131 research outputs found
A Study of Dual Credit Access and Effectiveness in the State of Texas
No full textIn 2010, with the support of the Greater Texas Foundation (GTF), the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University initiated a study of dual credit opportunities in the state of Texas. Through a Capstone course directed by Prof. Jeryl L. Mumpower, Director of the Master of Public Service and Administration Program, this group was charged with analyzing and presenting data related to both the degree of access to dual credit resources throughout Texas, as well as the effectiveness of dual credit opportunities by type. The Greater Texas Foundation further charged the Capstone group with examining the dual credit opportunities for minority, low-income, and rural populations. Throughout a year-long course of study, the Capstone team worked to collect data regarding these issues. We hope that this study will provide a valuable resource for our client, the Greater Texas Foundation, as well as for researchers and practitioners in Texas and throughout the nation.
In examining dual credit in the state of Texas, the Capstone team identified seven research questions of particular interest to GTF, falling within two topic areas: access to dual credit and the effectiveness of current dual credit programs.
Access to Dual Credit Programs
1. Where are dual credit programs available in the state of Texas?
2. How many students participate in dual credit programs?
3. What is the level of participation for rural, economically disadvantaged, and minority students?
4. What factors affect whether students participate in dual credit courses?
Effectiveness of Dual Credit Programs
5. How does postsecondary performance of dual credit participants compare to students who didn���t participate in dual credit programs?
6. Do certain high schools have dual credit programs with graduates who fare better than those from other programs?
7. Which dual credit models have the best rates of postsecondary enrollment and graduation among their graduates?
This study has involved two primary efforts. The first was an extensive review of relevant literature to provide a thorough backdrop for analyses of the Texas situation. The second was original analyses of data collected and compiled by members of the Bush School Capstone team
Law Class of 1952 sitting down to breakfast
No full textBlack and WhitePeople: Enright, Tom; Hoffman, Martin; Mumpower, Mrs. Grant; Mumpower, Grant; Nordyke, Mrs.; Nordyke, Ed; Butler, Prof. Edwin; Butler, Mrs; Jens, Charles; Paulus, Prof. John C.; Reese, Dean Seward P,; Lockenour, Mrs.; Lockenour, Prof. Roy M.; Brown, Roland; McMullen, Mrs.; McMullen, Albert; Farrell, Mrs. Farrell, Jack; Hogan, Ervin; Burns, Mrs.; Burns, James; Marshall, Don; Swart, Dave; Sorensen, Mrs. Coretta (Hendricks); Sorensen, Glenn; Cloudy, Mrs.; Cloudy, Charle
Diversity of Graduates from Professional Degree Programs: The Challenge of Achieving Diverse Applicant Pools and Implementing Successful Recruiting Efforts
No full textThe capstone team (1) obtained and analyzed information about pools of job candidates from historically under-represented groups in certain disciplines and (2) reported on mechanisms that had proved effective for recruiting and retaining such candidates. The team analyzed trends and characteristics of these potential applicant pools and identified schools that have graduated the largest numbers of candidates from historically under-represented groups in specific disciplines. The report presents a literature review concerning practices of public and private entities to create and maintain workforce diversity by recruiting and retaining persons from historically under-represented groups. The report also summarizes successful recruitment and retention strategies based on theoretical and practical frameworks used by government agencies, non-profit organizations, and the private sector
DER URSPRUNG DER RISIKO ABSCHÄTZUNG
No full textOvaj tekst u svojem većem opsegu čini nešto slobodniju obradu jednog dijela studije koju su izradili Covello i Mumpower (1985). Iz njihovog dosta obimnog rada autor je ovoga članka izdvojio i skraćeno opisao samo ona događanja koja smatra iznimno značajnim za raspravu o kronologiji razvoja procjene rizika. Tekst je drugačije strukturiran od izvornog, a uzeti su u obzir i neki Paustenbachovi kritički komentari na njihov rad. Analizirajući dodatnu literaturu autor članka je svoj skroman doprinos istraživanju ove teme dao u poglavljima: Igre na sreću i hazard, Osiguranje i rizici i Tehnološki razvitak, industrijske nezgode i rizici. Naime, autor članka je mišljenja kako u kronološkom pregledu razvoja procjene rizika veće značenje treba pripisati igrama na sreću i njihovom utjecaju na kasniji razvoj teorije kvantitativne procjene rizika nego su to naznačili Covello i