Does New Teacher Support Affect Student Achievement? Some Early Research Findings

We understand the importance of having qualified, effective teachers in every classroom. We have learned from many research studies, particularly those of William Sanders and his colleagues in Tennessee, that students who are taught by effective teachers (defined by Sanders as those whose students consistently post gains in student achievement scores) for several years in a row will experience the benefits throughout the rest of their school careers and beyond. After three years with the most effective teachers, students show achievement gains significantly higher than those of students with the least effective teachers.We can reasonably hypothesize that more experienced teachers will exceed the effectiveness of recently inducted beginning teachers. Further, as is now widely recognized in most states, new teachers need and benefit from support during their induction period. Support during the new teachers' first year or two may be just as important to their effectiveness as their pre-service training, their state certification, and their subject matter skills. To justify assigning resources to provide support for novice teachers, legislators and school district administrators need to be convinced that such support is associated with educational outcomes beyond participant satisfaction. Researchers have shown that induction and mentoring programs may have a positive effect on teacher retention. However, few studies demonstrate any connection between new teacher induction and student achievement, the outcome that is probably of most interest to parents, educators, and legislators. Perhaps the main reason for this is that such studies are diffi cult to conduct. First, it is hard to obtain the necessary data. Many schools and districts do not maintain databases connecting student test scores to teachers. Many states do not test students in all grade levels annually, and tests are changed frequently, making it diffi cult to compare performance from year to year. Also, induction programs vary, and many factors contribute to changes in student achievement besides the kinds of support beginning teachers receive. These include school variables, family, economic status, and social issues; other kinds of support such as teacher aides, subject-matter specialists, tutoring; teaching to the test; language issues; and students' health and mood at the time of the testing. Finally, not all educators agree on the validity of using standardized test scores to measure student learning.Imposing an experimental design on treatment and subjects would address all of these issues, except the last. However, the most challenging aspect of this field is often securing access to a suitable control or comparison group of any sort, much less one meeting the standards of an experimental design. These dilemmas force compromises that can make interpretation more difficult

Mentoring New Teachers to Increase Retention: A Look at the Research

In recent years the demand for new teachers across the nation has risen steeply. Demographic factors (such as the baby boom echo) and legislative policies (such as class size reduction) have resulted in the increased need for new teachers, while promising young graduates are often discouraged from entering the profession by low salaries and poor earnings opportunities. Many districts attempt to fill shortages by hiring non-credentialed teachers, who, if they are interns attending a credentialing program, are considered "highly qualified" under the terms of NCLB. Under-qualified and least-experienced teachers are often assigned the most difficult classes, and tend to be concentrated in special education, urban schools, and in schools serving students who are poor, minorities, and English learners. Factors such as these lead to high rates of attrition among practicing teachers, lending some educators to suggest we have a teacher retention problem rather than a teacher shortage problem.High attrition rates have negative effects on student achievement. This is exacerbated by the fact that schools with large numbers of poor and minority pupils have more trouble retaining teachers and the most difficulty attracting new applicants for teaching positions. The continual flight of teachers from these schools creates burdensome extra costs to the district. Hiring and professional development are direct costs, increased instability in the school culture represents an indirect cost

The Costs and Benefits of a Comprehensive Induction Program

Until now there have been no benefit-cost studies of mentoring programs for beginning teachers to provide legislators, educational administrators, and program leaders with the kind of economic information they need for informed decision making. In a benefit-cost analysis we estimate the financial benefits of a given course of action against the actual costs, and use the resulting balance to guide decision making. Costs are either one-time, or may be ongoing. Benefits are most often received over time. In its simple form, benefit-cost analysis is carried out using only actual financial costs and financial benefits. A more sophisticated approach attempts also to put a financial value on intangible costs and benefits, a process that can be highly subjective. In order to provide an estimate of the potential return on the investment in a comprehensive mentoring program for beginning teachers we collected actual cost data for the Santa Cruz New Teacher Project across all its local contexts,calculated the measured benefits, assigning them a monetary value where possible, and computed the net present value over five years. We looked at net benefits or costs from multiple perspectives: the state, the district, the school, the teacher, and the student. The total of all these represents the net benefit or cost to society.calculated the measured benefits, assigning them a monetary value where possible, and computed the net present value over five years. We looked at net benefits or costs from multiple perspectives: the state, the district, the school, the teacher, and the student. The total of all these represents the net benefit or cost to society

