Within the current mathematics teacher population there are teachers that want to change from traditional teaching styles to become more reform-oriented (i.e. focusing on student understanding rather than procedures). Many of these teachers do not know how to begin this change. This research looks into the tools that are most valuable for teachers as they change from traditional teaching practices to include more reform-oriented teaching practices. Through this phenomenological study, six successful reform-oriented teachers were interviewed to understand what tools they found to be most valuable in their process of change. The interviews uncovered a common guiding principle that facilitates successful change towards reform teaching—focusing on the students' mathematics. This guiding principle led all the teachers to implementing task-based lessons and improving their questioning towards their students. The two tools found to be of most value, reflection and collaboration, are identified and explored. The implications of a reform curriculum are also discussed. Limitations of the study are identified and areas of future research are explored.

This mixed-methods replication study was conducted to develop further understanding of the professional perceptions of educational leaders as to the fairness and impact of Race to the Top reforms concerning teacher evaluation and compensation on student achievement and growth. Graduate students in education and educational leadership from a target university were selected to complete an electronic survey to collect quantitative and qualitative data for analysis. Quantitative results from the electronic survey revealed limited diversity in professional perceptions of the five identified components of RTTT based upon professional classification or percentage free and reduced lunch population at the school sites where assigned. Among the identified RTTT components, the component that provided for the use of school- or team-level VAM scores as part of the evaluation and compensation system was consistently viewed as the least fair and least impactful by respondents. Analysis of the qualitative data revealed a number of themes that effected respondents' professional perceptions of the RTTT initiative. The use of a value-added model in RTTT reforms, the variables considered by the model, and communication and implementation problems associated with the reforms were the central areas of concern among survey respondents. This study provided follow-up data to Windish's 2012 study and showed a negative general trajectory of the professional perceptions of educational leaders related to this high-profile, national educational reform effort.

INTRODUCTION: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) burden has increased significantly over the past decade in Saudi Arabia (SA). Disparities of NCDs disease prevalence have been documented; however, little is known regarding inequities in NCDs health services access and delivery especially at the primary health care (PHC) level. Moreover, equity considerations have not explicitly been part of allocative financial decision-making criteria. The goal of this study is to assess equity-related challenges in accessing NCDs services as well as the current NCDs priority setting and financial resources allocation process to support the ongoing health system transformation efforts. METHODS: This study used a mixed methods approach. The quantitative data was obtained from existing secondary data of 10,000 households’ surveys, The Kingdom of SA World Health Survey, 2019. The primary collected qualitative data consist of 33 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with public officials from national and regional level using an interview guide supported by documents review. A multiple logistic regression and thematic analysis were used for the analysis. RESULTS: More than 35% of people with diagnosed diabetes, hypertension or dyslipidemia have an unmet need of primary care services. Only 20% of surveyed women had a cervical cancer screening during their last pelvic exam while only 18% of eligible women ever had a mammogram. Significant factors affecting primary care services utilization were region of residence, population density, wealth, income and education. Findings from the interviews revealed that NCDs and PHC are top priorities of the Saudi health reform with strong political commitment and major investments. However, there is no clear strategic direction to improve NCDs services given the highly centralized financial system with suboptimal resources allocation towards PHC and where increasing efficiency focuses mainly on higher level care. Governance-related challenges include accountability and power struggle, partly due to financial and human resources variations across the region. DISCUSSION: Improving budget formulation for primary care and NCDs programs, and harmonizing NCDs programs funding across sectors apart from the health sector while defining what equity and allocative efficiency mean for the Saudi health system transformation are priorities to achieve the health system transformation goals. / 2025-12-11T00:00:00Z

