Achievement directed leadership

The purpose of this investigation was to develop and field-test a tutorial program designed to give classroom teachers the skills necessary to produce valid and effective classroom achievement tests. Information was gathered with regard to the general level of knowledge possessed by teachers and principals on the topic of classroom testing both before and after their participation in the tutorial program, and a determination was made as to whether their level of knowledge was a function of position, years of experience, grade level, or educational background. A secondary question studied the possible beneficial effect of providing the teachers and principals with background information on the topic of classroom testing prior to their participation in the tutorial program. A pretest-treatment-posttest design was employed and the statistical results were correlational in nature;The main portion of the data gathered were derived from a target group of 53 teachers and principals from the Mason City, Iowa area. Approximately one-third of the group was pretested two weeks prior to their attendance at the tutorial program and received background information at that time. The rest of the group was pretested just before the program. The entire target group received training in the fundamentals of classroom testing and was posttested at the conclusion of the program. Statistical analyses consisted of t-tests and analyses of variance (ANOVAs) to answer the operational hypotheses. At that time an item score analysis was performed on the pretest and posttest results;The tutorial program was found to be effective in teaching the skills necessary for the valid and effective use of classroom achievement tests as indicated by significant gain scores obtained by the subjects. Furthermore, it was found that no prediction could be made about a subject\u27s pretest score or posttest score based on that subject\u27s position in the organization, years experience, grade level, or educational background. Providing background information to the subjects on the topic of classroom achievement testing prior to their attendance at the tutorial program yielded no measurable benefits

Mindful Awareness Training: A Pilot Study Integrating Mindfulness Practices into a Rural Jail-Based Substance Abuse Program

Mindfulness practices are now utilized in a variety of behavioral healthcare settings, including the criminal justice system. This article summarizes the findings of a pilot project incorporating mindfulness practices into a jail-based substance abuse program in a rural county jail. Participants that engaged in a psychoeducational mindfulness group that utilized practices adapted from the Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) curriculum had improved scores on measures of mindfulness, self-compassion, and quality of life. A mediated path model suggested that the length of time participants were involved in the group and their estimated amount of mindfulness practice outside the group was related to increases in mindfulness, which appeared to support subsequent increases in self-compassion and quality of life. Implications for incorporating these practices into jail-based programs and limitations are discussed

Thinking more broadly about policy responses to problematic video game use: A response to Király et al. (2018) : Commentary on: Policy responses to problematic video game use: A systematic review of current measures and future possibilities (Király et al., 2018)

Király et al. (2018) did an excellent job of reviewing policies that are undertaken to prevent and respond to problematic video game use. I argue that there has been a failure of imagination when considering public policy – generally, we only think of governmental or legislative policies. This paper identifies several other ways we could consider public policy, providing examples of some that have already been enacted and suggesting others that could be, all without governmental intervention. These types of policies may not only be more practical, but also be more effective

Evaluating the Implementation and Effectiveness of the SWITCH-MS: An Ecological, Multi-Component Adolescent Obesity Prevention Intervention

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of an ecological, multi-component adolescent obesity prevention intervention called School Wellness Integration Targeting Child Health-Middle School (SWITCH-MS).Methods: Following the effectiveness-implementation hybrid type 3 quasi-experimental design, seven middle schools (377 students) in Iowa, United States, were stratified into experienced (n= 3; 110 students) or inexperienced (n= 4; 267 students) groups to receive the 12-week SWITCH-MS intervention. To evaluate implementation, school informants (n= 10) responded to a survey and students completed behavioral tracking in the classroom on a website. For effectiveness evaluation, students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades completed a validated questionnaire before and after intervention, to measure behaviors of physical activity (PA; Do ), screen-based activity ( View ), and fruits and vegetable consumption ( Chew ).Results: The two groups of schools showed similar levels of implementation for best practices, awareness, and engagement. Behavioral tracking rate favored the experienced schools early on (47.5% vs. 11.7%), but differences leveled off in weeks 3-12 (sustained at 30.1-44.3%). Linear mixed models demonstrated significant time effects for Do (at school and out of school;p\u3c 0.01) and View behaviors (p= 0.02), after controlling for student- and school-level covariates.Conclusions: This study demonstrates that prior experience with SWITCH-MS may not be a prominent factor for implementation and effectiveness, although greater experience is associated with favorable behavioral tracking when the intervention is first launched

