Teacher Evaluation: The Change We Wish to See; Improving the Formal Observation Process to Improve Student Learning

Teacher evaluation is a formal construct for improving instruction and student learning. Formal observations are a central component of that process. This change model explores the option of a videotaped observation model as an alternative to the current Illinois state-mandated in-person formal observation to increase teacher ownership, promote reflective practice and improve instructional practices. The evaluation process is a vehicle that promotes collaboration among building leaders and staff. The Illinois shift to a professional practice model provides a construct for a culture and climate that encourages reflection and promotes professional growth (Danielson, 2011; Darling-Hammond, 2013; Jay, 2003; Stuhlman, Hamre, Downer, & Pianta, n.d.). In examining practices related to evaluation and the formal observation, the idea is to build systems empowering teachers and focused on collaboration to promote reflection and professional growth (Myung & Martinez, 2013). The premise of the change model is to realize the context, culture, conditions and competencies that will reflect an effective system with a focus on student learning (Wagner & Kegan, 2006). Qualitative research methods were used to gain a deeper understanding of the teacher and administrator perceived value of the formal observation. Analyzing data from surveys and semi-structured interviews regarding the observation experience, the findings suggest that there is an opportunity to examine alternate structures for the formal observation to increase its value as a tool for professional growth. A further case study of the change model was conducted with three teachers and three administrators. Given responses to the case study coupled with the survey and interview data, I found there is merit to exploring how the videotaped alternative may contribute to an improved teacher evaluation process

The Role of the Formal Observation in Promoting Reflective Practice

Acheson and Gall (2011) wrote about the tension between teacher evaluation and clinical supervision. In their research they discuss the intent of clinical supervision to be a model for coaching and supporting professional growth as compared to more traditional models of teacher evaluation that were often associated with fear as a motivator. This program evaluation examines the nature of the formal observation in the teacher evaluation process and seeks to explore its role in developing reflective practitioners and promoting professional growth. This study involved researching the perspectives of teachers and administrators regarding their perceptions of the value of the formal observation process in improving teaching and learning. The data was collected through surveys and interviews and analyzed for patterns in responses. As a result of the research from this program evaluation, it was determined that the current formal observation process mandating an in-person observation of instruction is limited in its ability to foster the development of reflective practitioners. Several factors create a context that devalues what should be an optimal opportunity for professional growth. The passive role of teachers in the process, the high stakes nature of the observation as the central component in the larger evaluation process, the lack of a collaborative structure and the administrator-driven nature of the experience result in a process that has little impact on improving instruction in this study. The recommendations from this program evaluation include the exploration of alternative models for the current structure of the formal observation in the teacher evaluation process in Illinois

23 Illinois Administrative Code 50: Redefining the Formal Observation in Teacher Evaluation; A Policy Advocacy Document

This document explores how a change in the definition of the formal observation may improve the teacher evaluation system in the state of Illinois. Currently, the formal observation must be conducted in person as defined by administrative code. In an effort to increase the value and impact of the formal observation as a tool for reflection and professional growth, this paper advocates for a videotaped alternative as an option in addition to the current in-person model. The intent of including a videotaped option is to empower the teacher in the process and increase ownership for building skills as a reflective practitioner. The videotaped model also promotes a more collaborative context for the post observation conference that may lead to a more direct impact on improving teaching and learning. The state of New York (2017) has already implemented a videotaped observation model as an alternative in the teacher evaluation process and the premise of advocating for such a policy was recently the subject of a study at The Center for Educational Policy Research at Harvard (Harvard University Center for Educational Policy Research, 2015a). This policy advocacy document discusses the context and conditions by which to operationalize a similar vision in the state of Illinois

Deployment of churn prediction model in financial services industry

© 2016 IEEE. Nowadays, data analytics techniques are playing an increasingly crucial role in financial services due to the huge benefits they bring. To ensure a successful implementation of an analytics project, various factors and procedures need to be considered besides technical issues. This paper introduces some practical lessons from our deployment of a data analytics project in a leading wealth management company in Australia. Specifically, the process of building a customer churn prediction model is described. Besides common steps of data analysis, how to deal with other practical issues like data privacy and change management that are encountered by many financial companies are also introduced

A Multiple Source based Transfer Learning Framework for Marketing Campaigns

© 2018 IEEE. The rapid growing number of marketing campaigns demands an efficient learning model to identify prospective customers to target. Transfer learning is widely considered as a major way to improve the learning performance by using the generated knowledge from previous learning tasks. Most recent studies focused on transferring knowledge from source domains to target domains which may result in knowledge missing. To avoid this, we proposed a multiple source based transfer learning framework to do it reversely. The data in target domains is transferred into source domains by normalizing them into the same distributions and then improving the learning task in target domains by its generated knowledge in source domains. The proposed method is general and can deal with supervised and unsupervised inductive and transductive learning simultaneously with a compatibility to work with different machine learning models. The experiments on real-world campaign data demonstrate the performance of the proposed method

