Public colleges for educational access in Colorado

2014 Summer.This thesis explores the frameworks for university-funded educational access programs in Colorado. Through the use of qualitative methods, I conduct a case study of 6 access programs, their practitioners, and their undergraduate student volunteers. I examine the values and social position of access practitioners as well as their ability to work across traditional social and institutional boundaries. Employing a network analytic approach, I examine and conceptualize the structure and connectivity of both federal Trio and university-funded access programs. My research shows that both Trio and access programs are well positioned for mutually beneficial collaborations. This includes access providing services for Trio parents and families and Trio sharing program evaluation metrics with access programs. Additionally, access programs have a unique ability capacity to recruit and retain students because of their position within universities. Finally, recommendations are made for access program transferability and sustainability. Near-peer mentoring and provide culturally-relevant programs are highly exportable aspects of access programs. In order to sustain access programs, practitioners should link their program to university strategic priorities while also involving high-level university officials in program development and assessment

A comparative analysis of state historic tax credit programs as tools for affordable housing projects

Historic tax credit (HTC) programs and similar financial incentives have historically filled a critical financing gap in the rehabilitation of historic buildings, effectively providing capital to projects that otherwise would not be economically feasible and generating development in small or economically disadvantaged communities. Specifically, state HTC programs parallel to the federal historic tax credit program leverage additional private and local investment and encourage the stewardship and rehabilitation of historic buildings. State HTC programs also generate several benefits throughout local communities, including the creation and preservation of affordable housing units. As cities seek out ways to mitigate a growing number of affordable housing problems and reinvest in their historic built environment, financial incentives at the state level figure to have an important, if not critical, role. Therefore, this thesis cross-analyzes all state historic tax credit programs throughout the United States to determine the most effective attributes for generating rehabilitation projects with affordable housing outcomes. This thesis identifies how state programs can catalyze affordable housing through the historic built environment by way of a comparative analysis of the regulatory structure of state HTC programs and a qualitative synthesis of program data from recent fiscal years. The analysis relies on a national survey of existing enabling legislation across each state, HTC coordinator communication, and case studies to determine the enabling and constraining attributes of state HTC programs as determinants of affordable housing rehabilitations and preservation

Modeling structural change in spatial system dynamics: A Daisyworld example

System dynamics (SD) is an effective approach for helping reveal the temporal behavior of complex systems. Although there have been recent developments in expanding SD to include systems' spatial dependencies, most applications have been restricted to the simulation of diffusion processes; this is especially true for models on structural change (e.g. LULC modeling). To address this shortcoming, a Python program is proposed to tightly couple SD software to a Geographic Information System (GIS). The approach provides the required capacities for handling bidirectional and synchronized interactions of operations between SD and GIS. In order to illustrate the concept and the techniques proposed for simulating structural changes, a fictitious environment called Daisyworld has been recreated in a spatial system dynamics (SSD) environment. The comparison of spatial and non-spatial simulations emphasizes the importance of considering spatio-temporal feedbacks. Finally, practical applications of structural change models in agriculture and disaster management are proposed

A distributed computer system

The goal of this project Is to plan and develop a computing system that will provide interactive computing services with a high degree of reliability, a variety of language systems, incremental expansion capability, competitive costs, a respect for human factors considerations; and the project will require only a modest amount of system programming resources

Spacelab software development and integration concepts study report, volume 1

The proposed software guidelines to be followed by the European Space Research Organization in the development of software for the Spacelab being developed for use as a payload for the space shuttle are documented. Concepts, techniques, and tools needed to assure the success of a programming project are defined as they relate to operation of the data management subsystem, support of experiments and space applications, use with ground support equipment, and for integration testing

Pre-service teachers' preparedness for classroom teaching: An investigation of teacher education program transferability and connection to ESL Classroom / Abang Fhaeizdhyall Abang Madaud

The major purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent do pre-service teachers apply the methods, theory, and training received during years of training in the teacher training program into their classroom teaching. Additionally, this study also examines the perceptions of pre-service teachers’ supervisors of their supervisees’ preparedness to enter the real world of teaching by analyzing their teaching ability in terms of content, pedagogical and grammar knowledge. Five interrelated research questions were formulated to guide the study; (1) What are the specific aspects of the teacher education program that helped the pre-service teachers during their teaching practicum?; (2) What are the difficulties and challenges faced by the pre-service teachers in the program and how to overcome them?; (3) How prepared are the pre-service teachers to teach English?; (4) To what extent are the strengths and weaknesses of the pre-service teachers as perceived by the university supervisors?; (5) What are the suggestions and recommendations by the trainees to better improve the current teacher education program? The sample involved in the study were pre-service teachers from the Bachelor in Education TESL program who had just completed their 3-month teaching practicum and are currently in the final semester. In addition, the university supervisors were also selected to be included as the participants of the study to answer research question number four. This study employed a qualitative research design and the data sources included pre-service teacher questionnaires and interviews, document analysis, and university supervisor interviews. The questionnaire distribution phase was conducted with 68 pre-service teachers who came for a one-day post mortem of their teaching practicum. Subsequently, interview sessions were conducted with 7 of the respondents afterwards. To gain better insight of the issues in teacher preparation program, interview with 5 university supervisors were also conducted. The findings of this study revealed significant courses such as ethodology courses and classroom management, theories in language learning, drama project, and microteaching experience as the important aspects that contributed to the trainees’ preparedness to teach. Additionally, the trainees also stated the challenges they faced in the program are in terms of dealing with the school students, their self-belief, the role of the supervisors and school related issues. Overall perceived preparedness to teach shows that the pre-service teachers perceived themselves as moderately prepared to teach which was similar to their supervisors’ perceptions. This study also revealed some strengths and weaknesses of the trainees in terms of grammatical knowledge, content knowledge and effectiveness in teaching, in which the supervisors have also provided some suggestions to address them. To conclude, the trainees offer some suggestions for improvement of the current teacher education program in terms of developing trainees’ teaching experience, courses amendment, authentic school experience, and removal of some less significant courses

Doctor of Education Newsletter 2020

WSU Doctor of Education Cohort 2020 This newsletter was created by the second Education Doctorate graduate student cohort 2020.https://openriver.winona.edu/educationeddnewsletters/1001/thumbnail.jp

Local Partners’ Perspectives on Health Student Service-Learning Placements in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Pilot Qualitative Study with Partners from Vietnam and Timor-Leste

Service-learning programs can provide clinical assistance in low-resourced settings while providing students with intercultural learning opportunities in diverse health contexts; local partners’ perspectives on international service-learning (ISL) programs are integral to ethical, effective and sustainable university-community partnerships; yet the perspectives of local partners remain under-represented in research. Interpretive description methods guided data collection and thematic analysis of qualitative responses from written questionnaires. Four local partners from Vietnam and Timor-Leste responded to questionnaires in this pilot project. Three themes were identified regarding benefits, underpinning factors for program effectiveness, and a further three themes related to desired improvements. According to local partners, benefits of ISL include skill and knowledge exchange, enhanced assessment and intervention strategies, and increased service quality. Communication and relationships were seen as underpinning factors of effective partnerships. Areas for further improvement included drawing more strongly on local partner strengths and perspectives, further collaborative preparation for the placements, and more regular communication. These preliminary findings align with existing research regarding benefits to local partners. Modelling effective practices, formal training and meetings, and ongoing case discussions may be some useful methods for achieving knowledge and skill exchange in ISL