The Impact Of Professional Development Of Effective Teachers In Low Performing Schools

Abstract Professional development is a substantial contributing factor to the success or lack of success in low-performing schools. Specific student-focused professional development can be used to increase academic achievement, school culture, and the level of effective teaching. A lack of attention to school-specific professional development can contribute to low student achievement, diminished school culture, and reduced teacher efficiency. In Florida, public schools have implemented the “4 Professional Development Standards” (Planning, Learning, Implementation, and Evaluation) to act as a tool to identify best practices in schools and classrooms as well as to determine what professional development is needed to improve instructional practices. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to examine the perspectives of teachers and school leaders regarding student-centric professional development and its effects on school culture, student achievement, and teacher productivity in low-performing schools. The study involved face-to-face interviews with teachers who participated in strategic professional development and school administrators who were integral in implementing professional development. Results showed eight of the 10 participants embraced schoolwide professional development that contained a focus on school culture, student achievement, and teacher productivity

Public Health Informatics in Local and State Health Agencies: An Update From the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey

OBJECTIVE: To characterize public health informatics (PHI) specialists and identify the informatics needs of the public health workforce. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: US local and state health agencies. PARTICIPANTS: Employees from state health agencies central office (SHA-COs) and local health departments (LHDs) participating in the 2017 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS). We characterized and compared the job roles for self-reported PHI, "information technology specialist or information system manager" (IT/IS), "public health science" (PHS), and "clinical and laboratory" workers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Descriptive statistics for demographics, income, education, public health experience, program area, job satisfaction, and workplace environment, as well as data and informatics skills and needs. RESULTS: A total of 17 136 SHA-CO and 26 533 LHD employees participated in the survey. PHI specialist was self-reported as a job role among 1.1% and 0.3% of SHA-CO and LHD employees. The PHI segment most closely resembled PHS employees but had less public health experience and had lower salaries. Overall, fewer than one-third of PHI specialists reported working in an informatics program area, often supporting epidemiology and surveillance, vital records, and communicable disease. Compared with PH WINS 2014, current PHI respondents' satisfaction with their job and workplace environment moved toward more neutral and negative responses, while the IT/IS, PHS, and clinical and laboratory subgroups shifted toward more positive responses. The PHI specialists were less likely than those in IT/IS, PHS, or clinical and laboratory roles to report gaps in needed data and informatics skills. CONCLUSIONS: The informatics specialists' role continues to be rare in public health agencies, and those filling that role tend to have less public health experience and be less well compensated than staff in other technically focused positions. Significant data and informatics skills gaps persist among the broader public health workforce

Longitudinal Analysis of Relationships Between Planning and Performance in Small Firms

This paper investigates causal relationships between planning and performance utilizing a longitudinal database with responses from the same 2,956 businesses over a four-year period. Results confirm the association between planning activity and performance that is evident in most extant literature. They also, however, cast doubt on the traditional perception of the causal sequence of that association. Although subject to a number of limitations, the results indicate that planning is more likely to be introduced into a small firm after a period of growth rather than before a period of growth. These results make an important contribution to understanding the planning performance relationship for two main reasons: they overcome the static data and relatively smaller sample size restrictions of many past studies; and, they provide evidence concerning the sequence of the relationship between planning and performance

Budgets, Internal Reports, and Manager Forecast Accuracy

This study investigates the association between the accuracy of revenue forecasts and the accounting activities of budget preparation and internal accounting report preparation. While both budgets and internal reports are widely used, empirical evidence concerning their influence on the prediction of future performance is extremely limited. Consistent with the availability of formal accounting information improving predictive performance, we observe that internal accounting report preparation significantly improves forecast accuracy. However, partitioning firms by forecasting difficulty reveals that the accuracy benefits from internal reports preparation are only observed for firms with high uncertainty. Further, the results provide limited support for linkages between budget preparation and forecast accuracy. While we observe that the use of budget preparation and internal accounting report preparation is a function of firms’ structural and environmental characteristics, firms do not appear to adopt these activities as a function of forecasting difficulty, but rather as a function of predicted changes in future growth

Cd3As2 is Centrosymmetric

This is a revised version of a manuscript that was originally posted here in February of 2014. It has been accepted at the journal Inorganic Chemistry after reviews that included those of two crystallographers who made sure all the t's were crossed and the i's were dotted. The old work (from 1968) that said that Cd3As2 was noncentrosymmetric was mistaken, with the authors of that study making a type of error that in the 1980s became infamous in crystallography. As a result of the increased scrutiny of the issue of centrosymmetricity of the 1980's, there are now much better analysis tools to resolve the issue fully, and its important to understand that not just our crystals are centrosymmetric, even the old guy's crystals were centrosymmetric (and by implication everyone's are). There is no shame in having made that error back in the day and those authors would not find the current centrosymmetric result controversial; their paper is excellent in all other aspects. This manuscript describes how the structure is determined, explains the structure schematically, calculates the electronic structure based on the correct centrosymmetric crystal structure, and gives the structural details that should be used for future analysis and modeling.Comment: Accepted by ACS Inorganic Chemistr

U.S. Firm outsourcing/offshoring practices and plans: an update

A study of U.S. firm outsourcing and offshoring practices and future plans regarding supply chain activities provides an update for supply chain managers. Specifically, the reported information provides supply chain managers of manufacturing/ merchandising firms with a competitive benchmark; facilitates third party logistics manager strategic planning efforts and provides an input to U.S. transportation planners who determine future transport and infrastructure requirements. The study reports the responses of 151 Chief Purchasing Officers from U.S. firms. Firms are benefiting from outsourcing logistics and production activities and over one-third of the firms plan to increase outsourcing spend. In addition, 60 percent of firms outsource offshore, and of these firms, 41 percent will increase their offshore spending, some by more than 50 percent

Management development and retention programs in U.S. third-party logistics firms

To provide quality logistics services, it is essential for third-party logistics (3PL) firms to develop an effective human resource program that ensures successful development and retention of qualified managers. By reporting the results of a survey of current U.S. 3PL firm development and retention practices and experiences regarding junior managers, this article provides a benchmark for 3PL firm managers who seek to improve management development and retention programs. Efforts to improve human resource programs should focus on improving orientation programs, mentoring, job enrichment, formal career planning, job relocation assignments, educational support, training and compensation