Implementer Perceptions of Washington State\u27s Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) Program

Basic skills instruction has had poor success in equipping adults with the training needed in today\u27s global economy. The educational leaders in Washington State realized the necessity of rapidly equipping adults with career skills and developed the Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) program to meet workforce needs. In 2004, Washington State piloted the I-BEST program in ten institutions, but it has since expanded to all 34 of the State\u27s community colleges. I-BEST is an instructional method which provides basic skills support to ABE and ESL students while they receive career training. I-BEST uniquely pairs a basic skills instructor with a vocational instructor in the classroom at the same time. Previous research has looked at the positive impact the program has had on the retention and academic success of students. Unfortunately, the pivotal role instructors and administrators play in the program\u27s success has been largely ignored. This study explored the perceptions of the instructors, program managers, and the managers\u27 immediate supervisors regarding the I-BEST program. The Administrators and Instructors I-BEST Perception Survey (AIIPS) was developed and tested to explore the perceptions of the program\u27s implementers. A panel of experts familiar with the program helped to establish the content validity of the instrument. A pilot group of I-BEST implementers helped to establish the reliability of the instrument. All of the current I-BEST implementers were contacted via electronic mail and sent a link to the instrument on SurveyMonkey. The data collection took place at the end of the fall 2009 academic term. The study explored whether there were differences in the perceptions of the instructors, program managers, and the managers\u27 immediate supervisors. The group differences were compared using t tests. Statistically significant differences were observed in areas such as the adequacy of instructor release time, adequacy of student support services, and using employment outcomes to modify instruction. Recommendations to decision-makers include limiting the number of data collection items being tracked, and increasing the number of minority instructors involved in the I-BEST program Implications of the findings may assist the State Board and community college presidents in enhancing the program

Incidence of Obesity Among Mentally Retarded Children

An international survey of professionals in the field of mental retardation was conducted to determine significant research priorities in the education of students with mild retardation. A total of 67 individuals responded to survey which represented 83.7% of those contacted. Among the issues rated most highly were two clusters: vocational, career education and post-school adjustment and long term effects and generalization of effects of programs. Implications of the survey data are discussed and recommendations are provided

The Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) Program: Equiping All Adults for the Global Economy

Abstract In 2004, educational leaders in Washington State, recognizing the necessity of rapidly equipping adults with career skills, developed the Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) program to meet workforce needs. I-BEST is now operational in all 34 of the State’s community colleges. I-BEST is an instructional method which provides basic skills support to ABE and ESL students while they receive career training. I-BEST uniquely pairs a basic skills instructor with a vocational instructor in the classroom at the same time. Previous research on the I-BEST program has been positive, but it has ignored the pivotal role instructors and administrators play in the program’s success. This study explores the perceptions of the instructors and administrators regarding the I-BEST program. The study investigates whether there were differences in the perceptions of the instructors, program managers, and the managers’ immediate supervisors. The group differences were compared using t tests. Statistical differences were observed in areas such as the adequacy of instructor release time, adequacy of student support services, and using employment outcomes to modify instruction. Recommendations include limiting the number of data collection items being tracked, and increasing the number of minority instructors involved in the I-BEST program. Implications of the findings may assist the Washington State Board of Community and Technical Colleges and community college presidents in enhancing the program

Water cluster calibration reduces mass error in electrospray ionization mass spectrometry of proteins

Herein we report a novel calibration routine for use in positive ion mode electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). Monoisotopic masses were calculated for a series of water clusters and used as calibration reference files (available at ). The water cluster series contains singly charged peaks every 18 Da, which allows calibration curves to be precisely defined over a broad mass-to-charge ratio range. Water clusters, induced by a combination of high flow rate and high cone voltage, were used to accurately calibrate a quadrupole mass spectrometer from 100 to 1900 m/z. Calibration curves thus generated have many more data points and greatly reduced standard deviations compared to those obtained from myoglobin, sodium iodide, cesium iodide, or poly(ethylene glycol) based calibration standards. This calibration routine reduces the error in protein mass measurements by a factor of 3, from ±0.01% to ±0.0035% at the 95% confidence limit. The implications of this increased mass accuracy and wider calibrated mass-to-charge ratio scale for the study of protein sequence, structure, and folding by ESI-MS are discussed

System and Method for Monitoring Piezoelectric Material Performance

A system and method are provided for monitoring performance capacity of a piezoelectric material that may form part of an actuator or sensor device. A switch is used to selectively electrically couple an inductor to the piezoelectric material to form an inductor-capacitor circuit. Resonance is induced in the inductor-capacitor circuit when the switch is operated to create the circuit. The resonance of the inductor-capacitor circuit is monitored with the frequency of the resonance being indicative of performance capacity of the device's piezoelectric material

Microwave Spectroscopy

Contains reports on one completed research project and two current research projects.Joint Services Electronics Programs (U. S. Army, U. S. Navy, and U. S. Air Force) under Contract DA 28-043-AMC-02536(E

LC Circuits for Diagnosing Embedded Piezoelectric Devices

A recently invented method of nonintrusively detecting faults in piezoelectric devices involves measurement of the resonance frequencies of inductor capacitor (LC) resonant circuits. The method is intended especially to enable diagnosis of piezoelectric sensors, actuators, and sensor/actuators that are embedded in structures and/or are components of multilayer composite material structures

Software for Testing Electroactive Structural Components

A computer program generates a graphical user interface that, in combination with its other features, facilitates the acquisition and preprocessing of experimental data on the strain response, hysteresis, and power consumption of a multilayer composite-material structural component containing one or more built-in sensor(s) and/or actuator(s) based on piezoelectric materials. This program runs in conjunction with Lab-VIEW software in a computer-controlled instrumentation system. For a test, a specimen is instrumented with appliedvoltage and current sensors and with strain gauges. Once the computational connection to the test setup has been made via the LabVIEW software, this program causes the test instrumentation to step through specified configurations. If the user is satisfied with the test results as displayed by the software, the user activates an icon on a front-panel display, causing the raw current, voltage, and strain data to be digitized and saved. The data are also put into a spreadsheet and can be plotted on a graph. Graphical displays are saved in an image file for future reference. The program also computes and displays the power and the phase angle between voltage and current