The impact of charter schools on rural traditional public-schools and their communities

Much of the research surrounding charter schools has focused on examining the achievement of students in charter schools and exploring the impact of charter schools specifically in urban areas. More charter schools have opened in recent years in rural areas, however, there is limited research surrounding the impact of these charter schools in rural areas. This study was designed to better understand how rural traditional public-schools have been impacted by the increased presence of, and competition from, charter schools in their communities, and to examine how those rural traditional public-schools have responded to this increased competition. In addition, I studied how the rural communities surrounding these traditional public-schools have been impacted the presence of charter schools in their community. In this qualitative case study, I researched the impacts of charter schools on rural traditional public-schools, the responses of rural traditional public-schools and the impact on their communities. I conducted semi-structured interviews with principals in a school feeder pattern in a rural school district in central North Carolina that has seen an increased number of charter school options arrive in their community. I also conduced semi-structured interviews with small-business owners who were tied into both the rural public-schools and the community through their small businesses, and conducted focus groups with parents from all four schools that operate in the community in which this study was located. I found that rural traditional public-schools have seen numerous impacts from the increased number of charter schools in their communities, and schools and school leaders are increasingly aware of these impacts and are working to mitigate them through increased programs and new practices within their buildings, including through the use of marketing practices and increased offerings for students and parents within their school community. I also found that rural communities are being divided as a result of the increased options for school choice, as parents who see themselves as loyal to their rural traditional public-schools feel betrayed or abandoned by parents who elect to enroll their children in charter schools, and as a result, tensions and divisions have emerged in the community

Charles George Gordon : the evolution of a British hero

During the Second British Empire, Britons actively supported the idealized conception that one lone British officer or civil administrator could accomplish strenuous and often dangerous tasks, through sheer determination and a charismatic personality. Charles George Gordon, during his ill-fated expedition to Khartoum, was portrayed by the majority of Britons as the epitome of this highly romantic image. The purpose of this research is to examine critically the growth and development of the so-called Gordon legend. In doing so, one must attempt to discover the individuals responsible for its creation, while simultaneously examining the social, political and economic environments of Great Britain and certain Oriental countries, which had a direct bearing on the legend itself. Contrary to popular and some scholastic opinion, Gordon was scarcely recognized by the British public during and after his exploits in China (1863-1864) and his early adventures in the Sudan (1874-1879). He only obtained enduring fame from an empire-minded public when he was sent to evacuate Egyptian troops during his second Sudanese mission in 1884

Epi- illumination microscopy coupled to in situ hybridization and its utility in the study of evolution and development in non-model species

Evolutionary developmental biology often combines methods for examining morphology (e.g., scanning electron microscopy, SEM) with analyses of gene expression (e.g., RNA in situ hybridization). Due to differences in tissue preparation for SEM and gene expression analyses, the same specimen cannot be used for both sets of techniques. To aid in the understanding of morphological variation, it would be particularly useful to have a high- magnification image of the very same sample in which gene expression is subsequently analyzed. To address this need, we developed a method that couples extended depth of field (EDF) epi-illumination microscopy to in situ hybridization in a sequential format, enabling both surface microscopy and gene expression analyses to be carried out on the same specimen. We first created a digital image of inflorescence apices using epi-illumination microscopy and commercially available EDF software. We then performed RNA in situ hybridizations on photographed apices to assess the expression of two developmental genes: Knottedl(Knl) in Zea mays (Poaceae) and a PISTILLATA (PI) homolog in Musa basjoo (Musaceae). We demonstrate that expression signal is neither altered nor reduced in the imaged apices as compared with the unphotographed controls. The demonstrated method reduces the amount of sample material necessary for developmental research, and enables individual floral development to be placed in the context of the entire inflorescence. While the technique presented here is particularly relevant to floral developmental biology, it is applicable to any research where observation and description of external features can be fruitfully linked with analyses of gene expression

Character description in phylogenetic analysis: insights from Agnes Arber's concept of the plant

Throughout her work Agnes Arber argues for an inclusive, synthetic concept of the vascular plant as `consisting of a unification of every phase of its existence'. Her view of the leaf as a partial-shoot reflects this unification by relating the part (leaf) to the whole (shoot). According to Arber's view of the plant, the part can be fully understood only in the context of the whole. Morphological character description as it is currently practiced in systematics isin sharp contrast with this holistic view of plant structure. Systematic characters are removed from their context when they are described. This problem is greatest when characters are expressed verbally. Verbal descriptions convey little of the content of the character. A shift from verbal to visual charactersallows systematists to capture more information, including some of the context in which the character occurs. By using a photograph, the fringe on a labellum of Alpinia spp. (Zingiberaceae) can be viewed in the context of the labellum in a way that the word `fringe' cannot convey. The use of pictorial charactersalso allows reliable data storage and retrieval from databases, much as DNA sequences are currently being stored and retrieved. Key words: Agnes Arber, character concept, character state, cladistics, database, holism, partial-shoot theory, phylogeny, phylogenetic systematics, plant morphology, process morphology, typology

Exceptional institutional performance: a case study of three North Carolina community colleges' strategic responses to accountability factors, 2007--2009

