The Presence of Correlates of Effective Schools in Select Minnesota Charter Schools with Longevity

Abstract Minnesota enacted the nation’s first charter public school law in 1991. Since that time, the charter school movement has grown in Minnesota and across the United States. In Minnesota alone there are 165 charter schools operating according to the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools in the school year 2016-2017. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) reported that there were more than 6,700 public charter schools enrolling about 2.9 million student nationally in the 2015-16 school year. Since state statute defines charter schools as public schools funded by the state of Minnesota, and represent taxpayer investment, there is interest among advocates and governmental officials that these schools continue to operate. That is, not fail. Toward that end, it is valuable to increase the body of knowledge about organizational characteristics displayed by a sampling of Minnesota charter schools, which have been in operation for ten or more years. Between 1992 and 2015, 268 Minnesota charter schools were created while 83 such schools closed. Of particular interest to the researcher were the underlying reasons for such closures. According to a 2014 Minnesota legislative auditor\u27s report, the majority of closed charter schools had experienced financial concerns including low student enrollment that resulted in insufficient revenue to support the schools. With continued investment of public funding in the creation of new charter schools in response to increased parental demand, it would seem prudent for charter school planners to examine characteristics that are consistent with those found in charter schools that have demonstrated operational longevity. Such data may provide start-up charter school planners with insights that are beneficial in averting future school failures. The purpose of the study is to examine a select sample of veteran Minnesota charter schools, educational organizations that have been in existence for ten or more years, to ascertain the presence and importance of effective schools’ characteristics in their organizational operations. Through surveying charter school administrators, school board members, and teachers, the researcher intended to identify the presence and extent to which the respondents believe their organization displays all or some of the Correlates of Effective Schools (Lezotte, 1991)

The risks of autonomous machines:from responsibility gaps to control gaps

Responsibility gaps concern the attribution of blame for harms caused by autonomous machines. The worry has been that, because they are artificial agents, it is impossible to attribute blame, even though doing so would be appropriate given the harms they cause. We argue that there are no responsibility gaps. The harms can be blameless. And if they are not, the blame that is appropriate is indirect and can be attributed to designers, engineers, software developers, manufacturers or regulators. The real problem lies elsewhere: autonomous machines should be built so as to exhibit a level of risk that is morally acceptable. If they fall short of this standard, they exhibit what we call ‘a control gap.’ The causal control that autonomous machines have will then fall short of the guidance control they should emulate

Exercises with the universal R-matrix

Using the formula for the universal $R$-matrix proposed by Khoroshkin and Tolstoy, we give a detailed derivation of $L$-operators for the quantum groups associated with the generalized Cartan matrices $A_1^{(1)}$ and $A_2^{(1)}$.Comment: 36 page

Revisiting the Quantum Group Symmetry of Diatomic Molecules

We propose a q-deformed model of the anharmonic vibrations in diatomic molecules. We analyse the applicability of the model to the phenomenological Dunham's expansion by comparing with experimental data. Our methodology involves a global consistency analysis of the parameters that determine the q-deformed system, when compared with fitted vibrational parameters to 161 electronic states in diatomic molecules. We show how to include both the positive and the negative anharmonicities in a simple and systematic fashion.Comment: 15 pages, 3 Table

Onderzoeksleerlijn

Een goede leerkracht is een nieuwsgierige leerkracht die zichzelf en zijn omgeving kritisch kan bekijken en beoordelen. Vanuit die overtuiging heeft de Pedagogische Academie van de Hanzehogeschool vanaf dit schooljaar een zelfstandige leerlijn praktijkgericht onderzoek in het curriculum opgenomen. Vanaf het huidige schooljaar leren studenten elk studiejaar opbouwend de kneepjes van toegepast onderzoek zodat zij straks in hun eigen schoolpraktijk kunnen werken aan de duurzame verbetering van hun eigen vaardigheden en de kwaliteit van het onderwijs

Non-stationarity in GARCH models: A Bayesian analysis

First, the non-stationarity properties of the conditional variances in the GARCH(1,1) model are analysed using the concept of infinite persistence of shocks. Given a time sequence of probabilities for increasing/decreasing conditional variances, a theoretical formula for quasi-strict non-stationarity is defined. The resulting conditions for the GARCH(1,1) model are shown to differ from the weak stationarity conditions mainly used in the literature. Bayesian statistical analysis using Monte Carlo integration is applied to analyse both stationarity concepts for the conditional variances of the US 3-month treasury bill rate. Interest rates are known for their weakly non-stationary conditional variances but, using a quasi-strict stationarity measure, it is shown that the conditional variances are likely to be stationary. Second, the level of the treasury bill rate is analysed for non-stationarity using Bayesian unit root methods. The disturbances of the GARCH model for the treasury bill rate are t-distributed. It is shown that the unit root parameter is negatively correlated with the degrees-of-freedom parameter. Imposing normally distributed disturbances leads therefore to underestimation of the non-stationarity in the level of the treasury bill rate

Germination of Aspergillus fumigatus inside avian respiratory macrophages is associated with cytotoxicity

Although aspergillosis is one of the most common diseases in captive birds, the pathogenesis of avian aspergillosis is poorly known. We studied the role of avian respiratory macrophages as a first line of defense against avian aspergillosis. The phagocytic and killing capacities of avian respiratory macrophages were evaluated using pigeon respiratory macrophages that were inoculated with Aspergillus fumigatus conidia. On average, 25% of macrophage-associated conidia were phagocytosed after one hour. Sixteen percents of these cell-associated conidia were killed after 4 h and conidial germination was inhibited in more than 95% of the conidia. A. fumigatus conidia were shown to be cytotoxic to the macrophages. Intracellularly germinating conidia were located free in the cytoplasm of necrotic cells, as shown using transmission electron microscopy. These results suggest that avian respiratory macrophages may prevent early establishment of infection, unless the number of A. fumigatus conidia exceeds the macrophage killing capacity, leading to intracellular germination and colonization of the respiratory tract

Dynamic retinoscopies: Are they reliable?

The goal of this project was to establish the intraexaminer and interexaminer reliability of MEM, Book, Bell and Stresspoint retinoscopies, and secondly to compare findings of the different techniques to each other and to near autorefractor measurements. The four retinoscopies were performed on thirty-one children three times each by four retinoscopists. Identity of the children and the power of all lenses used in the study were concealed from the retinoscopists. Results indicate good intrarater reliability of all four techniques and poorer interrater reliability. Bell retinoscopy was statistically the most reliable of the four. The four techniques produced statistically different, though strongly correlated, results. None were well correlated with near autorefractor measurements