The concerns society has expressed regarding the education of children have prompted educators to relentlessly search for instructional methodologies and organizational designs to maximize student achievement. One instructional organizational design that has surfaced is looping. Looping is the process wherein the teacher remains with the same group of children for a period of two or more years. Looping has been tried at all grade levels with a single teacher or with a team of teachers and with the same students over a period of years. The purpose of this study is to investigate the implementation of looping in four schools and to provide a descriptive account. A case study approach was used. Teachers and principals at four elementary schools using looping were interviewed regarding their experience. Data were analyzed using a qualitative approach for emerging themes. These findings indicated that schools implement the looping concept to build relationships, for instructional advantages, extended time and to lessen anxieties. Also, schools implemented the looping concept by doing an indepth study of the concept and by allowing teachers and parents to participate voluntarily. Finally, specific outcomes as a result of the implementation of looping were as follows: parents were knowledgeable about school functions and the overall program of studies; students had a safe haven; and teachers felt that looping gave them more time with their students. / Ed. D.

Climate change is associated with altered environmental conditions and shifting mosaics of suitable habitats for organisms. Climate change in the form of drought can shift important lake shoreline habitats downslope, altering the lakes chemistry and habitat availability. Additionally, negative biological consequences can occur after a loss of submerged habitat along shorelines, hereafter littoral habitat. The objective of this study is to evaluate whether littoral habitat is lost (cobble, coarse woody habitat (fallen trees; CWH), and aquatic vegetation) under drought conditions across the United States. I used the National Lakes Assessment physical habitat data collected in summer 2012, when 75% of the U.S. experienced drought. I calculated the probability of cobble, CWH, and aquatic vegetation loss with lake level decline. I found cobble and CWH were highly vulnerable, where just 1 meter of lake level loss would result in nearly 100% habitat loss. Aquatic vegetation exhibited vulnerability but at a higher threshold. Multiyear drought will continue into the future with scientists estimating increases in drought frequency and severity, and we do not yet understand how or if aquatic animals will be resilient to a loss of littoral habitat. For example, previous research suggests food webs may be slow to recovery following littoral habitat loss. We must continue to evaluate the biological and environmental consequences of littoral habitat loss under drought conditions to successfully manage lakes and reservoirs into the future.

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Sidney Jard da Silva / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Planejamento e Gestão do Território, 2014. / O PPA é o principal instrumento de planejamento orçamentário dentro da administração pública introduzido pela Constituição Federal de 1988. O planejamento público tem início na elaboração do PPA, que articula e integra os demais instrumentos de planejamento (LDO e LOA). É ele a base para discutir as estratégias e ações que serão elaboradas para um período de quatro anos. Por ser de origem recente, o processo de articulação e integração do sistema de planejamento e orçamento introduzido pelo PPA ainda demanda estudo e reflexão, não tendo até agora entrado na agenda política dos governos e do mundo acadêmico, o que explica que a bibliografia sobre o assunto se fundamenta em especial na observação, descrição e compreensão dos seus aspectos, com base em experiências empíricas de formulação e implementação em diferentes órgãos da federação. Pretende esta pesquisa discutir os alcances e possibilidades do PPA visando contribuir na elaboração de um Plano Estratégico para as cidades brasileiras, a partir de um estudo de caso sobre o processo de elaboração do PPA Participativo de São Bernardo do Campo entre 2010-2013. Este "ciclo de planejamento participativo das políticas públicas" que a Prefeitura de São Bernardo do Campo (Grande São Paulo) adotou para realizar o planejamento governamental para responder aos desafios da cidade de forma inédita no País. Embora tenha caráter obrigatório, observa-se que poucas cidades utilizam o PPA como instrumento de planejamento para articular horizontes temporais, agentes e políticas setoriais na elaboração de um projeto sustentável para a cidade de forma participativa. / The Participatory Multiyear Plan (PMP) is the main budget planning instrument of the public administration introduced by the Brazilian Constitution of 1988. Public planning starts with the PMP formulation, which articulates and integrates other planning instruments (Budget Guidelines Law and Annual Budget Law). It is the basis for discussing the strategies and actions that will be developed over a four-year period. The PMP articulation and integration process of the budget and planning system still lacks study and reflection for being recently introduced. It has not entered the political agenda of governments and universities so far, which explains why the literature on the subject is especially based on the observation, description, and understanding of aspects gathered through empirical experiences of formulation and implementation in different organs of the Federation. This study aims at discussing the PMP scope and possibilities of contributing to the development of a Strategic Plan for Brazilian cities from a case study on the process of formulating the PMP of São Bernardo do Campo from 2010 to 2013. This "cycle of participatory planning of public policies" was adopted in São Bernardo do Campo (the great São Paulo area) to perform the government planning and meet the challenges of the city in an unprecedented manner in the country. Despite being mandatory, the MP is hardly used as a planning instrument to articulate horizons, agents, and sectoral policies in the development of a sustainable project for the city in a participatory manner.