Public opinion in recent years has been seemingly manipulated by superfluous stories, bad press, and negative commentaries regarding the perceived "Medical Malpractice Crisis." It has initiated a political attack on Florida's tort system which has resulted in making valid medical malpractice claims even more so difficult for victimized plaintiffs to pursue. After months of diligent research, and with the loyal aid of my university advisors and the dedicated law librarians I've had the honor to work with, I have thoroughly analyzed Florida's past and present medical malpractice tort reforms and governing procedural laws; in addition to arguing, by virtue of this thesis, why these reforms were truly enacted, how traditional tort reforms have egregiously compromised public interests, why Florida's future--with regard to legislative change--is grim, and how new, innovative tort reforms--such as those established overseas--could genuinely benefit Floridians. The premise of the conclusion reached in this research is partially iterated in a quote by the critically acclaimed "Insurance Law Expert," Tom Baker: "...the medical malpractice myth. Built on a foundation of urban legend mixed with the occasional true story, supported by selective references to academic studies, and repeated so often that even the mythmakers forget the exaggeration, half truth, and outright misinformation employed in the service of their greater good, the medical malpractice myth has filled doctors, patients, legislators, and voters with the kind of fear that short circuits critical thinking." --Baker, T. (2005). The medical malpractice myth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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Who is the American bureaucracy's master in national government? At least three different sets of answers have been proposed. The first answer claims a single master of American bureaucracy, be it the president, Congress, or the courts. The second denies that there is any master over the bureaucracy and claims the existence of bureaucratic autonomy. In the middle of the two theories, there lies multiple masters theory. This dissertation attempts to advocate multiple masters theory by answering such questions as "Is the conception of multiple masters only theoretically conceivable, or is it historically supported?" or "Does the historical record suggest that multiple masters scheme was seriously in play in actual American constitutional dialogue?" To be a master, one should have at least one of the following powers - budget, personnel, information, and regulatory review. This dissertation focuses on one of them - the appointing power. To look at it historically, this dissertation chose four distinct periods of American history. They are the founding era, Jacksonian era, Republican era, and the Carter Administration. These eras were related to the four important civil service reform acts: the two Tenure of Office Acts of 1820 and 1867, Pendleton Act of 1883, and the CSRA of 1978. Congressional debates recorded in Congressional Record were analyzed to find evidences supporting multiple masters perspective. There were evidences that support the significant existence and role of the multiple masters perspective in all the four eras analyzed. Although weakened in the 1978 debate, the multiple masters theory was supported in important congressional debates by leading politicians of the day, providing historical foundation for the theory. The multiple masters perspective provides a need to construct a normative foundation for bureaucrats to adopt, because bureaucrats, in many cases, cannot avoid making decisions on which master to choose and which to ignore at a given time on a given issue. Under the multiple masters scheme, bureaucrats may have to play the role of balance wheel in the constitutional order, using their statutory powers and professional expertise to favor whichever constitutional masters need their help to preserve the purpose of the Constitution itself. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to focus on a teacher-led school reform initiative. Inspired by the Reggio Emilia Approach for Early Childhood Education and committed to constructivist teaching and learning, a group of Middle School teachers embarked on a journey to plan a new way of thinking and being in a Middle School. This ethnographic study utilized observations, interviews, participant action research, and a variety of field texts to capture the story of these remarkable teachers. This case study chronicles the life and work of thirteen teachers, three administrators and two university faculty members as they struggled to make sense of the planning process that was necessary to launch a reform effort. Particular attention was focused on the power, politics, and personalities that both harmonized and conflicted with the work of these reformers. Analysis revealed a passionate desire on the part of the reformers to change the face of schooling and education for children and for themselves. Conflicting forces in opposition to their best efforts included the lack of adequate time to devote to such a cause, institutional and cultural rituals in the school, and a changing political climate in the town in which the reform was initiated. Despite the barriers, this group has been able to achieve a solid sense of community and has been able to stand together as an articulate, knowledgeable, savvy group of educators on behalf of improved education for children. Strengthening their power base through collaboration with the administrators at their school has escalated their effort to the implementation stage. Sharing vision and responsibility, their dream is coming true. Based on lessons learned in the journey with the teachers a model for exploration of process of innovation in context is proposed. / Ph. D.

This paper critically evaluates school discipline reform policy and implementation by California in the Oakland Unified School District after the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights investigation. It demonstrates that policy implementation at the school level is equally as important as policy building and reform at the state-and district level. The Oakland Unified School district was subject to many reforms at the district level through change in state-wide legislation, and school board reform after the investigation concluded with several recommendations for the district. This provides a unique opportunity to study policy implementation at the school-level to understand how school environment and discretion may affect reform implementation. As research surrounding the effects of punitive school discipline continue to support alternative discipline practices, many states and school-districts have begun to implement its own reform. However, school discretion on how these policies are implemented call for researchers to focus on the school-level of policy implementation. This thesis is motivated to create an understanding in how policy implementation at the state and district level will differ across schools in the same district, focusing on school environment can influence implementation. / Master of Arts / This paper evaluates policy implementation in a California School District as a school-level. In 2012, the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights conducted an investigation in California's Oakland Unified School District on reports of the district subjugating students of minority status to harsher punitive punishment than those of their white peers. The Office for Civil Rights found evidence to support this claim and suggested many disciplines policy and practices reform to the district, which the district began to implement throughout its schools. This paper focuses on reviewing state-wide and district-wide discipline reform by comparing two high schools who experienced a difference in suspensions after reform was implemented. I offer insight into policy implementation by focusing on school environment through mission and vision statements. I perform my analysis through a comparative case study analysis of the two schools as well as content analysis of the state policy and district level policies and practices discussing school discipline. This paper emphasizes that school policy reform at the state and district level is important, however; policy implementation at the school-level ultimately creates change and is affected by school environment.

The introduction of the first democratic Constitution and the land reform programme in South ' Africa provided the impetus for the development of a new perception of property. In terms of the traditional private law perception property rights are reduced to abstract, scientific concepts which form part of a hierarchical system of rationally and logically related concepts and definitions, the relationships between which remain largely unaffected by social and political realities. In this view the constitutional property clause is interpreted as a guarantee of existing individual property rights against unwarranted state interference. Proponents of the traditional private law view argue that this perception of property need not be replaced by a new constitutional perception of property, because the traditional private law perception is legitimated by the fact that it developed in an uninterrupted, linear line from Roman law. It is regarded as flexible enough to adapt to new and different social and political circumstances. However, the truth is that the development of property rights was disrupted by a number of discontinuities or fundamental breaks in different periods of its development. It is argued in this thesis that the introduction of the new constitutional order in South Africa can be regarded as another of these discontinuities, and that the strict adherence to the private law perception of property may be abandoned in favour of a new debate on property where the social and political function of property is emphasised more strongly. Land reform promotes the public interest in that it ensures the equitable use, distribution and exploitation of property. In most cases the implementation of land reform necessitates the limitation of property rights. A conservative judiciary's adherence to the traditional private law perception of property may lead to a constitutional conflict between the judiciary (that aims to afford existing property rights strong constitutional protection) and the legislature (that aims to promote the public interest by implementing land reform). Such a constitutional conflict can be avoided if the South African courts adopt an approach in terms of which the social and political role and function of property in society is recognised. / Private Law / LL.D.