The Evaluation of Rhode Island Public High School Teachers: The Impact on Students

In 2012, the state of Rhode Island began the full implementation of a high-stakes teacher evaluation system. Its purpose is to increase teacher accountability and to improve student performance. However, a significant amount of literature casts doubt about the effectiveness and validity of teacher evaluation. This paper utilizes statistical methods including regression and decision trees in order to determine whether or not there is a relationship between teacher evaluation in Rhode Island and student performance, using RI Department of Education Data for each school from 2008-2015. Furthermore, this presentation investigates other factors that affect schools, to see if changes in student performance can be explained by factors other than the teacher evaluation system, such as discipline, the student-teacher ratio, and student demographics

The development of a teachers' handbook in the Newton public schools

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Rationale, public health approaches, and policy implications of implementing community-level screening programmes for Chlamydia trachomatis infection.

This context statement outlines my published research in three themes adapted from the ten criteria for screenings established by Wilson and Jungner (1968) Chlamydia trachomatis as a public health problem implementation of large-scale chlamydia screening programmes; and monitoring and evaluation of chlamydia screening programmes. These themes are supported by seven published papers quantifýing the epidemiology of chlamydial infection in several populations; describing the development, implementation and first year results of a national chlamydiac screening programme; and demonstrating four methods of evaluation - assessment of screening criteria, use of positivity to measure disease changes in the population clinical audits of provider ddherence to screening guidelines and fiscal analysis of costs through economic modelling. My research utilised a diverse set of study designs and methodological approaches: a) confirmatory studies of previously published research; b) cross-sectional studies with differing levels of statistiscal sophistication c) clinical policy review using questionnaires to health care providers d) economic modelling of budget expenditures and decision-tree and sensitivity analyses and e) an evaluation of a chlamydia screening programme combining retrospective cross-sectional analysis and multivariate logistic regression with sensitivity and efficiency analyses. My research has revealed significant levels of chlamydia morbidity in a variety of populations and settings in the United States and United Kingdom and has demonstrated consistently increasing trends in rates of diagnosed chlamydial infections among genitourinary medicine(GUM) clinic attenders in the UK. These data suggest that chlamydial infection is a prevalent disease in both countries and contributes to a significant global public health problem. I have examined the genesis of a new national chlamydia screening programme in the UK, and have shown the continued feasibility and acceptability of chlamydia screening , affirmed that screening in high prevalence populations is a successful strategy for disease detection, and improved our understanding of the sexual behaviours that continue to drive this epidemic. My evaluation of the longest running chlamydia screening programme in the US has illustrated the value of periodic assessments in screening protocols and lead to the revision in selection criteria for women screened in the north western US. I have found utihty in a variety of methods to monitor and evaluate chlamydia screening programmes. The application of sensitivity and efficiency thresholds to sets of screening criteria proved useful in evaluating c riteriap erformancea ndi ncreasing criteria efficiency. Using chlamydia test positivity as a surrogate measure for prevalence could adequately measure programme impact for the National Chlamydia Screening Programme in England. Clinical audits of service providers regarding published guidelines for chlamydia screening in termination of pregnancy services demonstratpd practice variation for chlamydia screening in these settings and suggested harmonisation of guidelines to increase adherence. Finally, my research of screening programme costs using economic models proved a useful tool to explore the average costs of screening and variations in estimates as local programmes revise their implementation and operational structure for chlamydia screening, and recommend this method be used to inform resource allocation for future phases of the National Chlamydia Screening Programme in England

Engineering ligand-responsive RNA controllers in yeast through the assembly of RNase III tuning modules

The programming of cellular networks to achieve new biological functions depends on the development of genetic tools that link the presence of a molecular signal to gene-regulatory activity. Recently, a set of engineered RNA controllers was described that enabled predictable tuning of gene expression in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae through directed cleavage of transcripts by an RNase III enzyme, Rnt1p. Here, we describe a strategy for building a new class of RNA sensing-actuation devices based on direct integration of RNA aptamers into a region of the Rnt1p hairpin that modulates Rnt1p cleavage rates. We demonstrate that ligand binding to the integrated aptamer domain is associated with a structural change sufficient to inhibit Rnt1p processing. Three tuning strategies based on the incorporation of different functional modules into the Rnt1p switch platform were demonstrated to optimize switch dynamics and ligand responsiveness. We further demonstrated that these tuning modules can be implemented combinatorially in a predictable manner to further improve the regulatory response properties of the switch. The modularity and tunability of the Rnt1p switch platform will allow for rapid optimization and tailoring of this gene control device, thus providing a useful tool for the design of complex genetic networks in yeast

Synthetic RNA modules for fine-tuning gene expression levels in yeast by modulating RNase III activity

The design of synthetic gene networks requires an extensive genetic toolbox to control the activities and levels of protein components to achieve desired cellular functions. Recently, a novel class of RNA-based control modules, which act through post-transcriptional processing of transcripts by directed RNase III (Rnt1p) cleavage, were shown to provide predictable control over gene expression and unique properties for manipulating biological networks. Here, we increase the regulatory range of the Rnt1p control elements, by modifying a critical region for enzyme binding to its hairpin substrates, the binding stability box (BSB). We used a high throughput, cell-based selection strategy to screen a BSB library for sequences that exhibit low fluorescence and thus high Rnt1p processing efficiencies. Sixteen unique BSBs were identified that cover a range of protein expression levels, due to the ability of the sequences to affect the hairpin cleavage rate and to form active cleavable complexes with Rnt1p. We further demonstrated that the activity of synthetic Rnt1p hairpins can be rationally programmed by combining the synthetic BSBs with a set of sequences located within a different region of the hairpin that directly modulate cleavage rates, providing a modular assembly strategy for this class of RNA-based control elements