EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF MODE OF DELIVERY OF A READING FLUENCY INTERVENTION USING A RANDOMIZED EXPERIMENTAL ALTERNATIVE-TREATMENTS DESIGN

The importance of reading fluency has been established. Requirements under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act include increased expectations to utilize evidence based interventions and the expectation of accountability for all students and schools to improve. Teachers are facing challenges trying to incorporate researching findings into their classroom practice while meeting the needs of their students and dealing with limited resources. Advances in computer, literacy and communication technology have resulted in the development of new possibilities for intervention. With districts facing these pressures, it is important to explore the relationship between method of delivery of interventions and outcomes so schools can make informed decisions. This study examined whether the delivery method of a multi-component reading fluency intervention (traditional vs. computer-led) made a difference in helping to effectively increase oral reading fluency (ORF) of third grade students who were identified as at risk. Read Naturally was chosen as the intervention system for this study as it is supported in the research, is a package often utilized by schools, and offers several methods of delivery. Among their products, they offer both a traditional package (led by teacher and/or audio CD), and a web-based cloud product that is a computer facilitated version of the same intervention. These products have not been compared. A randomized experimental repeated measures design was used to test whether method of delivery of the intervention effected rate of improvement (ROI) in ORF for students. Results indicate that while there was no difference in ROI for students based on group, students in the computerized intervention group had significantly higher gain scores than students in the traditional format group. The computer-facilitated intervention also resulted in greater ease of implementation. There were no differences among generalized outcome measures and measures of student engagement

Capacity Investment under Demand Uncertainty. An Empirical Study of the US Cement Industry, 1994-2006

Uncertainty about the level of demand is thought to influence irreversible capacity decisions. This paper examines some implications of the theory literature on this topic in an empirical study of the US cement industry between 1994 and 2006. Firms in this sector have the ability to deliver cement either from domestic plants or from imports. Since cement is costly to transport via land, the difference in marginal cost between local production and imports varies across local markets. The marginal cost of imports is lower in areas with access to a sea port, decreasing the relative value of investing in local capacity sufficient to supply positive local demand shocks. In the presence of uncertain demand, firms may choose to serve these markets via both domestic production and imports. Consistent with the theory, we find a negative relationship between the average level of excess capacity and demand volatility only for coastal areas. An increase in demand volatility is associated with an increase in excess capacity only in landlocked areas. More generally, the paper shows that the cost of imports relative to the cost of domestic production affects the relationship between uncertainty and domestic capacity decisions. The results suggest that a unilateral climate policy in the US may induce a partial international relocation of capacity in carbon intensive industries, such as cement, by increasing the relative cost of domestic production.capacity investment, demand uncertainty, imports, cement

The Influence of Curriculum Customization on Grade 3 Student Achievement in Language Arts and Mathematics in New Jersey’s 30 Poorest School Districts

The purpose for my correlational cross-sectional study was to explore the influences of proximal and distal forces on curriculum development and how it affects student achievement as it pertains to NJ ASK Grade 3. I sought to determine the strength and direction of the relationships between curriculum customization at the local level and student achievement on the NJ ASK 3 in Mathematics and Language Arts. Seventy-four elementary principals were surveyed pertaining to development, design, and implementation of their curriculum

An Overall Policy Decision-Support System For Educational Facilities Management: An Agent-Based Approach

