Aliteracy, the term used to describe those who can read but choose not to do so, has become a grave concern in this country. A review of the literature indicates Americans are choosing to use their leisure time to interact with the electronic media to gather information instead of reading to gain knowledge. The skills of critical thinking and decision making are at stake. Schools and homes who have been successful in teaching the skill or reading must now instill the value of reading in order to preserve the democratic process upon which this country was founded.

This qualitative study represents an examination of the perceptions of 18 recent business college graduates of their transition experiences from college to the workplace. The participant’s ages ranged from 23 to 28 years including 4 males and 14 females of diverse racial and ethic groups. One-on-one, semi-structured, open-ended interviews were the primary method for data collection. Using excerpts from the participants’ interviews, the data were examined and analyzed using content analysis (Patton, 2002) and educational criticism (Eisner, 1998). The data were organized into three main topics: the importance of organizational socialization, the complexity of mentoring in the workplace, and the continuation of young adult development. The findings include the newly hired graduates’ feelings regarding the support received from educators and employers in their transition into the workplace, what should be done to assist them in the transition process, and their continued optimism about their futures with their employers and their desire to succeed.

This retrospective study used the language of political ecology to describe the dynamics of a school board decision to hire a nontraditional superintendent. Those dynamics were described as contextual variables that existed within the community as well as mediating variables that were negotiated among the key players who were part of the selection process. This study confirmed that the school board did not make the decision in isolation from the community power structure. The methodology of this descriptive case study was qualitative, using a basic interpretive design informed by symbolic interactionism. Data were collected primarily through interviews with key players of the superintendent selection event, as well as from local news articles and artifacts. This research identified variables that were part and parcel of the superintendent selection process. It also helped to explain why most of Jacksonville, Florida, favored a candidate with a military background over three other candidates who had served as superintendents of other large, urban school districts. The environmental and mediating variables were presented as key constructs that affected the superintendent selection process and influenced the final decision to hire a nontraditional superintendent.

Medical residency is a time of high stress, long hours, high case loads, fatigue, and lack of free time. Burnout rates among residents have been reported to be between 25-76%. Scant literature exists in regard to resident stress and its impact on learning and attrition during residency. The theory of margin posits that a healthy margin is necessary for adults to learn. Healthy margin exists when a person’s ratio of burdens over resources creates a surplus of energy. This study sought to determine if there was a difference between emergency medicine (EM) residents’ margin in life scores and remediation, at risk for remediation, and those considering leaving their emergency medicine residency training. Volunteer EM residents (n = 279) completed the Margin in Life Scale for Emergency Medicine (MILS EM) questionnaire, which measures six life areas: Health/Body, Religion/Spirituality, Self-Confidence, Interdependence, Parenting, and EM Work. Residents self-reported if they were considering leaving EM training and program directors provided remediation, at risk for remediation, and attrition rates. The mean MILS EM score among the 273 included EM residents was .64, which is within the recommended healthy range of .30 to .80. Additionally, all mean subscale scores fell within the healthy range. Only 13% of residents were reported as being on remediation, MILS EM (M=.63) with no statistically significant differences between those on remediation versus those not. Only 6% of residents were reported as being in jeopardy of remediation, MILS EM (M=.63) versus those not at risk (M=.64). Finally, only 5% of EM residents self-reported considering leaving EM training and no residents left their training program. Women scored lower on the MILS EM, and the life areas Health/Body (p Results of this study suggest that EM residents appear to have sufficient margin overall and in each of the life areas. Few were on or at risk for remediation and even fewer reported they were considering leaving EM residency training. As females scored lower in some of the life areas, further investigation is needed to determine if there are characteristics in the work environment that affect women differently than men.

