Exploring the Predictability Power of Arizona's College and Career Readiness Indicators on College Enrollment Rates: A Multiple Regression Analysis

Arizona’s most recent implementation of the A-F policy provides a unique opportunity to explore the relationship of various college and career readiness indicators (CCRI) on the impact of college enrollment rates. These CCRI incorporate various components of a school’s college-going culture that often fall to school counselors to design and implement within the school. Unfortunately, scholars find that school counselors do not have the time (McClafferty, McDonough, & Nunez 2002; McDonough, 1997; McKillip, Rawls, & Barry, 2012), in part because they are overburdened with excessive student caseloads (McClafferty, McDonough, & Nunez 2002; McDonough, 1997; McKillip, Rawls, Barry, 2012), and excessive administrative responsibilities to adequately support the college navigation process (Corwin & Tierney, 2007; McKillip, Rawls, Barry, 2012). Moreover, scholars have found that counselors often lack the prerequisite training (Corwin & Tierney, 2007) and policy support (Dahir, 2004). Furthermore, the extant literature is almost devoid of school counseling outcome research (Dahir, 2004; Whiston & Sexton, 1998). Research that reveals the support structures, advising needs or how to best use limited counselor time in order to support students is essential for successful evidence-based practices. The objective of this study is to examine the predictive power of various components of Arizona’s A-F CCRI on Title 1 high school’s college enrollment rates in southern Arizona. The secondary goal of this study is to analyze the available data to determine if specific CCRI components or combination of components have stronger impacts on college enrollment. These results may then be utilized to inform school counselors and administrators on the best methods to support their underserved student populations. Data was analyzed using multiple regression to determine the predictive nature of the selected indicators on the enrollment rates of students. Results indicate that of the indicators analyzed, meeting all 16 Arizona Board of Regents Program of Study Requirements and sections passed on the ACT had significant positive relationships with post-secondary enrollment rates. However, contrary to expectations the Number of College Classes Credit was Earned had a significant negative relationship with post-secondary enrollment rates. An (2013) and (Taylor, 2015) stated in their literature reviews that research on the effects of dual enrollment credit is still minimal however the consensus is that there is college access and completion benefits. These research findings indicate this relationship warrants deeper investigation. The findings have relevance for informing counselors and administrators on ways to support first-generation and underserved student populations. Counselors as advocates for students are ideally situated to act as critical advocates to support these students and protect student agency as schools work to maximize the points in all categories of the CCRI measures. Furthermore, a number of potential follow-up studies may further expand the existing literature and support counselors in making evidenced based policy implementation recommendations

Absence of synaptic regulation by phosducin in retinal slices.

Phosducin is an abundant photoreceptor protein that binds G-protein βγ subunits and plays a role in modulating synaptic transmission at photoreceptor synapses under both dark-adapted and light-adapted conditions in vivo. To examine the role of phosducin at the rod-to-rod bipolar cell (RBC) synapse, we used whole-cell voltage clamp recordings to measure the light-evoked currents from both wild-type (WT) and phosducin knockout (Pd(-/-)) RBCs, in dark- and light-adapted retinal slices. Pd(-/-) RBCs showed smaller dim flash responses and steeper intensity-response relationships than WT RBCs, consistent with the smaller rod responses being selectively filtered out by the non-linear threshold at the rod-to-rod bipolar synapse. In addition, Pd(-/-) RBCs showed a marked delay in the onset of the light-evoked currents, similar to that of a WT response to an effectively dimmer flash. Comparison of the changes in flash sensitivity in the presence of steady adapting light revealed that Pd(-/-) RBCs desensitized less than WT RBCs to the same intensity. These results are quantitatively consistent with the smaller single photon responses of Pd(-/-) rods, owing to the known reduction in rod G-protein expression levels in this line. The absence of an additional synaptic phenotype in these experiments suggests that the function of phosducin at the photoreceptor synapse is abolished by the conditions of retinal slice recordings

