A Federal Renewable Electricity Requirement

Rising energy prices and climate change have changed both the economics and politics of electricity. In response, over half the states have enacted "renewable portfolio standards" (RPS) that require utilities to obtain some power from "renewable" generation resources rather than carbon emitting fossil fuels. Reports of state-level success have brought proposals for a national standard. Like several predecessor Congresses, however, the most recent one failed to pass RPS legislation. Before trying one more time, legislators should ask why they favor a policy so politically correct and so economically suspect. Support for a national program largely stems from misleading claims about state-level successes, misunderstandings about how renewables interact with other environmental regulation, and misinformation about the actual benefits renewables create. State RPS programs are largely in disarray, and even the apparently successful ones have had little impact. California's supposedly aggressive program has left it with the same percentage of renewable power as in 1998, and Texas's seemingly impressive wind turbine investments produce only two percent of its electricity. The public may envision solar collectors but wind accounts for almost all of the growth in renewable power, and it largely survives on favorable tax treatment. Wind's intermittency reduces its efficacy in carbon control because it requires extra conventional generation reserves. Computer-generated predictions about a national RPS are generally unreliable, but they show that with or without one the great majority of generation investments for the next several decades will be fossil-fueled. Even without the technological and environmental shortcomings of renewables, the case for a national RPS is economically flawed. Emissions policies are moving toward efficient market-based trading systems and more rational setting of standards. A national RPS clashes with principles of efficient environmental policy because it is a technological requirement that applies to a single industry. Arguments that a national RPS will create jobs, mitigate energy price risks, improve national security and make the United Sates more competitive internationally are in the main restatements of elementary economic fallacies. It is hard to imagine a program that delivers as little in theory as a national RPS, and the experiences of the states indicate that it delivers equally little in practice

Integer Programming Subject to Monomial Constraints

We investigate integer programs containing monomial constraints. Due to the number-theoretic nature of these constraints, standard methods based on linear algebra cannot be applied directly. Instead, we present a reformulation resulting in integer programs with linear constraints and polynomial objective functions, using prime decompositions of the right hand sides. Moreover, we show that minimizing a linear objective function with nonnegative coefficients over bivariate constraints is possible in polynomial time

Differences in Student Participation and Performance in Advanced Coursework as a Function of Economic Status

Examined in this investigation was the relationship of student economic status with the completion of advanced coursework for Texas high school students in the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years Also analyzed was the relationship of student economic status with scoring above the state-specified criterion on advanced coursework examinations for the same school years Using statewide data on all Texas high schools available from the Texas Academic Performance Reports inferential statistical procedures revealed the presence of statistically significant differences The percentage of students in poverty who completed advanced coursework in both school years was statistically significantly lower than all Texas students who completed advanced coursework Similarly fewer students in poverty scored above criterion on advanced coursework examinations Implications of the findings were provided along with suggestions for further researc

Teacher Leadership In an Urban Setting

As the presence of teacher leaders becomes increasing ubiquitous, initiatives to identify, develop, and support those leaders are also increasing. However, despite this growth in practice, a consensus has not been reached on a broadly accepted definition of teacher leadership, and questions remain as to how teacher leaders evaluate their own effectiveness. Simultaneously, there has been a growth in initiatives created to identify, train, and support teachers who are willing to participate in a variety of leadership roles at the campus level. Therefore, in Study 1 of this journal-ready dissertation, I sought to verify, by way of a systematic literature review, if there has been progress regarding researchers establishing an accepted definition of teacher leadership and of teacher leader practices. My findings confirmed that no universally adopted definition has yet emerged, despite the pervasive influence of York-Barr and Duke’s (2004) proposed definition. Additionally, research results led to the conclusion that teacher leaders are experienced, exemplar teachers who, by means of a variety of opportunities and experiences, have been equipped to lead. In Study 2, through an analysis of archival program data, I examined the experiences of teacher leaders who participated in a district-wide teacher leader initiative. Results indicated that teacher leaders found program participation to be beneficial and that they valued the leadership opportunities provided to them by the program. Additionally, program cohort members expressed a growing awareness that participation in the initiative fostered a process of change. At the conclusion of their year-long experience, teacher leaders witnessed personal and professional growth that had resulted in their becoming agents of change as they correspondingly became agents changed