The purpose of this study was to determine which factors and the degree to which these factors influenced the Joint Committee when deciding how much money should be allocated to the different services funded by the Ryan White CARE Act. This study focused on the possible explicit and implicit factors influencing the decision-making process and interactions of the members of the HIV/AIDS Joint Prioritization & Allocation Committee in the decisions that were being made on behalf of the people who are infected and affected by this disease. The methodology included a combination of quantitative and qualitative data, utilizing surveys, coding of communicative behavior, one-on-one interviews and researcher observations. The surveys and interviews were the primary sources of data. The findings indicated that both explicit and implicit factors influenced decisions. A significant difference was found to exist between clients and committee members for the priority ranking of services. A significant difference also existed between the committee's perception and staffs perception of which factors were most important. The influence that the committee members may have had with one another during discussions was not enough to cause any significant changes in the way they weighed the importance of the factors. The majority of the committee members reported that they relied on recorded data sources such as the needs assessment, epidemiological data, and client utilization of services, rather than their personal experience or HIV status, however this was not totally substantiated by the interviews. Persons living with HIV admitted that their HIV status was a strong factor influencing their decisions. Most participants reported feeling respected and empowered in the surveys, however during the interviews some felt that they were not being listened to adequately. This finding was supported by the interaction analysis. The results indicated that there is a need for more training and mentoring, particularly for those who are new to the process. Some participants reported there is a need to conduct more business on a joint basis to reduce redundancy and duplication of effort. There is also a need to recognize the importance of the influence of the staff members who provide the committee with the information that is used to make the decisions.

The main thrust of this study, therefore, revolved around the "scale-up" of the Case Instructional Sequence into a classroom size application able to be implemented by instructors with little additional practice in employing thistype of instructional sequence. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the Case type treatment on the performance of two successive ninth grade physical science classes at a private, college-preparatory, secondary school in northeast Florida. These groups were to be assessed using the Tobin and Capie Test of Logical Thinking, a measure which could help assess their respective Piagetian stage.

This study was developed for the teacher who may have limited resources in music education. The purpose of this study was to design a curriculum in music education for the intermediate grades so that a non-music major teacher could easily instruct music lessons. The characteristics of musical growth have been outlined and research has been shown to support the musical characteristics. A set of objectives has been formed as the foundation for teaching music to children of the intermediate grades. The curriculum devised has three components for the teacher to follow: songs appropriate for each season, holiday or month, listening to American composers, and creating musical instruments. The activities listed have been selected for student appeal and enrichment suggestions are given to allow the teacher the opportunity to expand the, music lesson. It is with great hope that this study will give the teacher confidence to undertake a program of music that may have been otherwise nonexistent in the classroom.

The subject of religion in public schools has always been controversial. America is a religiously diverse society, and one of the fundamental documents of this country, the Constitution of the United States, prohibits the establishment of a single religion which may seek to influence or control the ―free exercise‖ of all religions. Indeed the discussion of religion in school is very extensive. The subject includes, but is not limited to the discussion of students‘ religious expression, prayer in school, students‘ religious accommodations, the right of the student to distribute religious literature, as well as the rights of students to form religious clubs. The objective of this research study was to refine the very broad discussion of religion and religious liberties in public schools to the narrow subject of how teaching about religion is viewed in the public schools. Furthermore, given the current world‘s conflict with members of the Islamic faith and the increasing Muslim population in the United States, the study about Islam is a fundamental subject of inquiry for today‘s students who require a more global outlook. Primary to the study of whether teaching about religion is constitutional, which it is, an examination of how teachers, administrators, and school board members approach the subject, implement the policy, and prepare teachers for the task, was the focus of this research. Using a mixed methods methodology, I collected and analyzed quantitative and qualitative data from a sample total of 1,054 Florida social studies teachers. Overall, the results of the findings were that the surveyed teachers were open to teaching about all religions. However, their training and level of understanding of the content material required to accomplish the tasks were deficient. Recommendations included the designing of appropriate pre-service and in-service training programs for teachers who have responsibilities for teaching about various religions.

