care sites to employ a registered nurse, advance practice registered nurse, physician, or physician assistant to serve as the site’s health consultant.  Child care licensing requires child care sites that serve children ages three to five have quarterly health consultation visits.

Indicating that “several states and initiatives are testing innovations to better support integration of primary care medical services and community services,” the report suggests that “Connecticut, too, is poised to promote increased cross-sector collaboration in early childhood,” citing the establishment in 2013 of the Office of Early Childhood at the state level, which brought under one roof a range of services and responsibilities that had been housed in a number of different state agencies.

In most states, including Connecticut, a CCHC is typically a licensed registered nurse, according to a survey of states undertaken for the report.  Two states (Hawaii and Indiana) require that the CCHC be a physician, the research found, and four states (Illinois, Maine, Maryland, and North Carolina) allow licensed practical nurses to be health consultants. North Carolina allows other disciplines (sanitarian, nutritionist, and dietician) to be trained and credentialed as a health consultant.

The report points out that “CCHCs need specialized training, skill sets, and experience to address health issues for individual children and for the group setting as a whole. They also need to be aware of health and community resources so they can link child care facilities and families to appropriate services when needed. Programs with a significant number of non-English speaking families benefit from the services of a CCHC who is culturally sensitive and knowledgeable about community health resources for parents’/guardians’ native cultures and languages.”

The Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut (CHDI), a subsidiary of the Children’s Fund of Connecticut, is a not-for-profit organization working “to ensure all children have a strong start in life with ongoing supports to ensure their optimal health and well-being.” CHDI advocates for “effective policies, stronger systems, and innovative practices.”

Combating Opioid Epidemic in Connecticut Schools - Officials Team Up for Educators Workshop

The Connecticut Association of Schools (CAS), in partnership with the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and victims of drug abuse, will be offering a one-half day workshop for administrators, teachers, and counselors on the devastating opioid epidemic that is growing in severity in Connecticut an across the country. This video-based educational program is designed for high schools and geared specifically for teens and adolescents, officials explain, and will be accompanied by an educator’s discussion guide. The guides will be available for participants to immediately use in a variety of educational settings.

Projections for 2016 by the State Medical Examiner indicate that close to 900 people died of accidental drug overdoses in Connecticut. That is almost three times the number of people who died in car accidents last year, organizers point out. Even more devastating, they note, is the fact that a majority of these deaths are of young people ages 18 to 25, many of whom developed an addiction to opioids after misusing prescription pills while in their teens or early adolescence. Sports injuries, dental pain and other illnesses are common reasons for the original prescription.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioids were involved in 33,091 deaths nationwide in 2015, and opioid overdoses have quadrupled since 1999.Significant increases in drug overdose death rates from 2014 to 2015 were primarily seen in the Northeast and South Census Regions. States with statistically significant increases in drug overdose death rates from 2014 to 2015 included Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Washington, and West Virginia.  In Connecticut, between 2014 and 2015 the rate increased by 25 percent.  

Recognizing that law enforcement is only one facet of the solution, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is fighting this epidemic on several fronts, including criminal prosecution and outreach to schools for prevention, officials said. The office has formed a Heroin Education Action Team (HEAT), which includes parents of local overdose victims, to further assist in this effort.

“Opioid Epidemic in CT – Stemming the Tide” will take place on March 3, 2017, 8:30 to 11:00 a.m., at the CAS-CIAC Conference Center in Cheshire.  Registration deadline is February 24, 2017; the cost is $15.00

CAS officials are also calling for schools to show, “as soon as possible, and no later than the end of the school year,” videos about the crisis.

“Please ensure that every student in your high school sees at least one of the following two films,” the association urges:

• 1) a 15-minute film called The Opioid Crisis Hits Home: Stories from Connecticut that can also be used to educate educators, parents and the general public about the opioid epidemic; and
• 2) the FBI/DEA documentary film Chasing the Dragon: The Life of an Opiate Addict, which is 45-minutes long and accompanied by an educator’s discussion guide geared specifically to teens and adolescents.