Although K-12 public school facilities infrastructure investments are second only to highways, schools continue to suffer from an approximately $38 billion annual funding gap. Massive reductions in funding are forcing school districts to make tough decisions to optimize maintenance expenditures. Over the last three decades, a huge body of research has determined that the condition of school facilities do affect student health and performance, and some have further demonstrated that schools are overwhelmed by deteriorating facilities that threaten the health, safety, and learning opportunities of students. The currently available educational facility management approaches oversee the influence of the complex and mutual interactions between a school facility and its occupants. This thesis aimed to develop an overall decision support system for decision-makers that promotes efficient planning and management of educational infrastructure system by embracing a proactive management style rather than reactive. The proposed system consists of three main components: (1) an overall condition prediction model for educational facilities as a whole, (2) a tactical level Agent-based model (ABM) for classroom interaction simulation, and (3) a strategic level ABM for maintenance budget allocation. ABM was selected for its flexibility, natural representation of the problem, and suitability for modeling real-world complex systems with heterogenous agents. The first tool was accomplished through the development of a three-stage condition prediction methodology. The first stage aims to recognize the deterioration pattern of the educational facility as a whole by utilizing a Markov chain modeling approach. The second stage focuses on determining the overall useful service life of educational facilities. The third stage identifies the higher and lower limits of the educational facilities’ deterioration rate. The resulted model can help decision-makers plan and forecast their maintenance needs and better manage the available resources. The proposed methodology can be applied to any multi-component asset. The second tool, the tactical level decision support ABM, was developed to provide decision-makers with new insights into the effects of different maintenance polices on the educational system. The model simulates day-by-day classroom interactions and highlights the importance of preventive maintenance on the educational system’s major stakeholders (agents). The third decision support tool presented in this research is the strategic level model for testing the effects of different maintenance budget allocation strategies on the school district revenues, overall performance, enrollment size, and land values over years. ABM enhances the overall comprehension of the current situation and its complex relations, increases resource allocation efficiency, highlights the important factors affecting the system that are overlooked in traditional management styles, thereby improving the quality of educational outcomes. The main challenge in developing the proposed ABM was identifying and quantifying the main stakeholders’ complex interactions due to the uncertainties inherent in human behavior. This thesis demonstrated the need for a holistic bottom-top asset management modeling approach rather than asset-centric top-down approach. The case study results of this research confirmed that ABM has great potential as an asset management tool for decision-makers that can provide a comprehensive and holistic understanding of the system dynamics

Measuring Educational Gains and Setting Consequences: Charter Schooling and the No Child Left Behind Policy

The charter school movement and the federal legislation No Child Left Behind (2001) have put a process in motion through which parents and students can opt out of the established public education system. This thesis is an in-depth study of one Pittsburgh charter school within the context of a critique of public education in American history. Empirical data was collected through a triangulated research design, which included interviews, surveys, field observations, and content analysis. Determining the features of a charter school that make classroom dynamics more or less effective than those in traditional public schools was the original micro-level focus of this research. Making policy recommendations for public school districts in relation with No Child Left Behind emerged as the macro-level focus. This dual focus is intended to increase educators\u27 and policymakers\u27 knowledge about school improvement models, especially in large urban systems

Graduation Policies in a Public High School (A Case Study)

This report shares research conducted in a case study of one higher performing high school to examine the practices, challenges and facilitators of implementing a standards-based curriculum and proficiency-based diploma systems

Monitoring motivation and academic growth in writing for young English language learners

The purpose of this study was to explore the technical adequacy and appropriateness of using benchmarks established with the general population with two forms of Curriculum Based Measures-Writing (CBM-W), Word Dictation (WD) and Picture Word (PW), with English Language Learners (ELs) in the 1st through 3rd grades as well as explore the utility of combining a measure of motivated academic behavior (i.e., Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener-Academic Behavior subscale (SAEBRS-AB)) with CBM-W for identifying risk in writing for young ELs. ELs in the 1st through 3rd grades (n = 71) were administered two forms of WD and PW in the fall, winter, and spring of the same academic year. Teachers (n = 9) also completed the SAEBRS-AB at each time-point for each participating student. Correlations between forms at each time-point were used to establish alternate form reliability and validity was established using two criterion measures via correlations and regression. The utility of combining CBM-W with SAEBRS-AB was examined via logistic regression and Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis using researcher determined cutscores for risk on the two criterion measures. Results indicated that both forms of CBMW are reliable and valid measures of general writing performance for young ELs, that benchmarks drawn from the general population are generally applicable to young ELs, and that integrating the SAEBRS-AB with either form of CBM-W improves diagnostic accuracy.Includes bibliographical reference

Base RDT&E investment strategy

Issued as Statement of work, and Reports [nos. 1-5], Project D-48-628 (subproject E-20-616