Improving State Evaluation of Principal Preparation Programs

Intended for state officials involved in the assessment and approval of university and other programs to train future school principals, this report describes five design principles for effective program evaluation. "While states will undoubtedly want and need to develop systems unique to their context, they could benefit from having guideposts to organize what can be complex work," says the report, which was written jointly by representatives from New Leaders, which helps train school leaders and designs leadership policies and practices for school systems, and the University Council for Educational Administration, a consortium of universities that seeks to promote high-quality education leadership preparation and research. The principles, which emerged from a New Leaders/University Council project to develop a model evaluation system and accompanying of tools, are:Structure the review process in a way that is conducive to continuous program improvement.Create appropriate systems to hold programs accountable for effective practices and outcomes.Provide key stakeholders with accurate and useful information.Take a sophisticated and nuanced approach to data collection and use.Adhere to characteristics of high-quality program evaluation.The report also describes how two states, Illinois and Delaware, have approached evaluation, and provides a tool from its model-development work, an assessment that states can use to determine their degree of "readiness" for building a stronger system to evaluate principal preparation programs

Administrative response to teacher incompetence: The role of teacher evaluation systems

The major purpose of this study was to assess the presence of evaluation system components which assist principals in responding to teachers with less than satisfactory performance. Research data were used to determine the relationship between specific teacher evaluation system components and two measures of evaluation system effectiveness: (a) the principal\u27s overall effectiveness rating of the evaluation system and (b) the incidence of administrative response to teacher incompetence. Administrative response included remediation, reassignment, inducement to retire or resign, and recommendation for dismissal of teachers. A questionnaire was employed to collect data from a randomly selected sample of principals in Virginia\u27s public schools.;According to Virginia principals, 5% of the teachers in their schools were incompetent; however, only 2.65% were documented formally as being incompetent. The typical principal with a staff of 100 teachers, identified 1.53 incompetent tenured teachers per year and remediated.68 teacher, encouraged.37 teacher to resign/retire, reassigned.29 teacher, and recommended dismissal for.10 teacher.;Principals verified the importance and presence of the evaluation system components identified in the study. The mean effectiveness rating for the evaluation systems used by the principals, however, indicated only moderate support for the ability of the system to respond to incompetent teachers. The four evaluation system components of remedial procedures, evaluation criteria, evaluator training, and organizational commitment were found to predict 69% of the variance in the effectiveness rating, but none of the evaluation system components were found to predict administrative response to incompetence

Learning Outcomes of an Educational Leadership Cohort Program

Over the past three decades, demands on public schools have increased dramatically with a direct impact on the expectations of principals

Fair Value Accounting: Current Status And A Proposal For Convergence

Accounting for fair values is a complex subject full of controversial recognition, measurement, and reporting rules. This paper first analyzes the current status of fair value accounting, highlighting the criticisms of the current fair value accounting standards. Next, the U.S. and international standards are discussed to highlight the areas where they differ. Finally, an accounting approach for fair values is proposed that reports the economic reality and the financial condition of a firm and may be used to achieve global convergence

Small molecule ERK5 kinase inhibitors paradoxically activate ERK5 signalling: be careful what you wish for...

ERK5 is a protein kinase that also contains a nuclear localisation signal and a transcriptional transactivation domain. Inhibition of ERK5 has therapeutic potential in cancer and inflammation and this has prompted the development of ERK5 kinase inhibitors (ERK5i). However, few ERK5i programmes have taken account of the ERK5 transactivation domain. We have recently shown that the binding of small molecule ERK5i to the ERK5 kinase domain stimulates nuclear localisation and paradoxical activation of its transactivation domain. Other kinase inhibitors paradoxically activate their intended kinase target, in some cases leading to severe physiological consequences highlighting the importance of mitigating these effects. Here, we review the assays used to monitor ERK5 activities (kinase and transcriptional) in cells, the challenges faced in development of small molecule inhibitors to the ERK5 pathway, and classify the molecular mechanisms of paradoxical activation of protein kinases by kinase inhibitors

Impact of an Adherence Program on the Health and Outlook of HIV-Infected Patients Failing Antiretroviral Therapy

