This study was undertaken to determine if sessions in discrimination tasks with the aid of instructional cues would influence the visual perceptual abilities of pre-school children. The research was conducted in the Child Development Laboratories at Utah State University. Twenty children were used--ten in the experimental group and ten in the control group. The ten children in the experimental group were given training in performing tasks that required ability in visual perception. The ten children in the control group received no such training. It was found that the ten children who received the individualized instruction scored significantly higher on post-test visual discrimination tasks than did the ten children who received no training. The children who received the training made a significant increase in their perceptive ability. This was indicated by a comparison of beginning test scores with end ing test scores.>/p> There was no significant difference in the visual perception abilities of boys and girls or older and younger children as measured in the visual discriminations tasks.

This study explored the role of the principal in managing teaching and learning in the two Kwa-Thema secondary schools. Managing teaching and learning is regarded as the core duty and responsibility for South African principals, and it is clearly reflected in the South African Standard for Principalship Bush, Joubert, Kiggundu and Van Rooyen (2010). The assumption underpinning the study was that the principals of the two schools did not focus on managing teaching and learning, thus the high failure rate of the learners. The study was a qualitative case study and it used various data collecting methods. The data collecting methods used were interviews, data analysis, observation and focus group discussion. The use of various data collection methods allowed for triangulation could be validated against all participants or respondents. The study found that the principals of the two schools manage teaching and learning. In fact, the schools have systems in place to ensure that management of teaching and learning is taking place. However, there are contextual factors that challenge the running of the schools and as a result, the schools are underperforming due to the challenges.

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The Charnes Cooper Rhodes ratio DEA model ("CCR") is used, with panel data from a large sample of Massachusetts' school districts, to test three propositions concerning the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 ("MERA"). First, did the degree of positive correlation between Socio-Economic Status ("SES") and educational outcomes decrease, secondly did educational opportunity become more equal among towns in Massachusetts, and finally were education standards raised overall? The CCR model is a Linear Programming method that estimates a convex production function using Koopmans' (1951) definition of technical efficiency and the radial measurements of efficiency proposed by Farrell (1957). It has been widely used in Education Production Function research. The pursuit, through state and federal courts, of equitable funding, allied to the belief that smaller class sizes improve outcomes, has made K-12 education expensive. The belief that outcomes are in constant decline has led to calls for "Accountability" and to "Standards" reform. Standards reform was combined, in MERA, with reform of state aid formulas and additional state funding, to ensure a minimum basic level of education pursuant to the decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Court in McDuffy v. Robertson. The one certain relationship revealed by decades of research is a strong positive correlation between SES and outcomes. If MERA ensured a higher basic level of education, then the correlation between SES and outcomes should have weakened as the education of less well SES-endowed children improved. The CCR model was used first to measure "correlation" between multiple input and multiple output variables. Strong positive correlation was shown to exist and it appeared to strengthen rather than weaken. Next the CCR model was used to determine if there were changes in the distribution of per pupil expenditures and, lastly to determine whether outcomes improved between after MERA. The analysis suggested that the distribution of expenditures improved but that outcomes deteriorated. This deterioration seems to be closely related to the changes in the proportion of all students, in a grade, actually taking the tests. There is little evidence that MERA achieved anything and no basis upon which to argue that it achieved nothing.

This study is an examination of the predictor variables, as measured by a Demographics Questionnaire (DQ) and the Professional School Counselor Perception of Preparedness/Frequency of Specific Crisis Situations Survey (PSCPPFSCSS). The researcher determined the combination of predictor variables that accounted for the greatest amount of variance in professional school counselors’ overall perceptions of preparedness in stabilizing a student in specific crisis situations. Members of the American School Counseling Association were contacted through e-mail and encouraged to access a Web site to complete the DQ and PSCPPFSCSS. A total of 210 participants responded (response rate 23.5%). A stepwise regression analysis was used. The outcome variable was the counselors’ ratings of their preparedness for crisis counseling in specific crisis situations. The researcher entered 9 predictor variables and discovered that seven predictors met the criterion for entry set at F = .05. The 7 predictors were: (a) student/counselor ratio, (b) level of education, (c) years of school counseling experience, (d) pre-service hours spent in crisis intervention, (e) in-service hours spent in crisis intervention, (f) graduate coursework hours in crisis counseling, and (g) total number of times crisis situations were encountered. Counselor/student ratio and pre-service hours of preparation were not significantly related to perception of preparedness in dealing with specific crisis situations. The findings indicated that more experience resulted in greater perceptions of preparedness. Counselors with first-hand experience with crisis situations, more years of counseling experience, graduate course work, in-service hours of preparation, hours spent in formal or in-service, and higher degrees expressed higher levels of preparedness. The full model on the seventh step of the regression indicated that a sizable portion of the variance (approximately 41%) in counselors’ reported perceptions of preparedness is significantly explained by the predictors (p < .001). Recommendations included: (a) replication of the study with a greater sample size, (b) integration of crisis intervention skills in counselor preparation coursework, (c) extended internships with crisis response for graduate students in counselor education programs, and (d) supervision provided by counselors who have greater experience in crisis response.

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