More Efficient High Schools in Maine: Emerging Student-Centered Learning Communities

American K-12 public education all across the nation is at a difficult and critical crossroads. We are at a time when keen global competition underscores the need for exceptional performance in our primary and secondary schools. Yet, state and federal governments face unprecedented budget deficits and limited resources for the foreseeable future. Additionally, our schools are being called upon to do an even better job of preparing students for the 21st century. There is growing evidence that success in the 21st Century requires more than what has traditionally been the content of schooling. It requires more and different types of knowledge, skills, and learning. To help students acquire this knowledge base and skills, many educators and leaders are calling for transformative changes in our schools and changes in how we help students learn. This transformative change is called by many names: performance-based learning, standards-based learning, and student-centered learning. The Nellie Mae Education Foundation (NMEF) describes this transformation to more student-centered learning as the need for:... growing a greater variety of higher quality educational opportunities that enable all learners -- especially and essentially underserved learners -- to obtain the skills, knowledge and supports necessary to become civically engaged, economically self-sufficient lifelong learners. (2011) Can our schools be transformed to meet these challenges? More importantly, can they be high performing, efficient, and student-centered at the same time? To explore these questions, the Center for Education Policy, Applied Research, and Evaluation at the University of Southern Maine conducted a study in 2010-2011 of a sample of Maine high schools. Funded in part by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the study examined the degree to which these More Efficient high schools were also student-centered. In 2010, NMEF identified some of the key principles and attributes of studentcentered learning. The principles are that: Student-centered education systems provide all students equal access to the skills and knowledge needed for college and career readiness in today's world. Student-centered education systems align with current research on the learning process and motivation. Student-centered education systems focus on mastery of skills and knowledge. Student-centered education systems build student's identities through a positive culture with a foundation of strong relationships and high expectations. Student-centered education systems empower and support parents, teachers, administrators, and other community members to encourage and guide learners through their educational journey. The key attributes are that: Curriculum, instruction and assessment embrace the skills and knowledge needed for success. Community assets are harnessed to support and deepen learning experiences. Time is used flexibly and includes learning opportunities outside the traditional school day and year. Mastery-based strategies are employed to allow for pacing based on proficiency in skills and knowledge. The goal of the study reported here was to determine to what extent these principles and attributes may be found in the high schools. To that end, once a sample of More Efficient high schools was identified, the beliefs, strategies, and practices found in these schools were examined in light of the 2010 NMEF key principles and attributes

Seasonal Analysis of Selected Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Prices at Wholesale Level in Key Urban Markets of Kenya

Agricultural commodities typically show a strong seasonal pattern in production, with supplies which come off the farm during one or perhaps two distinct periods of the year having to meet relatively stable demand over the course of the entire year. This seasonal pattern in production can give rise to strong seasonal patterns in price movements, with low prices during and shortly after the harvest, rising to peaks just prior to the next harvest. Understanding this price seasonality, the typical timing and levels of seasonal highs and lows, and the reliability of each, is a key task for anyone wishing to understand the market for an agricultural commodity. This paper presents the results of seasonal analysis for seven fresh fruit and vegetable crops in Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu: ripe bananas, kales, dry onions, tomatoes, cabbages, oranges, and potatoes due to their importance in urban consumer diets.Food Security, Food Policy, Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Prices, Kenya, Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis, Q18,

National Space Transportation System (NSTS) technology needs

The National Space Transportation System (NSTS) is one of the Nation's most valuable resources, providing manned transportation to and from space in support of payloads and scientific research. The NSTS program is currently faced with the problem of hardware obsolescence, which could result in unacceptable schedule and cost impacts to the flight program. Obsolescence problems occur because certain components are no longer being manufactured or repair turnaround time is excessive. In order to achieve a long-term, reliable transportation system that can support manned access to space through 2010 and beyond, NASA must develop a strategic plan for a phased implementation of enhancements which will satisfy this long-term goal. The NSTS program has initiated the Assured Shuttle Availability (ASA) project with the following objectives: eliminate hardware obsolescence in critical areas, increase reliability and safety of the vehicle, decrease operational costs and turnaround time, and improve operational capability. The strategy for ASA will be to first meet the mandatory needs - keep the Shuttle flying. Non-mandatory changes that will improve operational capability and enhance performance will then be considered if funding is adequate. Upgrade packages should be developed to install within designated inspection periods, grouped in a systematic approach to reduce cost and schedule impacts, and allow the capability to provide a Block 2 Shuttle (Phase 3)

Developing Income Proxy Models for Use by Title II-funded NGOs in Kenya: A Technical Report for NGOs and USAID/Kenya

