Characteristics of Effective Reading Language Arts Teachers in Closing the Achievement Gap

This study examined an urban school district in the southern United States that continued to experience student achievement gaps despite the implementation of initiatives as the African American Success Initiative. The school leadership needed a deeper understanding regarding what strategies were successful with closing the achievement gap. Using Gay\u27s theory of cultural responsive pedagogy, the purpose of this study was to identify inward attributes, outward strategies, and professional development perceptions of teachers with no achievement gap among ethnically diverse students. Employing an instrumental case study design, 8 middle school reading teachers who closed the reading achievement gap were interviewed; these narratives were supplemented with classroom observations and archival data of district-administered students\u27 surveys for the teachers, professional development plans, and teacher lesson plans. Data were analyzed using comparative and inductive analysis and were thematically coded. Findings indicated that teachers who closed the achievement gap shared culturally responsive characteristics and behaviors, including a caring attitude, high expectations, content relevance, and a belief that their existing Professional Development (PD) was not specific to the needs of teachers working in high-minority, low-socioeconomic urban school environments. A 3-day PD was designed to produce positive social change by reframing the beliefs, responses, and approaches to teaching minority students, allowing teachers to develop stronger teacher-student relationships, tolerance, and strategies, to ultimately increase student motivation and achievement

THE APPLICATION AND EMPLOYMENT OF SPECIAL FORCES TO EFFECTIVELY OPERATE IN THE MULTI-DOMAIN OPERATIONS ENVIRONMENT OF LARGE-SCALE COMBAT OPERATIONS

With the U.S. military’s shift in focus to large-scale combat operations (LSCO) in a multi-domain operations (MDO) environment, special forces (SF) must adapt and develop new strategies to operate and succeed in a new technologically enabled combat environment. MDO warfare has evolved and now includes the 4th dimension of information, electronic, and cyber warfare. The prevalence of information through open-source internet, radio, and television as well as a high reliance on electronic communications equipment has enhanced the offense opportunities for both the United States and its adversaries alike. Designed and assembled in an era prior to the MDO environment, the SF force structure currently lacks some of the capabilities to effectively operate and thrive on modern battlefields. Capabilities such as electronic warfare or employment and exploitation of cyber space hold significant influence on the battlespace, which SF units are ill prepared to employ or exploit. As a result, SF units should reconsider their capabilities when it comes to penetrating and disabling the anti-access area denial (A2/AD) bubbles established by our enemies. SF should also consider the tools required to destroy or disable A2/AD. Ultimately, SF must reanalyze how they are positioned and employed within LSCO. A look at modern-era case studies show that SF must adapt its capabilities and force structure if it is to remain relevant and effective in future conflicts.Major, United States ArmyMajor, United States ArmyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Developing a Spiritual Growth Pathway for Adults at St. Matthias Episcopal Church

The goal of this project is to lay foundations at St. Matthias Episcopal Church for a new adult educational ministry that designs a contextualized pathway for spiritual growth, train lay leaders, and initiate small groups. The purpose is to deepen community and cultivate spiritual maturity among the church’s members. Particular attention is given to the social-emotional dimensions of Christian maturity, with reflection on both the classical call to “love God and neighbor” and the current contributions of developmental psychology toward an understanding of human and Christian maturity. St. Matthias Episcopal Church is an historic church in Whittier, California, seeking renewal after years of declining attendance and morale. The church’s seasons of growth and decline correlate largely with those of the urban Uptown Whittier location in which it is set. This paper traces those seasons of growth and decline, reflecting on the current challenges for renewal faced by the church and its new rector, Father William Garrison. A pilot small group worked with Father Garrison to achieve these foundational aims over a period of twelve to eighteen months. Part one of this paper considers the communities of Whittier and St. Matthias, naming some of the hopeful signs of renewal evident in recent years. Part two asserts that the social-emotional dimension is an often underdeveloped aspect of Christian discipleship. It also reflects on what a vision and pathway for cultivating Christian maturity would look like in the theologically diverse context of St. Matthias. Part three shares the results from the pilot small group. The church’s encouraging progress is summarized toward: designing a growth pathway, shifting congregational culture, deepening bonds of community, launching new groups, and training new lay leaders. Remaining challenges and future work to be done in the years ahead are also briefly considered

