This paper examines the effect of governance on inequality, specifically if improvements in the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators affect inequality as measured by two Gini coefficients: Market Gini, before taxes and redistribution, and Net Gini, after taxes and redistribution. The data for the Gini measurements was taken from the Standardized World Income Inequality Database (SWIID) and the data for the Worldwide Governance Indicators was taken from the World Bank. Data for fifteen (15) years, from the start of the Worldwide Governance Indicators until 2013, was combined with data from SWIID for the same years. In all, data from one hundred fifty-six (156) countries with a full set of six (6) indicators for the years that had at least one corresponding Gini measurements were used in this study: in total one thousand seven hundred and forty-seven (1747) observations. In a pooled OLS regression, controlling for growth with the variable GDP per Capita expressed as a per cent (%) change on an annual basis, the individual indicators gave the following results, where a positive sign indicates increased inequality and vice versa: Control of Corruption and Regulatory Quality showed a positive sign for both Gini measurements. Rule of Law, Government Effectiveness, Political Stability and the Absence of Violence/Terrorism, gave a negative sign for both Gini measurements. Voice and Accountability showed a positive sign for Market Gini and a negative sign for Net Gini. The fact that an improvement in Control of Corruption increased inequality both before and after taxes and redistribution was unexpected and should be further researched.

This study was undertaken to determine what differences are found among personality characteristics of superior students, in special English classes, who score high on a standardized achievement test and superior students in the same classes who score low on this test. A second dimension of the study was to determine whether the same personality characteristics are evident among superior students in these classes at the eighth, tenth and twelfth grade levels.

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By grounding my work in this series of four essays in literary theory, but telling stories to which almost anyone can relate I hope to begin making the connection between sometimes heady academics and everyday working-class Americans. Only when learners understand their circumstances and the need for education, can they begin to take control of what they learn and how they employ that knowledge.

Title: Accident rate at floorball players with previous experience with ice hockey. Objectives: To determine whether there is an increased rate of injuries of ankle joint at floorball players with previous experience with ice hockey than at floorball players without this experience. To evaluate the impact of the operation of ice hockey, the sport with permanently fixed foot in the skate, at followed up playing of floorball at the top level. Methology: For the purposes of this thesis was compiled multiple-standard questionnaire - questionnaire form. The research sample consisted of 100 probands - the first group of 25 probands top floorball players who have played at least 5 years of ice hockey at the highest level, the second group 25 floorball extra-league players, third group of 25 professional ice hockey players. Last fourth group consisted of 25 probands athletes meeting the conditions of at least 3 times a week training and 1 championship match - non focus on ice hockey and floorball. The resulting data were first analyzed and clearly captured in tables in Microsoft Office Word 2003. Then were analyzed only data relating to the ankle joint injuries in floorball players using statistical methods to confirm the hypothesis - method of association - association coefficient, Chi-square test....

Since the passage of No Child Left Behind, the output of education has been measured through student achievement on standardized tests. School ratings, student graduation, teacher jobs and school charters are all tied to these tests. This study analyzes the extent to which math and science public high school teachers in New Orleans focus on critical thinking and creativity, skills needed to be successful in the future. Through a framework of Richard Paul’s model of critical thinking and Theresa Amabile’s social psychology of creativity, this study evaluates support for critical thinking and creativity through classroom observations, analysis of instructional materials and teacher interviews. Findings indicate that teachers at academically selective schools are more likely to support critical thinking and creativity in their classrooms than teachers at open enrollment schools. Classroom tests of participating teachers mainly focus on assessing basic knowledge and skills, not critical thinking and creativity.

The present study aims to examine how teachers write polemical articles. This genre often occurs in national standardized tests in Swedish schools. The study seeks to analyze argumentative structures in the articles. It also categorizes assessment notes written by the teachers in response to each others’ articles, by interpreting response texts.     The examination shows that there is uncertainty among the teachers about how to create structures in argumentative text types. As a result the persuasive function of the texts suffers.     The teachers tend to comment on macro level findings in texts. However they grade each other’s texts with high grades referring to micro level components such as spelling, sentence structure and neat wording.

