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A Study of Administrator Perceptions of State Mandated Teacher Evaluation: The Student Achievement and Iowa Teacher Quality Law
Get PDFv, 167 leaves. Advisor: Eunice Merideth.The problem: Because of the high stakes for teachers and the expected
levels of achievement for students, there is a clear need for specific data about
the current state of implementation and effectiveness of Iowa's Teacher Quality
Evaluation Standards and Criteria.
Procedure: A survey was electronically mailed to 333 lowa administrators
who were randomly selected from a list of lowa administrators identified as
having had first and second year teachers employed in their school district. One-
Way ANOVAs were utilized to determine any significant differences between the
means of administrative subgroups.
Findinqs: Administrators with 0-3 years of experience believe at a
significantly higher level than administrators with more experience that teacher
evaluation has improved, and that they are better able to identify teacher
effectiveness. Administrators from smaller schools believe at a significantly
higher rate than larger school administrators that additional administrator training
is needed on teacher evaluation and teacher effectiveness. In addition, 68% of
lowa administrators believe teacher evaluation has improved, but that the time
spent at this task has increased dramatically. Ninety-three percent reported they
were spending increased time on teacher evaluation. The majority of
administrators (52%) believe they do not need additional training about teacher
effectiveness and evaluation, while 67% believe teachers need further training
about teacher effectiveness evaluation. Eighty-six percent reported their school
district would be ready for full implementation with all teachers by July 2005.
Finally, only 39% expected student achievement in their school to improve
because of implementing the lowa Teaching Standards and Criteria.
Recommendations: Additional research is needed about the following
topics: 1. Teachers' perceptions about the implementation of the ITS evaluation
process, 2. Administrators' perceptions about teacher evaluation, teacher
effectiveness, and student achievement after 2005-2006, 3. Administrators'
perceptions about the time needed for teacher evaluation after 2005-2006, 4. The impact of teacher evaluation on student achievement
"Close-coupling and distorted-wave calculations for electron-impact excitation of the (5p56p) states of xenon"
Get PDFKlaus Bartschat is a professor of physics at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa.We report on a series of calculations for electron impact-excitation of the (5p^5)6p states in xenon from the ground state (5p^6)^1S_0. As in previous calculations for other noble-gas targets, we find strong evidence of channel coupling for all incident energies considered (between threshold and 200\,eV). Although qualitative agreement with the experimental results of Fons and Lin (Phys. Rev. A 58 (1998) 4603) is achieved, severe quantitative discrepancies of sometimes more than a factor of two remain
"Beyond the newsletter: concrete guidelines and innovative ideas for effective promotion"
Get PDFKaren L. Wallace is a professor of librarianship and Circulation/Reference Library in the Opperman Law Library at Drake University. She can be contacted at [email protected] the most fabulous collections, programs, and services can all languish underutilized and ill-attended without effective promotion. At times, even the most creative among us can become stymied and fall into a rut, relying on the same
promotional techniques for all library offerings. Considering other public libraries’ successful promotions, along with their underlying marketing principles, can help infuse new life in stale routines. This article presents ten guidelines for effective promotion, illustrated by real library practices
NURSES' PERCEPTIONS OF SPIRITUALITY AND SPIRITUAL CARE
No full text84 leavesThe problem: Spirituality and spiritual care are vital components of holistic healthcare (body, mind, and spirit). The rise in technological advances, the ongoing time constraints, and the continued shortage of nurses hinder the provision of holistic healthcare. Nursing faculty acknowledge current educational programs provide limited training in the areas of spirituality and spiritual care. Such dilemmas warrant further exploration of nurses' perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care within healthcare. Methodology: A descriptive, survey design was used to elicit responses from nursing professionals in two Midwestern healthcare settings. Perceptions of nurses were investigated using the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSCRS) developed by Wilfred McSherry (2000). A total of 533 nurses out of 612 completed the survey for a response rate of 87%. Data were analyzed using both means and standard deviations. Statistical tests for significance using analysis of variance (p = .05) were completed in three areas including the nurses' location of practice, length of service, and educational training. Findings: Research outcomes found nurses' perception of spiritual care were clearly identified while perceptions of spirituality were uncertain. The research demonstrated statistically significant differences in the nurses' perceptions of spirituality based upon years of service within the profession. Nurses' perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care did not differ statistically based upon the location of practice (sectarian versus nonsectarian) or the educational level of the nurse. Conclusions: Findings from this study suggest that nurse have a solid understanding of spiritual care giving practices. Outcomes from this study also suggest as nurses progress through their career their perceptions of spirituality become more defined. The location of practice and educational level of the nurse had no effect upon nurses' perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care. Recommendations: Additional studies, employing quantitative and qualitative research methods in multiple healthcare settings, may lend further credence to better understanding the concept of spirituality and spiritual care from the nursing perspective. Further research may also focus upon identifying individual differences in nurses' perceptions regarding spirituality and spiritual care from the nursing perspective through qualitative interview processes
The Muslim World and the West: the roots of conflict
Get PDFDr. Ismael Hossein-zadeh teaches economics at Drake University, Des Moines, IowaAn historic overview of the relationship between the Muslim world and the West since the late 18th and the early 19th centuries
"Distributed routing schemes for ad hoc networks using d-SPR sets"
Get PDFMichael Q. Rieck is an associate professor at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. He holds a Ph. D. in mathematics from the University of South Florida. His primary research interests are in the areas of camera tracking and ad hoc wireless networks. He has also published results in the areas of triangle geometry, discrete mathematics, linear algebra, finite fields and association schemes.In this paper, we propose several new distributed algorithms for producing sets of nodes that can be used to form backbones of an ad hoc wireless network. Our focus is on producing small sets that are d-hop connected and d-dominating and have a desirable ‘d-shortest path property’ which we call d-SPR sets. These algorithms produce sets that are considerably smaller than those produced by an algorithm previously introduced by the authors. Our proposed algorithms, except the greedy ones, have constant time complexity in the restricted sense that the time required is unaffected by the size of the network, assuming however that the node degrees are bounded by a constant. The performance of the new algorithms are compared, and also compared with the authors' earlier algorithm, and with an adaptation of an algorithm of Wu and Li
"The California critical thinking instruments for benchmarking, program assessment, and directing curricular change"
Get PDFCharles R. Phillips is an Associate Professor of Pharmacy Administration/Dept. Chair of Pharmacy Practice, Renae J. Chesnut is Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs. Raylene M. Rospond is Dean, Pharmacy and Health Sciences. All three are in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Drake University. They can be contacted at: [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]. To assess pharmacy students’ critical thinking (CT) measures and identify areas for curricular reform.
