Education and Community Development Among Nineteenth-Century Irish and Contemporary Cambodians in Lowell, Massachusetts

As cities undergo dramatic demographic changes, schools become important sites of conflict between the interests of established and emerging communities. This article presents a case study of Lowell, Massachusetts, where the second largest Irish community in the country resided during the 1850s, and which is now home to the second largest Cambodian community in the United States. Analysis of nineteenth-century Irish community dynamics, particularly in relation to issues of public education in Lowell, reveals the significance of religious institutions and middle-class entrepreneurs in the process of immigrant community development and highlights important relationships to ethnicity, electoral politics, and economic development. In light of the Irish example, a conceptual framework is presented to understand current dynamics of leadership, institution building, and community empowerment among Cambodians and their contemporary struggles for educational equity

Southeast Asian Parent Empowerment: The Challenge of Changing Demographics in Lowell, Massachusetts

A report on the increased role of Southeast Asian parents in the Lowell, Massachusetts public school system in the 1980s

Market Efficiency Test Of Australian Options Market Using Put Call Parity Analysis

The aims of this thesis is twofold. The primary objective is to test the market efficiency of Australian Options Marlcet (AOM) using the put call parity model. In addition, empirical evidence on the put call parity model is also gather. The put call parity model specified a deterministic relation between the prices of calls and puts. In particular, the put call parity model specifies an upper and lower boundary conditions. A breach in the put call parity model result in arbitrage opportunities which is inconsistent with a efficient market. Four companies share options traded in AOM over a six month period, were used to test whether\u27 the put call parity pricing relation was maintained. The thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 spell out the aims of the thesis and a brief overview of the structure of AOM. This is follow by a literature review on previous studies of put call parity analysis. Chapter 3 describe the methodology and hypothesis tested in the current study. The findings of the test are reported in Chapter 4. The final chapter summarizes the methodology and findings of this thesis. The findings of the thesis support the hypothesis that the AOM is efficient over the period study. Violations of put call parity boundary conditions were infrequent None of these violations yield economic profits for potential arbitragers. Lower boundary violations occur more often than upper boundary violations. In addition, the lower boundary violations appear to be affected by companies specific effect, time to maturity effect and degree in which options is in the money

We Could Shape It: Organizing for Asian Pacific American Student Empowerment

With the doubling of the school-age population of Asian Pacific Americans during the 1990s, the unmet needs of Asian Pacific Americans are escalating dramatically in schools throughout the country. In most settings, teachers, counselors, and administrators do not share the ethnic, linguistic, and racial backgrounds of their Asian Pacific American students. Constrained by limited resources, an increasingly hostile, anti-immigrant climate, and their own stereotypical assumptions, educators have been unable to respond effectively to the full range of academic, social, and personal challenges that face growing numbers of Asian Pacific American students

[Special Issue on SEA Demographics] Response - Asian American Studies

Response to Dr. Mark E. Pfeifer\u27s featured article

English Learners in Boston Public Schools: Enrollment and Educational Outcomes of Native Speakers of Vietnamese

In November 2002, the voters of Massachusetts approved Referendum Question 2. This referendum spelled an end to Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) as the primary program available for children requiring language support in Massachusetts. In its place came a radically different policy called Sheltered English Immersion (SEI). Unlike TBE, which relies on the English learners’ own language to facilitate the learning of academic subjects as they master English, SEI programs rely on the use of simple English in the classroom to impart academic content; teachers use students’ native language only to assist them in completing tasks or to answer a question. This change represented a dramatic shift in the philosophy and practice of teaching English to populations of English Learners. Five years after the start of the implementation of SEI in Massachusetts, there is still scant information about the impact of this change on language education. Models of implementation have varied across the state, with those districts that approach the process most flexibly exhibiting the most substantial gains or the least losses (DeJong, Gort, & Cobb, 2005; Rennie Center, 2007). But there has been no analysis of the outcomes for students under SEI at the state level or in the city of Boston, where the largest number of English Learners in Massachusetts live and attend school. Aside from providing an account of the performance of English Learners in Boston between academic years 2003 and 2006, this study has allowed for a unique look at the performance of groups of students defined by language. This specific report is one of five reports focusing on the enrollment and academic outcomes of the largest groups of native speakers of languages other than English: speakers of Spanish, Chinese dialects, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, and Cape Verdean Creole. For Chinese, Vietnamese, Haitian, and Cape Verdean students and families, this is one of the first looks at the performance of students from these groups in Boston schools. Usually reported as part of aggregates defined by race (e.g., “Asian” or “Black”), information specific to these ethnic groups is seldom reported separately. Our presentation is limited to the data available data which does not allow us to determine the outcomes of all students from these groups but only of those students within these groups who are designated native speakers of their particular language. It also precludes the presentation of the standardized testing (MCAS) outcomes of students from these groups who attend programs for English Learners

