The purpose of this study was to describe, from a superintendent's perspective, the current status of school-family-community partnerships in North Texas school districts. A secondary purpose of this study was to allow the superintendents to express themselves in an open-ended format regarding factors that encourage and limit the development of these partnerships, as well as their three-year goals for creating successful partnerships in their districts. A review of the literature revealed that very limited research exists regarding the relationship between the school superintendent and the school-family-community partnership. This literature review focused on research related to the school-family-community partnership including its place in federal legislation, and a historical and current perspective of the school superintendency. The target population for this study included 156 superintendents from the two educational service centers that make up the Dallas/Fort-Worth Metroplex. This research study employed an online survey research methodology. The instrument used in this study was the Measure of School, Family, and Community Partnerships by Dr. Joyce Epstein of Johns Hopkins University. Participants were asked to respond to fifty-two items placed in the six categories that represent Dr. Epstein's six types of involvement. Superintendents were also asked to respond to open-ended questions regarding what they perceive to be major factors that contribute to and limit the success of their school districts' school-family-community partnership efforts and what their primary goals were for improving these partnerships over the next three years. An analysis of district size in relation to superintendent perceptions of their district's school-family-partnership practices yielded no significant partnership practices. An analysis of district accountability ratings in relation to superintendent perceptions of their district's school-family-partnership practices yielded seven significant partnership practices. Finally, an analysis of superintendent experience yielded four significant superintendent partnership practices. The major factors superintendents perceive as not only contributing to, but limiting the success of their partnership programs revolved around parent involvement. The primary three-year goal that superintendent's reported for improving their district partnership programs overwhelmingly involved enhancing parent involvement.

Nutritional quality and availability is thought to regulate geographic patterns of variability in animal body size due to phenotypic plasticity. The purpose of this study is to determine how vegetation quality, abundance and population density influence white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) body size on a subregional spatial scale at Fort Hood, Texas. Harvest and census records are used to test the hypothesis that white-tailed deer exhibit phenotypic plasticity (e.g. larger body size) in response to differences in vegetation quality and availability. Results from these analyses suggest that forage quality and abundance alone is not a main driver of white-tailed deer body size. Analysis of deer population density (generally) resulted in an inverse relationship with body size. Areas with high quality forage and low population density support larger deer while areas with low quality forage and high density support smaller than average deer. The few exceptions occur in areas exhibiting poor quality forage and low population density or high forage quality and high density. Results from this study suggest that continued overcrowding of deer within isolated areas may eventually lead to efficiency phenotypic conditions producing smaller sized deer. These results could prove useful in interpreting deer population responses to harvest management. For successful local management of deer, studies examining the combined influence of habitat variables (such as forage quality, abundance and population density) on deer health offer managers valuable information needed to establish annual harvest goals and understand deer-habitat relationships relative to carrying capacity.

In the mid-19th century, the Fort Vancouver employee Village was one of the most diverse settlements on the Pacific Coast. Trappers, tradesmen, and laborers from Europe, North America, and Hawaii worked and lived within a highly stratified colonial social structure. Their homes have been the site of archaeological research for nearly 50 years, but the architectural features and artifacts have received limited attention. Inspired by an 1845 description of the Village that described houses that were "as various in form" as their occupants (Hussey 1957:218), this study examined community-level social relationships in this 19th-century fur trade community through vernacular architecture and landscape. This thesis presents the life histories and layouts of five Village houses. The architectural analysis relied on data from features, square nails, window glass, and bricks. The resulting architectural interpretations were synthesized to explore the larger vernacular landscape of the Village and investigate whether the house styles reflect processes of creolization and community development, or distinction and segregation among the Village residents. The houses all stem from a common French-Canadian architectural tradition, built by the first employees at Fort Vancouver, but the life histories also revealed that the houses were occupied (and repaired) by a second wave of employees at some time during the 1840s. A reminder that Village houses deposits may reflect multiple owners, and should not be conceptualized as the result of a single household. Finally, this thesis demonstrates that nuanced architectural data that can yet be learned from past excavation assemblages when the many nails, bricks, and window glass specimens are reanalyzed using current methods.

