DOES IT COMPUTE?: A STUDY OF THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Research on professional development for teachers usually focuses on its effects during or immediately after the experience or on teachers satisfaction with professional development in general. Little research focuses on the lasting impressions and influences. This qualitative study used two focus groups to gather the memories of eleven teachers who became trainers in a high quality and voluntary professional development program ten years prior to the study. The program focused on helping teachers infuse technology into their teaching and develop constructivist pedagogy and used a training of trainers model for widespread dissemination. Teachers responded to four questions about their memories of the experience, how they felt it changed their practice, the challenges and successes of being a trainer, and the impact of their participation on their careers. Focus groups were audio and video recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using constant comparison and coding to identify recurring and powerful themes. Participants revealed that they found the curriculum resources and opportunities for collaboration as the most memorable features of the program. Many also reported that they experienced somewhat fearful feelings at the outset of the program, but that these feelings abated in the ensuing three years of the program. All participants voiced their success as trainers and learned more about technology through taking on that role. Challenges were related to recruiting new teachers into the program and inadequate technological resources in their schools. All found the program an enhancement to their self-confidence, professional growth and career achievement.\u2

Letter to Peyton Neal, Jr. regarding the SEAALL Institute, October 20, 1972

A letter from Frederick Smith to Peyton Neal, Jr. discussing information relating to Class K cataloging for the SEAALL Institute

Barriers to HIV couples testing: The African American woman\u27s perspective

African American Women continue to contract HIV/AIDS at an alarming rate. Of all the women living with Aids in the United States, 64% were African American and two out of three African American women got HIV from having unprotected sex with a man. The purposes of the study are to identify perceived barriers to HIV testing of the intimate partners of African American Women and subsequently identify an effective couples of HIV testing strategy. The research study investigated the primary causes for low HIV testing rates of African American couples. This study uttilized a quantitatve method using self-administered questionaires. The primary data source will be fifty-four African American Women who reside in a region of southern California referred to as the Inland Empire

Four Essays On The Economics Of Financial Distress: Bond Ratings, Bank Failures And Deposit Insurance

The dissertation incorporates four separate essays addressing the economics of financial distress. While essays one and two examine the capital market reaction to security rating changes and bank failures, the last two offer methods for deposit insurance corporations to better handle distress among member financial institutions.;The first essay measures the impact of rating changes on equity returns. Pooled cross-section time series analysis allows testing of significance of changes in systematic risk as well as price. Tests of monthly and daily data indicated that there are no shifts in the systematic risk of firms experiencing rating changes after controlling for the effects of contemporaneous events. On average, a one-time drop in share price is observed for rating reductions, while no significant reaction is found for rating increases.;The second essay uses pooled cross-section time series analysis to investigate the capital market reaction to the failure of three Ontario trust companies, the bailout of the Canadian Commercial Bank (CCB) and subsequent runs on deposits. Even though the trust companies\u27 collapse was triggered by problems isolated to the troubled institutions, the prices of the non-failed trust companies\u27 shares fell. The prices of the non-failed Schedule A chartered banks also fell upon announcement of the CCB bailout. However, news of runs on deposits at other banks only affected the price of common stocks of small banks with low security ratings.;The third essay presents several important extensions to previous option pricing models of deposit insurance premiums and applies them to the credit unions of British Columbia. The analysis suggests that variable rate premiums can be determined for financial institutions without publicly traded equity and also to measure the exposure of lenders-of-last-resort such as the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation.;The fourth essay examines the criteria that underlie the choice of action by a deposit insurance corporation in handling distressed member financial institutions. Incorporating these criteria, an early warning system that predicts not only the likelihood of financial distress but also the type of financial assistance required is developed

The Recent History of Vedic Ritual in Maharashtra

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