In-Depth Portfolio Assessment: Shelby County Schools, Memphis, TN

The 2013 merger of Memphis City Schools (with 103,000 students) and Shelby County Schools (with 47,000 students) was the largest school district consolidation in American history. In its first year of operation, the new Shelby County Schools (SCS) commissioned CRPE researchers to perform a critical review of the district's readiness to implement a portfolio strategy for managing its schools. Based on interviews with internal and external stakeholders and analysis against model system progress, this report outlines CRPE's baseline measurement of where SCS stands in relation to the seven main components of the portfolio strategy. The report also provides suggestions for how SCS can seek progress over the next year, and track progress or decline at future intervals

Portfolio Strategies, Relinquishment, The Urban School System of the Future, and Smart Districts

Today, there are many new proposals about governance of K-12 Education: The portfolio strategy emphasizes a system of continuous improvement for diverse, autonomous schools governed by performance contracts; devolution models include efforts to expand the role of charter management organizations and other nonprofit providers (Andy Smarick's "Urban School System of the Future," Neerav Kingslad's "Relinquishment"); and school transformation models emphasize the role of third-party support organizations that create K-12 feeder patterns of allied schools (Bill Guenther and Justin Cohen's Mass Insight "Smart Districts" proposal).Are these really rival proposals as the authors of some are claiming? This idea is misguided; these are complemetns not alternatives

An Impossible Job? The View From the Urban Superintendent's Chair

Presents the results of a survey of superintendents of the 100 largest urban and ex-urban districts in the U.S. Examines how school leaders define their challenges and potential solutions

"""There's nothing 'alternative' about legislation"": an enquiry into the influence of regulatory culture and legal consciousness on regulators' responses to ADR legislation"

Legislation regarding Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) can legitimize its use as an alternative to a more formal, law- or court-centred dispute resolution process. However, recent studies warn that prescribing and concretizing this alternative process in legislation may paradoxically undermine, limit or prevent its use. The combination of robust theoretical and empirical research and investigation described in this dissertation seeks to advance the debate about ADR legislation - whether and what to legislate and why. Current legal theories of regulatory culture, legal consciousness and administrative discretion are presented and analyzed. These, in turn, inform the design of a case study that seeks to confirm or challenge the theory, based on in-depth, issue-focused, phenomenological interviews with key informants in the Ontario health professions self-regulatory field regarding recent ADR legislation governing their complaints resolution process. The case study data reveal a variety of individual and collective perceptions of the power of legislation, legality, non-law and alternatives-to-law, as reflected in comments about the requirements and expectations of the ADR legislation in a politically dynamic and evolving professional self-regulatory context. The empirical evidence both supports and challenges the ADR regulatory theory and demonstrates how legitimate administrative discretionary power to interpret and adapt the law permits regulatory practices to align with, contest, resist or escape the power of law, thus accomplishing or frustrating the increased efficiency, transparency, accountability, and consistency the ADR law was intended to achieve

White-faced Capuchins (Cebus capucinus) of Cahuita National Park, Costa Rica: Human Foods and Human Interactions

Cahuita National Park is an ecotourist destination in southeast Costa Rica. A troop of white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) living in the park was reported by park officials as being problematic due to their food-raiding behavior. In May-June 2012 and again in December 2012-January 2013 I collected behavioral information in the form of scan samples and human-monkey interactions to assess the frequency and severity of these interactions. Type of food consumed was also noted, as consumption of human foods has been shown to cause both demographic and behavioral changes in non-human primate populations. Anthropogenic food sources accounted for 18% for the total dietary budget for the Playa Blanca capuchins. Additionally, the consumption of human foods was associated with increased rates of agonism. Human foods were obtained by the capuchins in one of two ways: visitors feeding the monkeys (handouts) or monkeys taking food from visitors (raiding). I suggest it would be beneficial to both monkeys and tourists alike for the park to increase signage (Spanish and English) and to provide monkey-proof strong boxes in picnic areas so visitors can secure their food. Additionally, it is important strictly enforce the rules against feeding animals in the park to educate the public on the effects such behavior can have on the capuchins

Standardizing the Oral Chemotherapy Prescription and Administration Process in the Inpatient Setting.

D.N.P. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2018

Criterion-referenced assessment for modern dance education

This study monitored the conceptualisation, implementation and evaluation of criterion-referenced assessment for Modern Dance by two teachers specifically chosen because they represented the two most usual stances in current teaching i.e. one valuing dance as part of a wider, more general education, the other as a performance art. The Review of Literature investigated the derivation of these differences and identified the kinds of assessment criteria which would be relevant in each context. It then questioned both the timing of the application of the criteria and the benefits and limitations inherent in using a pre-active or re-active model. Lastly it examined the philosophy of criterion-referenced assessment and thereafter formulated the main hypothesis, i. e. "That criterion-referenced assessment is an appropriate and realistic method for Modern Dance in schools". Both the main and sub-hypotheses were tested by the use of Case Study/Collaborative Action research. In this chosen method of investigation the teachers' actions were the primary focus of study while the researcher played a supportive but ancillary role. The study has three sections. The first describes the process experienced by the teachers as they identified their criteria for assessment and put their new strategy into action. It shows the problems which arose and the steps which were taken to resolve them. It gives exemplars of the assessment instruments which were designed and evaluates their use. It highlights the differences in the two approaches to dance and the different competencies required by the teachers if their criterion-referenced strategy was adequately and validly to reflect the important features of their course. In the second section the focus moves from the teachers to the pupils. Given that the pupils have participated in different programmes of dance, the study investigates what criteria the pupils spontaneously use and what criteria they can be taught to use. It does this through the introduction of self-assessment in each course. In this way the pupils' observations and movement analyses were made explicit and through discussion, completing specially prepared leaflets and using video, they were recorded and compared. And finally, the research findings were circulated to a larger number of teachers to find to what extent their concerns and problems had been anticipated by the first two and to discover if they, without extensive support, could also mount a criterion-referenced assessment strategy with an acceptable amount of effort and within a realistic period of time. And given that they could, the final question concerned the evaluations of all those participants i.e. teachers, parents and pupils. Would this extended group similarly endorse the strategy and strengthen the claim that criterion-referenced assessment was a valid and beneficial way of assessing Modern Dance in Schools

A Model for College Library Visits

Describes how classroom teachers and librarians at J.R. Tucker High School in Henrico County, Va. worked together with librarians at the Boatwright Memorial Library of the University of Richmond to make a research project beneficial to the students