This thesis represents one of the first systematic, detailed spatial analyses of artifacts at the mid-19th century Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Vancouver Village site, and of clay tobacco pipe fragments in general. Historical documents emphasize the multi-cultural nature of the Village, but archaeologically there appears to be little evidence of ethnicity (Kardas 1971; Chance and Chance 1976; Thomas and Hibbs 1984:723). Following recent approaches to cultural interaction in which researchers examined the nuanced uses of material culture (Lightfoot et al 1998; Martindale 2009; Voss 2008); this study analyzed the spatial distribution of tobacco pipe fragments for behavioral information through a practice theory approach (Bourdieu 1977; Ortner 2006). The analysis aimed to determine the role of tobacco smoking in the Village. It evaluated tobacco smoking as a significant and social behavior, the visibility of maintenance behaviors in the clay pipe distributions, and evidence of ethnic variation in tobacco consumption. Spatial patterning characteristics were compiled from the few behavioral studies of clay pipe fragments (Davies 2011; Fox 1998: Hamilton 1990; Hartnett 2004; Hoffman and Ross 1973, 1974; King and Miller 1987), and indications of ethnic specific behaviors from archaeological and historical evidence (Burley et al 1992; Jacobs 1958; Jameson 2007). Distributional maps examined three pipe assemblage characteristics: fragment frequency, use wear fragment frequency, and the bowl to stem fragment ratio, to define smoking locations on the Village landscape. Visibility of maintenance and refuse disposal behaviors in the size distribution of fragments was measured through the Artifact Size Index (ASI) (Bon Harper and McReynolds 2011). This analysis also tested two possible indications of ethnic variation: differential use of stone vs. clay pipes, and consumption rates as reflected through clay pipe assemblages. The commonality of tobacco smoking locations across the landscape suggests a significant, social, and shared practice between households. Analysis of maintenance behaviors and ethnic variation proved inconclusive. This study demonstrates the value of spatially analyzing clay pipe fragment distributions for behavioral information. The insight gained from examining multiple spatial patterns suggests future studies can benefit from analyzing the spatial distribution of diagnostic characteristics of pipes and other artifact types.

The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), a mercantile venture that was founded by royal charter in 1670, conceived, constructed and ran Fort Vancouver as its economic center in the Pacific Northwest, a colonial outpost at the edge of the company's holdings in North America. Research into the history of the HBC revealed that the company was motivated by mercantile interests, and that Fort Vancouver operated under feudal land policies while steadily adopting a hierarchical structure. Following the work of Marxist archaeologist Mark Leone whose work in Annapolis, Maryland explored the effects of capitalist ideology on archaeological assemblages of ceramics, this study sought to locate the material signatures of ideologies in the ceramic assemblages recovered from the Fort and its adjacent multi-ethnic Village sites. In Annapolis, matching sets of ceramics were used as a material indicator of the successful penetration of capitalist ideals of segmentation, division and standardization that accompanied the carefully cultivated ideology of individualism, into working class households. Following this model, this study analyzed six assemblages for the presence of matched sets of ceramic tablewares using the diversity measures of richness and evenness. The results of this analysis for five assemblages from households in the Village were then compared to those expected for a model assemblage that was inferred to represent the ultimate model of participation in and dissemination of the same ideals of segmentation and division: that recovered from the Chief Factor's House within the fort. Documentary research confirmed that ideology was used to indoctrinate workers into the unique relations of production at Fort Vancouver however it was an ideology of paternal allegiance to the company rather than one of possessive individualism, as in Annapolis. At Fort Vancouver the notion of individuality was subtly downplayed in favor of one that addressed the company's responsibility to its workers and encouraged them to view its hierarchy, which was reinforced spatially, socially and economically, as natural. Analysis of the archaeological assemblages revealed that it is unlikely that the Village assemblages are comprised of complete sets of matching ceramicwares. The lack of these sets is likely the result of the multivalent nature of the economic system at the fort and its distinct ideology of paternalism, as well as the diverse backgrounds and outlooks of the Village occupants themselves, who appear to have purchased and used these European ceramics in unique ways.

