Performance-Based Assessment for English Language Learners

This policy brief was drafted by Bridget Murphy, a 2017 graduate of the University at Buffalo School of Law. It examines education for English language learners in Buffalo. After setting out the language diversity in Buffalo Public Schools and the challenges for English language learners, the brief explores the benefits of performance-based assessment. Rather than insist on memorization, this approach uses critical-thinking, research skills, and problem-solving to help students break through the language barrier. In fact, in performance-based high schools, the graduation rate for English language learners is nearly 20% higher than in schools that use standardized testing. The brief argues that Buffalo Public School leaders should advocate for broader use of performance-based assessment in New York State education standards. This publication builds on Partnership for the Public Good’s work to improve language access in the Buffalo-Niagara region, including calling for a Limited English Proficiency plan in the Buffalo Public Schools, created and implemented in partnership with the community

The Opportunity Cost Associated with Duplication of Publicly Provided Immunization Services for the Refugee Population

The objective of the project was to analyze the extent and total cost associated with duplication of immunization services in Monroe County’s pediatric refugee population in 2015. Recommendations for strategies to improve cohesion and cooperation among public health agencies, eliminate duplication of services and produce cost savings will be included

LIVING AMONG WILDLIFE: ELEVATING HUMAN-WILDLIFE INTERACTIONS AND COEXISTENCE

After a semester of learning, both in class and in nature, my writing honed in further on this human-nature divide. To me, I see humans as part of nature – as we are mammals, animals, part of the food chain, biological beings no higher than others on our planet. We have simply constructed this false narrative around us within our societies, minds and media that embeds this division between us and nature, between us and wildlife. Humans have been managing, stewarding, living off and within landscapes for thousands of years. As time and technology evolved, a lot of people began to view nature and wildlife sightings as part of a vacation, a ‘getaway’ from our daily lives. I have been one of those people many times before too. But I imagined a world where that wasn’t the case – what would it look like today if we hadn’t thought that way if we reconnected with our world and the life around us – rather than being so divided. Specifically, I pondered about wildlife and humans interacting, coexisting, and conflicting.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/grad_portfolios/1335/thumbnail.jp

Charting and Checking for Suicidality in a Family Medicine Residency Clinic

Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States, and many individuals who die by suicide are likely to have seen a primary care physician (PCP) within the month of their death. Thus, the goal of this quality improvement (QI) project was to examine suicidality documentation practices of interprofessional clinicians within a Family Medicine residency clinic, thus providing rationale for continued research and a template for other clinics to emulate. The QI project used the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle to survey 28 Family Medicine residents, faculty, and trainees for the Plan stage of the cycle in 2022 and assessed their suicidality documentation practices in the electronic medical record. Results showed discrepancies amongst clinicians, particularly clinicians of different disciplines, in how often they check charts for suicidality, where they document in the chart, and how often they discuss that information with their patients. Future studies could assess the implementation of a protocol for recording and addressing suicidality to improve patient care and safety, improve residency training and team-based care, and provide behavioral health services in primary care settings

No heir apparent? Exploring the workers' co-operative model as a solution to the continuity of family businesses

Family businesses, with no apparent heir, face the risk of discontinuity. While a number of family businesses rely heavily on non-family employees, the role of non-family employees in the continuity of family businesses is under-researched. The workers’ co-operative model offers one way to address this gap as it represents a model whereby non-family employees gain a stake in ownership whilst the family remains involved. In practice, conversion to ensure continuity is actively promoted in a number of countries. In this paper, the authors explore the role of the workers’ co-operative model as one possible solution to succession difficulties facing family firms. Based on the reported experiences in a number of countries, we identify the motivations behind conversion, the barriers faced and the benefits accruing. We find that, in theory, the worker co-operative model merits the attention of family business scholars as a means of securing continuity and survival of family business. We explore the factors that appear to aid or hinder successful conversions in practice and we make recommendations to policy-makers surrounding the supports required to encourage and facilitate successful conversion

Investigating the Role of Carbon Stress in the Mortality of Tamarack Seedlings Under a Warming Environment

