The Influence of School Leadership Practices on Classroom Management, School Environment, and Academic Underperformance

The Influence of School Leadership Practices on Classroom Management, School Environment, and Academic Underperformance by Lorna Novlette Wilson Morgan MSc, Florida International University, 2006 BSc, University of Technology, 2000 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Walden University April 2015 School leadership requires the collaborative efforts of principals, teachers, parents, students, and other community members to achieve academic success. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the influence of school leadership practices on classroom management, school environment, and academic underperformance in Jamaica. The research was based upon distributive leadership theory. The School Leadership, Environment, Classroom Management Assessment Questionnaire (SLECMAQ) was developed for this study and was used to collect the data. Prior to data collection, a pilot study was conducted with 12 experts to evaluate the reliability and validity of the SLECMAQ. A total of 148 complete responses were collected from principals, vice principals, grade coordinators, classroom teachers, special education teachers, and others. Pearson\u27s correlation coefficient and linear regressions were used to determine possible correlations between the influence of school leadership practices on classroom management, school environment, and academic underperformance. The results indicated significant, positive relationships between the independent variable perceived school leadership practices of principals and teachers and the dependent variables perceived classroom management and perceived academic performance. A significant, positive relationship was also found between perceived school leadership practices and perceived school environment. The findings will contribute to a positive social change by supporting policies to implement leadership frameworks at underperforming primary schools and thus improving the quality of education in Jamaic

Periodicity in the autocorrelation function as a mechanism for regularly occurring zero crossings or extreme values of a Gaussian process

The problem of zero crossings is of great historical prevalence and promises extensive application. The challenge is to establish precisely how the autocorrelation function or power spectrum of a one-dimensional continuous random process determines the density function of the intervals between the zero crossings of that process. This paper investigates the case where periodicities are incorporated into the autocorrelation function of a smooth process. Numerical simulations, and statistics about the number of crossings in a fixed interval, reveal that in this case the zero crossings segue between a random and deterministic point process depending on the relative time scales of the periodic and nonperiodic components of the autocorrelation function. By considering the Laplace transform of the density function, we show that incorporating correlation between successive intervals is essential to obtaining accurate results for the interval variance. The same method enables prediction of the density function tail in some regions, and we suggest approaches for extending this to cover all regions. In an ever-more complex world, the potential applications for this scale of regularity in a random process are far reaching and powerful

Open Education and OER - A guide and call to action for policy makers

Executive Summary ALT has produced this call to action to highlight to education policy makers and professionals how Open Education and OER can expand inclusive and equitable access to education and lifelong learning, widen participation, and create new opportunities for the next generation of teachers and learners, preparing them to become fully engaged digital citizens. Open Education can also promote knowledge transfer while enhancing quality and sustainability, supporting social inclusion and creating a culture of inter-institutional collaboration and sharing. One of ALT’s three strategic aims is to increase the impact of Learning Technology for the wider community and we are issuing this call to action for policy makers to mandate that publicly funded educational resources are released under open licence to ensure that they reside in the public domain and are freely and openly available to all. This will be of wide benefit, but in particular will enable education providers and learning technology professionals to: Keep up to date with the rapid pace of technological innovation Develop critical, informed approaches to the implementation of Learning Technology and the impact on learners Scale up knowledge sharing and its benefits across sectors

Rural transformations, rural futures : introduction to theme section

Open Access via the T&F Agreement Acknowledgements The co-editors of the theme section wish to thank all those who contributed work to this collection of papers, many of whom contributed as peer reviewers, providing supportive and constructive feedback. We also record our thanks to the Scottish Geographical Journal’s editor in chief, Chris Philo, for his support for this project and meticulous editorial oversight of all contributions to the theme sectionPeer reviewe

Age, growth and productivity of juvenile sockeye salmon in two high latitude lakes, Alaska

