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Essential Instructional Leadership Behaviors in High Performing, Economically Disadvantaged Schools: Potential Content for Site-based Leaders’ Professional Development
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Professional development of site-based leadership has become a growing area of focus to effect change in schools (Houle, 2006; Barnes, Camburn, Sanders, & Sebastian, 2010; Spanneut, Tobin, & Ayers, 2012; Price, 2012; Prytula, Noonan, & Hellsten, 2013; Ganon-Shilon, & Schechter, 2017). Defining what to present in site-based leaders\u27 professional development remains a concern (Oliver, 2005; Da\u27as, Schechter, & Qadach, 2018). The conceptual framework and subsequent three research questions of the study grew from the need for clarity of content for site-based leaders\u27 professional development. Hallinger\u27s (1982, 1990), Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS) three dimensions, and its ten job function subscales influenced the inquiry process of the study.
The degree to which site-based leaders in high performing economically disadvantaged school provide instructional leadership in schools is the first element of inquiry. Secondly, the study sought to elicit which of the PIMRS\u27 ten instructional leadership job function subscales are perceived as most frequently enacted by principals. Lastly, the exploration of which of the PIMRS ten instructional job function subscales that is perceived as most essential in supporting students\u27 academic gains is presented.
The non-experimental study used the PIMRS and two (2) other added survey questions specifically about perceptions regarding the PIMRS\u27 ten job function subscales. The study’s purposive sample population are Principals and Middle Academic Leaders (Assistant Principals, Academic Deans, Interventionists, Lead Teachers, and other leadership faculty) assigned to their high performing, economically disadvantaged schools in Louisiana for at least one school year before the study. Measures of central tendency were collected, calculated, and analyzed in response to the study’s three research questions using SPSS.
Specifically, identification of Essential Instructional Leadership Behaviors (EILB) as potential content for site-based leaders\u27 professional development was investigated. Provided is insight into designing professional development for site-based leaders in schools. The scope of this study was limited to school settings in Louisiana and perceptions about the principals\u27 instructional leadership behaviors who were involved in the study. The findings’ implications offer possibilities for content that is relevant to the improvement of practice, and research policies
A Quantitative Case Study on Policy and Access at an Urban, Public University
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to examine how the use of standardized test scores may have had potential impacts on students of color at an urban public university. Historically, standardized test scores have disproportionately impacted students of color and other traditionally marginalized populations in education (Fair Test, 2018). The primary research question of this study addressed the outcomes associated with the heavy reliance on standardized test scores for admission at an urban, public institution. Additionally, the study examined the impact of admissions policies on race and access to higher education. The specific questions for the research included how admission rates varied according to student characteristics. In regards to race, what is the effect on admissions when admissions criteria are increased using standardized test scores?
This quantitative study adopted a case study approach. The specific context in this study examined the outcomes associated with increased admissions standards at the University of New Orleans, an urban public university. More specifically, this study only focused on students in the Greater New Orleans area. The primary goal of this research was to apply Disparate Impact analysis to examine if the increase in admissions standardized test scores changed the outcome of who (by race, socioeconomic status, gender, and community type) was admitted or denied admission to the University of New Orleans. This quantitative case study used two statistical tools, chi-square and binary logistic regression, to seek answers to two questions on the use of strict standardized test cut scores in admissions policies. This study added to the existing limited quantitative data on the impact of standardized testing on urban, public universities in the face of changing demographics in their regions. Results showed a significant decrease in applications during the change in admissions policy
Using High-Performance Computing Profilers to Understand the Performance of Graph Algorithms
Get PDFAn algorithm designer working with parallel computing systems should know how the characteristics of their implemented algorithm affects various performance aspects of their parallel program. It would be beneficial to these designers if each algorithm came with a specific set of standards that identified which algorithms worked better for a specified system. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to take implementations of four graphing algorithms, extract their features such as memory consumption, scalability using profilers (Vtunes /Tau) to determine which algorithms work to their fullest potential in one of the three systems: GPU, shared memory system, or distributed memory system. The features extracted in this study were scalability, speedup, and parallel efficiency. We find that when looking at various parallel algorithms: Community Detection, Communities through Directed Affiliations (Coda), BigClam, and Breadth First Search all achieved noticeable speedup with increasing number of cores
Morphodynamics of transgressive coastal systems: Modeling allogenic and autogenic response to sea level rise, storms, and changes in sediment supply
Get PDFBarrier islands are widespread and typically enclose landward basins connected to the ocean through tidal inlets. Low energy in the basin enables fine sediment accumulation and salt marsh formation. Sea Level Rise (SLR) causes loss of marshes due to their low elevations and inundation sensitivity. Both long-term trends in sediment supply due to SLR and episodic transfers of sediment due to storms are important to the sustainability of marshes and tidal basins. The trajectory of deltas, including the Mississippi River Delta (MRD), are also impacted by sediment supply. The redistribution of sediments (autogenic reorganization) within transgressive systems will determine their survival under projected SLR regimes (allogenic forcing). In this research, I investigate the processes driving sediment exchange and morphologic evolution on multiple timescales with process-based numerical models.