Mumpower. Također, analizirajući razvoj osiguranja Covello i Mumpower ispuštaju registrirati utjecaj što ga je na razvoj kvantitativne procjene rizika imao koncept osiguranja koji je uveo stanoviti brodovlasnik iz Genove, o čemi izvješćuju Fullwood i Hall, 1988. Na kraju, čini se očitim kako su na uvođenje i primjenu kvantitativne procjene rizika, kao potpuno strukturirane metode, dominantan utjecaj imale velike nesreće u nuklearnim i drugim industrijskim postro¬jenjima i to zbog posljedica koje su za sobom ostavile kao i zbog izrazito negativnog publiciteta kojeg su izazvale u sredstvima javnog priopćavanja.This text, in its wider range, represents somewhat more liberal elaboration of a part of the study made by Covello and Mumpower, 1985. The author of this paper has isolated and shortly described those happenings of their fairly extensive work that he considers extremely important for the discussion of chronology of the development of risk assessment. The text has been structured in a different way from the original, and some of Paustenbach's critical commentaries on their work have also been taken into account. Analyzing additional literature the author of this article has given his small contribution to the research of this subject in chapters Games of chance and gambling, Insurance and Risks and Technological Development, Industrial Accidents and Risks. Namely, the author of the article thinks that, in the chronological survey of the development of risk assessment, greater significance should be given to games of chance and their influence on later development of the theory of quantitative risk assessment than it was pointed out by Covello and Mumpower. Also, analyzing the development of insurance Covello and Mumpower omit to register the influence that the concept of insurance introduced by a certain shipowner from Geneve had on the development of quantitative risk assessment, which was reported by Fullwood and Hall. Finally, it seems obvious that the introduction and application of the quantitative risk assessment as a completely structured method was dominantly influenced by big disasters in nuclear and other industrial plants, mainly due to consequences they left behind, as well as to explicitly negative publicity they brought about in the media.Dieser Text stellt in seinem breiteren Umfang eine etwas freiere Bearbeitung eines Teils der Studie von Covello und Mumpower aus dem Jahr 1985, dar. Aus ihrer ziemlich umfangreichen Arbeit hat der Autor dieses Artikels nur diejenigen Ereignisse ausgewählt und beschrieben, die er für die Diskussion über die Chronologie der Entwicklung der Risiko–Abschätzung für wichtig hält. Der Text ist anderes strukturiert als der ursprüngliche und berücksichtigt wurden dabei einige kritische Kommentare ihrer Arbeit von Paustenbach. Durch die Analyse der zusätzlichen Literatur hat der Autor dieses Artikels seinen bescheidenen Beitrag zur Erforschung dieses Themas in den Kapiteln "Glücksspiele und Hasard", "die Versicherung und Risiken", "industrielle Unfälle und Risiken" geleistet. Der Autor dieses Artikels vertritt nämlich den Standpunkt, daß im chronologischen Überblick größere Bedeutung den Glücksspielen beigemessen werden sollte und ihren Einfluß auf die spätere Entwicklung der Theorie der quantitativen Risiko–Abschätzung, als Covello und Mumpower das angeführt haben. Auch in der Analyse der Versicherungentwicklung haben es Covello und Mumpower unterlassen den Einfluß des Versicherungskonzepts eines bestimmten Schiffbesitzers aus Genua, auf die Entwicklung der quantitativen Risiko–Abschätzung zu registrieren. Darüber berichten Fullwood und Hall. Am Ende scheint es offensichtlich, daß auf die Einführung und Anwendung der quantitativen Risikio–Abschätzung , als einer völlig strukturierten Methode, den vorherrschenden Einfluß große Unglücksfälle in nuklearen und anderen industriellen Anlagen hatten, und zwar wegen der negativen Publizität, die sie in den öffentlichen Massen–Medien verursacht haben
Predictors of the Perceived Risk of Climate Change and Preferred Resource Levels
No full textThe Version of Record of this manuscript has been published and is available in Journal of Risk Research, 20 May 2015,
