The purpose of this study was to determine if there was any significant increase in the reading achievement of Reading First third grade students compared to the reading achievement of the third grade reading students in Non-Reading First schools located in southwest Virginia for 2004-2009. The Standards of Learning (SOLs) reading test scores were compiled from the Virginia Standards of Learning test scores that are available to the public from the Virginia Department of Education website. The elementary schools chosen for this study have a similar number of disadvantaged students and similar demographics. The reading achievement was being examined after 6 years of implementation of teaching strategies using Reading First in 3 of the elementary schools and compared to Non-Reading First schools. Using a quantitative design, the comparative study included data obtained from the 2004-2009 Virginia Standards of Learning standardized assessment test scores for third grade students in 6 elementary schools. The data comparison examined the reading achievement relationship between the Reading First schools (experimental) and the Non-Reading First schools (control group). The analysis was based on 2 research questions and 12 hypotheses; 6 hypotheses for each question. A t-test for independent samples was used to identify the differences between the means of Reading First schools and the Non-Reading First schools. A chi square analysis was used to identify the differences between the means of Reading First schools compared to the means of Non-Reading First schools in the areas of not proficient, proficient, and advanced proficient. The results of the study indicated that there were significant increases for reading achievement for the Reading First schools in the experimental group compared to the Non-Reading First in the control group. The Reading First schools performed better or as well as their peers in Non-Reading First schools at the advanced reading proficiency level.

The pressure to perform on standardized tests in the United States has become intense. Increased accountability has caused principals to think about their perceptions of standardized testing with regard to accountability measures, test validity, use of test data, impact of testing on the curriculum, and stress related to testing. The purpose of this study was to investigate kindergarten- through 12th-grade principals' perceptions of standardized testing. The study included 91 principals of Title I and nonTitle I schools located in 8 rural East Tennessee school districts. Data were gathered using a survey instrument to determine principals' opinions of standardized testing. There were 4 predictor (independent) variables in this study: Title I status of the school measured by status (Title I school and nonTitle I school), gender predictor variable, predictor variable of highest degree earned by principals (master's, specialist, and doctorate), and predictor variable of experience in current position (1-6 years, 7-14 years, and 15-39 years). The data analysis focused on 5 dimensions of standardized testing. The 5 (dependent) variables were: (a) general impact-accountability, (b) validity of standardized tests, (c) use of standardized tests in individualizing instruction, (d) impact on curriculum, and (e) stress related to standardized testing. The findings reflected that in general, principals had a positive view of standardized testing; however, the study showed that there was agreement among principals that standardized testing has limitations, particularly in the area of fairness to ethnic groups. The research indicated that principals use test data in many ways to improve their schools. Regardless of Title I status, gender, highest degree earned, and years of experience in current position, there were no significant differences in principals' opinions of standardized testing regarding the 5 dimensions of standardized testing.

<p>  </p> <p>Between 1977 and 1984, Grove City College engaged in a legal dispute with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare as to whether the college needed to sign federally mandated Title IX compliance forms for its students to receive federal funding. This project uses the culmination of the legal dispute, the Supreme Court case <em>Grove City College v. Bell </em>(1984) to engage with discussions about philanthropy’s role in shaping education, the political effects of that education, the politicization of interpretations of Supreme Court decisions, and the continued role of education in shaping a conservative intellectual elite. Throughout much of the twentieth century, oil magnate and conservative businessman J. Howard Pew funded Grove City College’s building projects and gave countless speeches at the college. By relying on his money, Pew steered the private college’s curriculum and student life to embrace Judeo-Christian norms, cultural conservatism, and libertarian economics. </p> <p>These values shaped the conservative response to federal regulations in the form of Title IX as Grove City College sought to defend those values. This sociolegal history of the case reveals the intellectual roots of Grove City College’s retaliation. Furthermore, this project bridges legal and political history as I show that Supreme Court decisions were shaped by activists and politicians. We must look beyond case law. The project connects grassroots activism and political decisions as both meted out the future of conservatism in the public square. By conflating popularity with democracy, Ronald Reagan and his Department of Justice tried to appease all sides in the legal conflict as he made overtures to the antifeminist New Right. This project then touches on the battle over minority rule and majoritarian democracy as Reagan was at odds with the New Right as he subscribed to the latter. My work on <em>Grove City College v. Bell </em>(1984) then pushes our discussion of political history beyond a red and blue dichotomy as Democrats and moderate Republicans formed a bipartisan coalition to legislatively overturn the Supreme Court’s decision. Grove City College’s conservative think tank acts as a new endeavor to inform the public square as to the values of conservatism. Long since passed away, Pew’s values live on in the Institute for Faith and Freedom. By observing the branding of the organization and its connection to the college’s history, this work shows the fluidity and adaptability of conservatism as it occurs on campus and how it intertwines with national conversations today with which conservatism is concerned. </p>

