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A suburban middle school located in the southeastern United States included differentiated instruction and technology in all aspects of the curriculum. Teachers at this school received professional development on differentiated strategies; however, many teachers did not apply the strategies to assessments and continued to use traditional assessments despite the poor performance of their students on class evaluations. This qualitative case study, rooted in constructivist theories, examined middle school teachers' perceptions and use of alternative assessments. All 6th Language Arts teachers were selectively invited to participate in my study because they teach a core 6th grade subject, four teachers responded and consented to complete an open-ended survey on their use of assessments, to participate in individual interviews about their perceptions of alternative assessments, and to submit teacher lesson plans indicating assessment use. Descriptive analysis of the survey responses from the four Language Arts teachers revealed the participants infrequently differentiated their assessments. Content analysis of lesson plan assessments supported this finding, indicating that most evaluation activities included traditional tests and quizzes. Interview data were analyzed with typological coding and thematic analysis. Findings revealed that participants endorsed the effectiveness of alternative assessments of student learning, but used traditional assessments mostly due to ease of creation and grading. Participants noted that with increased collaboration, the use of alternative assessments could be supported. This study may promote social change at the study site and its school district by providing data to help plan and develop training focused on differentiated assessments, allowing teachers to share strategies and plan differentiated assessments that enhance student-centered learning environments.

<p>For technical systems in the electricity and paper and pulpindustries, asset management is emerging as a new approachaddressing how to exploit physical assets with long operativelives in the most profitably way. An important problem forasset management staff is knowing when to carry out areplacement or renewal. This is a difficult question whichrequires taking into consideration parameters of totallydifferent natures–e.g. reliability data, operatingcosts, condition information from technical systems, theenvironment and rules and regulation. An incorrect estimate ofa residual lifetime can result in a premature renewal withaccompanying high capital costs. If, however, renewal isdelayed, a breakdown may occur which can cause major damage totechnical equipment and a loss of income due to outages.</p><p>This work presents a formal model that calculates expectedcosts of different long-term strategies when managing technicalsystems. It is shown that with relatively few inputs, which inmany cases are easy to collect or estimate, a good picture canbe developed that shows the amount of resources a company willneed in the future in terms of renewals of their technicalsystems. The foundation for this work is a case study and aliterature review; the objective was to study what methods andmodels are in use today when estimating residual lifetime oftechnical systems. Also, aspects that influence long-term assetmanagement were investigated. Lessons learned from the casestudy and literature review were then used to develop a dynamicmodel, the Dynamic Lifetime Analysis model (DLA model).</p><p>This model is based on a probabilistic and dynamic riskanalysis of a technical system, linking different aspects ofrisk management strategies to specific characteristics of thephysical system. Furthermore it is shown how this model,coupled with specific value judgments, can be used to designoptimal long-term strategies. When taking more than onetechnical system under consideration the model shows that it isnot always the most effective, from a system viewpoint, torenew it too close to a possible breakdown. If there is aperiod predicted to incur high investment, it can, at times, bebetter to do an early renewal thereby maintaining resources ata constant level. The thesis also describes how to work withlong-term strategic decisions in a structural manner in orderfor the actors on a deregulated market to stay competitive.</p><p><b>Key Words:</b>Residual lifetime estimation, Assetmanagement, Maintenance, Technical systems in power and pulp-and paper industries, Long terms renewal strategies.</p>

Science and technology impact most aspects of modern daily life. It is therefore important to create a scientifically literate society. Since the majority of Americans do not take college-level science courses, strong K-12 science education is essential. At the K-5 level, however, many teachers lack the time, resources and background for effective science teaching. Elementary teachers and students may benefit from scientist-led outreach programs created by Cooperative Extension or other institutions. One example is the University of Arizona Insect Discovery Program, which provides short-duration programing that uses insects to support science content learning, teach critical thinking and spark interest in science. We conducted evaluations of the Insect Discovery programming to determine whether the activities offered were accomplishing program goals. Pre-post tests, post program questionnaires for teachers, and novel assessments of children’s drawings were used as assessment tools. Assessments were complicated by the short duration of the program interactions with the children as well as their limited literacy. In spite of these difficulties, results of the pre-post tests indicated a significant impact on content knowledge and critical thinking skills. Based on post-program teacher questionnaires, positive impacts on interest in science learning were noted as much as a month after the children participated in the program. New programming and resources developed to widen the potential for impact are also described.

The primary purpose of this study will be to compare the equitableness of utility earnings as a source of municipal revenue when compared to that of property taxes.

Thesis Abstract Software process assessments are currently being conducted by organisations using de facto assessment standards such as ISO/IEC 15504, ISO 9001, CMM and BOOTSTRAP. These assessment standards require practical tools and support mechanisms to enable them to be effective and efficient in their execution. This thesis is a study of the functional composition of such automated tools and investigates the viability of creating mappings between the software process models that would allow the assessment data to be translated between models. The result is a model for creating automated assessment tools and a methodology for using data mappings to translate and compare assessment data between software process models in these assessment tools.