The research purpose was to investigate the differences between learning preferences (i.e., Active-Reflective, Sensing-Intuitive, Visual-Verbal, and Sequential-Global) determined by the Index of Learning Style and gender (i.e., Male and Female) in regards to standardized achievement multiple-choice test performance determined by the Illinois Nurse Aide Competency Examination (INACE), i.e., overall INACE performance and INACE performance based on six duty areas (i.e., communicating information, performing basic nursing skills, performing personal care, performing basic restorative skills, providing mental health-services, and providing for resident’s rights) of nurse aide students. The study explored the relationship between variables using a non-experimental, comparative and descriptive approach. The nurse aide students who completed the Illinois approved Basic Nurse Aide Training (BNAT) and 21-mandated skills assessment and were ready to take the Illinois Nurse Aide Competency Examination (INACE) in the month of October 2018 and December 2018 at various community colleges across the state of Illinois were the participants of the study. A sample of 800 nurse aide students were selected through stratified (north, central, and south) random sampling out of which N = 472 participated in the study representing the actual sample.

Companies have put much focus on production systems to generate and maintain competitiveness which has contributed in less focus to logistics. The material flow is the process after the main processes and has therefore been regarded as “unimportant”. If the material flow fails, there can be consequences such as inventory-build ups or undersupply of material. Lean thinking is one strategy that may be applied to analyze and identify wastes, but the identification of problems has been harder to detect, while the ability to solve them has not improved at the same rate. Following two research questions has been asked to identify how companies should proceed to improve their inventory management but also what factors contribute to the inventory build-ups.  ·        What may cause excess inventory in manufacturing companies? <ul type="disc">How can a manufacturing company reduce WIP´s? The research method is based on a qualitative approach with an interpretivist research methodology to help answer the questions. A case study was done at a manufacturing company to help answer the research questions. The data has been collected by observations trough section B1 and unstructured interviews with both management and operators. The collected data was later compared to the literature according to the inductive reasoning to be able to make suggestions for improvements. The DMAIC tool has been a central point of this research regarding the mapping of the current state and suggestion of a future state. The case study was conducted at Company X AB in the middle of Sweden which is a company that manufactures components and complete solutions. The focus on production has resulted in less focus on the internal logistics. With the low focus on the internal logistics, inventory build-ups have occurred. The results point to the OEE being a contributing factor to the inventory build-up. The availability of both machines was low and therefore caused the OEE to be low. The low availability was caused by long changeovers, staff shortages, and emergency reparations. The conclusions are that Company X must make improvements so that the factors of the low availability decrease in frequency and severity to reduce the work-in-process (WIP). The improvements should be approached with different lean-tools such as SMED, KANBAN, FIFO and 5S.

We propose a new method for measuring teacher grading standards that is based on the Item Response Theory framework, and investigate the relationship between teacher grading standards and student learning in São Paulo State public schools in light of this new approach. We simulate a policy in which student achievement in a standardized examination (Saresp) is used as the passing grade criterion, setting a unique grading standard for each grade and subject that would substitute the current teacher-defined grading. We estimate the optimal standards that maximize student achievement under this policy, and compare them with the standards estimated for each individual teacher. Our estimates indicate that teachers currently apply standards that are, on average, more lenient than the optimal policy standards / Neste trabalho propomos um novo método para a medição do padrão de avaliação dos professores, fundamentado na Teoria de Resposta ao Item. Investigamos, com base no novo método, a relação entre o padrão de avaliação do professor e o aprendizado do aluno. Nós simulamos os potenciais resultados de uma política de aprovação de alunos baseada exclusivamente em um teste padronizado (Saresp), que implicaria em um padrão de avaliação único para cada série e disciplina, em substituição à política atual em que os professores são responsáveis pela definição sobre a aprovação de seus alunos. Estimamos os padrões de avaliação ótimos sob esta política, do ponto de vista da maximização do aprendizado dos alunos, e comparamos estes valores com os padrões de avaliação estimados para cada professor. Nossas estimativas indicam que os professores utilizam atualmente padrões de avaliação que são, em média, mais lenientes do que o padrão de avaliação ótimo estimado para a nova política