More Efficient High Schools in Maine: Emerging Student-Centered Learning Communities

American K-12 public education all across the nation is at a difficult and critical crossroads. We are at a time when keen global competition underscores the need for exceptional performance in our primary and secondary schools. Yet, state and federal governments face unprecedented budget deficits and limited resources for the foreseeable future. Additionally, our schools are being called upon to do an even better job of preparing students for the 21st century. There is growing evidence that success in the 21st Century requires more than what has traditionally been the content of schooling. It requires more and different types of knowledge, skills, and learning. To help students acquire this knowledge base and skills, many educators and leaders are calling for transformative changes in our schools and changes in how we help students learn. This transformative change is called by many names: performance-based learning, standards-based learning, and student-centered learning. The Nellie Mae Education Foundation (NMEF) describes this transformation to more student-centered learning as the need for:... growing a greater variety of higher quality educational opportunities that enable all learners -- especially and essentially underserved learners -- to obtain the skills, knowledge and supports necessary to become civically engaged, economically self-sufficient lifelong learners. (2011) Can our schools be transformed to meet these challenges? More importantly, can they be high performing, efficient, and student-centered at the same time? To explore these questions, the Center for Education Policy, Applied Research, and Evaluation at the University of Southern Maine conducted a study in 2010-2011 of a sample of Maine high schools. Funded in part by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the study examined the degree to which these More Efficient high schools were also student-centered. In 2010, NMEF identified some of the key principles and attributes of studentcentered learning. The principles are that: Student-centered education systems provide all students equal access to the skills and knowledge needed for college and career readiness in today's world. Student-centered education systems align with current research on the learning process and motivation. Student-centered education systems focus on mastery of skills and knowledge. Student-centered education systems build student's identities through a positive culture with a foundation of strong relationships and high expectations. Student-centered education systems empower and support parents, teachers, administrators, and other community members to encourage and guide learners through their educational journey. The key attributes are that: Curriculum, instruction and assessment embrace the skills and knowledge needed for success. Community assets are harnessed to support and deepen learning experiences. Time is used flexibly and includes learning opportunities outside the traditional school day and year. Mastery-based strategies are employed to allow for pacing based on proficiency in skills and knowledge. The goal of the study reported here was to determine to what extent these principles and attributes may be found in the high schools. To that end, once a sample of More Efficient high schools was identified, the beliefs, strategies, and practices found in these schools were examined in light of the 2010 NMEF key principles and attributes

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationEvery year, over two million people are diagnosed with skin cancer. The primary method recommended for skin cancer prevention is reducing ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure. However, consistent daily sun protection is often inadequate, even among higher risk patients. This study tested both 1) the effectiveness of a daily, online intervention that provided color-coded feedback illustrating duration of UVR exposure on specific body sites, and 2) theoretically derived predictions regarding the process of reducing UVR exposure in response to feedback. Participants (n=47; 53.3% women, mean age=49.87) were recruited from dermatology clinics and had an elevated risk of skin cancer. The majority (63.8%) had a history of skin cancer, including 44.7% with melanoma. At baseline, then 1 and 2 months later, sun exposure was assessed by reflectance spectroscopy, an objective measure of skin color, and by the self-report Minutes of Unprotected Sun Exposure (MUSE) Inventory. Participants were randomly assigned to either a feedback, self-monitoring, or control condition. For feedback participants, the 14-day intervention included daily sun-protection reminders, the MUSE Inventory, color-coded feedback diagrams, and survey items on health-relevant cognitions and emotions. To control for the potential benefit of reporting one's behavior, self-monitoring participants completed these assessments but did not receive feedback. Control participants only received daily reminders. On the MUSE Inventory, feedback participants reported less sun exposure than self-monitoring participants during the intervention. In these conditions, higher perceptions of goal fulfillment for sun exposure occurred when reported sun exposure was lower and these perceptions predicted higher self-efficacy for sun protection. Only feedback participants reported decreased sun exposure at the 2-month follow-up; significant decreases in sun exposure were reported in the lower face, arms, and lower legs, which are common sites for melanoma. Reflectance spectroscopy measurements did not change over time or by condition, potentially because they were taken on a limited number of body sites (wrist, upper face) for which exposure did not decrease substantially. This study supports the feasibility and effectiveness of an online, daily feedback intervention for sun exposure among higher risk patients. Future directions include testing it among less compliant populations and investigating additional mechanisms (e.g., changes in goals) through which feedback operates

Measuring Environmental Compliance Assistance Outcomes: A Benefit Cost Analysis of the Kentucky Business Environmental Assistance Program

The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) established, in section 507, the Small Business Stationary Source Technical and Environmental Compliance Assistance Program (SBTCP). SBTCPs under the CAAA are designed to provide small stationary air pollution sources with technical and compliance assistance, develop tools and disseminate information, communicate requirements under the Act, and assist small businesses with pollution prevention. In Kentucky, the compliance and technical assistance program is known as the Kentucky Business Environmental Assistance Program (KBEAP). Since the program’s inception, measures of performance have primarily focused on outputs. With the establishment of Goal 5 of the 2003-2008 Environmental Protection Agency Strategic Plan, the focus on a federal level has shifted to measuring compliance assistance outcomes rather than outputs. To date, no programmatic outcome evaluation of a SBTCP has been conducted. Nationally, measuring outcomes of a SBTCP is an even greater concern because currently there is no mechanism in place whereby to measure programmatic. A summative evaluation of KBEAP using Benefit-Cost Analysis establishes a standardized set of outcomes in terms of their dollar costs and benefits from fiscal year 1995-2004 as well as provides insights and recommendations for further study and programmatic improvements. From the model, KBEAP exhibits positive net benefits as well as benefit to cost ratios greater than one. In fact, B/C ratios on average approximate 3:1 with netbenefits on average approximating $3,000,000 per fiscal year. The model does exhibit considerably more sensitivity to variations in variable assumption than discount rates and is limited from the standpoint that serious data gaps are observed and is only externally valid to those programs programmatically similar to KBEAP. In conclusion, compliance assistance programs such as KBEAP have the opportunity to provide significant benefits to small businesses but the effort required to track these outcomes is still in its infancy both on a national and state level. It is hoped that this analysis will provide the impetus for other programs to explore outcome evaluation as well as lead to a national initiative to better understand the outcomes relating to environmental compliance assistance program and small businesses

Multivariate Fitting and the Error Matrix in Global Analysis of Data

When a large body of data from diverse experiments is analyzed using a theoretical model with many parameters, the standard error matrix method and the general tools for evaluating errors may become inadequate. We present an iterative method that significantly improves the reliability of the error matrix calculation. To obtain even better estimates of the uncertainties on predictions of physical observables, we also present a Lagrange multiplier method that explores the entire parameter space and avoids the linear approximations assumed in conventional error propagation calculations. These methods are illustrated by an example from the global analysis of parton distribution functions.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, Latex; minor clarifications, fortran program made available; Normalization of Hessian matrix changed to HEP standar