In this episode of On the Evidence, Shane Kanady of SourceAmerica and Noelle Denny-Brown of Mathematica discuss findings from an evaluation of the Pathways to Careers program, which provides customized employment services to job seekers with significant disabilities.

We believe the value of program monitoring is in iteration. By combining live program administrative data with vetted measures of socioeconomic status, we help clients and stakeholders understand alternative payment models and make important improvements.

In honor of Black History Month, Kimberlin Butler, director of foundation engagement, provides an account of Dr. Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander’s notable career as a Black economist and lawyer and how her legacy is inspiring a new generation of changemakers.

Attending a KIPP school led to a 10-13 percentage point improvement in the likelihood of enrolling in college.

To better understand its schools’ contributions to students’ learning in the first four grades, the Maryland State Department of Education partnered with the Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic to explore constructing a school-level growth measure for kindergarten to grade 3.

Schools across the country have closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and states have cancelled their spring assessments. These cancellations mark the first interruption of the annual testing cycle since the No Child Left Behind Act passed nearly 20 years ago.

With the closure of school buildings fundamentally disrupting the way students receive services, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the national conversation about education.

For those of us who devote our lives to improving behavioral health care, the critical health care priorities of the COVID-19 pandemic raise concerns about increased unmet mental health and substance use service needs.

In the United States, a range of social issues can negatively impact parenting, which in the worst of circumstances results in children entering the child welfare system.

Well, it’s been a while since our last post (and for that Blue Door is truly sorry). We’ve been busy bees however not least with the paperback publication of our launch titles, Jon Stock’s Dead Spy Running and Anne Berry’s The Hungry Ghosts.

Sumptuous posters adorned the London tube network this week advertising The Hungry Ghosts, a haunting debut novel which has already won the Amazon Rising Stars Award and is a Waterstone’s Book Circle choice. So what better way to celebrate than to go on an Anne Berry gastronomic tube crawl spotting all of her posters along the way? If you find yourself at a loose end I can definitely recommend every single one of the establishments below.

What you will need:
An empty stomach
A copy of The Hungry Ghosts (available from all major retailers now)
Fairly loose-fitting clothes

10am
Start the day at Bread Etcetera on Clapham High Street. Perfect for whiling away a Saturday morning, you’ll only have time to take in a quick breakfast today. Might I recommend the boiled egg with their gorgeous sourdough bread.

Jump on to the tube and catch the Anne Berry poster by the escalators – truly a poster of beauty!

11am
Make your way up to Waterloo on the Northern Line and head to paradise for cake aficionados everywhere, Konditor and Cook www.konditorandcook.com I have sampled many a fine cake, tart and slab here. But let’s remember that we’re pacing ourselves for the day – if you have one thing go for the orange lavender slab cake.

1pm
After all that you’ll probably need a rest so take a gentle stroll down to London Bridge and get a refreshing cuppa at Borough Market from my favourite tea guru Rob Green www.ceylon1.com
Make your way onto the tube (spotting yet another poster of course) and travel up to King’s Cross. If you don’t already have a copy of The Hungry Ghosts pick one up at WHSmith’s – it’s their read of the week. Then if you haven’t sampled it before, head to the British Library – it’s the perfect place to dip in to Anne Berry’s world. You can even adopt a book whilst you’re there.

3pm
After all that reading, you’ll probably be quite hungry. Jump on the Piccadilly line and head for Holborn. Bea’s of Bloomsbury (www.beasofbloomsbury.com) is the perfect place for afternoon tea and at £13, is a snip (booking essential). A pot of Chinese tea and a bea-utifully scented cupcake is the perfect accompaniment to your reading and you can admire the skills of the pastry chefs in the open kitchen area. I cannot recommend this little gem enough.


5pm
A day of luxurious treats requires equally luxurious wine. Hop on the Central line and make your way over to Holland Park to Royal-favourite Julie’s, http://www.juliesrestaurant.com passing the lovely Daunt Books store on your way (they have supported Anne from the very beginning).

Every wine on Julie’s list is a delight so you will be spoilt for choice.

7pm
The dinner hour is fast-approaching and since the book is firmly rooted in the Orient, why not indulge in a Chinese feast. Anne’s evocative descriptions of food are enough to make anyone salivate and you will not be disappointed by Memories of China in Victoria. Take the Circle line (and perhaps a comedy photo next to Anne’s poster) and head to Ken Lo’s fantastic restaurant www.memories-of-china.co.uk/ This is a restaurant worth saving for!

9pm
After a day of true indulgence there’s only time for one more stop. Jump on the Victoria line, give the posters a final wave and head to Chimes in Pimlico (www.chimes-of-pimlico.co.uk) for a glass of silver birch wine (or if you're feeling brave, their walnut liqueur) to round off the day.

