Teacher Attrition in Charter Schools

This study focuses on the reasons why teachers are leaving charter schools. It is based on analyses of data collected in surveys of charter school employees from around the country from 1997-2006. The authors found that while overall attrition rates fluctuate from year to year and state to state, as many as one in four charter school teachers leave each year- approximately double the traditional public school rate of 11 percent. Moreover, attrition among new teachers in charter schools is close to 40 percent annually. The authors contend that high attrition, "consumes resources of schools, impedes schools' efforts to build professional learning communities and positive, stable school cultures," and recommend that supporters of charters schools focus efforts on reducing teacher attrition

The Effects of Response Lever Position on the Performance of Rats with Septal Lesions in a Lever-Press Shock-Escape Task

A thesis presented to the faculty of the School of Education at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts by Edward Brooks Applegate III on October 28, 1983

Mapping persistence and change in psychological problems during the transition to adolescence: Adding, subtracting, shifting, and persisting

Background: Recent developmental models posited that general tendencies to exhibit psychological problems are relatively stable, but specific problems change frequently. We need comprehensive descriptions of persistence and change in psychological problems before advancing such theories, however. Methods: Data from four annual assessments of 9806 children (ages 9–10&nbsp;years at baseline) in the Adolescent Behavior Cognitive Development Study™ were used to quantify persistence and change in each of 10 parent-rated specific psychological problems. Results: Novel pairwise analyses revealed that the persistence of psychological problems over 1–3&nbsp;years was common, but behavior change in the sense that problem x1 at baseline desisted and was replaced by a new problem y2 at follow-up was uncommon. The only relatively common changes in behavior over time involved adding a new problem (i.e., x1 at baseline followed by x2&nbsp;+&nbsp;y2 at follow-up) or subtracting a problem (i.e., x1&nbsp;+&nbsp;y1 at baseline followed by only y2 at follow-up). Conclusions: If confirmed across other measures and developmental epochs, these findings challenge a key postulate of current theories that the developmental course of psychological problems involves frequent replacement of one problem by another.</p

Gait and Force Analysis of Provoked Pig Gait on Clean and Fouled Concrete Surfaces

Gait and force analysis have proven to be useful methods in linking claw injuries to surface material conditions. To determine the relationship between claw disorder and floor properties such as friction and surface abrasiveness, the factors controlling gait must be characterised. The effects of fouled concrete floor conditions on the gait of 10 pigs walking in a curve, using kinematics and kinetics to record gait parameters and slip frequency are described and compared with clean conditions. Pigs adapted to fouled floor conditions by reducing their walking speed and stride length, using a higher number of 3-foot support phases and by lowering diagonality. This adaption produced lower vertical forces, a twofold reduction in propulsion and outward stabilisation force and a threefold increase in braking force, without reducing the peak utilised coefficient of friction (UCOF). The UCOF values for both limbs of the curve walking pigs exceeded the recorded dynamic coefficient of friction and the corresponding UCOF values for pigs walking a straight line in fouled floor condition. As UCOF increased and available friction from the fouled floor surface decreased, this resulted in higher forward and backward slip frequency in both limbs for pigs walking in a curve. Pigs provoked to walk in a curve can adapt to fouled floor condition, but if the floor is heavily fouled this adaption is not sufficient to ensure safe walking

Measuring Invariance of Theory of Planned Behavior Model on Online Fitness Program Participation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is one of the most frequently cited and most influential models to explain and predict human intentions and behaviors (Ajzen, 1991, 2011; Kim & James, 2016), which include physical activity and exercise. However, the dimensionality of TPB has not been examined in the context of online fitness program (OFP) participation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to examine the TPB measurement parameters of the factorial models and determine the generalizability of the psychological constructs of the TPB model on gender groups and whether COVID-19 affected annual income groups. The participants were 18 years or older adults in U.S.A. and self-identified as OFP participants during the COVID-19 pandemic. They were recruited using Amazon Mechanical Turk. TPB was used to examine OFP participation behavior with four constructs: Attitudes toward a behavior (AB), subjective norm (SN), perceived behavioral control (PBC), and participation intention (PI) along with an additional construct role identity (RI). Data were collected through Qualtrics and analyzed in RStudio-1.4.1106. Multiple group confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were conducted to investigate measurement invariance on gender (male or female) and COVID-19 impact (yes or no), respectively. Final data for analyses included 724 respondents (52.5% males; 47.9% reported no). The CFA results supported unidimensionality of the modified TPB scale. Invariance tests were conducted at all levels of AB, SN, PBC, PI, and RI measures for both male and female groups and COVID-19 impacted groups: Dimensional (equal number of latent factors), configural (equal factor structure), weak (equal factor loadings), strong (equal indicator intercepts), and strict (equal indicator residuals), respectively. The results showed that each of the equal indicator residual models had an overall satisfactory fit to the OFP participation data for both male and female groups as well as the two COVID-19 impacted groups. Comparing with the equal indicator intercept solution regarding the groups in both gender and COVID-19 impact, each of the equal indicator residual models for AB and SN did not result in a significant degradation in model-data fit. But PBC, PI, and RI had significant chi-square changes and the changes of their CFIs were greater than 0.01. Results showed that the adapted TPB scale is valid for measuring OFP participation intention constructs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since invariant factor loadings and indicator intercepts of TPB measures have achieved, it has confirmed that it is valid to be used in group comparison of latent scores