Since last September, a number of Assistant U.S. Attorneys have partnered with parents of overdose victims, young recovering addicts, FBI, DEA, and local law enforcement to facilitate Chasing the Dragon presentations at high schools in Milford, New Haven, Danbury, Plymouth, Shelton, East Hartford and New Fairfield.

The films “are provided as a public service for the sole purpose of saving lives,” officials underscore. School officials can schedule an opioid awareness presentation by contacting  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Vanessa Avery or Robert Spector at 203-821-3700.

The Connecticut Association of Schools,  a non-profit, tax-exempt educational organization, has grown to represent well over 800 of Connecticut’s public and parochial schools.

First Television, Now Picture Books – Contributors to Less Healthy Eating Among Children

Concerns about the impact of television promoting products such as snack food and soda have been well documented for some time, but academic research is now suggesting another culprit for childhood obesity and a growing lack of healthy eating among youngsters. Children’s picture books – the books filled with brightly colored drawings and basic themes that are staples of bedtime stories, pre-school readings and local story hours.  How they depict food – and eating – has led a UConn researcher to raise red flags.

The study – conducted by Jane Goldman, professor emerita in UConn’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies, and Lara Descartes, a former assistant professor with the department and now a professor of Family Studies at Brescia University College in Canada – found that while the ratio of healthy to unhealthy foods depicted in books is higher than it is on television, books more often link positive events and concepts – such as love and nurturing – to treats, such as ice cream and baked goods, rather than fruits or vegetables.

The findings were first published a year ago in the journal Appetite and were the subject of presentations last fall by Goldman and Descartes at the University of California at Irvine and a global conference on food in the United Kingdom, and reported this month by UConn Today.

“It’s not that you shouldn’t have ice cream in books, but people should be aware of what the underlying message is,” Goldman said. “What are the messages children are getting about foods when a picture book is read to them, and are those messages related to the obesity epidemic among children?”

The researchers evaluated 100 picture book titles in Scholastic’s “Favorite Books for Preschoolers” collection – a mix of classics and newer titles, fiction and non-fiction. Sixty-nine of the 100 books in the collection included one or more food items in the text and/or illustrations. Although “the ratio of healthy foods to nutrient-poor foods was higher in the books,” according to the researchers, there was bad news as well as good in their findings.

Goldman and Descartes first identified books in which food is mentioned one or more times – 48 titles fit into that category – and others in which food is a theme or sub-theme, a group that included 21 titles. The pages on which food is mentioned were then coded based on the placement of the food, or centrality; the level of emotion expressed, or affect; and the number of times, or frequency, with which the food is mentioned. Using characters’ expressions as a guide, researchers assigned a rating of positive, negative, or neutral to each food reference.

The researchers found that vegetables are depicted in more than a third of the books and centrally portrayed in more than half, but only 18 percent of the depictions received a positive “affect” rating.  Conversely, sweetened baked goods are both centrally positioned, and have a positive “affect” about 80 percent of the time.  And ice cream, although not in many books, always was associated with positive outcomes - five of the seven times ice cream is mentioned, it’s offered as a treat, to make someone feel better, or as a happy ending.  Among the other findings:

• Almost all 69 picture books in the sample depict one or more healthy foods.
• Twenty-nine (42 percent) depict only healthy foods; and thirty-three (48 percent) depict both healthy and nutrient-poor food, but the majority of the depictions are healthy foods.
• Fruits, while depicted in more than half the books, are most often in the background, and only one-third of fruit depictions received a positive “affect” rating.

The researchers say it’s important to look at the context in which foods are presented as well as the frequency, observing that the people they interviewed rarely noticed that food was mentioned in children’s books, nor what messages were being conveyed, UConn Today reported.