Accountability demands on North Carolina community colleges are examined in a qualitative case study of three institutions that met Exceptional Institutional Performance standards set by the North Carolina General Assembly in 2007–2008 or 2008–2009 after not having met them in previous years. The study uses a theoretical foundation of Joseph Burke’s accountability triangle to view the accountability pressures and the resulting strategic planning to successfully confront the pressures of market, political, and academic perspectives. Each college is explored using a within-case model, and a cross- case comparison is made to determine convergent themes of strategic planning. A set of best practices emerges from the common themes of the three colleges for meeting the needs of community constituents, students, and campus constituents through effective plan implementation

Image Quiz: Using principles of cognitive psychology to teach visual expertise

Image Quiz is a cross-platform set of computer programs designed to help users efficiently become visual experts. Unlike novices, visual experts are able to quickly recognize patterns. This allows chess masters to recognize chess configurations and botanists to identify plants from a glimpse out the window of a moving vehicle. The Image Quiz programs help students rapidly achieve this mastery by adapting techniques from cognitive psychology. They are designed to promote holistic processing, the visual processing mode used by experts. This report focuses on the principles behind the Image Quiz programs, and presents some of their major features. The programs can be used in any discipline that depends on visual information. This includes STEM disciplines like chemistry and mathematics

Enumerating indeterminacy

In much of the indeterminate music composed in the 1950s and 60s, the roles of the composer and performer are blurred, the performer having been given control over musical elements previously dictated solely by the composer. Often, decisions must be made by the performer that impact a work’s form and content, the composer’s quiet voice heard only in the directives influencing these decisions. In many cases, these directives lack specificity, allowing for an infinite number of performance possibilities; in some cases, however, composer directives severely restrict that number, permitting it to be discretely counted. To these latter cases we turn our attention, mathematically modeling the composer’s directives to enumerate all possible realizations of certain indeterminate scores. Taking Morton Feldman’s Durations 2 and Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Klavierstück XI as primary examples, we calculate the total number of possible realizations, generalizing each case in order to enumerate the realizations of other works with similar characteristics

Inflorescence and Flower Development in Orchidantha chinensis T. L. Wu (Lowiaceae; Zingiberales): Similarities to Inflorescence Structure in the Strelitziaceae

Premise of research. The monotypic Lowiaceae remains the least-known family in the plant order Zingiberales, yet it may hold an important key to unraveling the phylogenetic placement of the families Musaceae, Heliconiaceae, Strelitziaceae, and Lowiaceae. After nine phylogenetic studies, the (Lowiaceae, Strelitziaceae) clade is the only stable clade that has emerged in this half of the order. This study was undertaken to verify the unusual inflorescence and flower structure in Orchidantha and to search for new characters that might be used in future phylogenetic analyses. We describe both inflorescence and flower development in a previously unstudied species; confirm inflorescence morphology in the genus; and compare the structure of the inflorescence in the Lowiaceae with that of the Strelitziaceae, its potential sister group. Methodology. Standard collection and SEM procedures were used to collect and prepare the material for study. Pivotal results. The inflorescence of Orchidantha is borne at the end of a vegetative shoot and is composed of two lateral branches that each bear four bracts and a single flower before aborting. The fourth bract and its associated flower form the highly reduced flower cluster (florescence) that characterizes this genus. In technical terms, Orchidantha has a polytelic synflorescence that lacks a main florescence (it has a truncated polytelic synflorescence) and bears solitary flowers in coflorescences on determinate enriching branches. The enriching branches produce a fixed number of bracts before aborting (i.e., they are special paracladia). Many of these features are shared with the Strelitziaceae. Conclusions. Similarities between the Lowiaceae and Strelitziaceae include inflorescence structure; the presence of a long prolongation of the ovary; and a delay in the formation of the third sepal during flower development, a character that is also shared with the Musaceae. Inflorescence and flower structure is now well established in this small but important family

The effects of electronic piano instruction on sixth-grade middle- school students' music-reading skills

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of electronic piano instruction on music-reading skills of sixth-grade general music students in a middle school in Forsyth County, North Carolina. Electronic piano instruction and vocal instruction were compared to determine the efficiency of either type of Instruction for increasing aural-visual pitch and rhythm discrimination skills. Students with prior outside-of-school piano experience were compared to students with no prior piano experience to determine which group would benefit from either instructional type. One middle-school general music specialist was chosen randomly from a list of twelve teachers currently teaching in the school district. At the beginning of the 1986-87 academic year, subjects (N=107) within previously scheduled general music classes were designated as either experimental electronic piano groups (N=58) or control vocal groups (N=49). The participating general music specialist taught all classes

Year round education : implementing the first two years in the elementary grades

The purpose of this qualitative/quantitative study was to examine the first two years of the implementation of a year-round education program in the elementary schools of the Mooresville Graded School District in Mooresville, North Carolina. Multiple comparisons were made between the results for students enrolled in the traditional and year-round programs to determine if differences existed in the outcomes of the two at the conclusion of two years. Areas included in the study were student attitudes, student attendance, student achievement, and teacher attitudes