NEPC Review: Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States

The Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University conducted a large-scale analysis of the impact of charter schools on student performance. The center&rsquo;s data covered 65-70% of the nation&rsquo;s charter schools. Although results varied by state, 17% of the charter school students have significantly higher math results than their matched twins in comparable traditional public schools (TPS), while 37% had significantly worse results. The CREDO study strengthens the well-established, broader body of evidence showing average charter performance to be equal to, or perhaps lower than, the performance of traditional schools&mdash;-a body of evidence that is summarized in this review. The study also presents some state-level analyses concerning policy options; this review points out limitations with those analyses and also explores other policy implications of the report&rsquo;s findings. The relative strength and comprehensiveness of the data set used for this study, as well as the solid analytic approaches of the researchers, makes this report a useful contribution to the charter school research base. Nevertheless, this review points out some weaknesses and areas for improvement, many of which represent commonplace limitations for this type of study that should be shared in the technical report.</p

Serotonin, Septal Lesions, and Shock-Escape Learning in Rats

An article written by Bruce A. Mattingly, James E. Gotsick and E. Brooks Applegate and published in Psychological Reports in 1986, pages 3-9

Differential cross sections and spin density matrix elements for the reaction gamma p -> p omega

High-statistics differential cross sections and spin density matrix elements for the reaction gamma p -> p omega have been measured using the CLAS at Jefferson Lab for center-of-mass (CM) energies from threshold up to 2.84 GeV. Results are reported in 112 10-MeV wide CM energy bins, each subdivided into cos(theta_CM) bins of width 0.1. These are the most precise and extensive omega photoproduction measurements to date. A number of prominent structures are clearly present in the data. Many of these have not previously been observed due to limited statistics in earlier measurements

Using confirmatory factor analysis to measure contemporaneous activation of defined neuronal networks in functional magnetic resonance imaging

a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Functional neuroimaging often generates large amounts of data on regions of interest. Such data can be addressed effectively with a widely-used statistical technique based on measurement theory that has not yet been applied to neuroimaging. Confirmatory factor analysis is a convenient hypothesis-driven modeling environment that can be used to conduct formal statistical tests comparing alternative hypotheses regarding the elements of putative neuronal networks. In such models, measures of each activated region of interest are treated as indicators of an underlying latent construct that represents the contemporaneous activation of the elements in the network. As such, confirmatory factor analysis focuses analyses on the activation of hypothesized networks as a whole, improves statistical power by modeling measurement error, and provides a theory-based approach to data reduction with a robust statistical basis. This approach is illustrated using data on seven regions of interest in a hypothesized mesocorticostriatal reward system in a sample of 262 adult volunteers assessed during a card-guessing reward task. A latent construct reflecting contemporaneous activation of the reward system was found to be significantly associated with a latent construct measuring impulsivity, particularly in males

The advancement of blood cell research by optical tweezers

Demonstration of the light radiation pressure on a microscopic level by A. Ashkin led to the invention of optical tweezers (OT). Applied in the studies of living systems, OT have become a preferable instrument for the noninvasive study of microobjects, allowing manipulation and measurement of the mechanical properties of molecules, organelles, and cells. In the present paper, we overview OT applications in hemorheological research, placing emphasis on red blood cells but also discussing OT applications for the investigation of the biomechanics of leukocytes and platelets. Blood properties have always served as a primary parameter in medical diagnostics due to the interconnection with the physiological state of an organism. Despite blood testing being a well-established procedure of conventional medicine, there are still many complex processes that must be unraveled to improve our understanding and contribute to future medicine. OT are advancing single-cell research, promising new insights into individual cell characteristics compared to the traditional approaches. We review the fundamental and practical findings revealed in blood research through the optical manipulation, stretching, guiding, immobilization, and inter-/intracellular force measurements of single blood cells