Graduation date: 1985

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Montana, 2007. / Title from title screen. Description based on contents viewed Aug. 18, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 128-135).

Northwest-southeast Miocene uplift with subsequent erosion has bared rocks of Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic ages in the western Skagit Delta region. Pleistocene glaciation followed by recent alluviation has buried much of the bedrock leaving rock exposures only on islands in Skagit Bay or as low hills projecting through the alluvium. A low-grade metamorphosed sequence of graywacke, conglomerate, breccia, argillite, and spilite, all of probable Paleozoic age, make up the oldest rocks of the area. Mesozoic rocks, composed of graywacke and argillite, crop out in hills northwest and southeast of the town of La Conner. The contact between Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks is not exposed but an unconformity is believed to separate the two. No fossils were found in either sequence. Because Paleozoic(?) and Mesozoic(?) rocks can not be correlated with any other known units, new names have been assigned by the writer. The Paleozoic(?) sequence is called the Goat Island Formation and the Mesozoic(?) sequence is called the La Conner Formation. Along the North Fork of the Skagit River a conglomerate sequence with interbedded sandstones and siltstones makes up disconnected, low, tree covered hills. Lithologically this sequence can be divided into two formations separated by a probable unconformity. Microfossils in the upper unit indicate a Lower Tertiary age but definite correlation with described units in other areas is not possible. The lower formation is here designated the Delta Rocks Formation while the upper is called the Ika Formation. Serpentinites make up the whole of Goat Island and adjacent parts of Fidalgo Island. On southern Fidalgo Island another serpentinite encloses an unusual hydrothermal vein containing calcite, celestite, and strontianite. These ultrabasic rocks are considered part of the Fidalgo Formation and are of probable Triassic age. A small outcrop of marine Pleistocene occurs at the east end of Goat Island and contains an assemblage of invertebrates. Vashon till and outwash cover most of Fidalgo Island and Pleasant Ridge. Pre-Tertiary deformation has been intense with both Paleozoic and Mesozoic sequences folded, sheared and faulted. Cenozoic deformation has been restricted to Miocene concentric folding. Axes of both pre-Tertiary and Tertiary folding are aligned essentially east-west. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

This research project was designed to obtain data on factors that influence whether state level Legislative policies affect the changes in practice at which they are directed. Specifically, the study examined a teacher evaluation short form option created in 1985, the original intent of the policy, and the resultant changes in practice. It examined the situations in which the option was utilized, and whether current practice reflected research on effective practices. Phone interviews were conducted to identify legislative intent and to develop study questions and forced choice items. Systematic sampling techniques were used to distribute surveys to principals in every sixth public school building in the state. The survey collected data on seven areas: respondent and school demographics, use of the option, effects of the option, changes in practice with the policy, perceptions of effective evaluation, and satisfaction with summative and formative evaluation. While 79.5% of teachers were eligible for evaluation with the short form, 19.6% were evaluated with it. Fifty-one percent of the administrators chose the option to save time. Forty-six percent did not know what effect the policy had been, while 40% perceived the policy to have had little or no effect. Since 1985 half of the principals had changed practice, 66% reported spending more time on teacher evaluation, and 60% report their current practices to be more stringent. Ten and a half percent report having changed practice as a result of the state policy. There was a correlation between staff size and option use. While the option did save time for summative evaluation, many reported spending additional time in formative evaluation. Use of the option was restricted by district level policy and by collective bargaining agreement. The decision not to use the option with eligible teachers was often based on utilization of informal data collection outside the classroom setting. Use of the short evaluation option does save administrator time, is effective for summative evaluation but is not effective for formative evaluation. Formative evaluation options need to be increased. Current policy only addresses summative evaluation directly. Current summative evaluation only provides for ratings of satisfactory and unsatisfactory. The study does indeed demonstrate that administrative practice does change to some degree as a result of policy, but does not necessarily result in the legislative intent of that policy.

Intercommunication has been identified between the unconfined and uppermost confined aquifer systems underlying a portion of the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site. Erosional thinning and fracturing of the basalt confining layer within the study area allows physical contact between the two aquifers, but the vertical hydraulic gradient (a required driving force) is small. To better conceptualize the distribution and volume of the leakage occurring between the aquifer systems, this study investigates the confined Rattlesnake Ridge Aquifer flow system, which appears to be more sensitive to the vertical leakage than the overlying unconfined aquifer.

This study compared recidivism rates of adult male completers and non-completers of correctional education programs in ABE/GED/high school, vocational, and college transfer programs over a five-year period. A total of 1382 releasees was studied for the five years following their release. Recidivism was the dependent variable. Recidivism was defined as re-admission to prison in the state. The dependent variable was compared to the independent variable of education program and the extraneous variables of release age, first crime committed, and type of admission. A Logistic Regression Analysis showed significance for all of the independent and extraneous variables. A Paritioned Chi-square found significance for the independent variable, while controlling for the extraneous variables. Those who completed higher levels of education showed significantly lower levels of recidivism as measured by Chi-square. More research is recommended. / Graduation date: 2000