This study reports a reflection upon the experience of a multiyear elementary school learning community designed for improved teaching and learning. The exploration uses interview data to describe the perceptions and reflections of the principal and teachers directly engaged in this project of educational reform. The goal of this process is to gain a deeper understanding of the experience and to determine to what factors the participants attribute the outcomes of this project. Through an auto-ethnographic reflective critical practice inquiry and extended interviews, this study describes the context and environment of this learning community and how the participants reflect on their experiences in that community. It also provided an opportunity for participants to review and explain their perceptions and attributions regarding both the measured and the unintended outcomes associated with this learning community project. Results from teacher and administrator reflections indicate that the strength of a multiyear learning community is the positive relationships that they foster and the institutional consistency for both parents and students. Evidence from the interviews indicates that teachers' expectations for outcomes of multiyear learning communities may differ from those of administrators, and be less concerned with improved achievement measures than other, relationship-focused outcomes. A key implication of this study is that, although the principal players involved in the creation and implementation of this learning community use terms that describe or refer to the overall experience as very successful, test scores did not respond significantly to this innovation. This suggests that comprehensive plans need to be developed in advance to assure appropriate and accurate methods of measuring success in innovations such as this.

Submitted by Leandro Felipe Galiza (unedmg@gmail.com) on 2014-07-08T13:18:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO_FINAL.pdf: 1577679 bytes, checksum: a318b2e5815b57ee490bd98929804e34 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by ÁUREA CORRÊA DA FONSECA CORRÊA DA FONSECA (aurea.fonseca@fgv.br) on 2014-07-10T17:08:52Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO_FINAL.pdf: 1577679 bytes, checksum: a318b2e5815b57ee490bd98929804e34 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2014-07-18T12:16:19Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO_FINAL.pdf: 1577679 bytes, checksum: a318b2e5815b57ee490bd98929804e34 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-18T12:19:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO_FINAL.pdf: 1577679 bytes, checksum: a318b2e5815b57ee490bd98929804e34 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-22 / A presente pesquisa tem o objetivo de identificar e entender em que medida a integração entre os instrumentos orçamentários é afetada no âmbito do município de Nilópolis / RJ. Para isso, foram estudados os principais conceitos relacionados ao assunto, bem como diversos documentos, e diversas entrevistas com atores (stakeholders) do Poder Legislativo e do Poder Executivo. O Referencial teórico apresenta o orçamento como um instrumento multifacetado que pode ser entendido em três dimensões: Política, Jurídica e Econômica. Tal referencial teórico foi utilizado na presente pesquisa a fim de identificar as questões e fatores que afetam a integração dos instrumentos orçamentários (PPA, LDO e LOA) no município de Nilópolis / RJ, dando desta forma, uma perspectiva ao leitor sobre o assunto em foco. Verificou-se que os fatores identificados pelos entrevistados, não são diretamente responsáveis por um falta de integração entre o PPA, LDO e LOA. Foi concluído que os principais fatores, indicados na pesquisa, são conseqüências de causas externas ao município de Nilópolis. / This research aims to identify and understand the extent to which integration between budget instruments is affected within the municipality of Nilópolis/RJ. For this, the main concepts related to the subject, as well as various documents, and interviews with various actors (stakeholders) of the Legislative Branch and the Executive Branch were studied. The Theoretical Framework presents the budget as a multifaceted tool that can be understood in three dimensions: Political, Legal and Economic. This theoretical framework was used in this study to identify the issues and factors affecting the integration of budget instruments (PPA, LDO and LOA) in the municipality of Nilópolis/RJ, giving thus the reader a perspective on the subject in focus. It was found that the factors identified by respondents are not directly responsible for a lack of integration between the PPA, LDO and LOA. It was concluded that the main factors indicated in research, are consequences of external causes to the municipality of Nilópolis.

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Marcos Vinícius Pó / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Humanas e Sociais, 2015. / A participação social tem várias dimensões e sua avaliação, não menos complexa, envolve conceitos como democracia, accountability, regras e procedimentos, transparência, entre outros. Em vista disso, os riscos e limites da participação precisam ser evidenciados para que os mecanismos e instrumentos da democracia participativa desenvolvam e promovam programas e políticas públicas que contemplem uma boa integração entre poder público e sociedade civil. Nesse sentido, o plano plurianual mostra-se como importante e hábil ferramenta para orientar a gestão pública; contudo, a questão que se coloca diz respeito ao papel dele na integração da sociedade civil com os Poderes Legislativo e Executivo ao ponto de ser ou não capaz de conciliar as demandas sociais com o orçamento, as necessidades prioritárias e a mitigação de riscos para aprimoramento de uma gestão democrática. Portanto, para a análise do tema observou-se o processo participativo que vem sendo desenvolvido no município de São Bernardo do Campo, na região metropolitana de São Paulo, e mais especificamente em relação às plenárias populares que têm sido utilizadas como parte do processo de participação popular para a elaboração do plano plurianual da cidade; com isso, busca-se avaliar as regras procedimentais e a implicação das demandas eleitas nessas audiências pelos cidadãos na elaboração dos programas e ações que atualmente estão contidos nesse referido documento. / Social participation has several dimensions and your evaluation, no fewer complexes, involves concepts such as democracy, accountability, rules and procedures, transparency, among others. As a result, the risks and limits of participation must be highlighted so that the mechanisms and instruments of participatory democracy develop and promote programs and policies that include a good integration between government and civil society. In this sense, the Multiyear Participatory Plan shows up as important and skillful tool to guide public management; however, the question that arises with respect to his role in the integration of civil society in the legislative and executive to the point to be or not able to reconcile social demands with the budget, the priority needs and risk mitigation for improvement democratic management. Thus to the theme analysis we observed the participatory process that has been developed in São Bernardo do Campo, in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, and more specifically in relation to popular plenary that have been used as part of the process of participation popular for the preparation of the annual plan of the city; it seeks to evaluate the procedural rules and the involvement of elected these audiences demands by citizens in the preparation of programs and actions that are currently contained in that said plan.