Enterprise Resource Planning Systems and Their Impact on Development and Training: A Study of Instructional Methods in North America

One of the most important issues facing the modern world today is the Year 2000 problem. One of the greatest impacts of this problem is experienced by legacy computer systems. These are the database systems that run our businesses. Legacy systems are operated by segregated software packages that may or may not be able to communicate to each other. With the globalization of the economy, business computer systems need to be able to communicate with each other. This type of situation is what enterprise resource planning software is designed to solve. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems provide a common, consistent system to capture data organization-wide without redundancies. ERP is defined as a software management system that integrates all facets of the business, including planning, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. In addition to integrating the information across functions, also provides a set of tools for planning and monitoring the organizational functions and ensuring progress towards a common organizational goal (Sudhakar, 1998). As ERP methodology has become more popular, software applications have emerged to help business managers implement ERP. The purpose of this pilot study is to identify development times and delivery methods for high-level computer technology training. This has become an issue for Human Resource Development (HRD) because of the Year 2000 situation and its resulting issues, which have compelled businesses around North America to implement these ERP systems. After circulating a survey for almost seven month, the data collection period ended in March 1999. The response rate of 47 returned surveys from 63 requests calculates to 74.6%. A total of 34, or 72%, of respondents developed training programs for high-level computer technology

University Students’ Perceptions of Social Justice: The Impact of Implementing a Summer Camp for Children with Disabilities

University students who experience real‐world service tend to develop a more inclusive world view and enhanced understandings outside of their personal perspectives. This project combined course objectives, community collaboration, and service provision to identify the impact of students’ understanding of social justice and disability access realities. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of a service‐learning university course on social justice education. The study explored how constructs including empathy, attitudes towards diversity, self‐efficacy, and personal communication (of undergraduate university students) were impacted by interactions with children with disabilities in a summer camp setting that included various activities (e.g., art, equestrian). The study utilized surveys completed by university students prior to a service‐learning experience and again after the project. Pre‐ and during‐ camp reflection data were also analyzed

Biological Cell Discrimination Based on Their High Frequency Dielectropheretic Signatures at UHF Frequencies

2017 International Microwave Symposium paper entitled "Biological Cell Discrimination Based on Their High Frequency Dielectropheretic Signatures at UHF Frequencies". Honolulu June 4-9th 2017. Amended version: see additional notes.This version amends the wrong naming in the previous record: the conference is the IEEE IMS 2017, not 2018

The global mesoscale eddy available potential energy field in models and observations

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140400/1/jgr_2017_lueckeetal_lowfrequencyEAPE.pdfDescription of jgr_2017_lueckeetal_lowfrequencyEAPE.pdf : Mian articl

Children reading to dogs: a systematic review of the literature

Background Despite growing interest in the value of human-animal interactions (HAI) to human mental and physical health the quality of the evidence on which postulated benefits from animals to human psychological health are based is often unclear. To date there exist no systematic reviews on the effects of HAI in educational settings specifically focussing on the perceived benefits to children of reading to dogs. With rising popularity and implementation of these programmes in schools, it is essential that the evidence base exploring the pedagogic value of these initiatives is well documented. Methods Using PRISMA guidelines we systematically investigated the literature reporting the pedagogic effects of reading to dogs. Because research in this area is in the early stages of scientific enquiry we adopted broad inclusion criteria, accepting all reports which discussed measurable effects related to the topic that were written in English. Multiple online databases were searched during January-March 2015; grey literature searches were also conducted. The search results which met the inclusion criteria were evaluated, and discussed, in relation to the Oxford Centre for Evidence Based Medicine levels of evidence; 27 papers were classified as Level 5, 13 as Level 4, 7 as Level 2c and 1 as Level 2b. Conclusion The evidence suggests that reading to a dog may have a beneficial effect on a number of behavioural processes which contribute to a positive effect on the environment in which reading is practiced, leading to improved reading performance. However, the evidence base on which these inferences are made is of low quality. There is a clear need for the use of higher quality research methodologies and the inclusion of appropriate controls in order to draw causal inferences on whether or how reading to dogs may benefit children’s reading practices. The mechanisms for any effect remain a matter of conjectur