Head Start, the largest early childhood organization in the United States, was federally mandated to employ bachelor degreed operational employees, with no additional funds. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore effective strategies that successful leaders of Head Start Nonprofit Organizations use to retain operational employees. The population of this study included 5 Head Start CEOs/Program Directors in 5 Head Start nonprofit organizations in Alabama who successfully retained operational employees in their organization. Kouzes and Posner's transformational leadership theory provided a conceptual framework for this study. Data were collected via telephone interviews and employee records from the human resources department. Reviewed human resource documents included the highest level of credentials for the leader, the policy for degree requirement for operational employees, and the number of operational employees, and the participants' highest level of education. The data were analyzed using inductive analysis which consisted of a line-by-line approach to review data identifying words, phrases, ideas, and actions consistent among participants and organizations to identify patterns and themes. Results indicated that Head Start leaders used incentives, continuous training, educational support, and job benefits to retain their operational employees. The implications for social change include the potential for young children to receive optimal teaching and caregiving from retained qualified operational employees.

Thesis (MPH) --University of Limpopo, 2011 / The aim of the study was to assess breastfeeding practices of healthcare providers at level one hospitals in Capricorn District of Limpopo province. Methods: Five level one district hospitals within the Capricorn district of Limpopo province were the study sites. Two focus groups with members ranging from three to nine members were conducted. Two managers per hospital were interviewed. In both focus groups and in-depth interviews an audio tape recorder was used. This was transcribed and from the first transcription categories were developed. These formed a basis for data analysis, although the categories had undergone transformation as the analysis unfolded. Results: The study found that there are three practices that are adopted with regard to breastfeeding practices. Most employees choose to breastfeed as the first choice in baby feeding. Majority succeeded in breastfeeding their babies for sometime. There are those who feed their babies’ breast milk as the only source of milk during infancy. Others practice mixed feeding, where the baby is given breast milk and supplemented by formula. However, others fed their babies formula only. They indicate that this was not the initial choice in baby feeding. Conclusion: Healthcare providers have the same needs as the rest of the population with regard to breastfeeding and work. Their challenges are more work-related; which affect their decision whether to breastfeed or not to.

Thesis (LLM. (Development and Management) -- University of Limpopo, 2005

This three-paper dissertation addresses the manner in which students’ intrinsic motivation to engage in academic tasks changes during the four years of college. The first paper examines the variance of students’ academic motivation during college. The second paper analyzes whether good practices in undergraduate education promote academic motivation, and the third paper seeks to determine whether those good practices benefit certain students more than others. Implications are explored in each paper.

In this project, I sought to understand how evidence-based practices are understood and implemented by individuals who work within the criminal justice system, with specific focus on the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women (ICIW). I collected interviews in the summer and fall of 2016 and observations at local criminal justice agencies from summer 2016 to summer 2017. Thirty-eight individuals agreed to be interviewed, including ICIW staff, Department of Corrections (DOC) staff, prison volunteers, and prisoner advocates. I found that how individuals understand “what works” in prison policy and practice is shaped by three main factors. First, their ideological standpoints on what purpose prison ought to serve influenced how they thought evidence should be used to inform policy, whether they believed it should achieve humanitarian goals of giving offenders second chances, utilitarian goals of keeping the community safe, or bureaucratic goals of ensuring that prisons are run efficiently and rationally. Second, their experiences with prisoners shaped their acceptance or skepticism of certain types of evidence, and respondents placed more value in experiential and anecdotal evidence in the case of women-centered policies. Third, the respondents’ stereotypes about who women are and what their place is in the larger correctional system contributed to more ready acceptance of women-centered practices, and more skepticism of statewide or uniform evidence-based practices. In turn, these different interpretations of evidence and the policies based upon it contributed to conflict and resistance to statewide DOC policy, as well as greater feelings of frustration and disenchantment among correctional stakeholders.

