The Case for Growth: Why Measure Student Learning?

A fundamental question -- perhaps the fundamental question -- educators ask is, "Are my students learning?" Many educators choose to gain key information from assessments that measure student achievement and growth, and for good reason: just as you might use a yardstick to measure your child's physical growth, assessments can provide an objective, consistent measure of academic growth. To help educators, parents, and policy makers drive learning for all students, this booklet shares practical insights and pragmatic learning around measuring student growth

The development of a partnering assessment tool for projects

Many firms in the construction industry claim to be working in a ‘partnering’ or even in an ‘integrated’ way. It is, however, very difficult to verify these claims with the tools currently available. The purpose of this study was to collect and refine existing work on integrative and collaborative working, so as to develop a quick and simple tool that measures the degree of integration with which firms are working. First, the concepts of ‘Partnering’ and ‘Integrated Working’ are discussed and, for the purposes of the work a major supposition is adopted: that the difference between these concepts is that companies that are partnering only share project-related information, while companies working in an integrated way share much more of their available information, knowledge and experience. Secondly, the development of the Partnering Assessment Tool is explained and its application to four cases is recounted. The companies’ overall scores are presented and discussed as to whether these scores might reflect their actual levels of integration and cooperative working. These scores are presented on a scale that contains the categories ‘Cooperative Working’, ‘Partnering’ and ‘Integrated Working’. It is concluded that the application of the tool can provide a useful insight in the nature of the relationships between companies that work together in construction projects. Finally, it is recommended that the tool be tested in more cases and companies, and in a variety of different contractual contexts

Network-independent partner selection and the evolution of innovation networks.

Empirical research on strategic alliances has focused on the idea that alliance partners are selected on the basis of social capital considerations. In this paper we emphasize instead the role of complementary knowledge stocks (broadly defined) in partner selection, arguing not only that knowledge complementarity should not be overlooked, but that it may be the true causal force behind alliance formation. To marshal evidence on this point, we design a simple model of partner selection in which firms ally for the purpose of learning and innovating, and in doing so create an industry network. We abstract completely from network-based structural and strategic motives for partner selection and focus instead on the idea that firms’ knowledge bases must “fit” in order for joint leaning and innovation to be possible, and thus for an alliance to be feasible. The striking result is that while containing no social capital considerations, this simple model replicates the firm conduct, network structure, and contingent effects of network position on performance observed and discussed in the empirical literature.

Network-independent partner selection and the evolution of innovation networks

Empirical research on strategic alliances has focused on the idea that alliance partners are selected on the basis of social capital considerations. In this paper we emphasize instead the role of complementary knowledge stocks (broadly defined) in partner selection, arguing not only that knowledge complementarity should not be overlooked, but that is may be the true causal force behind alliance formation. To marshal evidence on this point, we design a simple model of partner selection in which firms ally for the purpose if learning and innovating, and in doing so create an industry network. We abstract completely from network-based structural and strategic motives for partner selection and focus instead on the idea that firms' knowledge bases must "fit" in order for joint learning and innovation to be possible, and thus for an alliance to be feasible. The striking result is what while containing no social capital considerations, the simple model replicates the firm conduct, network structure, and contingent effects of network position on performance observed and discussed in the empirical literature.Network formation and dynamics, Innovation, Knowledge, Alliances

Gozar: NAT-friendly Peer Sampling with One-Hop Distributed NAT Traversal

Gossip-based peer sampling protocols have been widely used as a building block for many large-scale distributed applications. However, Network Address Translation gateways (NATs) cause most existing gossiping protocols to break down, as nodes cannot establish direct connections to nodes behind NATs (private nodes). In addition, most of the existing NAT traversal algorithms for establishing connectivity to private nodes rely on third party servers running at a well-known, public IP addresses. In this paper, we present Gozar, a gossip-based peer sampling service that: (i) provides uniform random samples in the presence of NATs, and (ii) enables direct connectivity to sampled nodes using a fully distributed NAT traversal service, where connection messages require only a single hop to connect to private nodes. We show in simulation that Gozar preserves the randomness properties of a gossip-based peer sampling service. We show the robustness of Gozar when a large fraction of nodes reside behind NATs and also in catastrophic failure scenarios. For example, if 80% of nodes are behind NATs, and 80% of the nodes fail, more than 92% of the remaining nodes stay connected. In addition, we compare Gozar with existing NAT-friendly gossip-based peer sampling services, Nylon and ARRG. We show that Gozar is the only system that supports one-hop NAT traversal, and its overhead is roughly half of Nylon’s

Sustainable Software Ecosystems: Software Engineers, Domain Scientists, and Engineers Collaborating for Science

The development of scientific software is often a partnership between domain scientists and scientific software engineers. It is especially important to embrace these collaborations when developing advanced scientific software, where sustainability, reproducibility, and extensibility are important. In the ideal case, as discussed in this manuscript, this brings together teams composed of the world's foremost scientific experts in a given field with seasoned software developers experienced in forming highly collaborative teams working on software to further scientific research.Comment: 4 pages, submission for WSSSPE

The Distributed Partnering Model for Drug Discovery and Development

Proposes a model for bringing new drugs to market efficiently by creating "product definition companies" that would acquire early-stage discoveries from research institutions and invest in defining product applications to sell to pharmaceutical companies

Fork in the Road: Alternative Paths to a High Performance U.S. Health System

Estimates the cost savings and coverage rates of three options for healthcare reform: an insurance exchange with no public plan, a public plan paying Medicare rates, and a public plan paying rates midway between Medicare and private plan rates

Formalization of the partnering structure for networked businesses

Rapidly changing market demands and increasing competitive pressure cause many businesses implement changes to the way they conduct business. One of these changes is the decision to collaborate with other businesses, forming what we call a 'networked business'. Networked businesses are formed by different organizations working together to reach a common goal. For the participating organizations in a networked business to be able to promptly react to their customers' needs, they must set up as cornerstone a well-defined collaborative partnering structure. In this report we discuss the partnering structure of networked businesses and present a framework for its formalization. Using a case study, we illustrate that existing approaches for value modeling, roles specification, and responsibilities definition can be used successfully if employed in a unifying way to address this structure concept

Teaching Through a Mirror Dimly: Partnering with Christ to Overcome Self

This paper spans the ten years of the author’s career in education, focusing on her personal struggle with wanting to be seen as relevant, spectacular and powerful in the eyes of her students. These three temptations are a framework for her personal reflection, set forth by Henri J. M. Nouwen (1989) in In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership. This paper chronicles the author’s struggles as a first-year K-12 teacher and as a new professor. The author finally recognizes how she sees both her students and herself in a mirror dimly and that partnering with Christ is the way to best serve within the profession