Development of the Sphere Overlap Scale (SOS) : compartmentalization and the spillover hypothesis

The purpose of this study was to create a scale that could measure compartmentalization. In the first of two studies 311 working undergraduates were asked to indicate agreement with 119 items that measured compartmentalization. The resulting scale\u27s reliability and validity were evaluated by having a second sample of 312 working students complete the items that comprise a sphere overlap scale, two measures of spillover, and a measure of personality, coping, and demoralization. Although the study\u27s original goal was not realized, its procedures were successful in developing a short (10-item) measure of work-to-home spillover whose items loaded on a single factor. Structural equation modeling indicated that SOS items were correlated with existing measures of spillover and could be discriminated from related concepts of personality and coping. The SOS was also more highly correlated with demoralization than existing measures of spillover in hierarchical analyses that controlled for demographic factors, personality characteristics, and coping style. It is concluded that the SOS shows enough promise to warrant the cost of its appraisal as an alternative measure of spillover in a longitudinal study

Perceived fairness of and satisfaction with employee performance appraisal

Employee performance appraisal is one of the most commonly used management tools in the United States. Over 90 percent of large organizations including 75 percent of state employment systems require some type of annual performance appraisal (Seldon, Ingraham & Jacobson, 2001). Performance appraisal is one of the most widely researched areas in industrial/organizational psychology (Murphy & Cleveland, 1993). However, the traditional research agenda has done little to improve the usefulness of performance appraisal as a managerial tool. Recent research has moved away from studies of rater accuracy and psychometric measures to themes of employee reactions towards performance appraisal as indicators of system satisfaction and efficacy. Employee perception of fairness of performance appraisal has been studied as a significant factor in employee acceptance and satisfaction of performance appraisal. This study investigated employee reactions to fairness of and satisfaction with an existing performance appraisal system utilizing a hypothesized four-factor model (Greenberg, 1993) of organizational justice as the theoretical basis. The underlying hypothesis was that the conceptualized four-factor model, which differentiated between the constructs of interactional and procedural justice, would best represent the underlying factor structure of the data. Data were obtained via a survey questionnaire from 440 participants from two organizations that were part of a large public employment system. Ten multi-item scales representing four factors of organizational justice and performance appraisal fairness and three scales indicating satisfaction were included. The findings of the study indicated that respondents perceived the performance appraisal system was to be fair as indicated by their agreement with 9 of the 10 scales used to measure reactions to fairness. The respondents also indicated their relative satisfaction with their most recent performance appraisal rating and with their supervisor. Less satisfaction (although not dissatisfaction) was indicated with the performance appraisal system overall. The conceptualized four-factor model was not found to represent the underlying factor structure substantially better than alternative plausible three-factor models. The best fit three–factor model, however, provided some support for the differentiation between procedural and interactional organizational justice factors, which is a distinction that has been debated in the organizational justice literature

The history of the Palmer elementary schools from 1851 to 1951.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

The Influence Of Facial Attractiveness And Babyfaceness On Actors\u27 Memorability

While researchers suggest that people displaying emotional expressions are memorable because of meanings associated with the expressions, the current study explored whether other facial characteristics, such as attractiveness and babyfaceness, how much an adult\u27s face resembles a baby\u27s, influence memorability as well. Introductory psychology students (150 female, 53 male) participated in an incidental memory task in which they attempted to recognize actors they had previously seen displaying emotional expressions who varied in both emotional attractiveness, how attractive actors appear due to changes in facial features associated with displaying emotional expressions, and emotional babyfaceness, how babyfaced actors appear due to changes in facial features associated with displaying emotional expressions. As predicted, the interaction of emotional attractiveness and emotional babyfaceness predict the variance in memorability for actors displaying fearful expressions, but not for actors displaying happy or angry expressions. The current study suggests, then, that people\u27s attractiveness and babyfaceness when displaying an emotional expression seem to influence how well they will be recognized when displaying fearful expressions. These results suggest that people who use eyewitness identification judgments, such as those in law enforcement, should consider the attractiveness and babyfaceness of those depicted when developing photos that will be used for eyewitness identification tasks

A Study of Experiences Provided in the Home Environment Associated With Accelerated Reading Abilities as Reported by Parents of Intellectually Superior Preschoolers.