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2009"The growth of Seward Peninsula sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) from Salmon and Glacial lakes is related to their physical environment. Dermal scales collected over many years were measured to document the annual age specific growth of smolts and adults. The effect of fertilization on fry growth was examined using the first year of growth. The growth histories of Salmon Lake sockeye salmon were compared to Glacial Lake sockeye salmon through smolting and in the marine environment. Annual age specific fry growth had no direct relationship to fertilization; however, there were interactions between biomass of salmon prey and fertilization, and between prey biomass and age of smolting. Glacial Lake age-1 smolts are the same size as Salmon Lake age-1 smolts, but age-1.3 Salmon Lake juveniles after their first year in the ocean are smaller than age-1.3 Glacial Lake juveniles suggesting lower size based mortality. The differences in growth histories show each population's response to lake production and mortality experienced by smolt between the rearing lake and the ocean"--Leaf iiiArctic Yukon Kuskokwim Sustainable Salmon InitiativeGeneral introduction -- Sockeye salmon ecology -- Lake fertilization -- Seward Peninsula sockeye salmon -- Objectives -- 1. Lower trophic relationships and the effect of fertilization on the growth of sockeye salmon fry in a high latitude lake -- 2. Juvenile sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) growth histories on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska -- General discussion

Gow’s Typology of Scotland’s Islands : Technical notes

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The impact of periodicity on the zero-crossings of random functions

Continuous random processes are used to model a huge variety of real world phenomena. In particular, the zero-crossings of such processes find application in modelling processes of diffusion, meteorology, genetics, finance and applied probability. Understanding the zero-crossings behaviour improves prediction of phenomena initiated by a threshold crossing, as well as extremal problems where the turning points of the process are of interest. To identify the Probability Density Function (PDF) for the times between successive zero-crossings of a stochastic process is a challenging problem with a rich history. This thesis considers the effect of an oscillatory auto-correlation function on the zero-crossings of a Gaussian process. Examining statistical properties of the number of zeros in a fixed time period, it is found that increasing the rate of oscillations in the auto-correlation function results in more ‘deterministic’ realisations of the process. The random interval times between successive zeros become more regular, and the variance is reduced. Accurate calculation of the variance is achieved through analysing the correlation between intervals,which numerical simulations show can be anti-correlated or correlated, depending on the rate of oscillations in the auto-correlation function. The persistence exponent describes the tail of the inter-event PDF, which is steeper where zero-crossings occur more regularly. It exhibits a complex phenomenology, strongly influenced by the oscillatory nature of the auto-correlation function. The interplay between random and deterministic components of a system governs its complexity. In an ever-more complex world, the potential applications for this scale of ‘regularity’ in a random process are far reaching and powerful

‘A false sense of security’? Understanding the role of the HPV vaccine on future cervical screening behaviour: a qualitative study of UK parents and girls of vaccination age

OBJECTIVES: The UK Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme was introduced in 2008 for girls aged 12-13. The vaccine offers protection against HPV types 16 and 18, which together cause about 70% of cervical cancers. Vaccinated girls will receive future invitations to the NHS Cervical Screening Programme, to prevent cancers associated with HPV types not included in the vaccine, and in case of prior infection with HPV 16 or 18. Little is known about parents' and girls' understandings of the protection offered by the vaccine, or the need for future screening. DESIGN: Qualitative interviews with twenty-six parents, and nine girls aged 12-13 who were offered HPV vaccination through a Primary Care Trust (PCT) in the South-east of England, UK. SETTING: Thirty-nine schools, and four general practices. RESULTS: Uncertainty about the level of protection offered by the HPV vaccine was evident among parents, and to a lesser extent among vaccination-aged girls. There was a lack of understanding among parents and girls that cervical screening would be required irrespective of vaccination status; some parental decisions to accept the vaccine were made on the misunderstanding that vaccination provided complete protection against cervical cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Sufficient awareness of the issues related to screening is necessary for informed decision-making about whether or not to accept the HPV vaccine. Clearer information is needed concerning the incomplete protection offered by the vaccine, and that cervical screening will still be required. Future invitations for cervical screening should stress the necessity to attend regardless of HPV vaccination status, to ensure that high levels of prevention of cervical cancer through screening are maintained