Data Driven Decision-Making in Midwest Charter Schools: Teachers’ Experiences in the Classroom

Title from PDF of title page, viewed on June 10, 2015Dissertation advisor: Dianne SmithVitaIncludes bibliographic references (pages 206-221)Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Education. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2014Education has evolved into a system that emphasizes data use. Data are used to discriminate between successful and failing districts, schools, teachers and students. Data are used to gain insights to student demographics. In some cases, teachers use data to evaluate instructional practices and student progress. In many districts in America, a data specialist is even hired to gather, disaggregate and interpret data for the entire district or specific schools. Due to funding, many charter schools often do not have the luxury of hiring a person who is solely responsible for collecting and interpreting data. The lack of knowledge and training on student data driven decision-making may hinder charter teachers from making instructional decisions throughout the school year within their own classrooms. The literature outlines the cause of the absence of data driven decision-making among most teachers is due to the lack of knowledge and training. Teachers in charters schools do not have the organizational supports as compared to their traditional public school teacher counterparts. The purpose of this study was to provide an overall story of the experiences of teachers in charter schools under the guidance of one sponsor in the Midwest. This heuristic case study, with the help of narrative inquiry, describes the experiences of teachers concerning data driven decision-making in a Midwest charter school network. One primary research question led this study and included four sub-questions. The research questions were as follows: 1. How do data inform the decisions teachers in charter schools charter schools make in the classroom? A. How do teachers define data driven decision-making? B. How do teachers describe its use in the classroom? C. What kind of data do teachers include when making data driven decisions? D. What types of support are received from others about the process of data driven decision-making? All five participants taught state-tested subjects in the middle school grades at two Midwest charter schools in the same area. While both schools were under the sponsorship of the same university, they yielded very different achievement scores on the yearly state assessments. The participants were interviewed, observed, and recorded their thoughts in journals. An official document used at both schools was also used as a source of data for this study. Understanding data, collaboration and communication were the themes present after analyzing all data sources. The importance of each teacher’s story and issues surrounding the power of teaching also surfaced based on the stories of the participants. The voices of these teachers have to ability to encourage future professional development opportunities in data based decision-making for the entire charter school network.Introduction -- Literature review -- Methodology -- Findings -- Conclusion and recommendations -- Appendix A. Consent document -- Appendix B. participant recruitment letters -- Appendix C. Midwest charter school survey -- Appendix D. Data sources -- Appendix E. Journal prompts and interview questions -- Appendix F. Observation guide -- Appendix G. Methods for data collectio

Kaluza-Klein 5D Ideas Made Fully Geometric

After the 1916 success of General relativity that explained gravity by adding time as a fourth dimension, physicists have been trying to explain other physical fields by adding extra dimensions. In 1921, Kaluza and Klein has shown that under certain conditions like cylindricity ($\partial g_{ij}/\partial x^5=0$), the addition of the 5th dimension can explain the electromagnetic field. The problem with this approach is that while the model itself is geometric, conditions like cylindricity are not geometric. This problem was partly solved by Einstein and Bergman who proposed, in their 1938 paper, that the 5th dimension is compactified into a small circle $S^1$ so that in the resulting cylindric 5D space-time $R^4\times S^1$ the dependence on $x^5$ is not macroscopically noticeable. We show that if, in all definitions of vectors, tensors, etc., we replace $R^4$ with $R^4\times S^1$, then conditions like cylindricity automatically follow -- i.e., these conditions become fully geometric.Comment: 14 page

On the distribution of career longevity and the evolution of home run prowess in professional baseball

Statistical analysis is a major aspect of baseball, from player averages to historical benchmarks and records. Much of baseball fanfare is based around players exceeding the norm, some in a single game and others over a long career. Career statistics serve as a metric for classifying players and establishing their historical legacy. However, the concept of records and benchmarks assumes that the level of competition in baseball is stationary in time. Here we show that power-law probability density functions, a hallmark of many complex systems that are driven by competition, govern career longevity in baseball. We also find similar power laws in the density functions of all major performance metrics for pitchers and batters. The use of performance-enhancing drugs has a dark history, emerging as a problem for both amateur and professional sports. We find statistical evidence consistent with performance-enhancing drugs in the analysis of home runs hit by players in the last 25 years. This is corroborated by the findings of the Mitchell Report [1], a two-year investigation into the use of illegal steroids in major league baseball, which recently revealed that over 5 percent of major league baseball players tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in an anonymous 2003 survey.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, 2-column revtex4 format. Revision has change of title, a figure added, and minor changes in response to referee comment

Editorial: Fifty Campbell systematic reviews relevant to the policy response to COVID-19

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this recordNational Institute for Health Research (NIHR

