The dual role of single parent and professional : a study of gender issues and the work-family role

This participant hermeneutic study focused on the role interaction between work and family responsibilities when one person fulfills the dual role of parent and worker. Three questions were of primary interest: (a) To what degree and in what ways do the role of parent and occupational worker conflict? (b) Is role conflict between that of parent and worker perceived and experienced differently by male and female? (c) In what ways and to what deqree does social learning influence role conflict between home and nonhome roles

Improving educator evaluation in North Carolina

The purpose of this project was to improve ways the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction can develop and implement a process for improving rater agreement performance on Standards 1 through 5 of the North Carolina Professional Teacher Standards. Specifically, I used improvement science methods and the progress of the 360 participants in a pilot of the state’s web-based Observation Calibration Training (OCT) system over a seven-month period. Data analysis included a pretest and posttest to determine improvement in rater agreement from the participation of the pilot program OCT. Additional data analysis followed each of the three interventions implemented during the course of the OCT to improve rater agreement and inform project modifications and next steps, with the goal of improving the participants’ teacher evaluation competence. A plan for periodic assessment of change and analysis of progress toward improvement included monthly performance data reports, including participation and performance, to ensure that the OCT pilot was progressing for participants and to identify the elements, from the Professional Teacher Standards, that participants were scoring correctly and incorrectly. Based on these data, I developed and facilitated webinar interventions and supporting resources to address identified rating performance issues. The goal was to use the results of this project to inform phase 2 of the OCT statewide training plan in ways that will increase the likelihood of participants’ improvement in rating teaching behaviors

The way we learned : rural schooling in Nebraska (1915-1925)

The purpose of this study was to gain understanding about children's schooling experiences within rural or one-room schools through the narratives of persons who attended them. This research project was conducted within the qualitative paradigm using narrative methodology. The context of narrative methodology, the place of memory within that context, and the feminization of the teaching profession are also discussed. The narratives of five persons who were schooled in one-room schools during the second decade of this century (1915-1925) were collected and analyzed. The "little red schoolhouse" has established a unique place in the history of the United States and in the history of American education. As the country was settled, rural schools dotted the landscape and became critical to a community's sense of permanence, with the number of rural schools reaching a numerical peak in the last two decades of the 19th century and steadily declining in the 20th century. The country school has been portrayed as an extension of the family, a place where children were expected to learn, to mind, and to become good citizens. While questions continue to be asked about the quality of the country school experience, the narratives analyzed in this research present that experience as very positive and motivating

An introduction to the game of hex

Hex is a tree game (defined in chapter II) with several interesting properties. Hex never ends in a draw. Either White, the player who moves first, or Black, the other player, can force a win. If Black can force a win, then White can force a win. This leads to the conclusion that White can force a win. All of this is established in chapter II. Although it Is known that White can force a win if he plays correctly, a winning strategy for the general n x n Hex game, where n is any positive integer, has yet to be discovered. Chapter III investigates some basic principles of strategy and gives paired strategies for Hex games of sizes 2 x 2, 3 x 3, 4 x 4, and 5 x 5. In chapter IV some winning and losing opening moves for White are explored. And finally a winning strategy for White in a 7 x 7 Hex game is developed

The North Carolina Contractual Scholarship Fund program : outcomes, administrative practices, and implications for self regulation for a state-supported student aid program at independent colleges and universities

Since 1972, the State of North Carolina has funded a program of student financial assistance, called the North Carolina Contractual Scholarship Fund (NCCSF), for residents who attend North Carolina private colleges and universities. This study acts as an evaluation of the NCCSF with two purposes: (1) to determine whether the achieved outcomes are the intended of the program; and, (2) to examine NCCSF administrative operations to discover whether there are common practices among the institutions participating in the NCCSF and whether additional initiatives of self regulation are necessary. The evaluation framework contains eight outcome indicators addressing both enrollment and institutional demographics. Data from existing higher education statistics are used in the analysis of outcome indicators. Indicators of administrative process and practice are driven by seven common elements of financial aid administration found in federal Title IV student financial aid programs. These indicators are tested with data assembled by a field survey questionnaire. An action model for securing self-regulation goals is also presented

Networking in curriculum planning : the development and application of a model

The purpose of this study was to create an analytic and programmatic model of networking for application to an existing educational setting. The model created was designed to bring social studies teachers together along with community people for the purpose of informal curriculum planning. A model was created which used the settings models of Sarason and Brubaker as guides for the basic structure of the final product. Theory and practice were joined together in the model in terms of using settings theory within the context of traditional teacher attitudes toward involvement in curriculum planning. In creating the model, the aspects of the before-the-beginning history of the setting, emergence of leadership, formation of a core group, goal setting and articulation of network concerns, and resource exchange were utilized

The clarinet concerto of Ralph Hermann: recording, publication, and preservation

I. Solo Recital: Thursday, April 21, 2011, 7:30 p.m., Recital Hall. Concerto No. 2 in F minor Op. 5 (Bernhard Henrik Crusell); Rhapsody for Alto Saxophone (Ralph Hermann); Romance (Franz Schubert); Three Folk Songs Op. 19 (John McCabe); Concerto (Aaron Copland) II. Solo Recital: Saturday, March 17, 2012, 1:30 p.m., Recital Hall. Sonata (Arnold Bax); To Be Sung Upon the Water (Dominick Argento); Concerto (Elie Siegmeister III. Solo Recital: Friday, April 26th, 2013, 7:30 p.m. Presbyterian Church of the Covenant, Greensboro, NC. Concerto for Clarinet, Op. 28 (Burnet Tuthill); Three American Pieces (Lukas Foss); Capricho Pintoresco (Miguel Yuste); Trio in E flat major "Kegelstatt," K. 498 (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart); Concerto for Doubles (Ralph Hermann) IV. D.M.A. Research Project. THE CLARINET CONCERTO OF RALPH HERMANN: RECORDING, PUBLICATION, AND PRESERVATION. The landscape of American music is not complete without the preservation and consciousness of the lesser known composers, such as American composer Ralph Hermann. This document details the procedures necessary for the preservation of the Clarinet Concerto by Ralph Hermann. The procedures that are detailed and examined include (a) recital performances, (b) recordings, (c) publishing, and (d) digitization. The appendix includes both a copy of the concerto manuscript in Herman's hand and an edited version that was created for publication

