An exploration of the influence of demographic factors on individual and aggregate student achievement measurements in the Kentucky accountability system.

This study investigates the progress of standards-based accountability in eliminating the effects of student background and school composition factors on student achievement and school performance in a large, urban district in Kentucky. The factors included gender, socioeconomic status (SES), ethnicity, mobility, family structure, giftedness, and disability. The school composition variables were the percentages of those factors in the school populations. Each grade and level--elementary, middle, and high school--was analyzed by multiple regression. At the student level, SES, giftedness, and disability predicted 15 to 36% of the variance in scores. SES, family structure, and mobility rate accounted for 56 to 91% of the variance in aggregate school scores. The effects were greater in middle and high schools than in elementary and greater on norm-referenced than on criterion-referenced tests. These findings have implications for creating more equitable and effective schools and accountability systems

Human Factors Assessment: The Passive Final Approach Spacing Tool (pFAST) Operational Evaluation

Automation to assist air traffic controllers in the current terminal and en route air traff ic environments is being developed at Ames Research Center in conjunction with the Federal Aviation Administration. This automation, known collectively as the Center-TRACON Automation System (CTAS), provides decision- making assistance to air traffic controllers through computer-generated advisories. One of the CTAS tools developed specifically to assist terminal area air traffic controllers is the Passive Final Approach Spacing Tool (pFAST). An operational evaluation of PFAST was conducted at the Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas, Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facility. Human factors data collected during the test describe the impact of the automation upon the air traffic controller in terms of perceived workload and acceptance. Results showed that controller self-reported workload was not significantly increased or reduced by the PFAST automation; rather, controllers reported that the levels of workload remained primarily the same. Controller coordination and communication data were analyzed, and significant differences in the nature of controller coordination were found. Controller acceptance ratings indicated that PFAST was acceptable. This report describes the human factors data and results from the 1996 Operational Field Evaluation of Passive FAST

Early gait development in human infants: Plasticity and clinical applications

In this paper we focus on how a developmental perspective on plasticity in the control of human movement can promote early therapy and improve gait acquisition in infants with developmental disabilities. Current knowledge about stepping development in healthy infants across the first year of life highlights strong plasticity, both in behavioral outcome and in underlying neuro‐muscular activation. These data show that stepping, like other motor skills, emerges from the interaction between infant's maturation and the environment. This view is reinforced by showing that infants with different internal resources (like genetic disorder or neural tube defect) show unique developmental trajectories when supported on a treadmill, yet do respond. Moreover, we will show that their behavior can be improved by context manipulations (mostly sensory stimulation) or practice. Overall, plasticity in the neural, skeletal, and muscle tissues create new opportunities for optimizing early intervention by creatively tapping into the same developmental processes experienced by healthy infants. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 57: 447–458, 2015.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111276/1/dev21291.pd

Trapped in a Cycle of Low Expectations: An Exploration of High School Seniors\u27 Perspectives About Academic Reading

Reports show that the reading proficiency scores for 17-year-olds have stagnated over the past several decades. In this study, the authors explored older students\u27 academic reading perceptions that might suggest links to proficiency. What do high school seniors really think about class reading? Do they understand what they read? How do they view teacher support for content reading? A quarter of the senior class of one mid-sized high school responded to open-ended questions such as these as well as a Likert-style reading attitude survey. Additionally, the teachers of the student study sample were interviewed about their students\u27 reading behaviors and attitudes. Data revealed that these seniors largely felt confident in their class reading abilities despite the fact that most said they did not do much reading either for school or recreationally. Seniors also reported a lower tolerance for reading long periods of time and showed little preference for reading informational texts. Yet most participants planned to go to college and felt positively about the challenges presented by college-level reading. Student and teacher reports suggested both parties may be locked in a reciprocating cycle of low reading expectations that maintain student non-reading behaviors and unrealistic ideas about the skill level necessary for informational reading comprehension

Double Jeopardy: African American Women and the Counselor Education and Supervision Dissertation

Half of all doctoral students do not graduate, with attrition occurring because of the dissertation process. Outcomes for women and minorities are even worse. This study is an interpretive phenomenological analysis of the lived experiences of African American women working on their dissertation for a counselor education and supervision (CES) doctoral program. This study was guided by Flynn et al.’s emergent theory of the initiation, management, and completion of the dissertation, which highlights 6 themes important to successful completion of the dissertation in CES programs. Though the theory was originally applied to a largely White and Midwestern sample, this study addressed the lived experience of African American women in CES doctoral programs to see if the themes aligned with the experiences of these women. The most significant divergence of the experiences with the 7 interviewed African American women was the centrality of race to their experience. The other primary themes that emerged were the importance of individual traits, personal relationships, and environmental challenges to their experience. Based on the results, efforts should be made to improve the cultural competence of faculty, strengthen cohort networks, and increase support for African American women in CES doctoral programs. Unless efforts are made to understand the experiences of African American women and address higher doctoral attrition, institutions of higher education and society risk failing these women who make up nearly a third of all CES students. Findings may promote positive social change by program administrators to improve the doctoral experience of African American women

An Update on the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index

Background: The Self-care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) is a measure of self-care defined as a naturalistic decision-making process involving the choice of behaviors that maintain physiological stability (maintenance) and the response to symptoms when they occur (management). In the 5 years since the SCHFI was published, we have added items, refined the response format of the maintenance scale and the SCHFI scoring procedure, and modified our advice about how to use the scores. Objective: The objective of this article was to update users on these changes. Methods: In this article, we address 8 specific questions about reliability, item difficulty, frequency of administration, learning effects, social desirability, validity, judgments of self-care adequacy, clinically relevant change, and comparability of the various versions. Results: The addition of items to the self-care maintenance scale did not significantly change the coefficient α, providing evidence that the structure of the instrument is more powerful than the individual items. No learning effect is associated with repeated administration. Social desirability is minimal. More evidence is provided of the validity of the SCHFI. A score of 70 or greater can be used as the cut-point to judge self-care adequacy, although evidence is provided that benefit occurs at even lower levels of self-care. A change in a scale score more than one-half of an SD is considered clinically relevant. Because of the standardized scores, results obtained with prior versions can be compared with those from later versions. Conclusion: The SCHFI v.6 is ready to be used by investigators. By publication in this format, we are putting the instrument in the public domain; permission is not required to use the SCHFI

Headlights!

No cover art.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/9137/thumbnail.jp