Educational Restructuring from a Community Viewpoint: A Case Study of School Closure from Invercargill, New Zealand

Spatial Pattern and Fairness Measurement of Educational Resources in Primary and Middle Schools: A Case Study of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle

China's education has developed rapidly in recent years, but the issue of educational equality still exists. Currently, there are few studies on educational resources, and their spatial pattern and fairness remain unclear. Thus, this study selected the point of interest data and spatial analysis methods to depict the spatial pattern of educational resources (containing the number of teachers, students, facilities, etc.). Then, we evaluated the equity of educational resources (including the number of schools and school teachers) in terms of geographic and population distribution by combining statistical yearbook data with two indices (the index of dissimilarity and agglomeration degree) to promote healthy urban development. The results show the following. (1) Educational resources have a multicenter spatial structure of "dual cores and multiple sub-centers". The Moran index reflects a weak positive spatial correlation between educational resources. (2) The index of dissimilarity is between 0.02 and 0.21, which shows that the allocation of resources is relatively balanced. Regarding internal units, obvious differences exist in the agglomeration degree and equilibrium of educational resources.

Mana Ūkaipō: Māori Student Connection, Belonging and Engagement at School

This paper describes the background, methods and key findings from a research project conducted in one Kāhui Ako (Community of Learning) in a city in New Zealand. All 12 schools had significant numbers of Indigenous Māori students whose iwi (tribal) ancestry connected to the region over centuries. Using a mixed methods approach, the study investigated the specific 'across and within' school interventions that positively impacted Māori student engagement in learning. Evidence was collected by seeking the views and opinions of students, teachers and whānau (family). Interventions and strategies included collaboration between Māori teachers and across-school leaders, positive school culture focused on the health and well-being of students, localised curricula, and substantial use of te reo Māori and tikanga in most schools. School principals reported limited collaboration with each other due to perceived competition between schools for student enrollments, which is counter to the policy drivers for the Kāhui Ako initiative. Results indicated that culturally inclusive leaders and teachers must deliberately focus on motivating students for their positive futures. This is key to improving the academic and social outcomes for Māori students.

Decoupled or doubled? Evaluating geospatial dispersion of student-resident displacement by school closure

School closures can have negative impacts on the students attending them and the residential communities surrounding them, suggesting overlapping negative impacts on local children. Yet, it remains unclear that these two populations are one in the same. The current study uses administrative enrollment data from 18 public-school closures in Baltimore City (2010-15) to quantify student-resident displacement rates across neighborhoods. I find that closures displaced a small proportion of student-residents from many different neighborhoods, rather than displacing a large proportion of any one residential community. Displaced students' residential neighborhoods are spatially dispersed and socio-demographically diverse. Employing school fixed-effects modeling to compare displaced students with their classmates, I show how recognizing these variations in geospatial dispersion can help to predict post-closure enrollments among displaced students. Findings suggest that many students and neighborhoods experience school closure as decoupled rather than doubled, with implications for how policies can better mitigate impacts of school closure.

Distance to School is Associated with Sedentary Time in Children: Findings from the URBAN Study

Sedentary behavior is associated with overweight and obesity in children, and distance to school has been negatively associated with active commuting to school. It is not known how distance to school relates to sedentary behavior in children. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between distance to school and children's sedentary behavior during weekdays at times where children interact with the neighborhood environment. Children (5-13 years, n = 295) who participated in the understanding relationships between activity and neighborhoods study (2008-2010) across four New Zealand cities wore a hip-mounted accelerometer for 7 days. Minutes spent sedentary (accelerometer count <100 min(-1)) were derived for the school travel periods (0800-0859 and 1500-1559) and after school discretionary time (1600-1759). Shortest street network distance to school was calculated from residential addresses using geographical information systems and parsed into tertiles for analysis. Children completed a daily travel log including mode of transport to and from school, which was dichotomized into active (walking and cycling) and passive (motorized) modes. Children living in the second tertile of distance from school were the least sedentary during the school traveling periods (42 ± 10%, mean ± true between-child SD) compared to those living in the first or third distance tertiles (47 ± 10 and 49 ± 10%, respectively); the differences were clear and likely substantial (90% confidence limits ± 6%). Children who traveled by motorized transport were more sedentary for each of the distance tertiles (50 versus 44%, 46 versus 39%, and 54 versus 27% for first, second, and third tertiles, respectively; 90% confidence limits ± 7%). In the period of 1600-1759, girls in the third distance tertile were the most sedentary. The combined effects of 1-2 km distance from school and active commuting to school contributed to least sedentary time in children.

Access to rural health services: research as community action and policy critique

Although access to rural health services has been an enduring focus for a variety of scholars, little has been recorded about the intersection between health service policy, provision and access experiences. This paper identifies how community action can highlight the gaps between policy rhetoric and access experiences. Taking the case of rural New Zealand, we document how a community organisation Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) completed a national survey as a form of community action. This study records rural households' experiences and challenges when accessing both primary and secondary health services. A range of access problems is identified. The study also illustrates how community-based activism concerning health care need not be local or single-service focussed, but can involve a multi-service critique at the national scale. Such work highlights not only the experience but also the complexity and politics of health service access.