Chapter 2 focuses on the long-term response of tidal basin systems to SLR. With SLR, hydrodynamics shift to flood- dominant while the ebb-delta expands. Despite the shift to residual sand import, fine sediment continues to be exported. In Chapter 3, net sediment fluxes due to storms at a conceptual basin are analyzed to determine the influence of relative phasing of tides and surges and storm characteristics. In Chapter 4, this work is extended by applying similar storms to a model of Plum Island Sound (PIS) in Massachusetts. Each of these models applies a unique approach to bed sediment partitioning to determine imported sediment provenance. Results show that surge/tidal phasing has a high influence on sediment fluxes. For the conceptual basin, storms were found to generally import sediment, while the influence of SLR on sediment flux depends on surge/tidal phasing. For the PIS model, storms are an important source of sand for the sediment-starved basin, though on net storms are unable to counteract the ebb-dominance that exports muddy sediments. Chapter 5 investigates the efficacy of enhanced sediment supply for land-building sediment diversions in the MRD. Results show that augmenting sand supplied to the delta during low flows is effective in increasing land building. Greater sediment supply encourages more-frequent autogenic reorganization of the distributary channel network, with wider distribution of sediments and greater reworkin
Going Slumming in Mexico: Rereading Primitivism in Katherine Anne Porter’s Flowering Judas and Other Stories
Get PDFKatherine Anne Porter’s short story collection Flowering Judas and Other Stories from 1935 features most of the author’s engagement with Mexico as a setting and its social realities after the revolution. While most scholars agree that Porter’s experiences during her stays in-Katherine Anne Porter’s short story collection Flowering Judas and Other Stories from 1935 features most of the author’s engagement with Mexico as a setting and its social realities after the revolution. While most scholars agree that Porter’s experiences during her stays in Mexico crucially shaped her artistic vision, there is less agreement on the specificities of her image of Mexico. While the short stories have been read as either a gradual disillusionment with Mexico or a generally colonialist take on the country and its political struggles, these readings, however, miss some of the most remarkable features of these stories. In contrast, this essay argues that taken together the Mexican stories can be understood as an early critical engagement with the political consequences of primitivism. By highlighting the problematic elements of primitivist discourse in both the work of expatriates in Mexico and what Porter perceives as the shifting away from socialist realism in muralism, these stories dramatize in how far primitivism not only skews the artists’ perception of the native population but, in fact, helps to cement exploitative social realities by romanticizing poverty, naïveté, and struggle. Mexico crucially shaped her artistic vision, there is less agreement on the specificities of her image of Mexico. While the short stories have been read as either a gradual- disillusionment with Mexico or a generally colonialist take on the country and its political struggles, these readings, however, miss some of the most remarkable features of these stories. In contrast, this essay argues that taken together the Mexican stories can be understood as an early critical engagement with the political consequences of primitivism. By highlighting the problematic elements of primitivist discourse in both the work of expatriates in Mexico and what Porter perceives as the shifting away from socialist realism in muralism, these stories dramatize in how far primitivism not only skews the artists’ perception of the native population but, in fact, helps to cement exploitative social realities by romanticizing poverty, naïveté, and struggle
World, Worlds, Worlding: A Review of Pheng Cheah\u27s What Is a World? On Postcolonial Literature as World Literature
Get PDFReview of Pheng Cheah, What Is a World? On Postcolonial Literature as World Literature. Presents an overview of Cheah\u27s argument regarding normativity and temporality in worlds and worlding, a summary of chapters, and an assessment of the book\u27s contribution to philosophy, world literature, and postcolonial studies