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13669877.2015.1043567#.VZ2Y7WND2Ao.In a 2013 U.S. national public opinion survey, data were collected from 1,321 adult respondents for five psychometric variables���Dread, Scientists��� Level of Understanding, Public���s Level of Understanding, Number Affected, and Likelihood���for six threats (sea level rise, increased flooding, and four others) associated with climate change. Respondents also rated Perceived Risk and indicated the Resource Level that they believed should be invested in management programs for each threat. Responses did not vary significantly across the six threats, so they were combined. The survey collected standard demographic information, as well as measuring Climate Change Knowledge (CCK) and environmental values (New Ecological Paradigm, NEP). Psychometric variables predicted Perceived Risk extremely well (R = .890, p < .001); all five psychometric variables were significant predictors. The results were generally consistent with previous research except that Scientists��� Level of Understanding was a positive, rather than negative, predictor of Perceived Risk. Jointly the demographic, knowledge and environmental values variables significantly predicted Perceived Risk (R = .504, p < .001). Consistent with previous research, significant positive predictors were Age, Democratic Party identification, and NEP score; significant negative predictors were Male gender and White ethnicity. When demographic, knowledge, and environmental values variables were added to psychometric ones, only the psychometric variables were statistically significant predictors. Perceived Risk strongly predicted Resource Level (r = .772, p < .001). Adding demographic, knowledge and environmental value variables to Perceived Risk as predictors of Resource Level did not appreciably increase overall predictive ability (r = .790, p < .001), although White ethnicity emerged as a significant negative predictor and Religiosity, Democratic Party ID, Liberal Political Ideology, and NEP score were significant positive predictors. The results demonstrate that risk perceptions of climate change and policy preferences among climate change management options are highly predictable as a function of demographic, knowledge, environmental values, and psychometric variables. Among these, psychometric variables were found to be the strongest predictors.This material is based upon research conducted by the Institute for Science, Technology and Public Policy (ISTPP) in The Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are solely those of the authors
Households��� Evacuation Decision in Response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
No full textAlthough evacuation has been recognized as an effective protective action in responding to a hurricane emergency, it is still not clear why some people leave but others do not. In order to better understand this issue, this study began with a statistical meta-analysis (SMA), which is a procedure that has never been conducted previously in the field of disaster studies. The SMA indicates that homeownership, official warning, risk area, seeing peers evacuating, expected hydrological impacts, and expected wind impacts have strong and consistent effects on evacuation decisions whereas female gender, black ethnicity, presence of children in the home, reliance on news media for storm information, reliance on peers for storm information, and hurricane intensity have weaker effects that
might be due to mediation through psychological variables. Next, this study collected data from the Hurricane Katrina and Rita evacuations and extended the results of the SMA by testing the Huang et al. (2012) abbreviated protective action decision model (PADM). The results show that (1) a household���s evacuation decision, as predicted, is determined most directly by expected wind impacts and expected evacuation impediments. In turn, expected wind impacts and expected hydrological impacts are primarily determined by expected storm threat and expected rapid onset. Finally, expected storm threat, expected rapid onset, and expected evacuation impediments are determined by households��� personal characteristics, their reception of hurricane information, and their observations of social and environmental cues. (2) Surprisingly, expected hydrological impacts did not have as much of an impact on evacuation decisions as wind impacts���which are associated with expected injuries, job disruption, and service disruption. (3) Official warnings and risk area also had direct effects on households��� evacuation decisions, which can be explained as the peripheral route to persuasion that bypasses messages about the personal impacts hurricane impact (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). (4) Unlike other hurricane evacuation studies, this one found that expected rapid onset had a significant effect on households��� evacuation decisions, perhaps because both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita had late-changing tracks that might have caused residents to be concerned being caught on the road by a rapidly approaching storm. (5) Supplemental information, such as environmental cues, risk area, and hurricane experience, have effects on individuals��� expectations of storm threat, wind impacts, and hydrological impacts that are similar to those of National Weather Service information that is disseminated through multiple information channels (e.g., news media and official warnings). This implies that households used other sources to place the National Weather Service���s hurricane information into an appropriate context. Nonetheless, some of the results conflict with the model presented by Huang et al. (2012), so further research is needed to determine whether the conflicting results can be replicated and, consequently, require revision of the model