The value of remote sensing techniques in supporting effective extrapolation across multiple marine spatial scales

The reporting of ecological phenomena and environmental status routinely required point observations, collected with traditional sampling approaches to be extrapolated to larger reporting scales. This process encompasses difficulties that can quickly entrain significant errors. Remote sensing techniques offer insights and exceptional spatial coverage for observing the marine environment. This review provides guidance on (i) the structures and discontinuities inherent within the extrapolative process, (ii) how to extrapolate effectively across multiple spatial scales, and (iii) remote sensing techniques and data sets that can facilitate this process. This evaluation illustrates that remote sensing techniques are a critical component in extrapolation and likely to underpin the production of high-quality assessments of ecological phenomena and the regional reporting of environmental status. Ultimately, is it hoped that this guidance will aid the production of robust and consistent extrapolations that also make full use of the techniques and data sets that expedite this process

Protein Nanomachines

At the interface of biology and nanotechnology lies an area of research that aims to construct molecular-scale machines based on protein and nucleic aci

Propagation in 3D spiral-arm cosmic-ray source distribution models and secondary particle production using PICARD

We study the impact of possible spiral-arm distributions of Galactic cosmic-ray sources on the flux of various cosmic-ray nuclei throughout our Galaxy. We investigate model cosmic-ray spectra at the nominal position of the sun and at different positions within the Galaxy. The modelling is performed using the recently introduced numerical cosmic ray propagation code \textsc{Picard}. Assuming non-axisymmetric cosmic ray source distributions yields new insights on the behaviour of primary versus secondary nuclei. We find that primary cosmic rays are more strongly confined to the vicinity of the sources, while the distribution of secondary cosmic rays is much more homogeneous compared to the primaries. This leads to stronger spatial variation in secondary to primary ratios when compared to axisymmetric source distribution models. A good fit to the cosmic-ray data at Earth can be accomplished in different spiral-arm models, although leading to decisively different spatial distributions of the cosmic-ray flux. This results in very different cosmic ray anisotropies, where even a good fit to the data becomes possible. Consequently, we advocate directions to seek best fit propagation parameters that take into account the higher complexity introduced by the spiral-arm structure on the cosmic-ray distribution. We specifically investigate whether the flux at Earth is representative for a large fraction of the Galaxy. The variance among possible spiral-arm models allows us to quantify the spatial variation of the cosmic-ray flux within the Galaxy in presence of non-axisymmetric source distributions.Comment: 38 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic

Por que os trabalhadores do setor financeiro dos EUA não são sindicalizados? : um problema atual com raízes no século 19

Orientador: Carlos Salas PáezDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de EconomiaResumo: Trabalhadores do setor financeiro dos EUA apresentam a menor taxa de sindicalização em comparação aos trabalhadores de outras indústrias, e estão entre os menos organizados do mundo. À luz da recente crise econômica, o movimento operário dos EUA, junto com os sindicatos internacionais, tem tido grande interesse em reverter as sombrias taxas de sindicalização, devido à importância destes trabalhadores, que estão dentro de um mercado financeiro globalizado altamente dominado por empresas norte-americanas. O atual desafio em organizar estes trabalhadores está enraizado em uma história profunda de evasão, ignorância, desorientação, repressão, e derrotas para os interesses do sindicalismo dos trabalhadores de escritórios. Este trabalho explora as primeiras raízes dos obstáculos atuais que os trabalhadores do setor financeiro enfrentam na tentativa de se sindicalizar, examinando a resistência popular à formação do Setor Financeiro dos EUA no século 19. Uma visão geral do desenvolvimento inicial do setor financeiro, de suas respostas políticas e da organização do trabalho é fornecida, incluindo informações específicas sobre os trabalhadores do setor financeiro, quando disponíveis. O aumento da feminização do trabalho de colarinho branco após a Guerra Civil dos EUA também é explorado. Os fatores chave que contribuem para as baixas taxas de sindicalização incluem o impacto da liderança sindical influenciada pelo populismo, o que contribuiu para as reformas que promovem uma estrutura financeira descentralizada, a exclusão dos trabalhadores de escritório, a feminização da força de trabalho de escritórios, as atitudes das lideranças sindicais em relação às mulheres e trabalhadores de escritório, e a falta de um partido trabalhista nos EUA, tudo isso combinado com a repressão do governo contra os comunistas que pretendiam organizar o setor. Na conclusão, são apresentadas sugestões para a continuação da pesquisa sobre o porquê de os EUA não possuírem um sindicato dos trabalhadores do setor financeiroAbstract: Financial sector workers in the US suffer from the lowest rate of unionization of workers in any of the industries in the US, and are among the least organized in the world. In light of the recent economic crisis, and given the importance of US financial workers within a globalized financial market highly dominated by US firms, the US labor movement, along with unions internationally, has taken great interest in reversing these dismal unionization rates. The current challenge to organizing these workers is rooted in a deep history of avoidance, ignorance, misguidance, repression, and defeats for the interests of office worker unionism. This work explores the early roots of the current obstacles these workers face in attempting to unionize by examining the popular resistance to US Financial Sector formation in the 19th century. An overview of early financial sector development, political responses, and labor organization is provided, including specific information on financial sector workers when available. The increase and feminization of white-collar work after the US Civil War is explored, especially in the clerical industries of the financial sector. Key factors contributing to low unionization rates include the impact of populist-influenced labor leadership that preferred a decentralized financial structure and excluded clerical workers, the feminization of the clerical labor force, the attitudes of trade union leaders towards women and clerical workers, and the combination of a lack of a labor party in the US and government repression of communists who had the vision to organize the sector. Suggestions for continued research on why the US does not have a financial sector workers union are presented in the conclusionMestradoEconomia Social e do TrabalhoMestre em Desenvolvimento Econômic

