Differentiating the Principal Evaluation: Policy Advocacy Document

High-quality school leadership is pertinent to improving school performance and raising student achievement. Research supports that the impact of leadership is most significant in schools with the greatest needs (Clifford & Ross, 2012). Further, research suggests that leadership is the second most important factor impacting student achievement (Mitgang, 2013). This policy advocates for Chicago Public School (CPS) District 299 to implement a policy that differentiates Principal Evaluation. Implementing this policy could create a more equitable evaluation system to support, hire, and retain effective leadership in every school in Chicago. Creating a policy to support the implementation of a principal evaluation system designed to provide all students the high-quality education they deserve represents a critical tool for building equity in the education children receive in every school in CPS District 299

Improving Progress Structures To Impact Student Achievement At An Elementary School

This Change Plan paper is the second part of a three-part dissertation on improving the progress monitoring structures to impact student achievement. Progress monitoring is a powerful instructional tool within the instructional cycle to increase student performance. When teachers implement the instructional cycle with fidelity, planning instruction, incorporating research-based practices, assessing instruction, and analyzing data, the use of progress monitoring can shift from a mundane task needing to be completed for the administration, district, and/or state, to an integral component of teaching (Santi & Vaughn, 2007). Wagner et al’s (2006) As-Is and To-Be charts were used for ABC Elementary School, a pseudonym for a charter school located on the South Side of an urban community in the Midwest, to identify and present the current status and future desired state of the school’s competencies, conditions, culture, and context. As well, this research examined research-based strategies to implement progress-monitoring structures to impact student achievement

The Impact of Progress Monitoring Structures on Student Achievement

This program evaluation studied the impact of teacher efficacy on progress monitoring structures. To examine the effectiveness of teachers’ efficacy on implementing a progress monitoring tool, teachers in grades 3-8 were administered a questionnaire to discover their perceptions about implementing progress monitoring with fidelity, their ability to use a computer-based program, their comfort in doing so, and the quality of the data it enabled them to view. The results of the questionnaire suggest that teacher efficacy is an important factor in implementing progress monitoring

Screening Initiative for Non-Stroke Geriatric Inpatients

Current literature reveals a need for improved depression screening efforts among inpatient geriatrics. This population is at higher risk for severe depression, suicidal ideations, poorer health outcomes related to decreased compliance to healthcare regimens, and increased healthcare costs. Current best practice involves the utilization of the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form (GDS-SF), a 15-question yes or no answer screening tool. While not diagnostic, the tool has established validity and reliability testing. The GDS-SF should not be used on subsets of the population diagnosed with stroke, dementia or delirium. The purpose of this project was to develop a protocol for implementation of the GDS-SF screening tool on an inpatient neuroscience unit in a 344-bed Midwestern hospital. Both qualitative and quantitative results of implementation were analyzed, revealing barriers and facilitators to further organizational scale-up of use of this protocol to additional units. The protocol was revised based on these findings, with the revised protocol delivered to organizational leadership for continued organizational implementation efforts

Effectiveness of an Evidenced-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Intervention for Adolescents in a School Setting

Abstract The adolescent years are a formative time when rapid hormonal and physical changes stimulate the developing mind. Exposure to poverty, abuse, violence, and lack of peer and social support causes an increase in vulnerability to the development of mental health problems. The COVID-19 pandemic has also exacerbated symptoms of depression and anxiety. Regardless of the risk factors, anxiety and depression continue to be significant health problems, affecting thousands of adolescents yearly in the United States. The first-line treatment recommendation for managing anxiety and depression symptoms is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). However, access to a provider for CBT treatment is not always an option for many reasons. This pilot evidenced-based practice project aims to increase access to skills acquired through CBT and improve adolescents’ mental health by implementing a brief and evidenced-based CBT program in a school setting. The CBT program for this project is the Creating Opportunities for Personal Empowerment (COPE) for Teens program consisting of seven 50-55-minute sessions. The COPE program was delivered to 22 students in a 7th grade health class. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Modified for Adolescents (PHQ-A) measured anxiety and depression scores at baseline, post-intervention, and two-month follow-up. Results indicate clinically significant improvements in anxiety and depression scores and showed participant satisfaction

Decolonizing Education : A Critical Discourse Analysis of Post-Secondary Humanities Textbooks

This dissertation examines nine post-secondary humanities textbooks published between 2001 and 2011 using an approach that includes both qualitative and quantitative methodology to analyze the written and visual content of humanities textbooks. This dissertation engages in current debates that address bias in humanities textbooks and contributes to these debates by using a multi-disciplinary approach that combines methods from the field of technical writing and from recent work in postcolonial critical theory, functional analysis and discourse analysis. The goal of the research is to determine whether post-secondary humanities textbooks marginalize African cultures. The textbooks are analyzed utilizing Gloria Luzon's Primary and Secondary Genres Theory, Shahnil Saaid and Zaiha Ahmad's Communicative Purpose of a Preface Theory, Leo Lentz and Henk Pander Maat's Functional Analysis Theory to identify genre conventions associated with textbooks prefaces. Critical discourse analysis theory developed by Teun van Dijk and Normal Fairclough provides a framework for analyzing how the language used in textbooks presents a particular view of groups and cultures outside the Western tradition.  Ph.D

Volcanic electrification: recent advances and future perspectives

The electrification of volcanic plumes has been described intermittently since at least the time of Pliny the Younger and the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius. Although sometimes disregarded in the past as secondary effects, recent work suggests that the electrical properties of volcanic plumes reveal intrinsic and otherwise inaccessible parameters of explosive eruptions. An increasing number of volcanic lightning studies across the last decade have shown that electrification is ubiquitous in volcanic plumes. Technological advances in engineering and numerical modelling, paired with close observation of recent eruptions and dedicated laboratory studies (shock-tube and current impulse experiments), show that charge generation and electrical activity are related to the physical, chemical, and dynamic processes underpinning the eruption itself. Refining our understanding of volcanic plume electrification will continue advancing the fundamental understanding of eruptive processes to improve volcano monitoring. Realizing this goal, however, requires an interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of volcanology, atmospheric science, atmospheric electricity, and engineering. Our paper summarizes the rapid and steady progress achieved in recent volcanic lightning research and provides a vision for future developments in this growing field

Sonographic accuracy of estimated fetal weight in twins

Sonographic accuracy of estimated fetal weight in twin