The Useful Elements of Pre-principalship Preparation

Abstract The importance of the role of the principal in good schools is acknowledged by many sources. The preparation of new principals is therefore an important factor in ensuring children are educated in good schools. New Zealand does not have a formal system of principal preparation. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of pre-principalship preparation with the aim of discovering those activities and developments that were useful in assisting teachers to make the transition to successful principalship. The research question addressed in this study is,; What are the elements of pre-principalship preparation that are most useful for potential and aspiring principals in furthering their career aims? Using qualitative methodology, a group of people who had attended the Aspiring and Potential Principals' Pilot run by the School of Education at the University of Waikato, were questioned using semi structured interviews about their experiences. Five of the six were holding principal positions, the sixth was in a deputy principal's position and had some relieving principal experience. The results the research generated indicated that while there were varying needs for potential principals because of their varied backgrounds, there were six useful experiences for all identified. These included, attendance at some form of targeted principal preparation programme, a background of ongoing professional learning, developing networks, developing successful mentoring, experience of models of principalship and support of 'family'. Different people had different levels of benefit from these experiences but they were common to all. It is hoped that this research will give assistance to guiding professional development for the potential and aspiring principals of tomorrow

MEASUREMENT OF PRICE RISK IN REVENUE INSURANCE: IMPLICATIONS OF DISTRIBUTIONAL ASSUMPTIONS

A variety of crop revenue insurance programs have recently been introduced. A critical component of revenue insurance contracts is quantifying the risk associated with stochastic prices. Forward-looking, market-based measures of price risk which are often available in form of options premia are preferable. Because such measures are not available for every crop, some current revenue insurance programs alternatively utilize historical price data to construct measures of price risk. This study evaluates the distributional implications of alternative methods for estimating price risk and deriving insurance premium rates. A variety of specification tests are employed to evaluate distributional assumptions. Conditional heteroskedasticity models are used to determine the extent to which price distributions may be characterized by nonconstant variances. In addition, these models are used to identify variables which may be used for conditioning distributions for rating purposes. Discrete mixtures of normals provide flexible parametric specifications capable of recognizing the skewness and kurtosis present in commodity pricesRisk and Uncertainty,

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Range Report - May 2015

The following is a summary of the major meteorological/atmospheric projects and research that have been or currently are being accomplished at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Listed below are highlights of work done during the past 6 months in the Engineering Directorate (ED) and in the Science and Mission Systems Office (ZP)

Implementation of Economic Impact Analysis: The Lessons of OSHA

Recently, a plethora of concern has surfaced regarding the large and rapidly increasing costs of government regulation and its impact upon the economy and the free market system. Much of this displeasure has focused on a seemingly ideal target-The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). OSHA was established in 1970 amidst widespread optimism that it would greatly enhance the employee work environment. This hope, however, was premature; in fact, many commentators argue that, in the ten years since its creation, OSHA has done little to further its objective of improving safety and health in the workplace, despite the large compliance costs it has generated. This article will first review recent cases concerning the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act); the Benzene, Cotton Dust, and Coke Oven Emissions decisions, and then examine the feasibility of OSHA using cost-benefit analysis in promulgating new standards for industry

Effects of thermal and mechanical fatigue on the flexural strength of G40-600/PMR-15 cross-ply laminates

The effects of thermal and mechanical fatigue on the flexural strength of G40-600/PMR-15 cross-ply laminates with ply orientation of (0(2),90(2))2S and (90(2),0(2))2S are examined. The relative importance of shear and tensile stresses is examined by varying the span-to-depth ratios of flexural test specimens from 8 to 45. Acoustic emission signals are measured during the flexural tests in order to monitor the initiation and growth of damage. Optical microscopy is used to examine specimens for resin cracking, delamination, and fiber breaks after testing. Transverse matrix cracks and delaminations occur in all specimens, regardless of ply orientation, span-to-depth ratio, or previous exposure of specimens to thermal and mechanical fatigue. A small amount of fiber tensile fracture occurs in the outer 0 deg ply of specimens with high span-to-depth ratios. Because of the complex failure modes, the flexural test results represent the 'apparent' strengths rather than the true flexural or shear strengths for these cross-ply laminates. Thermal cycling of specimens prior to flexural testing does not reduce the apparent flexural strength or change the mode of failure. However, fewer acoustic events are recorded at all strains during flexural testing of specimens exposed to prior thermal cycling. High temperature thermal cycling (32 to 260 C, 100 cycles) causes a greater reduction in acoustic events than low temperature thermal cycling (-85 to +85 C, 500 cycles). Mechanical cycling (0 to 50 percent of the flexural strength, 100 cycles) has a similar effect, except that acoustic events are reduced only at strains less than the maximum strain applied during flexural fatigue

Defining the Natural Atmospheric Environment Requirements for the NASA Constellation Program

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration began developing a new vehicle under the Constellation Program to replace the Space Shuttle. The Ares-1 launch vehicle and the Orion capsule will be used to ferry crew and some payloads to the International Space Station and will also be used for new missions to the moon, As development of this new vehicle begins, the Natural Environments Branch at Marshall Space Flight Center has been tasked with defining the natural environments the vehicle will encounter and working with the program to develop natural environmental requirements for the vehicles' elements. An overview of the structure of the program is given, along with a description of the Constellation Design Specification for Natural Environments and the Constellation Natural Environments Definition for Design documents and how they apply to the Ares-I and Orion vehicles

Current Activities and Capabilities of the Terrestrial Environment Group at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) designated Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) the center of excellence for space transportation. The Aerospace Environments and Effects (AEE) team of the Electromagnetics and Aerospace Environments Branch (EL23) in the Systems Analysis and Integration Laboratory at MSFC, supports the center of excellence designation by providing near-Earth space, deep space, planetary, and terrestrial environments expertise to projects as required. The Terrestrial Environment (TE) group within the AEE team maintains an extensive TE data base. Statistics and models derived from this data are applied to the design and development of new aerospace vehicles, as well as performance enhancement of operational vehicles such as the Space Shuttle. The TE is defined as the Earth's atmospheric environment extending from the surface to orbital insertion altitudes (approximately 90 km)