The LAIR at East Texas A&M
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Exploring the Lived Experiences of Assistant Principals Who Participated in Their District-Based Principal Leadership Academy: A Narrative Inquiry
No full textThe principal\u27s impact as an instructional leader influences many elements that keep a school building running effectively. Assistant principals, as emerging school leaders, must be prepared and cultivated with the proper support and resources to thrive in principalship positions. Support through school district-based principal preparation and mentoring programs should prepare and equip these leaders with the skills and tools necessary to navigate their management and instructional leadership roles while thriving in the principal role. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lived experiences of assistant principals who participated in their school district’s principal leadership academy and to understand how they perceived the program\u27s effectiveness in developing the skills necessary to carry out the five Texas principal standards identified by the Texas Education Agency. To investigate assistant principals\u27 perceptions, the researcher used narrative inquiry to acquire rich stories of participants’ experiences during their time in the district’s principal leadership academy. Specifically, 6 current and former assistant principals participated in semi-structured interviews. Data from the interviews yielded themes specific to answering the three research questions. Two themes emerged from participant responses to Research Question 1: (a) the academy’s quality, design, and preparation for leadership practices and (b) the alignment of meaningful learning that coincides with realistic job expectations. And three themes related to Research Question 3 emerged: (a) the academy’s instructional and applied learning opportunities, (b) improved practice with effective instructional leadership and ongoing collaborative experiences with strategic operations, and (c) the program’s culture of professional relationships and personal peer support. All participants serve in the same urban school district in North Texas, and thus attended the same principal leadership academy. Study findings provide district leaders and program facilitators with opportunities to build the capacities of future leaders as well as improve current leadership preparation programs
An Investigation of Factors That Influence Fraudulent Academic Excuse Making
No full textThe purpose of this study was to better understand factors that influenced academic fraudulent excuse making. Previous research shows that deception in many forms is very common (e.g., Austin et al., 2006; Griffin et al., 2015; Kapoor & Kaufman, 2021; Murdock & Anderman, 2006). Fraudulent excuse making has been predominantly studied non-experimentally. However, this study uses the experimental methods presented by Carmichael and Krueger (2014) to assess factors that influence false claims. This research investigated the influence of the type of course (i.e., required versus elective) and of the type of due date policy (i.e., firm versus flexible) on the decision to give a fraudulent excuse to gain an extension on an assignment and found no significant influence of these factors. In addition, the relation between students who provide excuses and their attitudes about excuse making was studied. This research found those who gave excuses recognized the unfairness of higher grades given to late assignments and they were less likely to tell on a classmate who gave false excuse. Overall, students who gave fraudulent excuses had more positive views on fraudulent excuse making. The confidence levels of the believability of common excuses were investigated and the results showed “family emergency” to have the highest levels of believability over all other common claims presented. These results built on the experimental research of Carmichael and Krueger’s study and contributed to the existing literature on fraudulent excuse making
Comparison of Damage from Wild Pigs Sus scrofa in Northeast Texas Using UAV Imaging
No full textWild pigs (Sus scrofa) cause extensive damage throughout their quickly expanding range. The purpose of this study is to analyze any differences in damage caused by wild pigs in three land-use types: rangeland, cropland, and natural areas, and to determine relationships between land composition and damage. Data on land composition was collected using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photography at three different altitudes, analyzed with supervised classification and compared to ground truthing data. Sites containing high amounts of damage tended to have a higher amount of low cover present, while land use did not appear to have an impact on pig activity. Images taken at different altitudes had no significant difference in type 1 error rates or kappa values compared to ground truthing data. Images taken at the lowest altitude did show a significantly lower type 2 error rate compared to images taken at the highest altitude. This information can be used to develop land and wildlife management techniques to reduce destruction from wild pigs. Future research on the effectiveness of wild pig deterrents, and the importance of land cover to behavior could be conducted using the same areas and methods
Principals’ Perceptions of Their Influence on Narrowing the Achievement Gap: A Phenomenological Study
No full textThe history of education regarding Black students pinpoints some reasons behind lagging scores. Children of color consistently underperform in American public schools, which casts a disparaging light on their success (Viadero, 2014). According to the literature, Black students have historically experienced unequal resources and services compared to White students (Atkinson, 2010). Educators have found that educational inequity and bias have limited Black students\u27 academic opportunities (Atkinson, 2010; Rothert, 2005). The research was essential to understand why there is such a difference in scores. For Black students to make better academic gains, school leaders should first understand why the Black-White achievement gap exists. This study analyzed the achievement gap between Black and White students from the perspective of principal perceptions. Data from interviewees of principals with Black students within the subgroup was analyzed. Several factors were discovered that affect the academic achievement of minority students. Based on a structured analysis of interview data, four themes emerged: (a) what is the Black-White achievement gap (b) what factors influence the Black-White achievement gap, (c) the impact of race on the Black-White achievement gap, and (d) the role of the principal in closing the Black-White achievement gap. If the true purpose of public education is to educate all students, it is the school principal\u27s responsibility to increase student achievement and close the achievement gap
