This study develops recommendations for school district administrators and policy makers regarding policies and programs for students at risk of school failure. The study develops a descriptive picture of policies and programs for at-risk students in Washington County school districts and evaluates those policies and programs against criteria for effective policies and programs in order to understand the degree to which such policies and programs implemented in Washington County school districts correspond to criteria associated with effective practices reported in the literature. The study identifies 23 such criteria and numerous indicators associated with each. Data collection, analysis and evaluation were guided by five research questions focusing on procedures used to identify at-risk students, policies and programs implemented to serve the needs of at-risk students, procedures used to evaluate at-risk students and programs, and the effectiveness of at-risk student programs and policies. D"",' were collected from the 13 Washington County school districts and other agencies using interview, document analysis, and survey techniques. Interviews were conducted with 11 school district administrators, 66 documents were examined, the 13 Washington County school district superintendents were surveyed, and 56 of 93 elementary, middle and high school principals completed and returned a 29 item survey. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and written descriptive summaries. The data were further analyzed by applying the program evaluation technique of comparison to a standard, using the criteria for effective policies and programs developed from the literature as standards. The results show nearly all schools and districts meet two of four criteria related to at-risk student identification. Identification practices vary from formal to informal. Most schools and districts meet both criteria related to the use of ineffective programs. Retention at grade level and diagnostic/prescriptive pullout programs are seldom used as an intervention with at-risk students. Most districts and schools meet one of four criteria regarding programs that prevent students becoming at risk. No district offers preschool programs. Few full-day kindergarten options are available. Tutorial reading programs are available at the primary grades in most schools. Three of 12 criteria regarding programs that serve identified at-risk students are met by nearly all schools and districts. A variety of classroom, schoolwide and alternative programs exist that partially meet criteria for effectiveness. Most programs serve secondary students. No district meets the criterion for supporting programs with written policy. Few policies specific to at-risk students or programs exist. In summary, nearly all Washington County schools and districts meet eight criteria for effective policies and programs for at-risk students. The remaining 15 criteria are either met by some schools and not others, partially met by some or all schools, or met by few or no schools at all. Other results show that little or no at-risk student or program evaluation occurs in most districts that administrators perceive resources for at-risk students and programs to be inadequate, and that coordination of at-risk programs both within and between schools and districts is varied and often minimal or lacking. Based upon these results, 52 specific recommendations are made to school districts administrators and policy makers.

This thesis examines seven crises at the Oregon State Penitentiary between 1866 and 1968 which are symptomatic of a larger pathology of power at play at the institution. These prison crises brought the pathology of power out from behind the thick grey walls of the institution and to the eyes and ears of an uninformed public. This arousal of such attention forced the prison to re-evaluate its penal model, enact half-hearted reforms, but then resume to the institution's traditional pattern and style of punishment. This inability to address the crises or resolve the immediate problem points to a larger problem-namely a pathology of power. The pathology of power is evident in the prison administration's abuse of the political, financial, and physical power that the prison offers. This pathology is innate to the philosophy of the institution, regardless of the penal model then in application (rehabilitative or disciplinary).

Pluvial flooding is caused by rainfall events that overwhelm drainage systems and do not allow excess water to be absorbed by soils or water infrastructure. This type of flooding occurs frequently in urban systems and leads to public inconveniences and infrastructure deterioration, which could cost more than fluvial flooding over time. Increased rainfall intensity, which is projected to increase with climate change, could result in increased pluvial flooding. This study aims to examine the vulnerability of pluvial flooding in Portland, OR (2010-2017) by incorporating an interdisciplinary framework that examines the physical and socioeconomic vulnerability of flooding through citizen-reported flooding data. We use a spatially dense network of 5-minute interval rainfall measurement to examine 3-day storm events associated with flooding reports to correlate storm size with the frequency of reports. Additionally, we use a Topographic Wetness Index (TWI) to identify the hotspots of pluvial flooding over space and characterize the sociodemographic and building characteristics of hotspots by performing a spatial analysis using census tract and tax lot level data. We investigate how individual neighborhood characteristics (i.e. ethnicity, education, gender, age, income) and building characteristics (i.e. building type, building age) contribute to reported flooding. This research seeks to identify where pluvial flooding occurs across the city, and how flood management planning can better address flood vulnerability through the biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics that exists amongst communities in Portland.