Background: We prospectively studied the impact of an adherence counselor on the outcome of patients failing antiretroviral therapy because of nonadherence. Methods: Forty-six patients, identified as chronically nonadherent were enrolled. Individual attention was provided using the information, motivation and behavioral methodology. HIV RNA (viral load, in copies/mL), CD4 count (in cells/[mm.sup.3]), and body weight before and after the adherence counselor were measured. Qualitative outcome and patient satisfaction were assessed by deidentified third-party interviews. Results: Over half completed at least 1 year; only 8 patients were lost to follow-up. Mean CD4 counts increased significantly (P \u3c .05) for completers at 6 and 12 months. Viral loads decreased between baseline and 6 months. Most clients reported subjective benefit from working with the adherence counselor. Conclusion: Although few clients showed complete virologic suppression, the value of an adherence counselor was validated. Longer term adherence programs should be evaluated

Group-works: exploring multiplex networks, leadership and group performance

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of “multiplex” (multiple overlapping) networks and leadership on group performance in a higher education setting. Using a combination of social network analysis and interviews, the authors employ a case study approach to map the connections between academic group members. This paper analyses the relationship between this mapping and academic performance. The authors identified two dimensions which influence group effectiveness: multiplex networks and distributed-coordinated leadership. Where networks are built across tasks, inter-relationships develop that lead to greater group performance. Where group members create a dense hive of interconnectivity and are active across all group tasks, and also informally, this increases the opportunity for knowledge sharing. When this is similarly experienced by a majority of group members, there is positive reinforcement, resulting in greater group effectiveness. This paper highlights the importance of the richness of formal ties in knowledge intensive settings. This paper is the first to differentiate between formal connections between colleagues related to different tasks within their role. This suggests that dense configurations of informal ties are insufficient; they must be coupled with strong ties around formal activity and demonstrative leadership

Paradoxical activation of the protein kinase-transcription factor ERK5 by ERK5 kinase inhibitors.

The dual protein kinase-transcription factor, ERK5, is an emerging drug target in cancer and inflammation, and small-molecule ERK5 kinase inhibitors have been developed. However, selective ERK5 kinase inhibitors fail to recapitulate ERK5 genetic ablation phenotypes, suggesting kinase-independent functions for ERK5. Here we show that ERK5 kinase inhibitors cause paradoxical activation of ERK5 transcriptional activity mediated through its unique C-terminal transcriptional activation domain (TAD). Using the ERK5 kinase inhibitor, Compound 26 (ERK5-IN-1), as a paradigm, we have developed kinase-active, drug-resistant mutants of ERK5. With these mutants, we show that induction of ERK5 transcriptional activity requires direct binding of the inhibitor to the kinase domain. This in turn promotes conformational changes in the kinase domain that result in nuclear translocation of ERK5 and stimulation of gene transcription. This shows that both the ERK5 kinase and TAD must be considered when assessing the role of ERK5 and the effectiveness of anti-ERK5 therapeutics

Gene expression response in target organ and whole blood varies as a function of target organ injury phenotype

Histopathology, clinical chemistry, hematology and gene expression data were collected from the rat liver and blood after treatment with eight known hepatotoxins

BRCA2 polymorphic stop codon K3326X and the risk of breast, prostate, and ovarian cancers

Background: The K3326X variant in BRCA2 (BRCA2*c.9976A>T; p.Lys3326*; rs11571833) has been found to be associated with small increased risks of breast cancer. However, it is not clear to what extent linkage disequilibrium with fully pathogenic mutations might account for this association. There is scant information about the effect of K3326X in other hormone-related cancers. Methods: Using weighted logistic regression, we analyzed data from the large iCOGS study including 76 637 cancer case patients and 83 796 control patients to estimate odds ratios (ORw) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for K3326X variant carriers in relation to breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer risks, with weights defined as probability of not having a pathogenic BRCA2 variant. Using Cox proportional hazards modeling, we also examined the associations of K3326X with breast and ovarian cancer risks among 7183 BRCA1 variant carriers. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results: The K3326X variant was associated with breast (ORw = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.17 to 1.40, P = 5.9x10- 6) and invasive ovarian cancer (ORw = 1.26, 95% CI = 1.10 to 1.43, P = 3.8x10-3). These associations were stronger for serous ovarian cancer and for estrogen receptor–negative breast cancer (ORw = 1.46, 95% CI = 1.2 to 1.70, P = 3.4x10-5 and ORw = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.28 to 1.76, P = 4.1x10-5, respectively). For BRCA1 mutation carriers, there was a statistically significant inverse association of the K3326X variant with risk of ovarian cancer (HR = 0.43, 95% CI = 0.22 to 0.84, P = .013) but no association with breast cancer. No association with prostate cancer was observed. Conclusions: Our study provides evidence that the K3326X variant is associated with risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers independent of other pathogenic variants in BRCA2. Further studies are needed to determine the biological mechanism of action responsible for these associations