The legality of teacher dismissals for immorality

Most states list immorality as a statutory cause for teacher dismissal. Under the authority of state statutes, school boards are the legal agents in employing teachers and in determining what conduct constitutes immorality as a basis for dismissal. Due to the fact that immorality is a nebulous term, much debate and litigation centers around the lack of a common conception of the term. Teachers have challenged the right of school boards to judge their morality and to discipline teachers accordingly. And the courts are playing an increasingly prominent role in such matters where constitutional rights are at stake. Data for this study are based primarily on dismissal court cases during the period of 1967 through January 1976. All state statutes were searched to determine statutory provisions for dealing with dismissals and to determine any trend toward amendments in view of recent litigation. Additional data have been collected through a review of the literature and a nation-wide survey of chief state school officers and state attorney generals

A critical study of Thomas Middleton's Hengist, king of Kent

Criticism of Thomas Middleton's earliest known tragedy, Hengist, King of Kent: or The Mayor of Queenborough, has been largely either negative or negligible. Hengist is available in a well edited text prepared by R. C. Bald in 1938 from a seventeenth-century manuscript, and study of the play, in the light of present knowledge, indicates that it deserves more serious critical attention than it has received. Such a reassessment is the purpose of this study. When placed in its historical perspective, through an examination of the questions of authorship, dating, stage history, sources, and its relationship to the history play, Hengist is seen to be the product of Middleton's mature genius. Comparison of the finished play with its known sources provides an interesting look at the author's creative process. Where the play deviates from the sources, it reveals Middleton's use of history as a springboard for his own tragic vision. Much of the negative criticism of Hengist hinges on its apparent lack of unity, reflected in the double title (which refers to the main and subplots). It can be demonstrated, however, that the play's theme (ambition) is amplified in the imagery and characterization, and that all of these elements contribute to its cohesiveness. Middleton implements this theme largely through a technique of balance and contrast

Characterizing the role of MTW1 in the kinetochore of the pathogenic yeast Cryptococcus neoformans

Cryptococcus neoformans is a basidiomycetous yeast with clinical importance due to its role as an opportunistic pathogen in immunocompromised individuals. Upon exposure to C. neoformans patients may develop a disease known as cryptococcosis, a condition associated with pulmonary infections that may result in lethal meningoencephalitis. This disease is often accompanied by aneuploidies of single or multiple chromosomes in a subpopulation of the infecting cells, leading to the idea that missegregation of chromosomes during infection may be a way for this organism to deal with stresses and acquiring antifungal resistance. Because this species is rapidly developing resistance to many of the prevalent antifungal treatments, a need exists for more potent therapies with fewer side effects. The molecular biology concerning cellular reproduction and division in C. neoformans is poorly understood for such an important fungal pathogen. The research performed so far has produced information about such structures as the centromeric DNA of their chromosomes and the kinetochore protein superstructure that links the spindle microtubules to the centromeres. Understanding how chromosome segregation occurs in C. neoformans may bring about better therapies: if it can be shown that homologous proteins perform the same actions in Cryptococcus as they do in other organisms then these proteins may potentially become targets for future studies to determine the mechanism linking the presence of antifungal chemicals to aneuploidy. The kinetochore protein complex is essential for segregation of chromosomes. Previous experiments have described a protein essential to the structure and function of the yeast kinetochore. The necessity of this protein for kinetochore function was first determined using an Schizosaccharomyces pombe strain carrying a temperature-sensitive mutation in the Mis12 gene that causes the protein to malfunction above a certain temperature. It was found that when grown above the restrictive temperature cells were unable to complete mitotic segregation, with the dividing nucleus stuck in the neck between budding cells. A later study described the budding yeast homolog MTW1 (Mis12-like protein) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae using a similar temperature-sensitive mutant and yielded similar results. This protein is part of a subcomplex of kinetochore proteins called the MIND complex. One goal of this project is to characterize the MTW1 homolog in C. neoformans in order to determine whether it maintains the functional importance to kinetochore structure exhibited by the previously described homologs. This has been addressed through the construction of similar temperature-sensitive mutants and by regulating the gene expression through regulatable CTR4 promoter. These strains were created through the use of overlap PCR and biolistic transformation. Molecular and phenotypic characterizations have been performed on these strains and include growth and morphological analyses. Results have confirmed the presence of the desired mutations and have shown some inhibitory effect on growth under restrictive conditions. RNA interference was performed in an effort to demonstrate the necessity of various kinetochore proteins. Initial results indicate that MTW1, along with the outer kinetochore gene DAD2, are not essential whereas several other MIND complex genes (NNF1, DSN1) and inner (CSE4, MIF2) and outer (DAD1) kinetochore genes were shown to be necessary for viability of the yeast cells. These results are in accordance with those obtained through the use of strains with conditional mutations in MTW1. These results imply that while CnMTW1 probably acts in the same capacity as that of its ascomycetous homologs and is necessary for optimal kinetochore function, it is not essential for chromosome segregation