Current Realities for Public Schools

Administrators in today\u27s schools work in a constant state of flux; change is the norm. Congress\u27 recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Act, through the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), provides a signal example. Just as many were beginning to fully understand and adjust to the implications of the now defunct No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, there\u27s a new set of rules to play by

The Changing Landscape of Leadership

Leading a campus is not what it used to be (nor is teaching a class, being a student, or raising a child for that matter). The increasing pace of societal and technological change provides an ever-evolving backdrop against which educational leaders view and conduct their work. Overlay a culture of accountability enacted amid budget cuts, surging enrollments, and shifting demographics, and the roles of school leaders become clouded with uncertainty, imbued with responsibility, and demanding increased personal commitment and professional and technical knowledge. One principal preparation student recently commented that her teaching colleagues routinely asked her, Why in the world do you want to do that? Upon reflection, it\u27s a valid question we should all answer

Do agonistic behaviours bias baited remote underwater video surveys of fish?

Marine environments require monitoring to determine the effects of impacts such as climate change, coastal development and pollution and also to assess the effectiveness of conservation measures. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are being established globally and require periodic monitoring to determine whether their objectives are being met. Baited underwater video systems are becoming a popular method for monitoring change within protected fish populations, because they are less damaging to habitats than bottom trawling and allow for more statistical powerful comparisons to determine spatial and temporal patterns in the relative abundances, lengths and biomass of demersal and pelagic fishes. However, much remains uncertain about how interactions between the fish and bait and between the fish themselves affect the results obtained. Agonistic behaviours are frequently observed around the bait of the camera and potentially bias fish density estimates by altering the number and size classes seen at cameras. Here we counted the number of agonistic behaviours between pink snappers (Pagrus auratus), the size of fish involved and whether the fish left the field of view following such behaviours. The study consisted of 20 baited underwater video deployments inside a New Zealand marine reserve and 20 in adjacent open areas. We observed a significant relationship between the peak number of fish observed at the camera and the total number of agonistic behaviours, as well as the number of both aggressor and subordinate fish leaving the camera field of view following interactions. The slope of the latter relationship and thus the absolute numbers of fish leaving were higher for subordinate fish. As subordinates were significantly smaller than aggressors, the apparent size frequency distribution is likely skewed away from smaller size classes. The staying time of the fish and thus the maximum number of fish present at the camera will be reduced by agonistic behaviours and the absolute magnitude of this effect appears to be greater at high fish densities. Our results suggest that an overall effect of these phenomena is to underestimate the differences in abundance between MPAs and open areas, but also to overestimate differences in average size

The Role of Solar Soft X-rays Irradiance in Thermospheric Structure

We use a new Atmospheric Chemistry and Energetics one-dimensional (ACE1D) thermospheric model to show that the energies deposited by the solar soft x-rays in the lower thermosphere at altitudes between 100 -150 km (Bailey et al. 2000), affects the temperature of the entire Earth's thermosphere even at altitudes well above 300 km. By turning off the input solar flux in the different wavelength bins of the model iteratively, we are able to demonstrate that the maximum change in exospheric temperature is due to the changes in the soft x-ray solar bins. We also show, using the thermodynamic heat equation, that the molecular diffusion via non-thermal photoelectrons, is the main source of heat transfer to the upper ionosphere/thermosphere and results in the increase of the temperature of the neutral atmosphere. Moreover, these temperature change and heating effects of the solar soft x-rays are comparable to that of the strong HeII 30.4nm emission. Lastly, we show that the uncertainties in the solar flux irradiance at these soft x-rays wavelengths result in corresponding uncertainties in modeled exospheric temperature and the uncertainties increase with increased solar activity

Filling in the Blanks

Whether you are a practitioner involved in public education, a researcher in higher education, a policymaker, a proponent of privatization, a homeschool advocate, a concerned parent, or just an anxious taxpayer, the one adjective around which we could probably build consensus to fill the blank is uncertain, for uncertain is most certainly an apt descriptor of these times. Issues remain unsettled; courses of action remain undetermined; fundamental beliefs remain unresolved; and, emotions remain uneased. Some see a future fraught with rancor and divisiveness, while others simultaneously swell with optimism at the possibilities that lie ahead: polar opposite views in a polarized world

Storm Clouds

This issue of School Leadership Review comes at a time when many states and territories are dealing with the aftermath of hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. Unprecedented rains, catastrophic winds, and historic levels of sustained flooding have devastated many communities, as well as the schools and universities within them. These awful disasters brought the loss of lives as well as total destruction of homes, businesses, and campuses. Perhaps the historic ferocity of these storms is coincidental or, more likely, they were fueled by a warmer than ever ocean, but whatever the cause, the impacts of these storms leave immense structural damage with lasting repercussions to these communities

The Kuiper Belt and Olbers Paradox

We investigate the constraints that Olbers Paradox, applied to the Zodiacal Background as measured from space, sets on outer solar system objects. If extended to very faint limits, R = 40--50 mag, the steep optical luminosity function (LF) of Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) at R less than 26 mag implies an infinitely bright night sky. Small KBOs with radii of 1 mm to 1 km must have a size distribution n(r) proportional to r^{-a}, with a = 3.5 or smaller to satisfy the known limits on the sky-surface brightness at optical and far-infrared wavelengths. Improved limits on the measured KBO surface brightness can yield direct estimates of the albedo, temperature, and size distribution for small KBOs in the outer solar system.Comment: 4 pages and 2 figures; submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letter