One change, different effects: the impacts of reducing clerkship length

Background Medical school curricula are constantly evolving and change has potential positive and negative effects. At East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine, a broader understanding of the effects of a curriculum change (reduction in clerkship length for one transitional year) was explored. Methods A broad, system-wide evaluation was used to evaluate impacts on all stakeholders. Curriculum management data, including qualitative and quantitative data and short-term and follow-up perspectives of stakeholders, were used for evaluation. Results Students evaluated the change positively. Academic performance in the transitional year was similar to the prior year. Differences in students’ clerkship evaluations were not statistically significant. Clerkship directors were concerned that students’ clinical experience suffered and noted that implementing changes was time consuming but recognized the benefits for students. Administrators dedicated a significant amount of time to planning the transitional year; however, the additional weeks at the beginning of fourth year made the scheduling process easier. Conclusion This article demonstrates an overall positive result with this tool for curriculum change but also indicates the impacts differed across stakeholders. Knowledge gained from this experience can help other schools successfully anticipate challenges and prepare for a variety of outcomes in implementing necessary curriculum change.

Winning as American Women

This chapter explores how black women athletes began to emerge as accepted exemplars of American identity after their performance at the inaugural US–Soviet Union dual track and field meet in Moscow in 1958. An almost perfect adherence to normative, white-defined gender expectations allowed black American track women to assume this symbolic status. These young women athletes, especially the sprinters and jumpers of Tennessee State University, now protected, rather than contested, the relationship between race, gender, and Americanness. The celebrated emergence of Wilma Rudolph ahead of and during the 1960 Olympic Games highlights the central role of heteronormativity in determining the boundaries of belonging in modern America.