And after all that, the only thing I can recommend is a book at bedtime - if you haven't reached the end of The Hungry Ghosts now is your chance. You won't be disappointed!

With the pesky Icelandic ash cloud threatening to disrupt the start of LIBF next week, volcanic activity has become a rather unlikely talking point with volcanologists thrust into the spotlight like never before (even in the Daily Mail).

So with volcanoes even being a Twitter trending topic, I thought I’d take the chance to write about an engrossing new novel by prize-winning Australian author Andrew McGahan. Wonders of a Godless World, McGahan’s fifth novel, tells the story of a young orphan girl living in a decaying mental institution on a torpid tropical island (complete with ash-spewing volcano). The girl cannot speak or understand the speech of others and lives an isolated existence, until that is, a stranger arrives at the hospital, lost in an inexplicable coma. Although he never speaks, the orphan becomes convinced that she can hear the foreigner speaking in her head: he is cursed, he claims with immortality. And so begins a journey of discovery that will take them right around the world and far beyond it. Questioning ideas of reality and madness, this is a book quite unlike anything I have ever read and will certainly provoke debate amongst readers as to the identity of the mysterious stranger.

The Australian press have heaped praise upon McGahan calling Wonders an “impressively sustained feat of imagination,” rising to “invigorating heights.” Published by Allen & Unwin in 2009, Blue Door are proud to be publishing this tumultuous tale in June. Why not whet your appetite until then with the trailer

Blue Door is proud to announce its very own Super Thursday. Yes, that’s right, today we release not one, not two but three fantastic novels. First up is Rachel Trezise’s wonderful Sixteen Shades of Crazy. Tipped as the Valleys’ answer to Trainspotting, here’s Rachel giving us an insight into why she decided to dissect the morals and mores of life in ex-mining towns:
Already popular on the literary festival circuit you can catch Rachel this summer at Hay, Latitude and Green Man. You can also catch up with all of her news at her website www.racheltrezise.com. Recognised by the Orange Futures list (amongst the likes of Zadie Smith and Sarah Waters) we are very proud to be publishing her first novel.

Next up is something completely different. Meg Gardiner’s thrillers have been praised by Stephen King, Jeffery Deaver and Tess Gerritsen which is a pretty impressive roll call of fans. Her Evan Delaney series of novels was a hit with adults and teens alike and was regularly in the top ten of teen thrillers on Amazon.com. Her new super sleuth, Jo Beckett, is a forensic psychiatrist, investigating a person’s life to discover why they died. The Memory Collector (released early May) tells the story of Ian Kanan, a passenger on board a flight to San Francisco, who has been restrained by crew members for his erratic behaviour. Jo is immediately called in when it is established that Kanan has no memory of who he is or where he has been. Convinced that he holds the key to a potential terrorist plot (and may have been exposed to a deadly biological agent himself), Jo must race against time to unravel a series of clues and save her beloved city. Meg’s next Jo Beckett thriller, The Liar’s Lullaby will be released in June so watch out for some guest blogging on the site soon.

Last but by no means least is Warren Fitzgerald’s The Go-Away Bird. Perfect for fans of Chris Cleave’s The Other Hand, this is a heart-wrenching story of how friendship can develop in the most unlikely of places between the most unlikely of people. Fourteen-year-old Clementine arrives in London from war-torn Rwanda, having witnessed horrendous cruelty and unimaginable loss during the 1994 genocides. Lonely, grieving and displaced in a daunting new city, she flees her abusive uncle and befriends Ashley, a middle-aged, loner for whom teaching singing is the only escape from his London life. The story that unfolds is deeply moving and at times sad but throughout is a positive and uplifting tale of how two utter strangers can collide, bond and ultimately save each other. Here’s Warren telling us about the novel:

Publisher Northampton, England : Loggerhead Films, [2009]

Location Media Resources Collection

Call No. LB3013.3 .B94 2009

London : Facet Publishing, 2019

London : Facet Publishing, 2020.

Chicago : ALA Editions, 2019.

Chicago : ALA Editions, 2020.

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019.

[Germany] : Deutscher Universit̃ts-Verlag : 2007

New York : Springer, 2005

New York, NY : Springer Science+Business Media, Inc., [2006]

Berlin : Springer, [2006]

Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2005

Berlin ; New York : Springer, [2007]

Berlin ; New York : Springer, [2005]

This Medical News story examines the question of whether some melanomas might be better left undetected.

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Dewey Library - JZ6009.A75 W55 2019

Dewey Library - JZ1238.R8 L43 2018

Dewey Library - JZ1242.Z34 2019

Dewey Library - JZ1253.2.G47 2019

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Dewey Library - JZ1305.B366 2019

Dewey Library - JZ1254.W45 2019

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