An Improved Web Design to Support Online Investment Decisions

The rise of the Internet opens up new possibilities and creates new challenges for investors. The possibilities include ease of use, cheaper trading costs, and greatly improved access to information. The challenges include information overload and a temptation to overtrade. The present paper discusses how brokerage firms can improve their web site designs in order to meet these challenges and opportunities and to better facilitate the needs of individual investors. Specifically, the paper discusses how an objectoriented information representation system can be used to enable both investor-specific information, such as risktolerance level, investment time horizon, and tax status, and more general information from the financial markets themselves, such as company P/E levels, to be integrated into a consistent web presentation that will facilitate the investor’s making more intelligent investment decisions. Such an information representation system would be structured hierarchically, with the investor-specific information at the top of the hierarchy, driving the application of market-level, then industry-level, and, at the bottom of the hierarchy, company-specific information. Finally, the paper discusses the feasibility of implementing such a system and some of the promises and pitfalls that may arise from its implementation

Educational Engagement in Boston’s Vietnamese Community: Asian American Studies Program student-faculty-alumni engagement with teachers, students, and families of the Mather School (BPS) in Dorchester

Founded in 1639, the Mather Elementary School in Dorchester is the oldest public elementary school in the US. In 2012, nearly 40% of Mather students were Vietnamese American from immigrant households. The Mather School’s Vietnamese Structured English Immersion (SEI) program is the largest in Boston. In 1993, Ngoc-lan (Loni) Nguyen, a Vietnamese refugee student in education and Asian American Studies at UMass Boston, was hired as a 4th grade bilingual teacher. Many of Lan’s students later attended UMass Boston where they reconnected educationally with the importance of Vietnamese American identity, community, and empowerment in AsAmSt courses. In 2007, Lan visited an AsAmSt class with three former 4th-graders present. In 2010, UMass Boston AsAmSt alumna, Songkhla (Kha) Nguyen began teaching 2nd grade SEI at the Mather, and in 2012, Tuyet Dinh, a founder of AsAmSt’ s Coalition for Asian Pacific American Youth (CAPAY) was hired to teach Kindergarten SEI

English Learners in Boston Public Schools: Enrollment, Engagement and Academic Outcomes of Native Speakers of Cape Verdean Creole, Chinese Dialects, Haitian Creole, Spanish, and Vietnamese

This study focuses on the academic experience of English Learners (ELs) in Boston’s public schools in the year before and in the three years following the implementation of Referendum Question 2. In 2002, this referendum spelled an end to Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) as the primary program available for children requiring language support in Massachusetts public schools, replacing it with Sheltered English Immersion (SEI). Specifically, this report focuses on the enrollment and academic outcomes of the five largest groups of native speakers of languages other than English in the Boston Public Schools: speakers of Spanish, Chinese dialects, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, and Cape Verdean Creole and explores the different effects of the implementation of Question 2 on each of the groups. It does so by analyzing data on identification, program participation, engagement and achievement for each group and comparing the outcomes for students in programs for ELs with native speakers of these languages enrolled in General Education programs. In this report we list the findings for each group separately and conclude with discussion which compares the outcomes for the groups. For Chinese, Vietnamese, Haitian, and Cape Verdean students and families, this is one of the first looks at the performance of students from these groups in Boston schools. Usually reported as part of aggregates defined by race (e.g., “Asian” or “Black”), information specific to these ethnic groups is seldom reported separately. We present here a limited view, since the available data do not allow us to ascertain the outcomes of all students from these groups but only of those students within these groups who are designated native speakers of their particular language