Is a Student Loan Crisis on the Horizon?

College tuition and student debt levels have been increasing at a fast pace for at least two decades. These well-documented trends, coupled with an economy weakened by a major recession, have raised serious questions about whether the market for student debt is headed for a crisis, with many borrowers unable to repay their loans and taxpayers being forced to foot the bill.In this report, Beth Akers and Matthew Chingos analyze more than two decades of data on the financial well-being of American households and find that in reality, the impact of student loans may not be as dire as many commentators fear

Undergraduate Pilot Training Attrition: An Analysis of Individual and Class Composition Component Factors

The Air Force is working hard to reduce the shortage of nearly 2,000 pilots that threatens the Air Force’s core mission. Officials have focused on increasing retention and training throughput. Despite this, the first Pilot Training Next class graduated in August of 2018 with 13 of the initial 20 students (65.5% graduation rate). The purpose of this research is to explore attrition reduction by understanding how class composition of individual abilities and personalities affects the class graduation rate. Using AFOQT scores, SDI+ scores, PCSM scores, flight hours, and college GPAs, correlations were studied and a simple linear regression was run with the variables to determine relationships. This study resulted in the creation of models to help decision makers plan classes to optimize success rates. Additionally, correlations between group scores and graduation rates were compared to correlations between individual scores and individual performance. Decision makers can employ these findings in the creation of future classes to increase performance and decrease attritions

Meeting the needs of gifted students through teacher inservicing

Inservicing classroom teachers in compacting, independent study, and mentoring may help them become more effective in meeting the instructional needs of talented and gifted students. It is easier for teachers to apply learning if it is easily applicable to their own classroom instruction, and if the learning seems manageable for the teacher. This project includes an inservice model that contains applicable teaching strategies and an inservice plan for teachers. Teaching talented and gifted students through appropriate teaching strategies and becoming aware of these students\u27 needs in the classroom can assure that students are challenged to realize their full learning potential. This project presents research to support examples of inservice teaching strategies for the instruction of the talented and gifted. It also offers suggestions for conducting effective teacher inservices on meeting the special needs of the talented and gifted student in the regular classroom

Self-reported practices of and attitudes toward reading among elementary-aged English language learners

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of self-reported attitudes toward and practices of at-home reading on English reading abilities in English Language Learners in 3rd through 5th grade. Students\u27 English reading abilities were measured in terms of fluency, vocabulary/background knowledge, and comprehension. Scores from the school district\u27s reading benchmarks and English language mastery test were also obtained. Attitudes toward both academic and recreational reading were assessed, and a survey was administered to obtain information regarding students\u27 self-reported at-home practices of reading and access to reading materials. Data was collected in early spring and again in late spring. Data was analyzed using correlation and comparison of means. Although hypotheses were not supported in the current research, additional potentially beneficial observations were made. In particular, these participants had more positive attitudes toward both academic and recreational reading than their same aged peers. Also notable was that participants\u27 academic reading interest was higher than their recreational reading interest. Finally, while many students reported that they enjoy taking reading tests and being asked to answer questions related to their reading by teachers, students overwhelmingly reported that they disliked having to read in front of the class. Lack of supported hypothesis was likely due to several factors including (1) small sample size, (2) lack of between-participant variability, and (3) limited elapsed time between the pre- and post-measures. Future research should expand upon the limitations of the current study

An Exploratory Study of Conversational Discourse Produced by Persons with Aphasia Using Speech Function Analysis

Casual conversation is essential to everyday life. Because of their language impairment, most people with stroke-induced aphasia have trouble engaging in social interactions and may, as a result, experience a decrease in psychosocial well-being. There is a great need, therefore, to identify the interventions most likely to improve the everyday talk of individuals affected by aphasia. Approaches to intervention that aim to improve the social participation and communicative success of people with aphasia during real-life interactions, known as conversation-based treatment, have increased in popularity. When delivered in a group setting, conversation-based treatments have been shown to increase scores on standardized aphasia assessments and improve narrative discourse production. If and how conversation-based group treatment may change the casual conversation of persons with aphasia is not well understood. The identification of suitable discourse outcome measures has represented a significant hurdle in the search for post-intervention changes to conversational discourse production. The present study sought to determine the reliability of the speech function network and its potential utility as a discourse outcome measure following conversation-based group treatment. Pre- and post-treatment conversational discourse samples collected from 22 participants with chronic aphasia were coded for moves within the speech function network. We determined that the test-retest reliability of speech function analysis was sufficient for use in a group treatment study; however, inter-rater reliability ranged from poor to excellent for different moves within the network. Post-intervention changes in moves within the speech function network were also examined. The results of this analysis indicate that participation in conversation-based group treatment did not result in statistically significant changes in the moves used by the study participants during conversational discourse. Patterns of behaviors identified through the speech function analysis broaden our understanding of how dyads affected by aphasia engage in everyday talk

Strategic masculinity : a grounded theory examination of the discourse of masculinity for college men

Masculinity is an experience that is angst ridden and stressful for young men in a modern world. The social pressure to perform dominant forms of masculinity along with intersectional issues such as race, sexual identity, and class complicates masculine identity processes. The author employed grounded theory to analyze the discourse of 25 college-age men to ascertain how men enact, negotiate, and manage masculinity. Utilizing the dual perspectives of Precarious Masculinity and Hegemonic Masculinity, the theory of Strategic Masculinity is offered as a communication-centered frame to examine the discourses of men in service of their masculine identity. The theory revealed that men strategically manage masculinity using a variety of strategies in varying contexts. Men engage in precarious discourses, rehabilitation efforts, and the experience of intersectional issues to negotiate personal masculinity. The theory also highlights men's use of gender capital to address challenges to their masculinity. Implications of Strategic Masculinity are discussed and avenues of future development of the model and further research are explored.Includes biblographical references (pages 237-255)

Interprofessional Education: How to Make It Happen

Interprofessional education (IPE) will be defined and demystified with exemplars from Nursing and their IPE events with Aviation, Medicine, and American Sign Language and Interpreting

A paralysis in public health policy: water fluoridation in Queensland (1996-2006)

By focusing on developments between 1996 and 2006, this paper explains the reasons for one of Australia’s public health inconsistencies, the comparatively low adoption of adjusted water fluoridation in Queensland. As such, this work involved literature review and traditional historical method. In Queensland, parliamentary support for water fluoridation is conditional on community approval. Political ambivalence and the constraints of the “Fluoridation of Public Water Supplies Act (1963)” Qld have hindered the advocacy of water fluoridation. The political circumstance surrounding the “Lord Mayor’s Taskforce on Fluoridation Report” (1997) influenced its findings and confirms that Australia’s biggest local authority, the Brisbane City Council, failed to authoritatively analyse water fluoridation. In 2004, a private member’s bill to mandate fluoridation failed in a spectacular fashion. In 2005, an official systems review of Queensland Health recommended public debate about water fluoridation. Our principal conclusion is that without mandatory legislation, widespread implementationof water fluoridation in Queensland is most unlikely

Promoting Impactful Internships with Community Partners

A capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the Ernst and Sara Lane Volgenau College of Education at Morehead State University by Leeann M. Akers and Samuel L. Stapleton on April 1, 2022