Goldman was not surprised, UConn Today reported, that many of the picture books surveyed in the study portrayed sweet and comparatively unhealthy foods as very desirable or that they were associated with positive outcomes.  When nutrient- poor foods are presented both frequently and positively, she indicated, it may well contribute to children’s view of them as more desirable.  This is especially likely given the fact that picture books are just one part of a child’s total media consumption and that television content is known to promote a positive association with nutrient-poor foods.

“What we hope the study  does is make people aware of how food is presented in picture books, in the same way they have become aware of how gender roles are presented in books,” Goldman says. “Books are a tool we use all the time, so how can we use books to promote healthy ideas about food. In early childhood there is an emphasis on helping children read and on healthy eating and lifestyle, so why not think about the messages in books that support or contradict that healthy lifestyle message.”

Economic Insecurity A Key Factor in School Shootings Nationwide, Academic Study Finds

There is a connection between economic insecurity and gun violence in the nation’s schools.  That is the conclusion reached in a “rigorous” Northwestern University study of a quarter-century of data which found that when it becomes more difficult for people coming out of school to find jobs, the rate of gun violence at schools increases. The study, “Economic Insecurity and the Rise in Gun Violence at US Schools,” was published this week in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.  It breaks new ground, researchers explain, replacing a “patchwork of contradictory claims” with a clear finding that “multiple indicators of economic distress significantly correlate with increases in the rate of gun violence” at both K-12 and post-secondary schools.

The interdisciplinary study by data scientists Adam R. Pah and Luís Amaral and sociologist John L. Hagan reveals a persistent connection over time between unemployment and the occurrence of school shootings in the country as a whole, across various regions of the country and within affected cities, including Chicago and New York City, the university reported.

“The link between education and work is central to our expectations about economic opportunity and upward mobility in America,” said Hagan, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Sociology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. “Our study indicates that increases in gun violence in our schools can result from disappointment and despair during periods of increased unemployment, when getting an education does not necessarily lead to finding work.”

The December 2012 school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut is among those routinely cited among a number of mass shootings that have garnered public attention in recent years.  While a number of factors have been said to have contributed to the violence, clear answers have been elusive as to the cause or causes.

The Northwestern researchers used data from 1990 to 2013 on both gun violence in U.S. schools and economic metrics, including unemployment, in an effort to determine factors that may be relevant. They found the rate of gun violence at schools has changed over time. The most recent period studied (2007-2013) has a higher frequency of incidents than the preceding one (1994-2007), contradicting previous work in this area, according to the university.

The researchers focused on all gun violence at schools, not only mass shootings. They used the following criteria for an event to be included in the study: (1) the shooting must involve a firearm being discharged, even if by accident; (2) it must occur on a school campus; and (3) it must involve students or school employees, either as perpetrators, bystanders or victims.  They then evaluated the timing of these events against multiple indicators of economic distress, including unemployment, the foreclosure rate and consumer confidence.

The researchers found that “given the nature of the school-to-work transition, it is predictable that more violence would occur closer to the last link in the chain from education to employment. An implication of our findings is that as economic prospects improve, the frequency of shootings in K12 schools should remain relatively stable, with declines at post-secondary schools.”

The research indicated that gang-related violence and lone mass shooters comprise only small fractions of the gun violence that occurs at U.S. schools. Gang-related violence constitutes 6.6 percent of all incidents.  Among the key findings were that gun violence at schools has not become more deadly over time and that most shootings are targeted, with the shooter intending to harm a specific person.

The report also noted that while Chicago is singled out in the study as one of the six cities with the most incidents from 1990 to 2013, Chicago schools are not any more dangerous than schools in other large cities.

The results suggest that during periods of heightened unemployment, increased gun violence may be a growing risk in American college and university settings, finding that “a breakdown in the school-to-work transition contributes to an increase in gun violence at schools.”

“Once we consider how important schools are to American ideas about economic opportunity and upward mobility, we can better understand why school settings are revealed in our research as focal points of violent responses to increased unemployment,” said Hagan, who also is a research professor at the American Bar Foundation. “Prior research about gun violence in schools has not adequately analyzed these connections.”