Climate warming is increasing the frequency of climate-induced tree mortality events. While drought combined with heat is considered the primary cause of this tree mortality, little is known about whether high temperatures alone can induce mortality, or whether rising CO2 will increase survival. I grew tamarack in two experiments combining warming (0-8 ˚C above ambient) and CO2 (400-750 ppm) to investigate whether high growth temperatures led to carbon limitations and mortality. Using glasshouses, +8 ˚C warming with ambient CO2 (8TAC) led to 40% mortality despite thermal acclimation of respiration. Dying 8TAC seedlings had lower needle carbon concentrations and lower ratios of photosynthesis to respiration, indicating carbon limitation. Using growth chambers, no seedlings died, and carbon flux results contradicted those of the glasshouses. Overall, environmental conditions in the glasshouses were more representative of the field than growth chamber conditions, and my work highlights that warming can directly induce mortality

Dual earner couples : work commitment and quality of life within career stages : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University

The present study focused on the impact of dual earner couple status on work commitment, quality of life and the interaction between quality of work life and marital dissatisfaction, within career stages. The study was based on Super's career theory and theories of the work-family relationship. Dual earner couples were defined as couples in which both partners were employed full-time. A sample of 164 white-collar, dual earner men and women (79 couples and 6 individuals) were surveyed at an academic institution. Half of the couples were parents. There were no sex or parenting differences in work commitment (occupational commitment and job involvement) when income, age and career stage were used as covariates. High salience in work and family was not associated with diminished work commitment, but professional women who had non-professional partners had significantly lower job involvement than those who had professional partners. Secondly, quality of life and marital dissatisfaction were investigated. Quality of life and marital dissatisfaction did not differ across age, career stages or parenting. Furthermore, quality of life did not differ by couples' level of work and family salience, work commitment, or egalitarianism. Thirdly, a segmentation relationship was found which meant that people tend to compartmentalize their marital and work roles, rather than have spillover of affect between the two roles or compensate for dissatisfactions in one role with rewards in another. Unexpectedly, work-family conflict did not differ by age or career stage. However, parents of teenagers did experience significantly greater work­ family conflict than all others. Men in egalitarian couples and men in couples for whom both family and work were highly salient for both partners perceived greater work-family conflict than other men. Professional women with professional partners experienced significantly less work-family conflict than those with non-professional partners. The trend of declining sex differences in work commitment, quality of life and work-family conflict is continuing. It is suggested that employers need not be wary of employing women and parents if they can provide good childcare facilities and equal employment opportunities policies

An X-ray diffraction investigation of the charge density wave transition at the NbSe2 surface

Niobium diselenide 2H-NbSe2 is a van der Waals bonded layered structure, which undergoes a charge density wave transition (CDW). We have investigated the CDW transition in NbSe2 using grazing incidence X-ray diffraction. The evolution of a satellite reflection associated with the CDW has been observed above and below the critical angle of total external reflection in order to carry out a direct comparison between the surface and bulk behaviour. We successfully isolated the surface CDW structure on a high quality single crystal. The central finding of this thesis is that the behaviour of the surface CDW satellite differs from that in the bulk: At the surface, the CDW transition occurs at a higher temperature than in the bulk; also, the transition appears to be continuous. It is likely that we observe the unusual case defined as a “surface transition“ and not the usual case of an “ordinary transition“. A novel experimental method, grazing incidence inelastic X-ray scattering, has been demonstrated. A first successful experiment on 2H-NbSe2 where surface phonons are measured is reported

Latinos in Missouri : occasional paper series

The "Latinos in Missouri" occasional paper series grew from the writing experiences of graduate students in Rural Sociology 8287: The Sociology of Globalization. Students in the class wrote term papers about issues related to the growth of the Latino population in the state as an aspect of globalization. Typically, the papers were developed over the semester by making contact with Latino immigrants for in-depth interviews, although some papers make use of secondary data, such as the U.S. Census. Two of the student editors reviewed each of the papers. Student editors then returned the papers to the authors with their suggestions. After those revisions were incorporated, Dr. Elizabeth Barham edited each paper one more time, returning it to the author with her final editorial comments. When those changes were made, the papers were posted to the Web. While the class papers are limited in length and scope, they represent a substantial amount of work on the authors' parts that generally goes well beyond a typical class requirement. They were written in the hope that they will be read and used by policymakers, agency personnel, service providers, teachers, community leaders and anyone concerned with the well-being of Latino immigrants in Missouri and indeed the nation.Includes bibliographical references