This study aims to evaluate the Plano Plurianual 2008-2011 (Multiyear Plan 2008- 2011 PPA 2008-2011) of the State Government of Sergipe as a tool for government planning, based on the programs of the Strategic Guideline Desenvolvimento Territorial Participativo e Sustentável (Participatory and Sustainable Territorial Development). Despite the fact that the focus of this research is the current Sergipe s PPA, we sought to analyze all Multiyear Plans implemented in Brazil and Sergipe since the Constitution of 1988 in order to grasp how was the evolution of the methodology of development and evaluation of these documents over the years. We also studied the Federal Government evaluation methodology for these programs, as well as that of various units of the federation. Throughout this analysis it was found that the proper way to establish a relationship between the contents of a plan and its achieved goals is employing physical and financial monitoring reports of the actions and impact evaluation reports of programs, based on well constructed and measurable indicators. However this is not the reality of the state of Sergipe. There are few data available about the physical execution and there is no assessment of the impact of the programs, which, in our view, is the best way to gauge the effectiveness of a public policy. Thus, we sought to evaluate the current PPA programs, having as premises the feasibility of this venture and its impact on society. However, adjustments were made in the methodology of program evaluation studied in order to allow a more concise analysis, but with scientific validity. Thus, we evaluated all programs of the Strategic Guideline Participatory and Sustainable Territorial Development regarding their design and financial execution of its actions for the period 2008-2010. The main results point to an extreme fragility in the definition of the programs indicators, which virtually precludes an assessment of their impacts, and a low rate of program s financial and actions implementation. In addition, we found that many of the actions planned were not even started, indicating a lack of prioritization of what needs to be placed in the PPA, given the financial and budgetary constraints of the State. / Este estudo tem por finalidade avaliar o Plano Plurianual 2008-2011 (PPA 2008-2011) do Governo do Estado de Sergipe enquanto ferramenta de planejamento governamental, tomando como base os programas da Diretriz Estratégica Desenvolvimento Territorial Participativo e Sustentável . Não obstante o foco da investigação ser o PPA vigente de Sergipe, buscou-se analisar todos os Planos Plurianuais implementados no Brasil e em Sergipe a partir da Constituição de 1988, de modo a apreender como se deu a evolução da metodologia de elaboração e avaliação desses documentos ao longo dos anos. Estudou-se, também, a metodologia de avaliação de programas utilizada pelo Governo Federal e diversas unidades da federação. Por meio dessa análise constatou-se que as formas mais corretas de se estabelecer uma relação entre o conteúdo de um plano e os objetivos alcançados seria a utilização de relatórios de acompanhamento físico financeiro das ações, bem como relatórios de avaliação de impacto dos programas, baseado em indicadores bem construídos e mensuráveis. Entretanto essa não é a realidade do Estado de Sergipe. Poucos são os dados disponíveis de acompanhamento físico e não há rotinas de avaliação de impacto dos programas, que, a nosso ver, é a melhor forma de se aferir a efetividade de uma política pública. Assim, buscou-se promover uma avaliação dos programas do PPA vigente tendo como premissa a exequibilidade dessa empreitada e seu impacto na sociedade . Contudo, foram feitas adaptações na metodologia de avaliação de programas estudada de modo a possibilitar uma análise resumida, porém provida de caráter científico. Assim, foram avaliados todos os programas da Diretriz Estratégia Desenvolvimento Territorial Participativo Sustentável quanto à sua concepção e realização financeira de suas ações para o período de 2008 a 2010. Os principais resultados apontam para uma extrema fragilidade na definição dos indicadores dos programas, o que praticamente impossibilita uma avaliação dos impactos dos mesmos, além de uma baixa realização financeira dos programas e ações. Além disso, verificou-se que muitas das ações previstas não foram sequer iniciadas, denotando uma falta de priorização do que realmente precisa ser colocado no plano, dadas as restrições orçamentárias e financeiras do Estado.