The PN.S Elliptical Galaxy Survey: the dark matter in NGC 4494

We present new Planetary Nebula Spectrograph observations of the ordinary elliptical galaxy NGC 4494, resulting in positions and velocities of 255 PNe out to 7 effective radii (25 kpc). We also present new wide-field surface photometry from MMT/Megacam, and long-slit stellar kinematics from VLT/FORS2. The spatial and kinematical distributions of the PNe agree with the field stars in the region of overlap. The mean rotation is relatively low, with a possible kinematic axis twist outside 1 Re. The velocity dispersion profile declines with radius, though not very steeply, down to ~70 km/s at the last data point. We have constructed spherical dynamical models of the system, including Jeans analyses with multi-component LCDM-motivated galaxies as well as logarithmic potentials. These models include special attention to orbital anisotropy, which we constrain using fourth-order velocity moments. Given several different sets of modelling methods and assumptions, we find consistent results for the mass profile within the radial range constrained by the data. Some dark matter (DM) is required by the data; our best-fit solution has a radially anisotropic stellar halo, a plausible stellar mass-to-light ratio, and a DM halo with an unexpectedly low central density. We find that this result does not substantially change with a flattened axisymmetric model. Taken together with other results for galaxy halo masses, we find suggestions for a puzzling pattern wherein most intermediate-luminosity galaxies have very low concentration halos, while some high-mass ellipticals have very high concentrations. We discuss some possible implications of these results for DM and galaxy formation.Comment: 29 pages, 17 figures. MNRAS, accepte

The relationship between perceived stress and problematic social networking site use among Chinese college students

Background and aims: Perceived stress has been regarded as a risk factor for problematic social networking site (SNS) use, yet little is known about the underlying processes whereby confounding variables may mediate or moderate this relationship. To answer this question, this study examined whether depression and anxiety mediated the relationship between perceived stress and problematic SNS use, and whether these mediating processes were moderated by psychological resilience and social support. Methods: Participants were 641 Chinese college students who completed anonymous questionnaires measuring perceived stress, depression/anxiety, psychological resilience, social support, and problematic SNS use. Results: The results showed that (a) depression/anxiety mediated the relationship between perceived stress and problematic SNS use; (b) the mediating effects of depression/anxiety on the association between perceived stress and problematic SNS use were moderated by psychological resilience. Specifically, the mediating effects of depression/anxiety were stronger for individuals with lower levels of psychological resilience, compared with those with higher levels of psychological resilience; and (c) the mediating effects of depression/anxiety were not moderated by social support, although social support was negatively related to depression/anxiety. Discussion and conclusion: This study can contribute to a better understanding of how and when perceived stress increases the risk of problematic SNS use, and implies the importance of enhancing psychological resilience in preventing problematic SNS use

Risk factors for youth violence: Youth violence commission, International Society For Research On Aggression (ISRA)

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144599/1/ab21766.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144599/2/ab21766_am.pd

The PN.S Elliptical Galaxy Survey: a standard LCDM halo around NGC 4374?

As part of our current programme to test LCDM predictions for dark matter (DM) haloes using extended kinematical observations of early-type galaxies, we present a dynamical analysis of the bright elliptical galaxy NGC 4374 (M84) based on ~450 Planetary Nebulae (PNe) velocities from the PN.Spectrograph, along with extended long-slit stellar kinematics. This is the first such analysis of a galaxy from our survey with a radially constant velocity dispersion profile. We find that the spatial and kinematical distributions of the PNe agree with the field stars in the region of overlap. The velocity kurtosis is consistent with zero at almost all radii. We construct a series of Jeans models, fitting both velocity dispersion and kurtosis to help break the mass-anisotropy degeneracy. Our mass models include DM halos either with shallow cores or with central cusps as predicted by cosmological simulations - along with the novel introduction in this context of adiabatic halo contraction from baryon infall. Both classes of models confirm a very massive dark halo around NGC 4374, demonstrating that PN kinematics data are well able to detect such haloes when present. Considering the default cosmological mass model, we confirm earlier suggestions that bright galaxies tend to have halo concentrations higher than LCDM predictions, but this is found to be solved if either a Salpeter IMF or adiabatic contraction with a Kroupa IMF is assumed. Thus for the first time a case is found where the PN dynamics may well be consistent with a standard dark matter halo. A cored halo can also fit the data, and prefers a stellar mass consistent with a Salpeter IMF. The less dramatic dark matter content found in lower-luminosity "ordinary" ellipticals suggests a bimodality in the halo properties which may be produced by divergent baryonic effects during their assembly histories.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures. MNRAS, accepte