Construction of highway projects is one of the most important and expensive state government functions. Highway construction projects bring revenue and jobs to the locales in which they are built, in addition to providing a better transportation infrastructure within or between communities, states or nations. In the state of Oregon, its Department of Transportation (ODOT) publishes a document forecasting planned highway construction expenditures for the next six years. This document was called, until recently the six-year highway program; it is the Department's primary programming document for planned highway construction expenditures in the next six years, with updates every two years. More recently the document has been renamed the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). The purpose of this study was to examine the distribution of planned highway construction projects within the state of Oregon from 1978 to 1992 by analyzing five selected ODOT six-year programs. Planned highway project expenditures were analyzed statistically, by county, to explain patterns of expenditure by project location, work type, highway level of importance, and changes in these over time. To analyze the significance of proposed highway expenditures by county, the cost of highway projects was compared and statistically measured against county factors such as population, area, total state highway mileage, and vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Data was collected from ODOT, the Oregon Secretary of State and the Center for Population Research and Census. Analysis consisted of simple grouping and sorting by program year, work type, etc., bivariate linear regression, and multiple linear regression. These analyses were performed on individual project data, and project data aggregated to the county level, for each of the five selected ODOT programs. The analyses determined that there was a positive correlation between relatively high programmed highway expenditures, large county populations (and population densities) and high total highway mileages per county in Oregon; in other words, the highway funds went where the people and state highways were. Furthermore, the analysis confirmed relative ranking hypotheses between highway expenditures work types, and the type of highway (LOI) the projects were to be performed on. These two secondary "ranking by type" hypotheses were: 1.) project work type, from most to least expensive: modernization, bridge, preservation, safety, and miscellaneous; 2.) LOI, from highest to least importance: interstate, statewide, regional, and statewide. Observations on the trends of expenditures over time showed that 1.) modernization expenditures in Oregon increased from 1978 to 1988, then declined in 1992 when preservation projects increased; and that 2.) interstate highways in Oregon received the highest funding overall from 1978 to 1988, but that from 1986 onward, statewide highways received more and more funding, and by 1992 were receiving more funding than the interstates.

A national resolution to alter the educational and practice requirements for nurses by 1985 has been adopted in Oregon. It has been theorized that how nurses organize their multiple roles and the degrees of role deprivation they experience will affect their views toward professional issues. Prior research suggests there be a relationship between certain demographic variables and nurses' role organization and role deprivation. The study sought to establish the relationship of selected demographic variables and the variables of type of role organization and deprivation to nurses' views of four facets of the 1985 Resolution. The intent was to examine the efficacy of a conceptual model of role organization and deprivation in distinguishing and explaining nurses' views toward the resolution. As a further research contribution to nurse role theory development, the effects of nursing education preparation and length of work experience on the variables of role organization type and role deprivation were examined. The data were obtained by mailed questionnaire using 247 nurses randomly selected in Oregon. Instrumentation included a demographics sheet, a role organization tool, and a questionnaire on the resolution. The data were analyzed using Chi-square crosstabulations and Factorial ANOVA. Oregon nurses were found to be equally divided in their views on two levels of nursing practice and a bachelor's requirement for entry into professional practice. The majority supported inclusion of a protective clause in the resolution for currently licensed nurses and development of a nurse career ladder. The relationship of selected demographic variables to nurses' views on the resolution were examined and established. Significant differences were found among nurses when type of .basic nursing education program and level of nursing education achieved were considered. Baccalaureate nurses more frequently supported two levels of practice and a bachelor's requirement than did either associate degree or diploma nurses. They were found to differ significantly from associate degree and diploma nurses in their degree of opposition to a protective clause in the resolution. Significant differences in views on all resolution items were found when advanced nursing education preparation was considered. As the level of nursing preparation beyond the basic program increased, the degree of support for the two levels of practice and bachelor's requirement increased and the greater the opposition expressed to both the protective clause and the career ladder. Subjects differed significantly in their views when type of role organization and role deprivation were examined. Nurses with high bureaucratic-high professional allegiances and nurses with low bureaucratic-high professional allegiances were more supportive of the resolution than were nurses with either high bureaucratic-low professionals allegiances or low bureaucratic-low professional allegiances. Nurses with a high degree of role deprivation were significantly more supportive of the resolution than were nurses with low role deprivation. The main and interaction effects of type of nursing preparation and length of work experience on the degrees of professional allegiance, bureaucratic allegiance, and role deprivation revealed that bureaucratic allegiance increases with work experience. No effect of the two variables on degree of role deprivation was found. Type of nursing program and length of work experience were found to interact and significantly affect the degree of professional allegiance. As length of work experience increased for associate degree and baccalaureate nurses, professional allegiance declined. Allegiance to professional ideals was found to increase with length of work experience for diploma nurses. The relationship of demographic and role organization variables to nurses• views on selected issues was established in the study. Role organization type, role deprivation, type of nursing preparation, and extent of nursing education are associated with nurses views toward the resolution.

