Leading Growth: A Grounded Theory Study of Superintendent Strategies to Support Student Growth

Strong leadership in any organization is critical to success. Research suggests school superintendent leadership can have positive outcomes on student learning. Until recently, the impact of school superintendents have been thought to be too indirect or complex to study. This study explores school superintendent leaders who create school-wide systems that promote student growth. This research examines the characteristics, behaviors, and actions of superintendents that lead to student growth. Using a grounded theory methodology, the author examined new and emerging ideas to promote student growth. This study utilized four steps in data collection and analysis: (a) initial coding, (b) category development, (c) axial coding, and (d) theoretical coding. The final step created a new emerging theory entitled leadership for student growth. The results of this study can be used to inform superintendent leaders about their professional practice. The scope of the research included 15 school superintendent leaders in the OCM BOCES, as well as the OHM BOCES. The superintendent sample included suburban and rural school district superintendents. The data collection process included one-on-one interviews with 15 school superintendents. The results of the research resulted in three categories and 10 themes that emerged from the data. The first category, trust, incorporated the two themes of: (a) critical conversations, and (b) distributive leadership. The second category, balanced data system, incorporated the theme of the use of multiple data points. The final category, systems thinking, incorporated three themes of: (a) strategic planning, (b) explicit professional development, and (c) stimulating a learning culture. This research resulted in the emerging theory of leadership for student growth. The recommendations include school superintendents who develop trust, a balanced data system, and think systematically will likely create conditions for each student to reach his or her full potential

Are Auditors\u27 Going-Concern Evaluations More Useful after SOX?

Bankruptcy risk is a crucial factor in auditors’ decisions whether or not to modify their audit opinion based on the going-concern assumption. SOX required more extensive audit procedures than those required before its passage. More extensive audit procedures should result in more meaningful audit reports. This study examines whether the auditors’ going-concern opinion provides more useful incremental information after SOX than before SOX in distinguishing between distressed companies that become bankrupt in the next year and those that do not. We find that an audit opinion variable adds more useful information to bankruptcy prediction models after SOX than before SOX. Our findings provide evidence that financial statement users have derived benefits from the costly procedures required under SOX

The Incremental Usefulness Of Income Tax Allocations In Predicting One-Year-Ahead Future Cash Flows

Interperiod income tax allocation has been a hotly debated financial accounting issue for a long time.  Critics of interperiod tax allocation frequently question the usefulness of the extra information, particularly considering the FASB’s decision usefulness approach stated in its Conceptual Framework.  This study extends the research of Cheung et al. (1997) and Krishnan and Largay (2000) by using the ability to predict future taxes paid and future cash flow as criteria to evaluate the usefulness of interperiod tax allocation. This study extends previous research by examining not only whether interperiod tax allocation included in financial statements is useful, but also by examining whether such information is incrementally useful beyond taxes paid. For predicting future taxes paid and operating cash flow, our analyses provides little evidence that interperiod tax allocation information included in financial statements adds incremental predictive value beyond taxes paid as reported on the cash flow statement

Loan Officer Confidence, Continuous Reporting, And The Loan Approval Process

This study explores the issue of loan officers’ confidence in making loan approval decisions across different loan monitoring types. Loan officers were asked to assign loan approval probabilities given a traditional loan monitoring capability or a continuous reporting capability. We find that the higher the level of confidence the loan officer had in his/her loan approval decision, the higher the loan approval probability assigned to the loan application.  However, that effect was not consistent across monitoring types (traditional vs. continuous reporting). Our results suggest that loan officer confidence only impacts the loan approval probabilities for the traditional monitoring cases. Confidence did not significantly influence loan approval probabilities for the continuous reporting cases; although, the loan approval probabilities for the continuous reporting, low confidence cases exceeded 50 percent

A Research Note On The Issue Of Non-Articulation And The Method Used To Calculate Net Operating Cash Flow