The Northwestern study differs from earlier studies on gun violence in U.S. schools by considering accumulated knowledge about the school-to-work transition in American society. In the last 25 years, there have been two elevated periods of gun violence at U.S. schools, the researchers found; 2007-2013 was largely due to events at postsecondary schools while 1992-1994 more often involved events at K-12 schools.

“Our findings highlight the importance of economic opportunity for the next generation and suggest there are proactive actions we could take as a society to help decrease the frequency of gun violence,” concluded Pah, clinical assistant professor of management and organizations at the university's Kellogg School of Management.

Connecticut Book Awards Set to Make a Comeback in 2017

Connecticut Center for the Book at Connecticut Humanities is now accepting submissions for the Connecticut Book Awards, returning after a multi-year absence from the literary landscape in the state.  The awards were last presented in 2011.  They were presented annually beginning in 2002. These awards recognize the best books of 2016 by authors and illustrators who reside in Connecticut.   The 2017 Connecticut Book Awards will honor authors in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. There will also be awards open to authors and illustrators in the category of Books for Young Readers (Juvenile, Young Adult, and Teen).  Book award nominations may be made through April 21, with the formal announcement of recipients later this year.

"There is a void in the Connecticut literary landscape for this kind of recognition of home grown authors. Several other awards and prizes in the state exist, awards such as The Nutmeg Awards, New Voices in Children’s Literature: Tassy Walden Awards, The Windham Campbell Prize, and a small handful of others, but these awards have specific criteria and don’t necessarily focus on Connecticut-based authorship," the Center for the Book website points out. "Without the Connecticut Book Awards, there is no statewide recognition of Connecticut authors who craft words and convey ideas in a compelling way."

Entry fee starts at $40 for a 2,000 copy or less print run. Award winners will receive exposure in Connecticut media outlets and personal appearances in Connecticut locations. For guidelines and to submit, please visit http://bit.ly/CTBook2017

The Center for the Book at Connecticut Humanities promotes the written and spoken word throughout the state and is an affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.  "We’re bringing the Connecticut Book Awards back. Because they are important," the website notes emphatically.

Nominated authors must currently reside in Connecticut and must have lived in the state at least three successive years or have been born in the state, or the book must be substantially set in Connecticut. Panels of five judges will assess nominated books in each category.

Eligibility Requirements for Book Awards to be made in 2017:

• Author must currently reside in Connecticut and must have lived in the state at least three successive years or have been born in the state. Alternatively, the work may be substantially set in Connecticut.
• Titles must have been first published between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016.
• All submitted books must have a valid ISBN.
• Authors may enter more than one book per year.
• Anthologies are acceptable. Author(s) must have resided in Connecticut for at least three years of have been born in the state. Alternatively, the works must be substantially set in Connecticut.
• Books by deceased authors will be accepted only if the author was still living at the beginning of the eligibility year (January 1, 2016).

CT Council Urges Change in Focus to Combat Human Trafficking in State

Recognizing that the sex industry – especially when it involves underage children – is a form of human trafficking, the Connecticut Trafficking in Persons Council (TIP) is making several legislative recommendations aimed at shifting the onus for the crime of prostitution from the prostitute to “the demand side” – the buyers of sex. On National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, the TIP Council released its Annual Report and recommendations for the state legislature, and launched a new initiative and website, www.enddemandct.org.

“Conversations about sex trafficking almost exclusively disregard the role of the individual buying sex—the ‘john,’” says Jillian Gilchrest, chair of Connecticut’s Trafficking in Persons Council and Director of Health Professional Outreach at the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence. “The sex trafficking of Connecticut’s women, men, and children is driven by demand for the commercial sex acts they perform. Put simply, without ‘buyers’ to purchase sex there would be no sex-for-pay industry. So, we are embarking on an ‘End Demand’ campaign to bring much needed attention to those buying sex who create the demand that fuels sex trafficking.”