New data on the distribution and size composition of the North Pacific spiny dogfish <i>Squalus suckleyi</i> (Girard, 1854)

The results of long-term research on the spatial and vertical distribution of the North Pacific spiny dogfish Squalus suckleyi in the North Pacific Ocean and its size composition are presented. In total, data from 7059 catches of this species were analyzed (3178 with associated capture depth). The description of size composition is based on measurements of 413 specimens caught by driftnets, 328 by pelagic trawls and 722 by bottom trawls. This species was found to be most widely distributed in the North Pacific in the summer and autumn months during feeding migrations. Seasonal and long-term changes in the spatial distribution were observed. A wide distribution of S. suckleyi in the Bering Sea was recorded after the year 2000, which is likely associated with recent climate change. Occurrence of the species in the water column and near the bottom differed considerably. In the water column, the maximum number of captures was observed within the upper 25 m layer (about 90%). Near the bottom, this species was most abundant at depths less than 50 m (over 45%) and within a depth range of 101-200 m (about 50%). The catch of S. suckleyi during the daytime was considerably larger than in the night, possibly due to vertical diurnal migrations. This species was found at water temperatures ranging from 0 to 12.7°C, and maximum catches were observed at temperatures over 8°C. Size compositions of bottom and pelagic trawl catches were similar (mean length 69.1 and 68.6 cm respectively) while driftnet catches were composed of larger specimens (mean length 75.3 cm)

Transcriptional regulation of Satb1 in mouse trophoblast stem cells

SATB homeobox proteins are important regulators of developmental gene expression. Among the stem cell lineages that emerge during early embryonic development, trophoblast stem (TS) cells exhibit robust SATB expression. Both SATB1 and SATB2 act to maintain the trophoblast stem-state. However, the molecular mechanisms that regulate TS-specific Satb expression are not yet known. We identified Satb1 variant 2 as the predominant transcript in trophoblasts. Histone marks, and RNA polymerase II occupancy in TS cells indicated an active state of the promoter. A novel cis-regulatory region with active histone marks was identified ∼21 kbp upstream of the variant 2 promoter. CRISPR/Cas9 mediated disruption of this sequence decreased Satb1 expression in TS cells and chromosome conformation capture analysis confirmed looping of this distant regulatory region into the proximal promoter. Scanning position weight matrices across the enhancer predicted two ELF5 binding sites in close proximity to SATB1 sites, which were confirmed by chromatin immunoprecipitation. Knockdown of ELF5 downregulated Satb1 expression in TS cells and overexpression of ELF5 increased the enhancer-reporter activity. Interestingly, ELF5 interacts with SATB1 in TS cells, and the enhancer activity was upregulated following SATB overexpression. Our findings indicate that trophoblast-specific Satb1 expression is regulated by long-range chromatin looping of an enhancer that interacts with ELF5 and SATB proteins

New Insights into Fluoroquinolone Resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Functional Genetic Analysis of gyrA and gyrB Mutations

Fluoroquinolone antibiotics are among the most potent second-line drugs used for treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB), and resistance to this class of antibiotics is one criterion for defining extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB). Fluoroquinolone resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been associated with modification of the quinolone resistance determining region (QRDR) of gyrA. Recent studies suggest that amino acid substitutions in gyrB may also play a crucial role in resistance, but functional genetic studies of these mutations in M. tuberculosis are lacking. In this study, we examined twenty six mutations in gyrase genes gyrA (seven) and gyrB (nineteen) to determine the clinical relevance and role of these mutations in fluoroquinolone resistance. Transductants or clinical isolates harboring T80A, T80A+A90G, A90G, G247S and A384V gyrA mutations were susceptible to all fluoroquinolones tested. The A74S mutation conferred low-level resistance to moxifloxacin but susceptibility to ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin and ofloxacin, and the A74S+D94G double mutation conferred cross resistance to all the fluoroquinolones tested. Functional genetic analysis and structural modeling of gyrB suggest that M330I, V340L, R485C, D500A, D533A, A543T, A543V and T546M mutations are not sufficient to confer resistance as determined by agar proportion. Only three mutations, N538D, E540V and R485C+T539N, conferred resistance to all four fluoroquinolones in at least one genetic background. The D500H and D500N mutations conferred resistance only to levofloxacin and ofloxacin while N538K and E540D consistently conferred resistance to moxifloxacin only. Transductants and clinical isolates harboring T539N, T539P or N538T+T546M mutations exhibited low-level resistance to moxifloxacin only but not consistently. These findings indicate that certain mutations in gyrB confer fluoroquinolone resistance, but the level and pattern of resistance varies among the different mutations. The results from this study provide support for the inclusion of the QRDR of gyrB in molecular assays used to detect fluoroquinolone resistance in M. tuberculosis