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Given that standards are legislated through the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Standards of Learning have been implemented in the Commonwealth of Virginia, educational reforms call for extended learning opportunities and a requirement that leaders implement programs that are scientifically research-based which concentrate on the achievement of all students. Year round education is scientifically research based. The purpose of this study was to compare year round and traditional education at an urban middle school on attendance, academic performance, and behavior patterns. The school had both year round education and traditional education from 1998-2001. This is a unique factor to this study, as no one has compared year round education and traditional education on attendance, academic performance, and behavior patterns in an urban setting with both year round education and traditional education in the same building. The population in this quantitative quasi-experimental study was 113 grade 8 year round education (87) and traditional education (26) students from one urban middle school in southeastern Virginia, who had been in the programs for three years (grades 3-6). The over- riding research questions were: (1) does year round education make an impact on attendance as measured by grade 8 attendance data after controlling for initial differences in grade 5 attendance? , (2) does year round education have an impact on academic achievement as measured by the SOL after controlling for grade 5 Degrees of Reading Power (DRP)? , (3) does year round education impact students’ behavior patterns as measured by grade 8 out-of-school suspensions (OSS) and in-school-suspensions (SIPS) data? Two one-way ANCOVAs, two chi squares, and t-tests were conducted to determine the statistical significant differences in attendance, academic performance, and behavior patterns (the first time placements in in-school suspension and out-of school suspension) of year round education and traditional education students with a pre-determined alpha of .05. The results indicated no statistically significant findings. The conclusions and implications in this study were limited by the size of the sample, lack of random student assignment, students interacting with each other, and students having the same teachers. Year round education provides an educational option for students and families. / Ed. D.

Magnet schools were developed in the early 1970s when a large number of urban school districts began seeking alternatives to court-ordered desegregation mandates (Levine and Steel, 1994). Since that time, numerous studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of magnet schools in providing a racially balanced learning environment as well as increasing academic achievement. The purpose of the causal-comparative study was to determine if the math and science magnet program at a middle school affected achievement, attendance, and parent perceptions. This study conducted three different analyses. A chi square analysis of the student population was conducted to determine racial balanced on attendance data from the school years 1993-94 through 1996-97, and if the racial balance of the magnet program mirrored that of the district. Three-way ANCOVA analyses, with a 2x2x2 factorial design were performed on attendance and the five components of the 1997 Stanford Achievement Test Form 9-TA results for the eighth grade population at the targeted middle school enrolled during the 1996-97 school year. Complete data for 177 eighth grade students was utilized. Attendance and achievement served as the dependent variables. The independent variables tested were group membership (magnet, non-magnet), gender (male, female), and race/ethnicity (black, white). Socio-economic status (SES) and Literacy Passport Test (LPT) scores served as the covariates in the study. A survey of school effectiveness was sent to a random sample of parents. A t-test was performed to determine if there was a statistically significant difference between the perceptions of parents of magnet students and parents of student not enrolled in the program on school effectiveness. The racial balance of the magnet program did not mirror that of the district. There was more of an equally distributed number of blacks and whites in the magnet program. Within the district, approximately 68% of the student enrollment was black, the white enrollment was approximately 31%. Magnet students achieved statistically significantly higher scores on each of the five components of the Stanford Achievement Test Form 9-TA than non-magnet students. Gender and race/ethnicity differences were statistically significant in science achievement in that male and white students achieved higher scores than female and black students. There was a statistically significant difference in attendance between magnet students and non-magnet students. Magnet students attended school more than non-magnet students. There was no significant difference in perceptions of parents of magnet and non-magnet students. Both groups felt that the school was very good. Implications for future avenues of research were also suggested. / Ed. D.

Published Article / The purpose of this project is to investigate the application of Radio Frequency Identification, RFID, to automatic student attendance register. The aim is that the students in any class can be recorded when they carry their student cards with them without having to individually swipe the card or allocate special interaction time. The successful implementation of this proposal will facilitate such record keeping in a non-intrusive and efficient manner and will provide the platform for further research on the correlation between attendance and performance of the students. The opportunity for related research is identified regarding the range of the parameters involved, ensuring that individual identifications do not clash and interfacing challenges with the central record keeping are overcome.

Through sports, cities can reach fans from all different walks of life to rally together and support a competitive cause. Each city’s fan base is distinct—with their individual personalities being reflective of the culture and environment of the home city. The intent of this paper is to study the effect of multiple on and off field factors as they relate to attendance across three major professional sports in city markets. This will determine which city markets have the strongest, or weakest, overall fan bases. Ultimately, this study will end with an educated recommendation for professional sports franchise relocation or a league expansion.

Title: Evaluation of czech football stadiums in spectator`s view Objectives: The main aim of this thesis is to evaluate selected football stadiums in spectator`s view and on the basis of gained results suggest possibilities of improvement. Methods: At first I selected criteria, that fan interferes from the time he leaves home, till he walks away from stadium. Then I marked these criteria for every stadium. Results: Gained results of evaluation showed, where are strengths and weaknesses of stadiums. Then I could offer improvement suggestion of spectator's comfort. Keywords: football, attendance, product

When only whole years of age are recorded in survey data, children who experienced a birthday since the beginning of the school year may appear to be of school-age when they are not, or vice-versa. This creates an error in estimates of school participation indicators based on such data. This issue is well-known in education statistics, and several procedures attempting to correct for this error have been proposed. The present study critiques current practice and demonstrates that its limitations continue to confound educational research and high-stakes policy conclusions: speculative explanations have been proposed for what is actually a measurement artefact. An alternative adjustment strategy is proposed that coherently exploits all available information and explicitly indicates the remaining uncertainty. The application of the method is illustrated by a number of empirical case studies using recent household survey data. These examples demonstrate that the method is feasible, accurate, and that taking survey timing into account can significantly alter how these data are interpreted.

M.Fam.Med.,Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2009