Sixty original plays for primary grades

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Institutional Variation in Credential Completion: Evidence from Washington State Community and Technical Colleges

As community colleges search for models of organizational success, new attention is being paid to technical colleges—institutions that primarily offer terminal programs in specific career-related fields rather than focusing on more general academic credentials and transfer programs as many comprehensive institutions do. Recent research observes that in some states, technical colleges have substantially higher completion rates than do comprehensive community colleges. Yet there is scant research available that systematically compares similar students in similar programs at technical and comprehensive colleges. This study uses administrative data from Washington State to compare the outcomes of young, career-technical students across institutions, with and without extensive controls for student characteristics, educational intent, and area of study. This generates three key findings: first, technical and comprehensive colleges tend to serve quite different populations, so a true apples-to-apples comparison requires limiting the analysis to a relatively small fraction (less than 10%) of students enrolled at either institution. Second, at least for this limited subset of career-technical students, technical schools have significantly higher certificate completion rates after three years, with no apparent deficit in associate degree completion. Our third main finding is that the differences in student outcomes within the two types of schools are much larger than differences between them. Even within this limited group, institution type alone explains a relatively small fraction of the overall variation in student outcomes across institutions. It would thus be unwise for research and policymakers to fixate on this one dimension of difference

JWST NIRCam Photometry: A Study of Globular Clusters Surrounding Bright Elliptical Galaxy VV 191a at z=0.0513

James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam images have revealed 443 globular cluster (GC) candidates around the $z=0.0513$ elliptical galaxy VV 191a. NIRCam broadband observations are made at 0.9-4.5 $\mu$m using filters F090W, F150W, F356W, and F444W. Using photometry, the data is analyzed to present color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) that suggest a fairly uniform population of GCs. Color histograms show a unimodal color distribution that is well fit by a single Gaussian, using color to primarily trace the metallicity. The findings show the sample's globular cluster luminosity function (GCLF) does not reach the turnover value and is, therefore, more luminous than what is typically expected, with an absolute AB magnitude, $M_{F090W} = -8.70$ mag, reaching within nearly one magnitude of the classical turnover value. We attribute this to the completeness in the sample. Models show that the mass estimate of the GCs detected tends to be more massive, reaching upward of $\simeq 10^7 M_{\odot}$. However, the results show that current GC models do not quite align with the data. We find that the models appear to be bluer than the JWST data in the reddest (F356W-F444W) filters and redder than the data in the bluest (F090W-F150W) filters and may need to be revised to improve the modeling of near-IR colors of old, metal-poor stellar populations.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

JWST's PEARLS: dust attenuation and gravitational lensing in the backlit-galaxy system VV 191

We derive the spatial and wavelength behavior of dust attenuation in the multiple-armed spiral galaxy VV191b using backlighting by the superimposed elliptical system VV191a in a pair with an exceptionally favorable geometry for this measurement. Imaging using JWST and HST spans the wavelength range 0.3-4.5 microns with high angular resolution, tracing the dust in detail from 0.6 to 1.5 microns. Distinct dust lanes continue well beyond the bright spiral arms, and trace a complex web, with a very sharp radial cutoff near 1.7 Petrosian radii. We present attenuation profiles and coverage statistics in each band at radii 14-21 kpc. We derive the attenuation law with wavelength; the data both within and between the dust lanes clearly favor a stronger reddening behavior (R ~ 2.0 between 0.6 and 0.9 microns, approaching unity by 1.5 microns) than found for starbursts and star-forming regions of galaxies. Power-law extinction behavior lambda^(-beta) gives beta=2.1 from 0.6-0.9 microns. R decreases at increasing wavelengths (R~1.1 between 0.9 and 1.5 microns), while beta steepens to 2.5. Mixing regions of different column density flattens the wavelength behavior, so these results suggest a different grain population than in our vicinity. The NIRCam images reveal a lens arc and counterimage from a background galaxy at z~1, spanning 90 degrees azimuthally at 2.8" from the foreground elliptical galaxy nucleus, and an additional weakly-lensed galaxy. The lens model and imaging data give a mass/light ratio 7.6 in solar units within the Einstein radius 2.0 kpc.Comment: Accepted by Astron. J. Analysis redone since submission, using updated JWST calibrations. Dust reddening behavior is steeper with wavelength and lensed galaxy redshift lower than we first derive