An SEA Guide for Identifying Evidence-Based Interventions for School Improvement

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and replaces the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The law focuses on using research evidence to improve teaching and learning and at the same time passes considerable authority from federal to state policymakers. This means that responsibility largely falls on states and localities to effectively make sense of and use research evidence in their decisions around school improvement, teacher preparation, principal recruitment, and family engagement. With support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Overdeck Family Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation, the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) has developed Guides for Identifying Evidence-Based Interventions for School Improvement

Nauruan classification

Nauruan is a Micronesian language that has been classified outside of the Nuclear Micronesian group. This classification suggests that Nauruan, unlike all other Micronesian languages, did not descend from Proto-Micronesian. Though this view has been adopted in the literature, it should be considered tenuous. It is based on little Nauruan data and is informed by work that is presented as highly tentative. This paper presents a reassessment of Nauruan classification, drawing on data from original fieldwork. Research shows not only that Nauruan is a Micronesian language, but that there is no compelling evidence for classifying Nauruan apart from the Nuclear group. Of particular importance is the claim that Nauruan fails to reflect the merger of Proto-Oceanic *d and *dr as Proto-Micronesian *c (Jackson 1986). Comparative evidence suggests that Nauruan does reflect this merger: POc *d, *dr > PMc *c > r̆. It follows that Jackson's classification for Nauruan is unmotivated, as is the Nuclear/non-Nuclear distinction within the family. Having established that Nauruan need not be classified apart from the Nuclear group, Nauruan's precise classification within the Micronesian family is considered. A question of primary importance is whether Nauruan reflects the merger of Proto-Micronesian *s and *S. The possibility that Nauruan did not participate in this merger is considered, in which case Nauruan should be classified outside of the Central Micronesian group, like Kosraean. The possibility that Nauruan did participate in this merger is also considered, in which case Nauruan should be classified somewhere within Central Micronesian. Further, some innovations are described which are potentially shared between Nauruan and certain Central Micronesian languages. The possibility that these are shared innovations is considered, as are the implications this would have for Nauruan classification

The Synchronic and Diachronic Phonology of Nauruan: Towards a Definitive Classification of an Understudied Micronesian Language

Nauruan is a Micronesian language spoken in the Republic of Nauru, a small island nation in the central Pacific. Lack of data and difficulty in analysis has hindered progress in better understanding Nauruan for decades, particularly regarding its phonology and its classification within the Micronesian family. Because of these challenges, earlier researchers have presented their work on Nauruan as highly tentative. This dissertation establishes more confident analyses of Nauruan phonology, sound change and classification, which have been made possible through original fieldwork. Approximately one hundred hours of digital recordings have been collected as part of this research, including wordlists, phrases, narratives, and spontaneous speech and conversation. Seventeen individual Nauruan speakers contributed to this work. This diverse body of data has allowed for much needed insight into the Nauruan language and its relation to the other Micronesian languages. A revised Nauruan phoneme inventory is proposed and a range of associated phonological processes are identified and discussed. Particular attention is paid to the phonetics of Nauruan speech sounds, including articulatory and acoustic properties of consonants and vowels. Also included is an analysis of Nauruan stress and prosody. Nauruan is shown to have a weight-sensitive stress system, as is typical of Micronesian languages. The prevailing view on Nauruan classification has been that it is a Micronesian language that should be classified apart from all other members of the family. This classification is based on little Nauruan data and should be reevaluated. To this end, this dissertation compiles nearly 300 lexical comparisons and shows regular sound correspondences between Nauruan, Proto‑Micronesian and individual Micronesian languages. Additionally, a range of Nauruan morphological paradigms are shown to have parallels across the Micronesian family. The analysis supports classifying Nauruan as a Micronesian language but has produced no compelling evidence for classifying Nauruan apart from the nuclear Micronesian group. As such, the nuclear/non-nuclear distinction within the family appears to be unnecessary. The evidence suggests that all Micronesian languages, including Nauruan, have descended from Proto-Micronesian. Possible classifications for Nauruan within the Micronesian family are discussed and evaluated. Several stages of pre‑Nauruan are also reconstructed, which suggests that Nauruan has undergone a significant degree of internal sound change. This may have contributed to earlier perceptions of Nauruan as a non-nuclear Micronesian language

A Vocationally Approved Peformance-Based Technical Drawing Curriculum

The essential parts of a Vocationally Approved Performance-Based Technical Drawing Cuniculurn were developed and based on components of the Washington State Commission on Student Leaming, the Carl D. Perkins Applied Technology Education Act of 1990, the State of Washington Districtwide Plan For Vocational Education, the Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS report) and the recent change from Industrial Arts philosophies to Technology Education philosophies. The grades 9-12 cuniculurn included manual and computer aided Architectural and Mechanical Drafting skills which are used widely in the Drafting fields. 11

On a discrete version of Tanaka's theorem for maximal functions

In this paper we prove a discrete version of Tanaka's Theorem \cite{Ta} for the Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator in dimension $n=1$, both in the non-centered and centered cases. For the discrete non-centered maximal operator $\widetilde{M}$ we prove that, given a function $f: \mathbb{Z} \to \mathbb{R}$ of bounded variation, $$\textrm{Var}(\widetilde{M} f) \leq \textrm{Var}(f),$$ where $\textrm{Var}(f)$ represents the total variation of $f$. For the discrete centered maximal operator $M$ we prove that, given a function $f: \mathbb{Z} \to \mathbb{R}$ such that $f \in \ell^1(\mathbb{Z})$, $$\textrm{Var}(Mf) \leq C \|f\|_{\ell^1(\mathbb{Z})}.$$ This provides a positive solution to a question of Haj{\l}asz and Onninen \cite{HO} in the discrete one-dimensional case.Comment: V4 - Proof of Lemma 3 update