Language for directed exploration and analysis of sequence data
No full textThesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-84).This thesis describes a sequence-data processing toolkit for analysis of Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) log data, that unlike other tools allows directed exploration of sequence patterns. This system provides a powerful yet straightforward abstraction for sequence-data processing, and a set of high-level manipulation primitives which allow arbitrarily complex transformations of such data. Using this language, very sophisticated queries can be performed using only a few lines of code. Furthermore, queries can be constructed interactively, allowing for rapid development, refinement, and comparison of hypotheses. Importantly, this system is not limited to ITS logs, but is equally applicable to the manipulation of any form of (potentially multidimensional) sequence data.by Eric J.P. Mumpower.M.Eng
Kenneth R. Hammond’s contributions to the study of human judgment and decision making
No full textKenneth R. Hammond (1917–2015) made several major contributions to the science of human judgment and decision
making. As a student of Egon Brunswik, he kept Brunswik’s legacy alive – advancing his theory of probabilistic functionalism and championing his method of representative design. Hammond pioneered the use of Brunswik’s lens model as a framework for studying how individuals use information from the task environment to make clinical judgments, which was the precursor to much ‘policy capturing’ and ‘judgment analysis’ research. Hammond introduced the lens model equation to the study of judgment processes, and used this to measure the utility of different forms of feedback in multiple-cue probability learning. He extended the scope of analysis to contexts in which individuals interact with one another – introducing the interpersonal learning and interpersonal conflict paradigms. Hammond developed social judgment theory which provided a comprehensive quantitative approach for describing and improving judgment processes. He proposed cognitive continuum theory which states that quasi-rationality is an important middle-ground between intuition and analysis and that cognitive performance is dictated by the match between task properties and mode of cognition. Throughout his career, Hammond moved easily from basic laboratory work to applied settings, where he resolved policy disputes, and in doing so, he pointed to the dichotomy between theories of correspondence and coherence. In this paper, we present Hammond’s legacy to a new generation of judgment and decision making scholars
A signal detection theory analysis of racial and ethnic disproportionality in the referral and substantiation process of the U.S. child welfare services system
No full textSignal detection theory (SDT) was developed to analyze the behavior of a single judge but also can be used to analyze decisions made by organizations or other social systems. SDT quantifies the ability to distinguish between signal and noise by separating accuracy of the detection system from response bias—the propensity to over-warn (too many false positives) or under-warn (too many misses). We apply SDT techniques to national and state-level data sets to analyze the ability of the child welfare services systems to detect instances of child maltreatment. Blacks have higher rates of referral and the system is less accurate for them than for Whites or Hispanics. The incidence of false positives—referrals leading to unsubstantiated findings—is higher for Blacks than for other groups, as is the incidence of false negatives—children for whom no referral was made but who are in fact neglected or abused. The rate of true positives–children for whom a referral was made and for whom the allegation was substantiated–is higher for Blacks. Values of d′ (signal strength) are roughly the same for Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics but there are pronounced group differences in C (a measure of the location of the decision threshold). Analyses show that the child welfare services system treats Blacks differently from Hispanics and Whites in ways that cannot be justified readily in terms of objective measures of group differences. This study illustrates the potential for JDM techniques such as SDT to contribute to understanding of system-level decision making processes
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