This study was conducted to develop a holistic understanding of distance education by identifying factors and patterns of factors that foster or impede distance education. The Washington State Community and Technical College System provided the context for the investigation of four primary questions: 1. What is the community and technical college perception of distance education? 2. What factors affect the development of distance education? 3. Which factors and factor patterns foster distance education? 4. Which factors and factor patterns impede distance education? A literature review revealed three major themes related to this study: (a) change and transformation in higher education, (b) technology and learning, and (c) distance education. Further understanding of the context for this study was derived from a review of the history of distance education in Washington State. Data were collected from interviews, documents, and participant field observations. Interviews were conducted with one administrator and one practitioner from four community colleges and one technical college. The four community colleges were stratified by location and distance education history. Constant comparative data analysis generated four hypotheses from this study: 1. The five major factors that affect the development of distance education in community and technical colleges are: (a) institutional leadership, (b) technology, (c) support, (d) faculty and department acceptance, and (e) funding. 2. These five major factors are dynamically and interdependently linked to create a "whole" that is greater than the sum of its parts. 3. Distance education in community and technical colleges is advanced by coordinating and balancing these factors, rather than by focusing exclusively on any single factor. 4. Factors that have the potential to foster or impede distance education in the future, but little effect in 1997 include: (a) intellectual property, (b) governance, (c) contracts, (d) policies, and (e) accreditation. This study generated findings with implications for community and technical college distance education leadership, management, and practice. Additional research is warranted. It is recommended that statistical analysis of factors, validated by a modified Delphi panel, be conducted. / Graduation date: 1998

No description available.

This thesis introduces the study of inmate marginalia as a method for understanding inmates’ uses of texts in prison libraries and for understanding the motivations for these uses. Marginalia are the notes, drawings, underlining, and other markings left by readers in the texts with which they interact. I use the examples of the Talmudic projects to set a precedent for the integration of marginal discourses into the central discourse of society. Next, I discuss the arguments surrounding the use of texts in prison libraries, including an outline for an ideal study of inmate marginalia. Finally, I discuss the findings of my on-site research at four prison libraries in Washington State. After scanning evidence of marginalia from forty-eight texts, a relatively small sample, I divided the marginalia by gender of facility, genre of text, address of the marginalia, and type of marginalia and found statistically significant correlations (p < 0.05) between gender and genre, gender and address, gender and type, and genre and type. However, while these correlations are statistically weak and require further investigation, the statistically significant correlations indicate the potential for integrating inmate marginalia studies into the scholarly discussions regarding inmates’ interactions with texts in prison.

Rain-on-snow (ROS) occurs when warm, wet air moves into latitudes and/or elevations having vulnerable snowpacks, where it can alter water inputs to infiltration, runoff and erosion. The Pacific Northwest is particularly susceptible: winter storms off the Pacific cause locally heavy rain plus snowmelt almost annually, and disastrous flooding and landsliding intermittently. In maritime mountainous terrain, the effects seem more likely and hydrologically important where warm rains and seasonal snowpacks are liable to coincide, in middle elevations. Several questions arise: (1) In the PNW, does ROS affect the long-term frequency and magnitude of water delivery to the ground, versus total precipitation (liquid and solid), during big storms? Where and how much? (2) If so, can we determine which elevations experience maximum hydrologic effects, the peak ROS zone? Probabilistic characteristics of ROS are difficult to establish because of geographic variability and sporadic occurrence: scattered stations and short observational records make quantitative frequency analysis difficult. These problems dictate a modeling approach, combining semi-random selection of storm properties with physical rules governing snow and water behavior during events. I created a simple computer program to perform Monte Carlo simulation of large storms over 1000 "years", generating realizations of snowpack and storm-weather conditions; in each event precipitation falls, snow accumulates and/or melts, and water moves to the ground. Frequency distributions are based on data from the Washington Cascades, and the model can be applied to specific sites or generalized elevations. Many of the data sets were based on observations at Stampede Pass, where high-quality measurements of weather and snow at the Cascade crest have been made since the 1940s. These data were used to inform the model, and to test its reliability with respect to the governing data distributions. In addition, data from ROS events at Stampede, and at research sites in southwest Oregon, were used to confirm that the model's deterministic calculations of snow accumulation, snowmelt, and percolation (yielding water available for runoff) adequately simulate conditions observed in the field. The Monte Carlo model was run for elevations ranging from 200 to 1500 m, each over a hypothetical millennium. Results indicate that the presence of snow in some storms reduces the amount of water reaching the ground. This occurred more often in highlands but also at middle and lower elevations, affecting the long-term frequency-magnitude relations across the landscape. In these conditions, the rain-gauges overestimate the amount of liquid water actually reaching the ground. For many storms, however, ROS enhances water reaching the ground, most significantly at elevations between ~500-1100 m. At lower and higher elevations, the water available for runoff exceeds precipitation in ~2% of events, but this proportion rises to ~20-30% at ~800 m. Other metrics (e.g., series statistics, exponential regression coefficients, frequency-magnitude factors) also indicate that this middle-elevation band (around ~800 m) experiences ROS most often and with greatest water available for runoff. Of the west-central Washington Cascades study region, about one-third to one-half the landscape is susceptible to significant ROS influence. These results indicate areas where ROS currently has the greatest hydrologic consequence on ecosystems and human works, and possibly the greatest sensitivity to changes in land-use and climate.