Sediments from 21 Oregon lakes were analyzed for seven metals (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Co, Ni, V) in three forms (exchangeable, organic+sulfides, and oxyhydroxides+ oxides+ carbonates) using a sequential fractionation procedure. The summer epilimnetic filterable concentration of an eighth (Mo) was also determined. Sedimentary diatom remains and summer phytoplankton populations of the lakes were correlated with the 22 metal parameters and with conservative water chemistry parameters, estimators of lake productivity, and watershed geology. Both the sedimentary metals and the two populations of primary producers correlated best with the ecoregions of Omernik and Gallant (1986). A number of species possessed correlations with specific trace metal extractions or ratios of those extractions. Bloom-forming Anabaenas strongly correlated with sedimentary organic and filterable epilimnetic nickel. Possible Ni limitation of this group was observed in one Cascade lake (Lava). The ratio of organic nickel to cobalt appeared to control the abundance of several sedimentary diatoms. Organic vanadium strongly correlated with a number of diatoms, particularly in the genera, Cyclotella and Fragilaria. Possible V pollution was observed in one lake (Woahink), and frustule remains of C. stelligera significantly increased with increasing total sedimentary V concentrations there. Zinc was the trace metal most frequently found to apparently limit diatom growth. Diatoms may have developed three different responses to Zn limitation; the three groups have been labelled affinity-, velocity-, and (possibly) storage- specialists following Sommer (1985). Possible Zn pollution was observed in two lakes (Oswego and Clear). Phytoplankton and sedimentary diatoms weakly correlated with sedimentary iron by comparison to Ni, V, or Zn. Few strong relationships were observed with manganese, copper, or cobalt. No statistically significant correlations were found with molybdenum, and few correlations between a conservative chemical parameter and a species of phytoplankton were found. There was poor correlation between trace metal concentrations and lake productivity, despite frequently observed correlations between individual species and particular trace metal fractions. These findings suggest that variations in absolute trace metal concentrations, and/or ratios, may be important factors for controlling species distribution, but have relatively little influence upon lake primary productivity or standing stocks.

Graduation date: 1968

Low-income women in an Oregon city of approximately 35,000 inhabitants have limited access to prenatal care services during their pregnancies. The purpose of this study was to uncover the impacts of several factors on the experiences of twenty-seven health department clients with public health department prenatal care practitioners and with local private obstetricians. Ethnographic interviews were conducted with the clients, two health department practitioners, two local obstetricians, and one local direct-entry midwife. The focal finding that emerged from the research was that the clients preferred the care of the health department practitioners to that of obstetricians, even though the health department providers could not deliver the women's babies. The major impacts on the clients' experiences included fragmented service delivery and availability, economic and social restrictions on prenatal care options, biomedical constructs of a healthy pregnancy, and provider role constructions and attitudes towards Medicaid recipients and uninsured pregnant women. Local physicians' mechanistic philosophy, professional dominance and profit orientation afforded them a narrow understanding of the needs and identities of low-income women. Local public health workers are less professionally autonomous than medical doctors but their service orientation allowed them the potential to better serve low-income clients. Based on the twenty-seven clients' perceptions of their care providers and the services available to them, recommendations are made for more empowering, comprehensive prenatal care services in this county. Recommended changes to the public health system entail expanded funding for more appropriate programs and to establish continuity of care for health department clients from pregnancy through the postpartum period. The incorporation of direct-entry midwives into the prenatal and birthing care options open to low-income women is also recommended. Senate Bill 1063, which creates a process for direct-entry midwives to become state-licensed in order to be reimbursed by the Office of Medical Assistance Programs for perinatal services, is considered in terms of its implications for low-income women, the Oregon community of direct-entry midwives, and the texture of Oregon reproductive health care. / Graduation date: 1994

Graduation date: 2000

Emergency departments (ED) provide access to care for large numbers of patients who have nonemergent medical needs. More than half of the patients presenting to the ED at Salem Hospital in Salem, Oregon, were found to be seeking care for nonemergent medical needs. In an effort to provide an alternative location for receiving this medical care, the hospital opened an Urgent Care Center (UCC) a few blocks from the ED. The purpose of this study was to determine who uses the ED, why, and what effect the UCC had on providing an alternative to the ED. My anthropological methodology uses both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Included in the study is a random retrospective chart review of 462 patients who utilized the ED and 183 patients who utilized the UCC. The collected data were analyzed and compared with information found in the literature review. Interviews with hospital staff and patients using the two facilities are integrated into the analysis. My own experience as a nurse allows me a certain insider's perspective which was useful in interpreting data, while doing observation, and during the interview process. Findings from my research show that the Urgent Care Clinic does provide an alternative source of health care to the ED for many people. This is particularly true for those whose usual source of care is unavailable and for those who are unable to find a primary care provider to accept them. The emergency department provides nonemergent care for large numbers of patients, some of whom have psycho-social problems which differ as compared to the general population. Some of these patients have moderate psychiatric dysfunction and/or addiction problems or homelessness as well as underlying medical problems, all of which are barriers to obtaining care in a regular office setting. In some cases, the emergency department provides the best option of available care. / Graduation date: 1999