Principal Concerns in Wisconsin: Focus on Future Leaders for Rural Schools

States need, among other things, to build detailed longitudinal data systems for principals like the ones they use to track teachers and students. But in some places those types of systems are still a long way off. In the meantime, system leaders can examine the administrative data they already have to paint a basic picture of their principal workforce, one that can help prompt deeper questions and discussions about the challenges and opportunities they face.This Principal Concerns brief offers an example of this type of analysis for Wisconsin. Why should Wisconsin be concerned about its principal workforce? After all, by some measures, the state's schools are doing well. Wisconsin's NAEP scores, for example, are consistently higher than the national average.Yet there is still much work to be done to ensure that all students achieve at high levels, and strong leadership is key to that success. Under the state's recently revamped accountability system, 266 schools across the state are not meeting performance expectations. In Milwaukee Public Schools, the state's largest school system, only 21 percent of schools met or exceeded the state's expectations.Wisconsin will need to pursue a range of strategies and levers to improve results for all of its students. One important improvement strategy is to ensure that districts are recruiting, developing, and retaining good principals. Where there are many early- to mid-career principals, states need to emphasize professional development. But where there is an approaching wave of retirements, states should focus more heavily on recruiting and preparing new leaders. To identify Wisconsin's specific needs, we need to answer these questions: How many principals are near retirement eligibility? How is retirement eligibility distributed across schools and locations? How are experienced and new principals distributed across school types

Gamification in higher education and stem : a systematic review of literature

In recent years, gamification, the use of game elements in non-game contexts, has drawn the attention of educators due to the possibility of making learning more motivating and engaging; this led to an increase of research in the field. Despite the availability of literature reviews about gamification and its effects, no work to this date has focused exclusively on Higher Education (HE). Next, worldwide there is an increasing demand for skilled Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) professionals that meet the challenges related to scientific and technological innovations of the 21st Century. This lead to the need of strengthening STEM Higher Education. This brings us to the purpose of this work: presenting a systematic literature review of empirical studies about gamification STEM related Higher Education. This review study started from a systematic mapping design of 'Web of Science' articles, with following inclusion criteria: empirical gamification studies set up in HE, published between 2000 and 2016; focusing on undergraduate or graduate students; in the STEM knowledge field, and set up in authentic settings. An initial search resulted in 562 potentially relevant articles. After applying all selection criteria, only 18 studies could be retained. 12 additional articles were included by analyzing references from earlier literature reviews, resulting in 30 studies to be included. Analysis results show how a combination of game elements (e.g. leaderboards, badges, points and other combinations) positively affects students' performance, attendance, goal orientation and attitude towards mostly computer science related subjects. The analysis results also point at a lack of studies in certain STEM areas, a lack of studies that identify the particular game element associated with the positive differential impact on student performance; a lack of validated psychometric measurements, and lack of focus on student variables that could/should be taken into account as mediating/moderating variables clarifying the impact of gamification in the HE focus on STEM learning and teaching

Undergraduate Library Internships at Musselman Library, Gettysburg College

In 2015-2016, Musselman Library at Gettysburg College participated in Cohort 3 of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Assessment in Action program. This report outlines an assessment completed of former undergraduate library interns in order to explore the impact their internship experience had on the development of career goals, acceptance to and preparation for graduate education, and their early career. Through an online survey (n= 45) and six semi-structured telephone interviews, respondents reported a positive impact on the above areas

Determining Dark Matter properties with a XENONnT/LZ signal and LHC-Run3 mono-jet searches

We develop a method to forecast the outcome of the LHC Run 3 based on the hypothetical detection of $\mathcal{O}(100)$ signal events at XENONnT. Our method relies on a systematic classification of renormalisable single-mediator models for dark matter-quark interactions, and is valid for dark matter candidates of spin less than or equal to one. Applying our method to simulated data, we find that at the end of the LHC Run 3 only two mutually exclusive scenarios would be compatible with the detection of $\mathcal{O}(100)$ signal events at XENONnT. In a first scenario, the energy distribution of the signal events is featureless, as for canonical spin-independent interactions. In this case, if a mono-jet signal is detected at the LHC, dark matter must have spin 1/2 and interact with nucleons through a unique velocity-dependent operator. If a mono-jet signal is not detected, dark matter interacts with nucleons through canonical spin-independent interactions. In a second scenario, the spectral distribution of the signal events exhibits a bump at non zero recoil energies. In this second case, a mono-jet signal can be detected at the LHC Run 3, dark matter must have spin 1/2 and interact with nucleons through a unique momentum-dependent operator. We therefore conclude that the observation of $\mathcal{O}(100)$ signal events at XENONnT combined with the detection, or the lack of detection, of a mono-jet signal at the LHC Run 3 would significantly narrow the range of possible dark matter-nucleon interactions. As we argued above, it can also provide key information on the dark matter particle spin.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, updated operator coefficients and figures, version accepted by PR

MECHANISMS OF THERAPEUTIC RESISTANCE IN CASTRATION RESISTANT PROSTATE CANCER

Taxane based chemotherapy is an effective treatment for castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) via stabilization of microtubules. Progression to castration-resistant prostate cancer is characterized by increased androgen receptor (AR), elevated intra-prostatic androgens and activated AR signaling despite castrate levels of androgens. Previous studies identified that the inhibitory effect of microtubule targeting chemotherapy on AR activity was conferred by interfering with AR intracellular trafficking. The N-terminal domain (NTD) of AR was identified as a tubulin interacting domain that can be effectively targeted by the novel small molecular inhibitor, EPI. Taken together, this evidence provided the rationale that targeting AR nuclear translocation and activity via a combination of an antagonist of the AR NTD and taxane based chemotherapy may enhance the therapeutic response in CRPC. This study investigated the anti-tumor efficacy of a combination of EPI with Docetaxel chemotherapy, in cell models of CRPC, harboring AR splice variants in addition to full length AR. Our findings demonstrate there was no significant effect on androgen-mediated nuclear transport of AR variants and transcriptional activity by Docetaxel. The therapeutic response to Docetaxel was enhanced by inhibition of the NTD of AR (by EPI) through cycling of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) to mesenchymal–epithelial transition (MET) among prostate cancer epithelial cells. These results support that transient programming of EMT by the AR NTD inhibitor, potentially drives sensitivity of prostate tumors with differential distribution of AR variants to microtubule targeting chemotherapy. The FDA-approved next-generation taxane, Cabazitaxel (CBZ) and the anti-androgen Enzalutamide (MDV3100) have demonstrated additional survival benefits for patients with advanced CRPC. The present study pursued the mechanism of therapeutic resistance to Cabazitaxel and anti-androgen treatment in vitro and in vivo models of CRPC. The findings support the ability of Cabazitaxel to target pro-mitotic kinesins, providing an insight into a new mechanism of action of this chemotherapy. Moreover, the in vivo evidence identified that Cabazitaxel chemotherapy has novel effects beyond suppressing tumor growth, by inducing prostate glandular differentiation. Our results are of translational significance in introducing a novel mechanism for cross-resistance to Cabazitaxel chemotherapy and anti-androgen therapy and a potential targeting platform to overcome such resistance in advanced CRPC