A gap exists in education research in the area of district support for campus-based professional learning communities (PLCs). The current study was an examination of practitioner perceptions of district structures and practices that support the development and sustainability of PLCs in public high schools. I examined the perceptions of 341 teachers, campus administrators, and district administrators in a suburban North Texas public school district with three comprehensive high schools. Using a sequential mixed-method design, quantitative data from an electronic survey and qualitative data from face-to-face interviews were collected and analyzed. The findings revealed a generally positive view of central office support among the participants, including consistent ratings from each high school, each campus-level position, each content area, and each level of experience in the district. There was some misalignment of perceptions between campus-level and district-level staff. The study also uncovered a set of best and worst district practices, the six PLC strengtheners and six PLC inhibitors, which were synthesized into a set of recommendations and guidelines for district support for high school PLCs. From participant feedback, I concluded district support is needed and desired by high school practitioners and there are specific district practices and structures that are most effective. While the study results provide a practical set of recommendations for school districts for supporting high school PLC efforts, expanded research is necessary to confirm transferability to school districts of diverse sizes, locations, and demographics.

This survey presents views of department store officials on what they expect from their employees in an effort to improve the training of stenographers and secretaries.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1985 S56 / Master of Arts

The emergence and popularity of mobile and social media have transformed the nature of the parasocial relationship between weathercaster and audience. Two experts and nine television viewers were selected for qualitative interviewing via non-probability sampling to gain an understanding of how respondents’ growing use of social media and other emerging media has impacted the relationship with the local television weathercaster. Additionally, these interviews explored the ways in which these relationships have ultimately changed how viewers receive weather warnings. Storms producing strong straight-line winds and multiple tornadoes in the Fort Wayne, Indiana television market provided a case study that illuminated the role of trust in the complex relationships between weather forecasting and new social media. Mobile and social media have increased the weather forecasters’ influence over the audience, while quickly allowing them to provide severe weather warnings. This study demonstrates the popularity of social media among diverse age groups and that user demographics do not indicate any level of social media literacy. Second, as the literature suggests, this study confirms users’ trust in their weather forecasters as well as the informationseeking behavior displayed during severe weather. Third, this research finds that social media has transformed parasocial relationships. Finally, this study suggests that stations have not recognized nor taken advantage of these new parasocial relationships, and that they can do so by promoting TV personalities’ online social profiles. / Introduction -- Literature review -- Methods -- Trust, weather forecasting and social media -- Online presence -- Conclusion. / Department of Geography

This study is a secondary analysis of survey data collected in fall 2000 from patients of a safety-net hospital and its eight community health outreach clinics in Fort Worth, Texas. The study examined three objectives. These include explaining the utilization of Pap smear tests among the sample who were low-income women, by ascertaining the determinants of using these services. Using binary logistic regressions analyses primarily, the study tested 10 hypotheses. The main hypothesis tested the race/ethnicity/immigration status effect on Pap smear screening. The remaining hypotheses examined the effects of other independent/control variables on having a Pap smear. Results from the data provide support for the existence of a race/ethnicity/immigration status effect. Anglos were more likely to have had a Pap smear, followed by African Americans, Hispanic immigrants, and finally, by Hispanic Americans. The persistence of the race/ethnicity/immigration status effect, even when the effects of other independent/control variables are taken into account, may be explained by several factors. These include cultural differences between the different groups studied. The race/ethnicity/immigration status effect on Pap smear screening changed with the introduction of age, usual source of care, check-up for current pregnancy, and having multiple competing needs for food, clothing and housing into the models studied. Other variables, such as marital status, employment status and health insurance coverage had no statistically significant effects on Pap smear screening. The findings of this study are unique, probably due to the hospital-based sample who has regular access to subsidized health insurance from a publicly funded safety-net healthcare network and its healthcare providers. Given the importance of race/ethnicity/immigration status for preventive Pap smear screening, public education efforts to promote appropriate Pap smear tests among vulnerable populations should target specific race/ethnicity/immigration status groups in the U.S. within the cultural context of each group. Furthermore, publicly funded health programs for underserved populations such as the John Peter Smith Connections and Medicaid should be maintained and strengthened.