The field of psychometrics in South Africa faces many challenges. Among these are, that practitioners in the field of psychology do not always have access to standardised assessments for the South African context. Imported assessments pose various biases to South Africa’s multilingual and multicultural situations, hence the need for test adaptation. The Suffolk Reading Scale (2) (SRS2) is an English proficiency assessment that measures reading comprehension. English, being the language of learning and teaching in most South African schools, makes the SRS2 a significant gain to practitioners and the field of psychometrics. Consequently, this research aimed to narrow the gaps in this area of knowledge and contribute to it by evaluating the applicability of the SRS2 as a measure of reading comprehension for South African learners. Primary school learners in Kwa-Zulu Natal were administered the SRS2. The purpose of the study was to ascertain the degree of reliability of the SRS2. Of the 338 participants, 51.9 percent (n=140) of the sample were female, and 48.1 percent (n=130) were male. Sixty-six percent (n=164) of the participants spoke English as an Additional Language (EAL), while thirty-four percent (n=83) spoke English as a first language (EFL). Results indicated a significant difference in performance between EFL and EAL learners, whereby EAL learners performed lower than EFL learners. However there was no difference in performance between female learners and their male counterparts on individual items of the SRS2. The SRS2 proved to have a suitable internal consistency; however questions of bias do arise.

The study examined the relationship between grade five natural sciences teachers’ perceptions and their use of questioning for formative assessment (FA). Literature indicates that formative assessment improves both teaching and learning. This study was conducted with thirty-three teachers from a district in Gauteng Province. They responded to a questionnaire in which they gave their opinions about questions and formative assessment. Their responses were documented quantitatively. Lesson observations were also conducted in two teachers’ classes, in the same district, to establish the relationship between questioning practices and perceptions. Teacher questions were quantitatively analysed using Anderson/Bloom’s Taxonomy (2005). Lesson transcripts and field notes of the recorded lessons were qualitatively analysed and discussed in themes. Findings based on the questionnaire indicated that most teachers had a poor understanding of formative assessment and were unaware of its teaching and learning benefits. In practice, the two observed teachers mostly used factual and conceptual knowledge questions but worked differently with learner responses. The observations indicate that questions, irrespective of their categorisation, could be more effectively used for formative assessment purposes. The study indicated that teachers believed that a role is played in the questioning practices by, for instance, learner language competency, socio-economic factors and lack of teacher reflection.

This is an ethnography written by Malinda Castruita, an Education Specialist in Southern California. The ethnography was written between May 2018 and April 2019. Castruita is a Claremont Graduate University Teacher Education Candidate who sheds light on her personal experience in the past and present in both general and special education settings. She is employed in the city of Duarte, California as a Special Day Class teacher with a population of transitional kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade students. The research included addresses the individual educational experiences of her life, a synapse of her family background, as well as her views on social justice, and her educational philosophy and why she chose to become an educator. Castruita chose three specific students in her class to focus her research on for this narrative. These specific students are referred to as “case studies” and “focus students”. The case studies portray a student that is an English learner, another that has an Individualized Education Program (IEP), and one student that has experienced a significant life experience. She researched their culture, funds of knowledge, and academic status of each student. The findings were conducted through focus student home visits, extensive scholarly research, classroom observation, hands-on teaching, and ongoing parent-teacher communication. Castruita will also discuss the cultural and socio-economic findings within the community of her school and Castruita also went out into the Duarte community and conducted member interviews and attended various events to gain a perspective and understanding of the local economy, history, demographics and overall community atmosphere. Malinda also gives a self-analysis of her teaching style and experience within the classroom. She reflects on her effectiveness as a teacher in both whole class and individual student perspectives. Overall, this thorough and thoughtful narrative will allow the reader to step into the community of Duarte and Castruita’s classroom environment and learn how viewing students through the lens of compassion and understanding allows teachers to teach students more efficiently and successfully.

Bridging the Gap Between Then and Now is an ethnography written by Katheryne Lucia Gomez, an Education Specialist currently living and teaching in Southern California, in her hometown of La Verne. Gomez is a student in Claremont Graduate University’s Teacher Education Program providing first-hand perspective as a first-year special education teacher and the experiences leading up to this point. Having prior experience in applied behavior analysis and working with multiple grade levels, the following document details personal experiences (philosophies on education, social justice, reasons that led Gomez into education), a community breakdown including its history, demographics, socioeconomic status, and three student case studies. Each case study student has an IEP and two students have experienced a significant life experience. There is a breakdown for each student of their family history, culture, parent(s)/student point of view on academic status, aspects of IEP, strengths and weaknesses. Areas of struggle were identified for each student and teaching strategies were implemented and tracked for progress. Ultimately, Gomez reflects on her teaching practices, belief systems, social justice practices and how to continue creating a classroom environment that builds on and fosters the strengths of students, academic and otherwise.