Using a proxy for nonarticulation, prior researchers found evidence that many companies using the indirect method of reporting net cash flow from operations have a significant level of nonarticulation. The purpose of this study is to determine if companies using the direct method of reporting net cash flow from operations experience significantly lower levels of nonarticulation than companies that use the indirect method of reporting net cash flow from operations. Results show that companies using the direct method have significantly less nonarticulation than companies using the indirect method. This finding suggests that the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) should consider requiring companies to use the direct method of preparing the Statement of Cash Flows

A Research Note On The Issue Of Non-Articulation And The Method Used To Calculate Net Operating Cash Flow

Using a proxy for nonarticulation, prior researchers found evidence that many companies using the indirect method of reporting net cash flow from operations have a significant level of nonarticulation.  The purpose of this study is to determine if companies using the direct method of reporting net cash flow from operations experience significantly lower levels of nonarticulation than companies that use the indirect method of reporting net cash flow from operations.  Results show that companies using the direct method have significantly less nonarticulation than companies using the indirect method.  This finding suggests that the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) should consider requiring companies to use the direct method of preparing the Statement of Cash Flows

Dietary Chromium Supplementation for Pigs and Chickens.

Three experiments were conducted with pigs and four experiments were conducted with chickens to determine the effects of supplemental dietary Cr on growth performance, carcass characteristics, tissue minerals and plasma metabolite and hormone concentrations. In pigs (Exp. 1) 200 ppb Cr from seven different sources tended to decrease performance during the grower phase and increase growth performance during the finisher phase. Dietary Cr had minimal effects on plasma metabolite and hormone concentrations and Cr did not affect carcass characteristics. In general, dietary Cr increased tissue Cr concentration, except for longissimus muscle (LM). In Exp. 2, pigs were fed 400 ppb Cr as Cr chloride, Cr nicotinate, or Cr picolinate (CrPic) to determine the effect of these Cr sources on i.v. glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. None of the Cr sources affected glucose clearance rate or half-life, or insulin clearance rate or half-life. In Exp. 3, the interactive effects of two levels of dietary lysine, two levels of dietary Cr, and two levels of pen space were evaluated. During the finisher phase, Cr increased average daily gain and gain/feed of pigs fed 80% of the lysine requirement but not in pigs fed 120% of the lysine requirement. In addition, Cr decreased tenth rib fat thickness (TRF) in pigs given adequate pen space but increased TRF of pigs given inadequate pen space. Dietary Cr supplementation did not affect LM area. Three experiments were conducted to determine the effect of CrPic on growth performance, plasma metabolites and hormones, and carcass composition of broilers. In broilers fed CrPic for two weeks, Cr decreased percentage of dry matter of the carcass and tended to decrease percentage carcass fat. In broilers fed CrPic for four weeks, Cr supplementation increased ventriculus weight and increased carcass ash percentage. In broilers fed CrPic for seven weeks, Cr decreased abdominal fat pad weight. Dietary Cr had minimal effects on plasma metabolites and hormones in broilers. In a fourth experiment with broilers, CrPic did not affect glucose tolerance or insulin sensitivity. Under the conditions of these experiments dietary Cr did not affect body composition and metabolism of pigs and broilers

An Empirical Look At Developmental Interventions And Student Performance In The First Intermediate Accounting Course

Due to concerns about student performance in Intermediate Accounting I, our Department of Accounting established an Intermediate Readiness Committee in the spring of 2006 to create a developmental program for students entering Intermediate I, with the goal of improving performance in that course.  Over the next two years, the Committee established the Developmental Program with two escalating interventions to improve performance in Intermediate I.  These interventions were comprised of readiness testing with study sessions and readiness testing with use of developmental software.  This study reports the impact these interventions had on student performance in Intermediate I.  The authors control for gender, grades earned in each of the two accounting principles courses, whether the student took Principles II at school of study or transferred the course credit from another school, and overall undergraduate grade point average upon entering Intermediate I.  Results indicate that each intervention resulted in significantly higher grades than observed in a Base Period without intervention