Leslie Tapson in a Sophomore Recital

This is the program for the sophomore voice recital of Leslie Tapson, accompanied by Pam Dennis on the piano and assisted by Craig Hamilton on trumpet. The recital was held on March 4, 1994, in the Mabee Fine Arts Center\u27s Recital Hall

Recruiting Effective Math Teachers: How Do Math Immersion Teachers Compare?: Evidence from New York City

School districts often struggle to recruit and retain effective math teachers. Alternative-route certification programs aim to expand the pool of teachers available; however, many alternate routes have not been able to attract large numbers of teacher candidates with undergraduate degrees in math. In response, some districts, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and New York City, have developed alternative programs with a math immersion component to recruit candidates who do not have undergraduate majors in math. Such programs provide potential math teachers with intensive math preparation to meet state certification requirements while, at the same time maintaining an early-entry approach in which individuals who have not completed a teacher preparation program can become qualified to teach with only five to seven weeks of coursework and practice teaching. Four years since its inception, the New York City Teacher Fellows Math Immersion program supplies 50 percent of all new certified math teachers to New York City public schools. In this study, we find that Math Immersion teachers have stronger academic qualifications than their College Recommending (traditionally certified) peers, although they have weaker qualifications than Teach for America teachers. However, despite stronger general academic qualifications Math Immersion teachers produce somewhat smaller gains in math achievement for middle school math students than do College Recommending teachers and substantially smaller gains than do Teach for America teachers.

Who Leaves? Teacher Attrition and Student Achievement

Almost a quarter of entering public-school teachers leave teaching within their first three years. High attrition would be particularly problematic if those leaving were the more able teachers. The goal of this paper is estimate the extent to which there is differential attrition based on teachers' value-added to student achievement. Using data for New York City schools from 2000–2005, we find that first-year teachers whom we identify as less effective at improving student test scores have higher attrition rates than do more effective teachers in both low-achieving and high-achieving schools. The first-year differences are meaningful in size; however, the pattern is not consistent for teachers in their second and third years. For teachers leaving low-performing schools, the more effective transfers tend to move to higher achieving schools, while less effective transfers stay in lower-performing schools, likely exacerbating the differences across students in the opportunities they have to learn.

Measure for Measure: The relationship between measures of instructional practice in middle school English Language Arts and teachers’ value-added scores

Even as research has begun to document that teachers matter, there is less certainty about what attributes of teachers make the most difference in raising student achievement. Numerous studies have estimated the relationship between teachers' characteristics, such as work experience and academic performance, and their value-added to student achievement; but, few have explored whether instructional practices predict student test score gains. In this study, we ask what classroom practices, if any, differentiate teachers with high impact on student achievement in middle school English Language Arts from those with lower impact. In so doing, the study also explores to what extent value-added measures signal differences in instructional quality. Even with the small sample used in our analysis, we find consistent evidence that high value-added teachers have a different profile of instructional practices than do low value-added teachers. Teachers in the fourth (top) quartile according to value-added scores score higher than second-quartile teachers on all 16 elements of instruction that we measured, and the differences are statistically significant for a subset of practices including explicit strategy instruction.

Identifying the challenges and opportunities of the executive nurse director role in the UK:A scoping review

he executive nurse director role is complex and there is significant variation in the expectations and responsibilities placed on it. The main function of the role is to deliver the nursing agenda and ensure that safety and quality remain the focus of the executive board. However, it is unclear what evidence exists regarding the challenges and opportunities experienced by executive nurse directors. This scoping review, undertaken as part of the Stronger Study, explores the literature published from 2009 onwards on the challenges and opportunities affecting executive nurse directors’ ability to deliver the nursing agenda in the UK. Findings from the review suggest that the importance attached to the executive nurse director role is not matched by the amount of research available. Strengthening the executive nurse director role requires a stronger evidence base and an awareness of the benefits of the role

Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children Restorative Inquiry: Council of Parties Third Public Report

The Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children Restorative Inquiry was established following a 17-year journey for justice by former residents of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children (NSHCC, or the Home). It was established under the authority of the Public Inquiries Act following a collaborative design process involving former residents, Government, and community members. This public inquiry was the first of its kind in Canada to take a restorative approach. The Inquiry was a part of the Government of Nova Scotia’s commitment to respond to the institutional abuse and other failures of care experienced by former residents of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children. In establishing the Restorative Inquiry, the Government of Nova Scotia recognized that the history, experience, and legacy of the Home reflects the systemic and institutionalized racism that has shaped Nova Scotia’s history and continues to impact the lives and experiences of African Nova Scotians to this day. This public report is issued by the Council of Parties of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children Restorative Inquiry (RI). It is one of many public reporting opportunities that have been part of the work of the RI during its mandate. The Council of Parties is the collaborative commission that leads the Restorative Inquiry, appointed as “commissioners” under the Public Inquiries Act. The council is mandated to include representation from the groups most affected by and involved in the work of the Restorative Inquiry, including former residents, the Home for Colored Children, the African Nova Scotian community, and government

Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children Restorative Inquiry: Council of Parties Second Public Report

The Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children Restorative Inquiry was established following a 17-year journey for justice by former residents of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children (NSHCC, or the Home). It was established under the authority of the Public Inquiries Act following a collaborative design process involving former residents, Government, and community members. This public inquiry was the first of its kind in Canada to take a restorative approach. The Inquiry was a part of the Government of Nova Scotia’s commitment to respond to the institutional abuse and other failures of care experienced by former residents of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children. In establishing the Restorative Inquiry, the Government of Nova Scotia recognized that the history, experience, and legacy of the Home reflects the systemic and institutionalized racism that has shaped Nova Scotia’s history and continues to impact the lives and experiences of African Nova Scotians to this day. This public report is issued by the Council of Parties of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children Restorative Inquiry (RI). It is one of many public reporting opportunities that will be part of the work of the RI during its mandate. The Council of Parties is the collaborative commission that leads the Restorative Inquiry, appointed as “commissioners” under the Public Inquiries Act. The council is mandated to include representation from the groups most affected by and involved in the work of the Restorative Inquiry, including former residents, the Home for Colored Children, the African Nova Scotian community, and government

Strengthening the role of the executive nurse director: a qualitative interview study

Aim: To explore the challenges and opportunities facing executive nurse directors in the UK and identify factors to strengthen their role and support more effective nurse leadership. Design: A qualitative descriptive study using reflexive thematic analysis. Methods: Semi‐structured, telephone interviews were carried out with 15 nurse directors and 9 nominated colleagues. Results: Participants described a uniquely complex role with a broader scope than any other executive board member. Seven themes were identified: preparation for the role, length of time in role, role expectations, managing complexity, status, being political and influencing. Strengthening factors included successful working relationships with other board colleagues, development of political skills and personal status, coaching and mentoring, working within a supportive team culture and having strong professional networks. Conclusion: Executive nurse leaders are key to the transmission of nursing values and the delivery of safety and quality in healthcare settings. To strengthen this role, the limiting factors and the recommended shared learning identified here should be recognized and addressed at an individual, organizational and professional level. Implications for the profession and patient care: Given the pressure on all health systems to retain nurses, the role of executive nurse leaders needs to be seen as an important source of professional leadership and their value in actioning health policy into practice recognized. Impact: New insights have been provided into the executive nurse director role across the UK. Findings have demonstrated challenges and opportunities to strengthen the executive nurse director role. These include recognition of the need for support, preparation, networking and more realistic expectations of this unique nursing role. Reporting method: The study adhered to the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research. Patient or public contribution: There was no patient or public contribution

Classical kinetic energy, quantum fluctuation terms and kinetic-energy functionals

We employ a recently formulated dequantization procedure to obtain an exact expression for the kinetic energy which is applicable to all kinetic-energy functionals. We express the kinetic energy of an N-electron system as the sum of an N-electron classical kinetic energy and an N-electron purely quantum kinetic energy arising from the quantum fluctuations that turn the classical momentum into the quantum momentum. This leads to an interesting analogy with Nelson's stochastic approach to quantum mechanics, which we use to conceptually clarify the physical nature of part of the kinetic-energy functional in terms of statistical fluctuations and in direct correspondence with Fisher Information Theory. We show that the N-electron purely quantum kinetic energy can be written as the sum of the (one-electron) Weizsacker term and an (N-1)-electron kinetic correlation term. We further show that the Weizsacker term results from local fluctuations while the kinetic correlation term results from the nonlocal fluctuations. For one-electron orbitals (where kinetic correlation is neglected) we obtain an exact (albeit impractical) expression for the noninteracting kinetic energy as the sum of the classical kinetic energy and the Weizsacker term. The classical kinetic energy is seen to be explicitly dependent on the electron phase and this has implications for the development of accurate orbital-free kinetic-energy functionals. Also, there is a direct connection between the classical kinetic energy and the angular momentum and, across a row of the periodic table, the classical kinetic energy component of the noninteracting kinetic energy generally increases as Z increases.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Theor Chem Ac