The purpose of this study was to look beyond the general effect that intelligence and environment have upon the development of reading and investigate (a) differences in how accelerated readers and nonreaders perform on written language tasks and (b) differences in written language experiences provided in the home environment, as reported by parents, associated with the development of accelerated reading abilities. Due to the broadness of the term written language, only four aspects of written language were examined (i.e., awareness of concepts about print, awareness of print in the environment, awareness of letter/sound correspondences in words--invented spelling, and awareness during story reading episodes--story recall). Thirty 4- and 5-year-old intellectually superior children who resided in supportive home environments participated in the study. The sample was comprised of 15 accelerated readers and 15 nonreaders. All subjects were administered four tasks which measured each of the written language areas. In addition, mothers of all subjects were administered a parent questionnaire comprised of 24 descriptive and 245 quantitative questions which examined experiences in the home environment associated with the four written language areas. Results indicated that accelerated readers performed significantly better than nonreaders on two (i.e., print in the environment and invented spelling) of the four tasks than nonreaders. Significant differences were also found in two areas on the parent questionnaire. Mothers of accelerated readers reported providing more opportunities in the home environment related to concepts about print and story recall than mothers of nonreaders. To further examine associations that existed between significant differences in performance on the tasks and significant differences in opportunities reported in the questionnaire constructs, related analysis was conducted. Results indicated that opportunities provided in the home environment related to story recall and concepts about print could be associated with the ability of accelerated readers to read print in the environment and engage in invented spelling tasks

Novel form of adaptation in mouse retinal rods speeds recovery of phototransduction

Photoreceptors of the retina adapt to ambient light in a manner that allows them to detect changes in illumination over an enormous range of intensities. We have discovered a novel form of adaptation in mouse rods that persists long after the light has been extinguished and the rod's circulating dark current has returned. Electrophysiological recordings from individual rods showed that the time that a bright flash response remained in saturation was significantly shorter if the rod had been previously exposed to bright light. This persistent adaptation did not decrease the rate of rise of the response and therefore cannot be attributed to a decrease in the gain of transduction. Instead, this adaptation was accompanied by a marked speeding of the recovery of the response, suggesting that the step that rate-limits recovery had been accelerated. Experiments on knockout rods in which the identity of the rate-limiting step is known suggest that this adaptive acceleration results from a speeding of G protein/effector deactivation

Molecular profiling of resident and infiltrating mononuclear phagocytes during rapid adult retinal degeneration using single-cell RNA sequencing.

Neuroinflammation commonly accompanies neurodegeneration, but the specific roles of resident and infiltrating immune cells during degeneration remains controversial. Much of the difficulty in assessing myeloid cell-specific functions during disease progression arises from the inability to clearly distinguish between activated microglia and bone marrow-derived monocytes and macrophages in various stages of differentiation and activation within the central nervous system. Using an inducible model of photoreceptor cell death, we investigated the prevalence of infiltrating monocytes and macrophage subpopulations after the initiation of degeneration in the mouse retina. In vivo retinal imaging revealed infiltration of CCR2+ leukocytes across retinal vessels and into the parenchyma within 48 hours of photoreceptor degeneration. Immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry confirmed and characterized these leukocytes as CD11b+CD45+ cells. Single-cell mRNA sequencing of the entire CD11b+CD45+ population revealed the presence of resting microglia, activated microglia, monocytes, and macrophages as well as 12 distinct subpopulations within these four major cell classes. Our results demonstrate a previously immeasurable degree of molecular heterogeneity in the innate immune response to cell-autonomous degeneration within the central nervous system and highlight the necessity of unbiased high-throughput and high-dimensional molecular techniques like scRNAseq to understand the complex and changing landscape of immune responders during disease progression