Charter Schools and Equal Access: Implications for Magnet and Other Choice Schools

American public schools have been entrusted with the responsibility of inculcating citizens with democratic values. However, schools have come under attack for a variety of reasons. School choice provides parents with opportunities to select from options, both within and outside the public system of schooling, which will provide their children with the type of education they desire. Among these school choice options are charter and magnet schools. This article begins with a discussion of the basic similarities between magnet and charter schools, followed by a discussion of a legal research study which examined the extent to which U.S. charter school statutes foster equality of student access to charter schools. The data for the study were derived from the U.S. charter school statutes for 36 states, and the investigative framework was provided by seven research questions addressing student recruitment, admission and enrollment, student transportation, and information dissemination. Three areas affecting both magnet and charter schools are identified for which key research findings are presented. The final section discusses the implications the findings have for magnet and other choice schools and concludes with recommendations for policy development

Non-destructive assay of drum package radioactive wastes utilizing tomographic gamma scanning

A methodology for nondestructive assay of drum packaged radioactive waste materials is investigated using Emission Computed Tomography procedures. A requirement of this method is accurate gamma attenuation correction. This is accomplished by the use of a constant density distribution for the drum content, thereby requiring the need for a homogeneous medium. The current predominant NDA technique is the use of the Segmented Gamma Scanner. Tomographic Gamma Scanning improves upon this method by providing a low resolution three-dimensional image of the source distribution, yielding both spatial and activity information. Reconstruction of the source distribution is accomplished by utilization of algebraic techniques with a nine by six voxel model with detector information gathered over scanning intervals of ninety degrees. Construction of a linear system to describe the scenario was accomplished using a point-source response function methodology, where a 54 {times} 120 matrix contained the projected detector responses for each source-detector geometry. Entries in this matrix were calculated using the point-kernal shielding code QAD-CGGP. Validation was performed using the MCNP photon transport code. Solutions to the linear system were determined using the Non-Negative Least Squares (NNLS) algorithm and the LSMOD algorithm. A series of four scans were performed, each reconstructing the source distribution of a mock-up waste package containing a single 73 mCi {sup 137}Cs point source. For each scan, the source was located in a different location. Results of the reconstruction routines accurately predict the location and activity of the source. The range of activity calculated using the NNLS routine is 0.2681 mCi with an average value of 77.7995 mCi. The range of values calculated using LSMOD is 5.1843 mCi with an average of 72.8018 mCi

Recruiting Deaf and Diverse Teachers: Priorities of Preservice Teachers in Deaf Education

The need to increase teacher diversity in deaf education has been a national concern over the last decade. The ethnic, racial, cultural, and linguistic composition of the teaching force has remained relatively unchanged; White, hearing, females make up the majority of the teaching force. In sharp contrast, the K-12 student population has become increasingly diverse which creates a chasm that is unlikely to change during the next decade without focused effort. This study considered group demographics and implications for culturally- responsive recruiting practices. The need for improved recruitment of Deaf professionals and diverse professionals is discussed, along with other associated challenges. Findings of a national study of recruitment priorities of preservice deaf educators are reported. Causal- comparative analyses revealed statistically significant recruitment priorities among groups of students as a function of hearing status and diversity status. The article provides suggestions for improved recruiting practices for deaf education teacher preparation programs

Texas charter school legislation and the evolution of open-enrollment charter schools.

This article chronicles the evolution of legislation for Texas open-enrollment charter schools to their implementation by demonstrating how these schools have (or have not) used their freedom from state-mandated requirements to develop innovative learning environments as well as to bring innovative curricula into the classroom. The investigative focus was on an analysis of Texas open-enrollment charter school legislation, from 1995 (74th legislative session) to the 77th legislative session in 2001, and the characteristics of the state's 159 open-enrollment charter schools that were in operation during the 2001-2002 academic year. The authors found that charter school legislation has changed in response to concerns of all involved, and focuses on the need for balance between choice, innovation, and public accountability. Although charter schools are free from most state regulations, legislators were clearly interested in ensuring that this freedom does not impede charter schools' ability to provide a quality education to all students who attend them. The currently operating open-enrollment charter schools in Texas are more racially and economically segregated than other public schools in the state, and charter schools that targeted students most at risk for dropping out of school (and returning students who had previously dropped out) differ from other schools in their stated teaching methods. Teacher turnover remains significantly greater than that for other public schools in the state. However, it does not appear to be specifically associated with schools that target disadvantaged students or minority students. The schools' mission statements suggest that innovative school environments are a factor in school design. Texas is poised to continue along the public education choice model. Charter school legislation provides a framework upon which charter schools may build to meet the educational needs of the students who choose to attend them, including the freedom to be creative in meeting students' unique needs. Questions remain about how and why charter schools exist and the contributions they make to the overall public school system, including whether charters are making a difference in what and how much children are learning