Attrition from schools of nursing continues to affect almost one third of students enrolled. Attrition is costly financially and personally to the student, to the educational institution, the health care consumer and the profession. The purpose of this study was to identify variables measurable at time of admission which might alone or together be predictive of successful persistence until graduation from a nursing program. The variables included cognitive and noncognitive characteristics measured by the Nurse Entrance Test (NET) as well as demographic and other academic achievement measurements. A convenience sample of associate degree nursing students admitted into two successive classes of a large, urban community college was used. Two hundred sixty seven students participated, with successful students defined as those who succeeded in each course of the program and continued in enrollment in an uninterrupted fashion until graduation. Cognitive factors included preadmission grade point average (GPA), California Achievement Test score, and measurements on the Nurse Entrance Test (NET) for Math Skills, Reading Comprehension and Rate, Testtaking Skill and Preferred Learning Style. Noncognitive factors were NET self-perceived scores on five areas of Life Stress and a Social Interaction Profile of passive and aggressive styles. Demographics were age, gender and race. Using univariate analysis of variance and discriminant analysis, the same six characteristics were found to be significantly different between the groups of successful and nonsuccessful students and predictive of success or nonsuccess: Reading Comprehension, preadmission GPA, age and stress in three areas -academic, family and social. When a discriminant analysis using a stepwise inclusion procedure was performed, these six were included among the ten variables found together to be useful in a prediction equation. Added to these six were Testtaking Skill, Money Stress, Social Interaction Profile and gender. By measurements in all types of analyses used, Academic Stress and Reading Comprehension were consistently the strongest of the predictors of group membership. Group membership was successfully predicted in 74.33% of the cases when the reduced set of ten variables was used. Findings from this research could be used as a basis for developing a risk profile for students either for use in making admission decisions or for identifying students at risk for nonsuccess. Nursing educators should become alert to the finding that the students in this study were at risk for failure because of noncognitive as well as because of cognitive characteristics. Future research could focus on the multifactorial influences in a student's life which affect success. Research could focus also on the examination, implementation and evaluation of intervention strategies designed to increase retention and improve academic performance.

Members of the school community should work collaboratively in the educating of students. Teachers and principals must understand that their traditional roles have changed and improved organizational teamwork will be fostered by all members of the learning community assuming decision making roles. Toward this end, the purpose of this correlational study was to explore the relationship between teachers' perceptions of the leadership behaviors of Duval County secondary school principals and their perceptions of the level of shared decision making practiced in their schools. This study provides insight into principal behaviors which nurture participation. Leadership behavior was operationalized by the responses to each of the five practices on the Leadership Practices Inventory [LPI] (Kouzes & Posner, (1997). These behaviors were (a) challenging the process, (b) inspiring a shared vision, (c) enabling others to act, (d) modeling the way, and (e) encouraging the heart. The level of shared decision making was measured by responses to the Shared Educational Decisions Survey-Revised (Ferrara, 1994) in the areas of (a) planning, (b) policy development, (c) curriculum and instruction, (d) student achievement, (e) pupil personnel services, (f) staff development, and (g) budget management. The population for the study was a sample selected from all secondary schools in the Duval County Public School System. Schools with principals who had served in their schools two or more years were selected for the study. The sample consisted of 646 participants from 26 schools. Pearson product-moment correlations were generated for each of seven questions. A total of 34 significant relationships between the leadership behaviors of the principal and the level of shared decision making were identified. The significant correlations ranged between .096 and .191. These weak correlations demonstrate that the principals' leadership practices only explained between one percent and four percent of the variance in the level of shared decision making. Therefore, there was very little relationship between the leadership behaviors of the principal and the level of shared decision making in schools. A possible explanation of the weak relationships discovered for each of the seven research questions may relate to the construct of the principals' leadership behaviors used in the study. From a more speculative perspective, individual leadership behaviors of school principals may have less influence on the decision making culture than the organizational structure and culture of the schools and school district. The findings of this study provide implications for the leadership of school principals as they implement shared decision making in their schools. Principal training programs must provide prospective principals with experiences which will nurture the skills necessary to promote dynamic learning communities. Furthermore, in order to encourage their involvement, teachers must also be trained in this area. Tomorrow's principals must develop collaborative, professional cultures characterized by shared governance. Educational leaders should continue to construct deeper understandings of these professional learning communities.