Narrowing the Literacy Gap: The Relationship Between Self-Selected Independent Reading and the Reading Motivations of Black and Hispanic Secondary Students-A Program Evaluation
No full textReading is and continues to be on the decline in the U.S. Perhaps more startling to consider is the impact that low reading motivation levels may have on the persistent achievement gaps that pervade Black and Hispanic minorities. This research study aimed to elucidate the intersection of these two points and the implications of introducing choice in what students read as part of a literacy program. Overall, there is a considerable body of research that supports self-selected independent reading as an effective means to improving student reading motivation levels. Consequently, the purpose of this ex post facto quantitative research study using archival data was twofold: 1) to examine for differences in reading motivations of White, Hispanic, and Black 10th grade students between those who participate in a self-selected independent reading and those who do not 2) to examine whether two dimensions of Fidelity of Implementation (FOI; adherence and dosage) and ethnicity (White, Hispanic, and Black) can predict the reading motivations of 10th grade students. The results of this study revealed that among all ethnicities there was a significant decline in intrinsic, F(1, 81) = 53.33, p \u3c .001, and extrinsic, F(1, 81) = 44.45, p \u3c .001, reading motivation levels among the 84 student participants, overall; however, the program also revealed that dosage significantly predicted reading motivation, = 0.17, t(79) = 2.47, p = .016, leading to the conclusion that the program suffered from low FOI as measured by dosage. The findings of this study can be utilized to help improve the utility of the program as well as our understanding of how to improve upon the academic achievement gaps pervasive across Black and Hispanic students
An Investigation of Transition Programs Relations Between Self-Efficacy & Sense of Belonging at a Southwestern Regional University
No full textThe current study is among undergraduate students at a mid-sized regional doctoral-granting four-year public university in the Southwestern United States. The purpose of the study was to compare the self-efficacy and sense of belonging of students who experienced a transition program before beginning their college careers to those who did not. Utilizing an ex post facto design to investigate the relations, quantitative data was gathered using the College Self-Efficacy Inventory (Solberg et al., 1993) and Psychological Sense of School Membership scale (Goodenow, 1993). Using the independent samples t-test to compare the self-efficacy and the Mann Whitney U test sense of belonging of participants in the transition program experience versus non-experience groups. The results indicated no statistically significant difference in self-efficacy or sense of belonging between the experience and non-experience groups. A two-way ANOVA was used to examine the main effects and interactions of the dependent variables (college self-efficacy and sense of belonging) and the independent variables (race/ethnicity and experience group versus non-experience group). The experience groups consisted of three transition programs (Program S, Program B, and Program R) offered at the research site. The results indicated a statistically significant interaction in self-efficacy, but no statistically significant interaction in sense of belonging between programs when comparing race/ethnicity and program participation
Effects of Parental Support on Relationship with First-Generation College Students
No full textThe lack of parental support for first-generation college students is not a new subject for research. Many researchers have found data showing that, compared to non-first-generation students, first-generation students receive less support from their parents with different collegiate areas and in general; however, more research can be done on how this lack of support affects the relationship between the parents and the student. This comparative study will analyze how much parental support first-generation and non-first-generation students feel that they receive, and whether or not this has affected their parent-child relationship. Through the use of a self-administered questionnaire, controlled focus group, and qualitative in-depth interviews, we found that first-generation students are more likely to experience less emotional support than their non-first-generation peers. We also found that first-generation students were more likely to come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The purpose of this study is to deepen the knowledge on the effects of parental support and raise awareness of its importance to students
Obscenities and Insults in Nahuatl, or How the Aztec Made Fun of Their Peers and Their Enemies
No full textMonetary Policy Transmission Channels and the Performance of the Real Sectors in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries: a System-GMM Approach
No full textThis study investigated the impact of monetary policy channels on the real sector performance in selected subSaharan African countries. This study covers the period 1990 to 2020. The broad objective of the study was to examine the impact of monetary policy transmission channels on the real sectors of selected sub-Saharan African countries within the period, 1990–2020. Using the system generalized method of moments (sys-GMMs) amidst other preestimation and post-estimation tests, it was discovered that credit and exchange rate channels positively drove agricultural productivity, while interest rate channel exerted a negatively significant influence. Conversely, credit and exchange rate channels were found to negatively affect manufacturing, while interest rate channels had no significant impact on the manufacturing sector. Given the overwhelming impact of monetary policy channels on both the agricultural and manufacturing sectors of the SSA economies, it is recommended that effective monetary policy framework be put in place to continually create positive transmission effect on the real and productive sectors of the economy
Core Destruction in Knockout Reactions
No full textA model is presented to calculate projectile core destruction in knockout reactions. It incorporates physics arguments similar to the formulation of the state of the art theory to calculate stripping and diffraction dissociation cross sections in heavy ion collisions with bombarding energies around 100 MeV/nucleon and larger. It is shown that secondary collisions between the incoming and struck nucleons with the projectile core decrease the core survival probability by as much as 9.5%. However, no clear evidence is found for reduction of the cross section with increasing binding energy of the removed nucleon