The Impact of Induction and Mentoring Programs for Beginning Teachers: A Critical Review of the Research

This review critically examines 15 empirical studies, conducted since the mid 1980s, on the effects of support, guidance, and orientation programs— collectively known as induction — for beginning teachers. Most of the studies reviewed provide empirical support for the claim that support and assistance for beginning teachers have a positive impact on three sets of outcomes: teacher commitment and retention, teacher classroom instructional practices, and student achievement. Of the studies on commitment and retention, most showed that beginning teachers who participated in some kind of induction had higher job satisfaction, commitment, or retention. For classroom instructional practices, the majority of studies reviewed showed that beginning teachers who participated in some kind of induction performed better at various aspects of teaching, such as keeping students on task, developing workable lesson plans, using effective student questioning practices, adjusting classroom activities to meet students’ interests, maintaining a positive classroom atmosphere, and demonstrating successful classroom management. For student achievement, almost all of the studies showed that students of beginning teachers who participated in some kind of induction had higher scores, or gains, on academic achievement tests. There were, however, exceptions to this overall pattern – in particular a large randomized controlled trial of induction in a sample of large, urban, low-income schools — which found significant positive effects on student achievement, but no effects on either teacher retention or teachers’ classroom practices. Our review closes by attempting to reconcile these seemingly contradictory findings and also by identifying gaps in the research base, and relevant questions that have not been addressed and warrant further research

Estimating the Price Elasticity of Demand for Water with Quasi Experimental Methods

There is a growing recognition in both the professional and popular literatures that water scarcity is a key policy issue that is especially important in arid, urban settings with the prospects for shortfalls in water availability due to the effects of climate change. Those evaluating these types of water problems usually conclude prices must be reformed so that incentives facing water users change to reflect this scarcity. Demand functions provide the basic economic relationships required to understand how water use will respond to such changes. This paper proposes a new method for estimating the price elasticity of demand that meets policy needs and can accommodate the presence of increasing block pricing structures.Water Demand Elasticity, Quasi Experiment, Climate Change, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

A Comparison of Small and Large Business Managers' Attitudes Toward Innovation and the Role of Government in Promoting Technology

House  Resolution  820 calls for   the establishment  of  technology  partnerships,  funded by  the federal    government,   designed   specifically   to  improve   small   businesses  access  to technology.   However, government-industry partnerships  have been criticized for  creating a government-assisted organization to compete with do1nestic private sector firms. The critics of  such  partnerships   argue  that  marker  intervention   by  the  government   often  results  in competitive  disadvantages for   the  very firms   the partnership   was  intended  to help.     This study assessed  the attitudes of small  business owners and managers toward  government  directed market interventions such as that proposed  in HR 820.  The results suggest  that there are some important  differences  between  managers  at  large  corporations  and  small  businesses  on  the effectiveness  of  market  intervention  by  the government,  both  in terms of job   creation  and technology   enhancement.      Within  the  subsample   of  small  firms,   however,   there   is  sharp disagreement on the value of government  programs  such as those proposed  in H.R. 820