In response to test-based accountability (No Child Left Behind, 2001), schools and districts across the country are adopting a variety of supplemental assessments aimed at improving student performance. These interim assessments are administered more than once during the school year for the following purposes: 1) predicting student performance on summative accountability tests, 2) identifying student strengths and weaknesses, 3) tracking student progress toward "proficiency," or 4) identifying students for remedial instruction. Vendors claim these assessments can improve teaching and learning, although critics contend they do not possess a number of attributes theorized to facilitate formative use of results, including particular assessment features, instructional practices, and school-level supports. To date, empirical evidence on interim assessments is scarce. Thus, this study collected the first empirical evidence on the use of interim assessments in reading and math in Iowa elementary schools. Elementary school administrators completed a survey regarding their school or district's use of interim assessments. Respondents provided basic descriptive information and also indicated how teachers use assessment results to modify teaching and learning and the types of professional development opportunities available. A companion teacher survey designed to capture teachers' use of assessment information to improve teaching and learning was constructed. This draft teacher survey was pilot-tested with a small sample of teachers in order to improve its clarity by identifying areas of ambiguity. Feedback generated from these interviews was used to revise the teacher survey. Study results suggest widespread use of interim assessments among respondents, particularly for the improvement of reading skills and primarily for instructional and remediation purposes. These reading assessments appeared to exhibit many of the characteristics deemed essential for formative use of assessment results. However, both survey and interview results suggested teachers have little autonomy for deciding when assessments will be administered. Results also suggest there is much room for improvement in teachers' formative use of assessment results, as one of the most important aspects of formative use (responding to results by modifying instruction and identifying alternative pedagogies) may also be the least used by classroom teachers and the most neglected with respect to professional development.

This study is concerned with the teaching of biology in Utah secondary schools. It is based chiefly on analysis of: (1) the teaching procedures used by thirty-five teachers of biology in Utah who were designated by their principals as being outstanding teachers. and (2) the facilities and equipment these teachers think are essential.

This study was conducted to determine if employers were inclined to discriminate between two-year and four-year educated accountants in making hiring and promotional decisions. In addition, accounting graduates of two-year and four-year institutions were studied to see if there were differences between these two groups in regard to educational programs taken, perceptions of the benefit received from the courses taken, salaries received, and views concerning employer hiring and promotional practices. This study included three different groups consisting of 39 employers in the private business sector as well as 43 two-year accounting associate degree graduates and 43 bachelor accounting degree graduates. A sample of businesses from the Wasatch-Front Area of the State of Utah was drawn and personal interviews held in order to collect the desired data. Conclusions based upon the significant differences found during the analyses of the data indicated that employers paid four-year accounting educated graduates higher salaries and believed these graduates did not need as much additional education as two-year graduates when education was a criteria used in determining promotions. Employers indicated, too, that four-year accountants were better prepared educationally to handle "detailed and difficult accounting tasks," as well as "accounting theory and principles." There was a difference in the accounting educational programs taken between two-year and four-year accounting graduates. Differences were found in 21 courses, with four-year graduates having had more instruction in 19 of these subjects while the two-year graduates had more exposure in two of the courses. The benefits received from courses taken was also viewed differently by accountants. The four-year graduates earned a significantly higher salary and were given more opportunities for financial assistance in upgrading accounting skill and knowledge. Conclusions based on similar opinions and views revealed that most employers were willing to hire graduates from postsecondary schools without previous work experience and considered graduates from the various postsecondary educational institutions as being adequately prepared to handle the positions to which they were assigned. Most employers also deduced that graduates did need additional education in certain areas and believed that accounting internships would have been helpful. Most companies did not have a policy dictating annual salary increases nor job advancement plans for accounting personnel. Most accountants on the job had been with their current employer between three and four years, and the time spent in their present positions was slightly over two and one-half years. Most accountants believed that an internship experience would have been beneficial to them prior to their entering the work force and would have been willing to work for a company in connection with their school preparation.

The influence of an individual's dress practices on his/her sense of self has been studied for many years. Courses such as the Dress and Humanity course at Utah State University have been developed to educate students on the impact of dress on society. In this study, students in the Dress and Humanity course were given a pre-course and post-course survey to determine if self-perceptions related to dress practices underwent a change over the duration of the semester. Significant differences were found in the categories of body image, evaluating self-esteem, and communication of self to others. A relationship was found between survey responses and gender, degree of importance of clothing purchases, and how much money participants spent in the 365 days previous to the pre-course survey.

The purpose of this study is two fold (1) to discover the current supervisory practices used by county elementary supervisors in the state of Utah: and (2) to evaluate these practices on a basis of the collective judgements of specialists in supervision.