Historical and Conceptual Underpinnings of Leadership Development Programs: A Quest for Roots

The early prescriptive beliefs about the nature of educational leadership and the professional development that would foster that leadership have changed

The National Center for Effective Schools: Extending Knowledge and Practice of School Improvement

The structure and the programs of school improvement must constantly be reassessed and extended to take into consideration new knowledge and new practices that can serve school improvement

The Road to Classroom Change

Before school-based decision making can change teaching and learning for the better, we must make some changes in the reform itself

Vitamin D Status Relative to Diet, Lifestyle, Injury, and Illness in College Athletes

Vitamin D deficiency is endemic in the general population; however, there is much to be learned about the vitamin D status of athletes. Purpose: The purposes of this study were to assess the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in collegiate athletes and to determine whether 25(OH)D concentrations are related to vitamin D intake, sun exposure, body composition, and risk for illness or athletic injury. Methods: 25(OH) vitamin D concentrations were measured in 41 athletes (18 men/23 women, 12 indoor/29 outdoor athletes) throughout the academic year. Dietary intake and lifestyle habits were assessed via questionnaire, bone density was measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry, and injury and illness were documented as part of routine care. Results: The 25(OH)D concentrations changed across time (P = 0.001) and averaged 49.0 T 16.6, 30.5 T 9.4, and 41.9 T 14.6 ngImLj1 (mean T SD) in the fall, winter, and spring, respectively, and were higher in outdoor versus indoor athletes in the fall (P G 0.05). Using 40 ngImLj1 as the cutoff for optimal status, 75.6%, 15.2%, and 36.0% of athletes had optimal status in the fall, winter, and spring, respectively. 25(OH)D concentrations were significantly (P G 0.05) correlated with multivitamin intake in the winter (r = 0.39) and tanning bed use in the spring (r = 0.48); however, status was otherwise not related to intake, lifestyle factors, or body composition. 25(OH)D concentrations in the spring (r = j0.40, P = 0.048) was correlated with frequency of illness. Conclusions: Our results suggest that collegiate athletes can maintain sufficient status during the fall and spring but would benefit from supplementation during the winter to prevent seasonal decreases in 25(OH)D concentrations. Results further suggest that insufficient vitamin D status may increase risk for frequent illness. Future research is needed to identify whether vitamin D status influences injury risk during athletic training or competition

Quantitative Reasoning in Environmental Science: Rasch Measurement to Support QR Assessment

Original work is hosted at USF Libraries Scholar Commons publisher of Numeracy, the electronic journal of the National Numeracy Network (NNN). Abstract : The ability of middle and high school students to reason quantitatively within the context of environmental science was investigated. A quantitative reasoning (QR) learning progression, with associated QR assessments in the content areas of biodiversity, water, and carbon, was developed based on three QR progress variables: quantification act, quantitative interpretation, and quantitative modeling. Diagnostic instruments were developed specifically for the progress variable quantitative interpretation (QI), each consisting of 96 Likert-scale items. Each content version of the instrument focused on three scale levels (macro scale, micro scale, and landscape scale) and four elements of QI identified in prior research (trend, translation, prediction, and revision). The QI assessments were completed by 362, 6th to 12th grade students in three U.S. states. Rasch (1960/1980) measurement was used to determine item and person measures for the QI instruments, both to examine validity and reliability characteristics of the instrument administration and inform the evolution of the learning progression. Rasch methods allowed identification of several QI instrument revisions, including modification of specific items, reducing number of items to avoid cognitive fatigue, reconsidering proposed item difficulty levels, and reducing Likert scale to 4 levels. Rasch diagnostics also indicated favorable levels of instrument reliability and appropriate targeting of item abilities to student abilities for the majority of participants. A revised QI instrument is available for STEM researchers and educators

Rhythm in the speech of a person with right hemisphere damage: Applying the pairwise variability index

Although several aspects of prosody have been studied in speakers with right hemisphere damage (RHD), rhythm remains largely uninvestigated. This study compares the rhythm of an Australian English speaker with right hemisphere damage (due to a stroke, but with no concomitant dysarthria) to that of a neurologically unimpaired individual. The speakers' rhythm is compared using the pairwise variability index (PVI) which allows for an acoustic characterization of rhythm by comparing the duration of successive vocalic and intervocalic intervals. A sample of speech from a structured interview between a speech and language therapist and each participant was analysed. Previous research has shown that speakers with RHD may have difficulties with intonation production, and therefore it was hypothesized that there may also be rhythmic disturbance. Results show that the neurologically normal control uses a similar rhythm to that reported for British English (there are no previous studies available for Australian English), whilst the speaker with RHD produces speech with a less strongly stress-timed rhythm. This finding was statistically significant for the intervocalic intervals measured (t(8) = 4.7, p < .01), and suggests that some aspects of prosody may be right lateralized for this speaker. The findings are discussed in relation to previous findings of dysprosody in RHD populations, and in relation to syllable-timed speech of people with other neurological conditions

The Reliability of Global and Hemispheric Surface Temperature Records

The purpose of this review article is to discuss the development and associated estimation of uncertainties in the global and hemispheric surface temperature records. The review begins by detailing the groups that produce surface temperature datasets. After discussing the reasons for similarities and differences between the various products, the main issues that must be addressed when deriving accurate estimates, particularly for hemispheric and global averages, are then considered. These issues are discussed in the order of their importance for temperature records at these spatial scales: biases in SST data, particularly before the 1940s; the exposure of land-based thermometers before the development of louvred screens in the late 19th century; and urbanization effects in some regions in recent decades. The homogeneity of land-based records is also discussed; however, at these large scales it is relatively unimportant. The article concludes by illustrating hemispheric and global temperature records from the four groups that produce series in near-real time