Methods. Pharmacy students were given the California Critical Thinking Skills Test and Disposition Index at various points in the PharmD program. Scores were compared with a national referent group and evaluated for changes across the curriculum and between classes.
Results. Students were comparable to national norms. Pretest and posttest scores for total disposition showed improvement. Scores in all subcategories except for truth-seeking were consistently above 40. The CT skills of the pharmacy students varied compared with those of referent students, but the pharmacy students’ overall score of 18 was in the 73rd percentile. Pre- and post-skills scores showed improvement. Students scoring low on the pretest improved more than those scoring high.
Conclusions. Students had a consistent disposition towards CT and compared favorably to national
norms. Both disposition and skills improved across the curriculum. Dimensions of critical thinking on
which students score low should be areas for curricular and other program changes
"The effect of income choice on bias in policy decisions made using cost-benefit analyses"
Get PDFDavid Courard-Hauri is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. His e-mail address is [email protected] Analysis (CBA) is often used in policy decisions to determine the economic
value of various choices. Although the effects of income disparity are well accepted, one
of the reasons for the success of this type of analysis is that many policy-makers and analysts
consider the results of a well-crafted analysis to be largely free of partisan or political
bias. Here I propose that tradeoff between the benefits of various possible jobs or careers
introduce a significant bias into values imputed based upon willingness to pay measures. In
particular, I demonstrate why we might expect the values of various segments of society to be
differentially appreciated by CBA. Empirical evidence is presented indicating that there is a
significant negative correlation between the importance an individual places on income and
the willingness of that individual to forgo consumption in favor of environmental improvement,
as well as a correlation between the importance of income and actual income. These
results suggest that CBA as a tool of welfare economics is likely to be biased against environmental
protection because concerned individuals are likely to choose careers which do not
maximize consumption, thus decreasing their ability to pay for both real and hypothetical
environmental improvements. Moreover, the size of this bias appears to be large
Leadership Characteristics of Hospital CEOs: Factors That Influence Leadership Style
Get PDFviii, 135 leaves. Advisor: James Romig.The problem: Healthcare executives face significant challenges leading
their organizations through increased consumer demands, decreased funding,
regulatory intervention, and professional staff shortages. There is a need to
understand the type of leadership that exists and that which would be most
effective in addressing these challenges.
Procedure: Sixty-three of Iowa's 116 hospital CEOs completed the
Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) about their leadership behaviors and
traits. Additionally, 290 of their associates (superiors, peers, and subordinates)
rated the CEOs using the same tool, resulting in a leadership profile for each
CEO. The CEOs also completed the Rokeach Values Survey (RVS) and a sixitem
biographical questionnaire.
Findings: The associate raters characterized the CEOs as displaying
transformational behaviors and traits fairly often (3.23, on a scale of 0-4),
transactional behaviors sometimes (2.40), and passive-avoidant behaviors once
in a while (0.92). Leadership styles strongly correlated with the raters'
assessment of extra effort, satisfaction and perception of CEO effectiveness.
Transformational leadership was highly correlated with increased levels of extra
effort, satisfaction, and perception of CEO effectiveness, while high passiveavoidant
scores negatively correlated with the same factors. Leadership styles,
when correlated with the CEOs' values, age, gender, years of experience,
leadership training, and hospital size and setting, mostly offered weak
correlations of little practical value.
Conclusions: Hospital CEOs have self-perceptions, and are viewed by
others as having transformational leadership qualities. Transformational
leadership, which has been correlated with positive organizational outcomes, will
serve hospital CEOs well as they address the needs of their organizations.
Individuals concerned with recruiting and retaining hospital CEOs should
consider focusing their attention on leadership style rather than the factors of
age, gender, years of experience, or hospital size or setting.
Recommendations: (1) Address the relationship between leadership style
and organizational outcomes. (2) Determine the degree to which transformational
leadership permeates the organization. (3) Assess the value and effectiveness of
transformational leadership training in healthcare settings. (4). Determine the
benefit of a transformational leadership model in recruiting, retaining and
supporting hospital CEOs
"On the Taketa bound for normally monomial p-groups of maximal class"
Get PDFGeoffrey T. Tims is a 2003 graduate of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Drake University.A longstanding problem in the representation theory of finite solvable groups, sometimes called the Taketa problem, is to find strong bounds for the derived length dl(G) in terms of the number |cd(G)| of irreducible character degrees of the group G. For p-groups an old result of Taketa implies that dl(G)|cd(G)|, and while it is conjectured that the true bound is much smaller (in fact, logarithmic) for large dl(G), it turns out to be extremely difficult to improve on Taketa's bound at all. Here, therefore, we suggest to first study the problem for a restricted class of p-groups, namely normally monomial p-groups of maximal class. We exhibit some structural features of these groups and show that if G is such a group, then .Supported by NSF REU grant #0097759