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between second-order change leadership behaviors and the grade assigned to schools in large urban districts by the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE). A total of 101 Title I elementary school principals from large urban school districts with 60+% students on Free and Reduced School Lunch participated in the study. Specifically, this study analyzed 7 of the 21 second-order change factor responsibilities. They include (a) knowledge of curriculum, instruction, assessment, (b) optimizer, (c) intellectual stimulation, (d) change agent, (e) monitoring/evaluating, (f) flexibility, and (g) ideals/beliefs. The findings of this study were delineated through an examination of the data as it was related to the following questions: (a) What are the differences, if any, in the Principal Actions Survey scores of Title I elementary principals based on the 2008 school grade, according to the FLDOE? (b) What relationship, if any, exists among professional demographics of the principals (years at the school, years as an educator, years as an administrator prior to becoming a principal, years as a principal, highest degree earned, age, gender) and the second-order change leadership behaviors? (c) What are the differences, if any, in the second-order change leadership behavior subgroup scores based on the 2008 school grade according to the FLDOE? Although Research Question 1 had no statistical significance, principals who had a higher mean on the Principal Actions Survey led A and B-rated schools. Statistical significance was found in Research Question 2 for the second-order change leadership behavior of Change Agent and Ideals/Beliefs. Though statistical significance was not found in Research Question 3, each mean score for each sub-group in each grade group indicated consistent answers between Strongly Agree and Agree, which demonstrated a large degree of agreement. Additionally, comments from telephone interviews with selected principals determined that these leadership behaviors could positively impact elementary schools and the field of education. Recommendations of the study were to: (a) Conduct a follow-up study to gather the perceptions of teachers from the same Title I schools regarding their principals' second-order change leadership behaviors, (b) conduct a similar study with principals in Title I middle and high school settings, (c) conduct a qualitative study on second-order change leadership behaviors of non-Title I elementary, middle, and high school principals, (d) engage in further research to investigate professional development activities that may assist principals in enhancing second-order change leadership behaviors and improve instruction, (e) investigate the relationship between principals' second-order change leadership behaviors and achievement of Adequate Yearly Progress (f) replicate the study in states other than Florida (g) explore the relationship between second-order change leadership behaviors of district administrators and their district's academic success.

This research examines the practices of Title I school principals. The purpose of this research is to examine schools with strong AYP scores to understand the reasons for their success, the teacher's roles, the principal's role, and the process of change initiated by each principal. The schools that have been included in the study are Title I Elementary/Middle Schools in Northern California with at least a 30% Latino population. The researcher was able to develop a working model for school improvement called the "Good School Functional Model" through extensive data analysis. This model identifies the common attributes of these schools that have enabled them to become successful.

This corpus study has focused on the titles used by those who sew as a hobby, primarily on the six most frequently used ones. The corpora used are Early English Books Online, Google Books Ngram Viewer and a corpus compiled in SketchEngine. The research also looked at the etymology and how their meanings might have changed from 1470 to 2022. The focus was also on to whom the titles have been assigned and if they are professionally trained or hobbyists. Among the findings, tailor is the most frequently used title over time; it is used more for male professionals. On the other hand, the most popular title today is sewist, which is used primarily by hobbyists, both males and females. Sewer is dropping in popularity while the others are increasing, possibly because it has several homographs making it easy to misinterpret in today’s society where the internet is used so frequently. However, it is still popular as it is the second most used title. In addition, seamster has changed whom it denotes the most frequently, from being for females to both genders to males, while seamstress is solely used for females across time. Finally, dressmaker is mainly used for women who sew professionally.

Equal Employment Opportunity laws are a relatively new construct within the framework of American legal history. This area of law, however, has experienced significant development within a relatively short span of time. Over the last half-century, the Supreme Court of the United States has handed down several landmark decisions, clarifying the law as to what constitutes sexual harassment, and in which circumstances employers can be held liable for the harassing actions of employees. The purpose of this thesis is to examine this development, and to assess the question of whether the awards given to male victims of workplace sexual harassment are comparable to the awards given to female victims.

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The costs related to events of losses within non-life insurance are stochastic and a prerequisite of running a successful insurance business is to predict risks and future costs. From both a business- and regulatory perspective, it is of high interest to have a genuine understanding of the precision and the sensitivity of the estimated costs and future risks. This thesis aims to provide an alternative procedure of how to estimate the costs related to the future and, above all, the variance, in the case of dealing with inhomogeneous and decreasing risk. The procedure is based on a separate modeling of the claim frequency and the claim severity, that later can be combined to yield a total cost distribution for a determined time period. The claim severities are modeled based on a parametric and a non-parametric approach and the claim frequencies are modeled with the resampling method bootstrap and by the use of scenarios. The thesis is made in collaboration with the insurance company, Anticimex Insurance, who has contributed with the data as well as expert knowledge related to the actuarial field. The results of the thesis show that the procedure is successful for evaluating estimated total costs distributions and their first and second moments, even in the case of inhomogeneous and decreasing risk. / Kostnader som uppkommer på grund av skador inom skadeförsäkring är stokasiska och en förusättning för att kunna bedriva ett framgångsrikt försäkringsbolag är att kunna prediktera risk och framtida kostnader. Utifrån ett såväl försäkrings- som reglatoriskt perspektiv är det av stor vikt att ha en gedigen förståelse av både precisionen och känsligheten i de skattade estimaten. Denna uppsats syftar till att ta fram ett alternativt tillvägagångssätt till hur kostnader relaterade till framtiden ska predikteras, med fokus på att utvärdera variationen i estimaten, vid fallet av en inhomogen och avtagande risk. Tillvägagångssättet bygger på en uppdelning mellan antalet skador och kostnaden för skador, vilka modelleras separat för att sedan kombineras och ge en totalkostnadsfördelning för den avsedda tidsperioden. De historiska kostnaderna modelleras utifrån ett parametriskt- och ett ickeparametriskt tillvägagångssätt. Skadefrekvensen modelleras med hjälp av bland annat samplingsmetoden bootstrap samt genom användandet av scenarier. Uppsatsen görs i samarbete med skadeförsäkringsbolaget, Anticimex Försäkringar, vilka har bidragit med data och expertkunskap inom det aktuariella området. Arbetets resultat visar att det föreslagna tillvägagångssättet är en framgångsrik strategi för att utvärdera de första två momenten av de predikterade totalkostnadsfördelningarna, även vid fallet av en inhomogen och avtagande risk.