A Comparative Analysis of the Values That Are Predominant in Private Schools, Public Choice Schools, and Public Attendance-Zone Schools in San Antonio, Texas

Public concern with respect to declining traditional values, character, and family structure in the midst of increased crime, violence, and drug use have brought American education into the political arena and under intense scrutiny. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not differences exist in the values fostered in private schools, public choice schools and public attendance-zone schools and whether or not there are differences in the values that are identified by students as compared with teachers. The theoretical framework for the study is based upon the beliefs that values form the foundation of human behavior and that schools influence the values of societies in which they exist

Semantically-Enabled Sensor Plug & Play for the Sensor Web

Environmental sensors have continuously improved by becoming smaller, cheaper, and more intelligent over the past years. As consequence of these technological advancements, sensors are increasingly deployed to monitor our environment. The large variety of available sensor types with often incompatible protocols complicates the integration of sensors into observing systems. The standardized Web service interfaces and data encodings defined within OGC’s Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) framework make sensors available over the Web and hide the heterogeneous sensor protocols from applications. So far, the SWE framework does not describe how to integrate sensors on-the-fly with minimal human intervention. The driver software which enables access to sensors has to be implemented and the measured sensor data has to be manually mapped to the SWE models. In this article we introduce a Sensor Plug & Play infrastructure for the Sensor Web by combining (1) semantic matchmaking functionality, (2) a publish/subscribe mechanism underlying the SensorWeb, as well as (3) a model for the declarative description of sensor interfaces which serves as a generic driver mechanism. We implement and evaluate our approach by applying it to an oil spill scenario. The matchmaking is realized using existing ontologies and reasoning engines and provides a strong case for the semantic integration capabilities provided by Semantic Web research

A survey of visualization tools for biological network analysis

The analysis and interpretation of relationships between biological molecules, networks and concepts is becoming a major bottleneck in systems biology. Very often the pure amount of data and their heterogeneity provides a challenge for the visualization of the data. There are a wide variety of graph representations available, which most often map the data on 2D graphs to visualize biological interactions. These methods are applicable to a wide range of problems, nevertheless many of them reach a limit in terms of user friendliness when thousands of nodes and connections have to be analyzed and visualized. In this study we are reviewing visualization tools that are currently available for visualization of biological networks mainly invented in the latest past years. We comment on the functionality, the limitations and the specific strengths of these tools, and how these tools could be further developed in the direction of data integration and information sharing

NeuroML: A Language for Describing Data Driven Models of Neurons and Networks with a High Degree of Biological Detail

Biologically detailed single neuron and network models are important for understanding how ion channels, synapses and anatomical connectivity underlie the complex electrical behavior of the brain. While neuronal simulators such as NEURON, GENESIS, MOOSE, NEST, and PSICS facilitate the development of these data-driven neuronal models, the specialized languages they employ are generally not interoperable, limiting model accessibility and preventing reuse of model components and cross-simulator validation. To overcome these problems we have used an Open Source software approach to develop NeuroML, a neuronal model description language based on XML (Extensible Markup Language). This enables these detailed models and their components to be defined in a standalone form, allowing them to be used across multiple simulators and archived in a standardized format. Here we describe the structure of NeuroML and demonstrate its scope by converting into NeuroML models of a number of different voltage- and ligand-gated conductances, models of electrical coupling, synaptic transmission and short-term plasticity, together with morphologically detailed models of individual neurons. We have also used these NeuroML-based components to develop an highly detailed cortical network model. NeuroML-based model descriptions were validated by demonstrating similar model behavior across five independently developed simulators. Although our results confirm that simulations run on different simulators converge, they reveal limits to model interoperability, by showing that for some models convergence only occurs at high levels of spatial and temporal discretisation, when the computational overhead is high. Our development of NeuroML as a common description language for biophysically detailed neuronal and network models enables interoperability across multiple simulation environments, thereby improving model transparency, accessibility and reuse in computational neuroscience