This paper details the specific procedures utilized to develop the income proxy method for Kenya NGOs, reports on the performance of the method, and brings together in one place each part of the package needed to implement the method. The next section provides general background on income proxy methods; section III reports on the full income survey that formed the basis for development of the proxy method; section IV provides details on model development, including definition of income components, the types of proxy variables tested, and the performance of the models, while section V briefly explains how the models are to be used. Finally, section VI provides an overview of the rural economy in the study zone based on the detailed income data set collected by the NGOs.Food Security, Food Policy, Income Proxy Model, Kenya, Food Security and Poverty, Q18,

Income Growth and Mobility of Rural Households in Kenya: Role of Education and Historical Patterns in Poverty Reduction

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/26/07.Income growth, income persistence, convergence, education, Kenya, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Labor and Human Capital,

Cost characteristics of tilt-rotor, conventional air and high speed rail short-haul intercity passenger service

The cost analysis done to support an assessment of the potential for a small tilt-rotor aircraft to operate in short-haul intercity passenger service is described in detail. Anticipated costs of tilt-rotor air service were compared to the costs of two alternatives: conventional air and high speed rail (HSR). Costs were developed for corridor service, varying key market characteristics including distance, passenger volumes, and minimum frequency standards. The resulting cost vs output information can then be used to compare modal costs for essentially identical service quality and passenger volume or for different service levels and volumes for each mode, as appropriate. Extensive sensitivity analyses are performed. The cost-output features of these technologies are compared. Tilt-rotor is very attractive compared to HSR in terms of costs over the entire range of volume. It also has costs not dramatically different from conventional air, but tilt-rotor costs are generally higher. Thus some of its other advantages, such as the VTOL capability, must offset the cost disadvantage for it to be a preferred or competitive mode in any given market. These issues are addressed in the companion report which considers strategies for tilt-rotor development in commercial air service

A strategy for advancing tilt-rotor technology

Tilt-rotor technology has many features which make it a very promising development in aviation which might have application to a wide variety of transportation and logistics situations. However, aside from military applications and rather specialized industrial applications, little is known regarding the potential of tilt-rotor for commercial transportation and hence it is difficult to plan a development program which would gain support and be likely to produce a stream of significant benefits. The purpose is to attempt to provide some of this information in a manner that would be useful for preparing a strategy for development of tilt-rotor aircraft technology. Specifically, the objectives were: to identify promising paths of development and deployment of tilt-rotor aircraft technology in the air transportation system considering both benefits and disbenefits, and to identify any particular groups that are likely to benefit significantly and propose plans for gaining their support of research and development of this technology. Potential advantages of the tilt-rotor technology in the context of air transportation as a door-to-door system were identified, and then promising paths of development of such tilt-rotor systems were analyzed. These then lead to recommendations for specific studies, information dissemination and development of awareness of the tilt-rotor among specific transport-related groups

Optically nonlinear energy transfer in light-harvesting dendrimers

Dendrimeric polymers are the subject of intense research activity geared towards their implementation in nanodevice applications such as energy harvesting systems,organic light-emitting diodes, photosensitizers, low-threshold lasers, and quantum logic elements, etc. A recent development in this area has been the construction of dendrimers specifically designed to exhibit novel forms of optical nonlinearity, exploiting the unique properties of these materials at high levels of photon flux. Starting from a thorough treatment of the underlying theory based on the principles of molecular quantum electrodynamics, it is possible to identify and characterize several optically nonlinear mechanisms for directed energy transfer and energy pooling in multichromophore dendrimers. Such mechanisms fall into two classes: first, those where two-photon absorption by individual donors is followed by transfer of the net energy to an acceptor; second, those where the excitation of two electronically distinct but neighboring donor groups is followed by a collective migration of their energy to a suitable acceptor. Each transfer process is subject to minor dissipative losses. In this paper we describe in detail the balance of factors and the constraints that determines the favored mechanism, which include the excitation statistics, structure of the energy levels, laser coherence factors, chromophore selection rules and architecture, possibilities for the formation of delocalized excitons, spectral overlap, and the overall distribution of donors and acceptors. Furthermore, it transpires that quantum interference between different mechanisms can play an important role. Thus, as the relative importance of each mechanism determines the relevant nanophotonic characteristics, the results reported here afford the means for optimizing highly efficient light-harvesting dendrimer devices

A Compact Formula for Rotations as Spin Matrix Polynomials

Group elements of SU(2) are expressed in closed form as finite polynomials of the Lie algebra generators, for all definite spin representations of the rotation group. The simple explicit result exhibits connections between group theory, combinatorics, and Fourier analysis, especially in the large spin limit. Salient intuitive features of the formula are illustrated and discussed