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Portfolio | Danielle LeCourt
A surprising thing happens when one of your worst fears comes true…
About 40,000 U.S. veterans are diagnosed with cancer each year, according to a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) study published in 2012. For the nearly one in four U.S. military veterans who live in rural areas, getting access to timely, quality cancer care may require journeys of 100 miles or more past fields of corn, cattle or cotton. And those trips to the doctor may require time off from work and seeking assistance from caregivers and others. In this article for Gene.com, Danielle reports on how Genentech and the VA are collaborating to improve cancer care and access to clinical trials for veterans.
Use of force is a well-established part of American law enforcement. Roughly a thousand individuals are killed by police each year, a statistic with major ramifications for not only the individuals killed and their families but also for the students in the surrounding communities. Attitudes toward and trust in police fracture in response to police violence, and in the U.S., these fractures often occur along racial lines, disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic students both in and out of the classroom.
The need for data scientists in the U.S. is growing, yet groups like the Latinx population are vastly untapped when training and building the next generation of skilled workers. According to Google’s 2019 diversity report, for example, only 5.7% of their total workforce identifies as Latinx, and only 5.3% of their new hires in tech jobs went to Latinx workers. This trend mirrors a larger trend in the U.S. STEM workforce, as Hispanic workers hold only 7% of STEM jobs yet make up 16% of the workforce. Absent wider programming specifically targeting STEM, some K-12 teachers are getting creative when developing opportunities in data science for Latinx students.
In December 2018, Betsy DeVos rescinded Obama-era guidance intended to reduce racial discrimination in school discipline. At a time when black high school students are twice as likely to get suspended than their white counterparts, this move has been shrouded in controversy. Yet amidst harsh social realities and divided political opinions, researchers like SDP Fellow Dr. Akisha Jones Sarfo are working to bring an evidence-based voice to the table. Danielle LeCourt explores Jones Sarfo’s story for Harvard CEPR’s Strategic Data Project.
The PIER Fellowship at Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research is yielding far-reaching impact — and changing the way education policy leaders are trained. In this impact story, Danielle explores how three PIER fellows are impacting on Head Start, universal preschool, teacher retention, and adult education.
Once a skeptic of “big data,” Danielle LeCourt (Caldwell) is now convinced of its ability to empower institutions to match students to the right programs and provide individualized support through graduation. In this Inside Higher Education opinion article, Danielle explores “big data’s” reputation and its implications for ethics in data analysis.
While the online modality has been pivotal to accommodating the changing needs and lifestyles of post-traditional students, retaining online students has become a large challenge for many institutions. In this eCampus News article, ghostwritten for Helix Education's Sarah Horn, Danielle explains how online programs can use insights from neuroeducation to increase online student retention.
We are now fully immersed in an attention economy, and to survive in a marketplace where attention is currency, messages simply HAVE to draw attention. Unfortunately, recent research about human behavior has revealed that the amount of time you have to actually capture someone’s attention is extremely narrow—only about 200 milliseconds or so. So how on earth can you cut through the noise and draw attention in such a short amount of time? In this article, ghostwritten for Helix Education’s Seth Odell, Danielle explains how institutions can step out of their comfort zone with visually arresting design.
Online learning's growth shows no signs of slowing. The Online Learning Consortium estimated that 85 percent of Americans enrolled in postsecondary institutions have at least one trait of a nontraditional learner. In this article, ghostwritten for Helix Education’s Amy Hale and Emily Wood, LeCourt explores the shifting pedagogical paradigm for Inside Higher Ed’s Inside Digital Learning blog.