Visual adaptation alters the apparent speed of real-world actions

The apparent physical speed of an object in the field of view remains constant despite variations in retinal velocity due to viewing conditions (velocity constancy). For example, people and cars appear to move across the field of view at the same objective speed regardless of distance. In this study a series of experiments investigated the visual processes underpinning judgements of objective speed using an adaptation paradigm and video recordings of natural human locomotion. Viewing a video played in slow-motion for 30seconds caused participants to perceive subsequently viewed clips played at standard speed as too fast, so playback had to be slowed down in order for it to appear natural; conversely after viewing fast-forward videos for 30seconds, playback had to be speeded up in order to appear natural. The perceived speed of locomotion shifted towards the speed depicted in the adapting video (‘re-normalisation’). Results were qualitatively different from those obtained in previously reported studies of retinal velocity adaptation. Adapting videos that were scrambled to remove recognizable human figures or coherent motion caused significant, though smaller shifts in apparent locomotion speed, indicating that both low-level and high-level visual properties of the adapting stimulus contributed to the changes in apparent speed

Combining heterogeneous features for time series prediction

© 2017 IEEE. Time series prediction is a challenging task in reality, and various methods have been proposed for it. However, only the historical series of values are exploited in most of existing methods. Therefore, the predictive models might be not effective in some cases, due to: (1) the historical series of values is not sufficient usually, and (2) features from heterogeneous sources such as the intrinsic features of data samples themselves, which could be very useful, are not take into consideration. To address these issues, we proposed a novel method in this paper which learns the predictive model based on the combination of dynamic features extracted from series of historical values and static features of data samples. To evaluate the performance of our proposed method, we compare it with linear regression and boosted trees, and the experimental results validate our method's superiority

2019 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and Other Drugs Conference (APSAD 2019)

Introduction and Aims Sex on premises venues (SOPV) for GBMSM (gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men) provide novel contexts for more sexually adventurous practices, including recreational substance use. This sub-group provides unique insight into experiences, sexual activity and substance use patterns of GBMSM and peer health workers. Design and Methods Participants were recruited as part of a larger HIV peer-testing project providing innovative HIV and STI asymptomatic screening. Health promotion was provided late on Friday and Saturday nights during themed sex parties to engage GBMSM in rarely studied after-hours context. Participants included venue patrons (n = 4) and peer testers (n = 5). Trained researchers (clinicians) conducted interviews with verbal consent provided. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes regarding substance use and harm reduction within these settings. Ethics approval was obtained. Results Four main themes (with sub-themes) were identified. 1) Substance use in the venues (e.g. amyl, alcohol, crystal, use in combination, desire to avoid); 2) How substances transform experiences (e.g. disinhibition, social enhancement); 3) How substances transform sexual experiences (e.g. enhances sexual performance, more adventurous); and 4) Harm reduction strategies (e.g., current practices, recommendations). Discussions and Conclusions Group sex parties at private clubs provide an opportunity for GBMSM to explore aspects of their personal/sexual identity. Recurrent themes suggest a culture that values health promotion despite engaging in activities associated with a higher risk for acquiring HIV or an STI. Innovative models of care require new health promotion hours and settings. Implications for Practice or Policy (optional) The findings demonstrate how peer-testers can support increasing awareness and promotion of harm reduction strategies among this subgroup within SOPV having implications for the development of policy and health promotion interventions

1954: Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures - Full Text

Preface The 1954 Abilene Christian College Lectureship was one of the best attended and most successful in the history of the school. Considerable interest was manifested in the timely theme, “Overcoming Dangerous Tendencies,” and in the two special topics, “Ways and Means of Doing Mission Work,” and “Caring For Widows and Orphans.” The reports from the mission fields were highly stimulating, and all in all, the speeches were unusually high caliber. The Panel Discussions were also on timely subjects and well presented. They received a warm response, as did also the thirty classes that were conducted each day. These classes were taught by persons expert in their particular fields, and covered a wide range of interests to the faithful, working Christian. We at Abilene Christian College predict for this book of Lectures a wide and hearty reception, and believe that its reading will issue in profit to the individual and to the church at large. J. D. Thomas Lectureship Directo

Very Strong Atmospheric Methane Growth in the 4 Years 2014–2017:Implications for the Paris Agreement

Atmospheric methane grew very rapidly in 2014 (12.7 ± 0.5 ppb/year), 2015 (10.1 ± 0.7 ppb/year), 2016 (7.0 ± 0.7 ppb/year), and 2017 (7.7 ± 0.7 ppb/year), at rates not observed since the 1980s. The increase in the methane burden began in 2007, with the mean global mole fraction in remote surface background air rising from about 1,775 ppb in 2006 to 1,850 ppb in 2017. Simultaneously the 13 C/ 12 C isotopic ratio (expressed as δ 13 C CH4 ) has shifted, has shifted, now trending negative for more than a decade. The causes of methane's recent mole fraction increase are therefore either a change in the relative proportions (and totals) of emissions from biogenic and thermogenic and pyrogenic sources, especially in the tropics and subtropics, or a decline in the atmospheric sink of methane, or both. Unfortunately, with limited measurement data sets, it is not currently possible to be more definitive. The climate warming impact of the observed methane increase over the past decade, if continued at >5 ppb/year in the coming decades, is sufficient to challenge the Paris Agreement, which requires sharp cuts in the atmospheric methane burden. However, anthropogenic methane emissions are relatively very large and thus offer attractive targets for rapid reduction, which are essential if the Paris Agreement aims are to be attained