The TIP report questions why, since Connecticut enacted the felony crime of patronizing sex from a minor in 2013, there have been no arrests or convictions for the felony. Significantly, DCF has seen an increase in the trafficking of children; currently, there are 456 referrals for children at high risk of trafficking.

The report also calls on Connecticut lawmakers, state agencies, and advocates to work together to better understand the demand side of sex trafficking in order to effectively prevent this crime from happening. This begins, the report explains, with creating awareness, since more often than not, those buying sex are left out of conversations about human trafficking. With the use of social media, traditional media, and advertising, the TIP Council indicated it aims to raise public awareness about the individuals in our state who choose to pay to sexually abuse children and exploited individuals.

The report indicates that law enforcement and State’s prosecutors argue that those buying sex with children and exploited adults can be charged with other crimes, such as sexual assault in the second degree or risk of injury. The Council will be looking into this, the report notes, to better understand if buyers of sex are being arrested, and if not, why.

In addition, the report outlined that with over 100 members, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) Human Anti-trafficking Response Team (HART) comprises multi-department, multiagency partners, various levels of law enforcement, the provider community, faith-based network, among others. In 2015, DCF received 133 referrals of youth who were at risk or confirmed victims of human trafficking. As of September 2016, DCF has received 151 referrals of youth who were at risk or confirmed victims of human trafficking, the report indicated.

Tammy Sneed, Director of Gender Responsive Adolescent Services at Department of Children and Families and co-chair of DCF’s Human Anti-Trafficking Response Team, said: “Reports of children suspected to be victims of domestic minor sex trafficking are increasing every year -- and, in 2016, there were just under 200 such referrals. For every child victim, the number of buyers on a given day in Connecticut is unfathomable. Some children report 10 to 15 buyers per night, which leads us to estimate that a minimum of 2,000 buyers in Connecticut bought sex from children last year.”

In the report, the Council recommends:

• the Connecticut Sentencing Commission, Special Committee on Sex Offender, Subcommittee on Sex Offender Sentencing consider whether to include 53a-192a. Trafficking in persons and 53a-83(c), Patronizing a prostitute when such other person is under the age of 18, to the Registration of Sex Offender statutes;
• further discussion and inquiry on why there have not been any convictions under Sec. 53a-83(c), Patronizing a prostitute under the age of 18, effective 2013;
• further discussion on increasing the penalty for Sec. 53a-83(c), patronizing a prostitute under the age of 18, to align with similar sexual crimes against children; and
• further discussion on revising Sec. 53a-192a, Trafficking in persons, to include recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act and increasing penalties to recognize the severity of the crime.

The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Council is convened by the Commission on Women, Children and Seniors and chaired by the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence (CCADV). The Council was formerly run by the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women. The council consists of members from a diversity of backgrounds, including representatives from state agencies, the judicial branch, law enforcement, motor transport and community based organizations that work with victims of sexual and domestic violence and immigrants and refugees, and address behavioral health needs and social justice and human rights.

“Demand keeps sexual exploitation and trafficking profitable,” says Beth Hamilton, associate director of the Alliance to End Sexual Violence (formerly CONNSACS). “We’ve started seeing the criminal justice system hold traffickers responsible, but we do not often see the people who purchase sex being held accountable for their role in keeping the industry thriving.  If we want to end commercial sexual exploitation, we need to focus on ending demand and creating survivor-centered services.”

In Connecticut, a person is guilty of trafficking in persons when such person compels or induces another person to engage in sexual contact or provide labor or services by means of force, threat of force, fraud or coercion. Anyone under the age of 18 engaged in commercial sexual exploitation is deemed a victim of domestic minor sex trafficking irrespective of the use of force, threat of force, fraud or coercion.

The report points out that “For many people, sex and labor trafficking bring visions of foreign places and people, but this idea is false. In reality, sex and labor trafficking are happening in the state, to Connecticut residents.”