Review of Macho Row: The 1993 Phillies and Baseball\u27s Unwritten Code

This is a review of William C. Kashatus\u27s Macho Row: The 1993 Phillies and Baseball\u27s Unwritten Code, an account of the misfit bunch that almost returned World Series glory to the City of Brotherly Love

Effective Resource Utilization in Arkansas Public Schools

Teacher pay in Arkansas public schools varies widely from district to district across the state. This pay discrepancy is driven by both the funds available to a district and by how these funds are allocated. There is a standard per student budget given to districts across the state, but this budget can be supplemented by additional property taxes collected on property within a district. This leaves districts with more highly valued property at an advantage. Districts are free to allocate their budget for teacher pay as they see fit, with constraints on number of students per teacher and minimum teacher salary. This research has two main objectives: 1) investigate what variables affect student performance in Arkansas public schools and 2) determine the cost-effectiveness associated with changing possible decision variables in terms of improving student performance. The objectives were achieved by using public data available through the Arkansas Department of Education. Objective 1 was accomplished using feature selection and predictive modeling. Objective 2 integrated the results found from the first objective with district budget information in order to analyze the cost-effectiveness of different district budget policies. Results from this study are valuable to districts trying to improve student performance in the most cost-effective way