Predatory Profiling: The Role of Race and Ethnicity in the Location of Payday Lenders in California

In California and elsewhere, African Americans and Latinos make up a disproportionate share of payday loan borrowers. CRL's analysis reveals that the racial and ethnic composition of a neighborhood is the primary predictor of payday lending locations, while playing a very minimal role in explaining the variation in the location of bank branches. As a result, payday lending storefronts are most heavily concentrated in African American and Latino communities. By contrast, the location of mainstream financial service providers such as banks can be largely explained by supply and demand factors such as the presenceof retail space

Mrs. Florence Mante\u27s Amazing Grace School

Mrs. Florence Mante’s Amazing Grace School is the story of both Mama Florence and the children that she has dedicated her life to. Mrs. Florence Mante is the Ghanaian cofounder of the Amazing Grace Preparatory School. The West African school is committed to developing African leaders and ending the cycles of poverty in the village of Kodiekrom. My thesis focuses on using interview-driven artwork and collaborative storytelling to depict the unique challenges and triumphs of Mama Florence’s life in Ghana. Digital illustrations, a narration from Mama Florence, and music take the viewer on her deeply compelling journey, raising awareness for her mission

The prosocial user experience of empathy lesson plans in Minecraft for adolescents

Video games have grown in storytelling and graphical accomplishment in the past couple decades, and studies into how they can promote prosocial behavior and empathy are needed to better understand how this media can promote positive psychological development in adolescents. One video game that is popular with this demographic is Minecraft: Education Edition, which offers structured lesson plans that promote empathy and prosocial behavior. This thesis documents a study that uses quantitative analysis to better understand the relationship between Minecraft: Education Edition and the promotion of empathy and prosocial behavior in these lesson plans. The study results partially support the hypotheses that individuals who play a video game with lesson plans specifically designed to instruct them to act empathetically will show more empathy and prosocial behaviors in the short term than those who play the same game without predetermined goals or lesson plans. Although there was not a significant difference between the two groups in the total score for the three scales measuring empathy or prosocial behavior, one individual item score on each scale was significantly or marginally improved in the experimental group. These three individual items were related to prosocial behavior and perspective taking, which is a subset of empathy.Thesis (M.A.)Department of Journalis

An Evaluation of the Early Entrance Program in the Highline School District King County, Washington

This study is an attempt to detetermine whether or not the early entrance program as conducted by the Highline School District, King County, Washington, is achieving its purpose of selecting students who will profit from early admission

Water Quality Sampling, Analysis and Annual Load Determinations for TSS, Nitrogen and Phosphorus at the Washington County Road 195 Bridge on the West Fork of the White River

A water quality sampling station was installed at the Washington County road 195 bridge on the West Fork of the White River just above the confluence of the three main forks of the Upper White River in December 2001. The Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) was approved by EPA Region six on March 2002 and sampling was begun at that time. This station is coordinated with a USGS gauging station at the same location. This station was instrumented to collect samples at sufficient intervals across the hydrograph to accurately estimate the flux of total suspended solids, nitrogen and phosphorus into the upper end of Beaver Lake from the West Fork of the White River. The West Fork is listed on Arkansas\u27 1998 303d list as impaired from sediment. The Upper White was designated as the states highest priority watershed in the 1999 Unified Watershed Assessment. Accurate determination of stream nutrients and sediment is critical for future determinations of TMDLs, effectiveness of best management practices and trends in water quality

An examination of school leaders\u27 preferences for teacher applicant characteristics.

Teachers are important to student achievement. The selection of teachers in most schools in the United States is the responsibility of the principal. This study examined preferences of school leaders for teacher applicant characteristics. An exploratory factor analysis of the results (N = 209) of the Preferred Teacher Applicant Characteristics Survey (PTACS) determined four underlying dimension of the PTACS instrument: personal characteristics, professional characteristics, ancillary characteristics, and demographic characteristics. These became the dependent variable in a series of linear multiple regression analyses to examine the relationship between a school’s characteristics – poverty, school performance category, average teacher experience, and the school leader’s age, gender, current role and years in current role – and a school leader’ preferences for teacher applicant characteristics. Study results indicated a significant positive change in a school leader’s preference for personal teacher applicant characteristics for female school leaders as compared to male school leaders