A Quantitative Case Study on Policy and Access at an Urban, Public University

The purpose of this study was to examine how the use of standardized test scores may have had potential impacts on students of color at an urban public university. Historically, standardized test scores have disproportionately impacted students of color and other traditionally marginalized populations in education (Fair Test, 2018). The primary research question of this study addressed the outcomes associated with the heavy reliance on standardized test scores for admission at an urban, public institution. Additionally, the study examined the impact of admissions policies on race and access to higher education. The specific questions for the research included how admission rates varied according to student characteristics. In regards to race, what is the effect on admissions when admissions criteria are increased using standardized test scores? This quantitative study adopted a case study approach. The specific context in this study examined the outcomes associated with increased admissions standards at the University of New Orleans, an urban public university. More specifically, this study only focused on students in the Greater New Orleans area. The primary goal of this research was to apply Disparate Impact analysis to examine if the increase in admissions standardized test scores changed the outcome of who (by race, socioeconomic status, gender, and community type) was admitted or denied admission to the University of New Orleans. This quantitative case study used two statistical tools, chi-square and binary logistic regression, to seek answers to two questions on the use of strict standardized test cut scores in admissions policies. This study added to the existing limited quantitative data on the impact of standardized testing on urban, public universities in the face of changing demographics in their regions. Results showed a significant decrease in applications during the change in admissions policy

Constitutional Implications of School Punishment for Cyber Bullying

In this article, we address the scope of student free speech rights as it relates to cyber bullying. We provide a review of legal theories under which school administrators can address cyber bullying while still respecting student free speech rights and the First Amendment. Additionally, we address the jurisdiction of administrators to deal with off-campus bullying conduct

Cyber Bullying and Free Speech: Striking an Age-Appropriate Balance

Cyber bullying has generally been dealt with by the courts using one of two legal analyses: the “true threats” doctrine, or the Tinker substantial disruption test. This law review, the Cleveland State Law Review, recently published Anti-Cyber Bullying Statutes: Threat to Student Free Speech (referred to herein as “the Threat to Speech article”), which addressed these two theories, and argued that the current evolution of cyber bullying legislation simply goes too far. For example, Hayward states Anti-cyber bullying laws are the greatest threat to student speech because they seek to censor it anytime it occurs, using “substantial disruption” of school activities as justification and often based only on mere suspicion of potential disruption. The Threat to Speech article advocates greater protection of student speech. While we recognize that any regulation of speech by the state may raise First Amendment concerns, we are not so quick to conclude that cyber bullying regulations “chill student free speech.” Our analysis of the law leads us to the conclusion that school administrators have relatively broad discretion to regulate student speech, provided those regulations either serve legitimate pedagogical ends or protect the rights of other students and the school environment. Indeed, as we will demonstrate below, the evolution of the Supreme Court’s student free speech jurisprudence has followed the trend of granting more and more leeway to administrators. Contrary to the claims in the Threat to Speech article, in our opinion that leeway clearly extends to allowing regulation of speech which originates off campus but has a reasonable likelihood of making its way on campus. We also believe that, in addition to true threats and the Tinker substantial disruption standard described in the Threat to Speech article, school administrators may also regulate student speech consistent with the Court’s holding in Fraser—which set what we refer to as the “fundamental values standard” —and based on the fighting words doctrine

Pathways to the Principalship: An Event History Analysis of the Careers of Teachers With Principal Certification

Utilizing rich data on nearly 11,000 educators over 17 academic years in a highly diverse context, we examine the career paths of teachers to determine whether and when they transition into the principalship. We utilize a variety of event history analyses, including discrete-time hazard modeling, to determine how an individual’s race, gender, and their combination—among other characteristics—contribute to their likelihood of making this transition. We found that inequitable pathways to the principalship are not explained by systematic differences in personal and contextual characteristics along lines of race and gender but rather that the selection of school leaders may be a process influenced by systemic bias

The decay of quadrupole-octupole 1−1^- states in 40^{40}Ca and 140^{140}Ce

Background: Two-phonon excitations originating from the coupling of two collective one-phonon states are of great interest in nuclear structure physics. One possibility to generate low-lying $E1$ excitations is the coupling of quadrupole and octupole phonons. Purpose: In this work, the $\gamma$-decay behavior of candidates for the $(2_1^+\otimes 3_1^-)_{1^-}$ state in the doubly-magic nucleus $^{40}$Ca and in the heavier and semi-magic nucleus $^{140}$Ce is investigated. Methods: $(\vec{\gamma},\gamma')$ experiments have been carried out at the High Intensity $\gamma$-ray Source (HI${\gamma}$S) facility in combination with the high-efficiency $\gamma$-ray spectroscopy setup $\gamma^3$ consisting of HPGe and LaBr$_3$ detectors. The setup enables the acquisition of $\gamma$-$\gamma$ coincidence data and, hence, the detection of direct decay paths. Results: In addition to the known ground-state decays, for $^{40}$Ca the decay into the $3^-_1$ state was observed, while for $^{140}$Ce the direct decays into the $2^+_1$ and the $0^+_2$ state were detected. The experimentally deduced transition strengths and excitation energies are compared to theoretical calculations in the framework of EDF theory plus QPM approach and systematically analyzed for $N=82$ isotones. In addition, negative parities for two $J=1$ states in $^{44}$Ca were deduced simultaneously. Conclusions: The experimental findings together with the theoretical calculations support the two-phonon character of the $1^-_1$ excitation in the light-to-medium-mass nucleus $^{40}$Ca as well as in the stable even-even $N=82$ nuclei.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, as accepted in Phys. Rev.

A genetically engineered thermally responsive sustained release curcumin depot to treat neuroinflammation.

Radiculopathy, a painful neuroinflammation that can accompany intervertebral disc herniation, is associated with locally increased levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα). Systemic administration of TNF antagonists for radiculopathy in the clinic has shown mixed results, and there is growing interest in the local delivery of anti-inflammatory drugs to treat this pathology as well as similar inflammatory events of peripheral nerve injury. Curcumin, a known antagonist of TNFα in multiple cell types and tissues, was chemically modified and conjugated to a thermally responsive elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) to create an injectable depot for sustained, local delivery of curcumin to treat neuroinflammation. ELPs are biopolymers capable of thermally-triggered in situ depot formation that have been successfully employed as drug carriers and biomaterials in several applications. ELP-curcumin conjugates were shown to display high drug loading, rapidly release curcumin in vitro via degradable carbamate bonds, and retain in vitro bioactivity against TNFα-induced cytotoxicity and monocyte activation with IC50 only two-fold higher than curcumin. When injected proximal to the sciatic nerve in mice via intramuscular (i.m.) injection, ELP-curcumin conjugates underwent a thermally triggered soluble-insoluble phase transition, leading to in situ formation of a depot that released curcumin over 4days post-injection and decreased plasma AUC 7-fold