Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How is the Concentration of National Board Certified Teachers Related to Student Achievement and Teacher Retention?

Background Prior research shows that teachers’ working conditions are important for teacher and student outcomes, such as teacher retention and student achievement. Because National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) can be effective in the classroom and as instructional leaders, they are well positioned to create favorable working conditions for all teachers. Therefore, having NBCTs at a school could strengthen working conditions in ways that result in improved teacher and student outcomes. For positive outcomes to be realized, however, the concentration of NBCTs at a school may need to increase. No empirical study has directly examined the relationship between the concentration of NBCTs at the school level, and teacher and student outcomes—a gap in knowledge that the current study begins to address. Purpose The study examines the relationship between the concentration of NBCTs at a school, operationalized as the proportion of NBCTs in teaching roles relative to all teachers, and student achievement in mathematics and English language arts in Grades 4–8 and teacher retention in Grades K–8. The outcome of teacher retention is for non-NBCTs. Therefore, it represents a spillover effect of NBCTs. Setting The study was conducted in North Carolina and Kentucky. Research Design The study is correlational. Data Collection and Analysis The study's data include statewide administrative records from North Carolina and Kentucky for 2014–15. Multilevel models are used to analyze outcomes, after controlling for prior year teacher, student, and school characteristics. Findings The evidence of the relationship between the concentration of NBCTs at a school and student achievement is not compelling: We found some statistically significant relationships in both states, but the estimates are inconsistent and small in statistical and practical terms. The direct relationship between the concentration of NBCTs and retention of non-NBCTs is not significant in either state. However, the concentration of NBCTs is positively and significantly associated with the retention of non-NBCTs at schools serving a high proportion of economically disadvantaged students in North Carolina compared with schools serving a low proportion of economically disadvantaged students. The estimate of this relationship is the strongest in the current study. The relationship in Kentucky is not significant. Conclusions/Recommendations The pattern of results for teacher retention in North Carolina in the current study is encouraging. It suggests that increasing the concentration of NBCTs may be one possible avenue for keeping teachers teaching at the same schools, including schools serving a large proportion of economically disadvantaged students where teacher turnover tends to be high, negatively affecting teachers and students. Overall, we conclude that the study's findings are sufficiently compelling to warrant additional research to examine NBCT concentration using multiple years of data and with more rigor than the current study could do.
“A Vicious Cycle of Disempowerment”: The Relationship Between Teacher Morale, Pedagogy, and Agency in an Urban High School

Background/Context This research is framed by theories of teacher morale and teacher empowerment and contributes to the literature on neoliberal educational policies and teacher burnout and attrition. Purpose and Research Questions The purpose of this study is to understand the intersections of teachers’ experiences with neoliberal policies, at one high school in the urban south. The research questions include: (1) How is the morale of exceptional urban teachers affected by the contextual factors of a neoliberal school climate? (2) How does their morale relate to teachers’ reports of their pedagogy? Research Design This study utilized a qualitative case study design and, in addition to traditional analytic methods used in case studies, drew on grounded theory methodology. I collected quantitative data from approximately 30 staff members in the form of two surveys and qualitative data from eight focal participants. These participants were all (1) veteran teachers, (2) recognized as strong/exceptional teachers according to both neoliberal and non-neoliberal indicators, and (3) represented a diversity of other identity markers. My analysis here focuses on the qualitative data, and I use the quantitative results as a way to contextualize the data of my eight focal participants. Types of qualitative data include: interviews (semi-structured), a focus group, participant observations (of meetings at the district and school level), document analysis (of district-produced documents, school newspaper articles, local newspaper articles, and teachers’ written reflections), and researcher journals and memos. Findings/Results Results indicate that: (1) Morale is influenced by a variety of contextual factors at multiple levels, and being in a “good” school or being labeled an “exceptional” educator is not enough to keep one from feeling the effects of disempowerment brought about by top-down mandates, and (2) Teachers overwhelmingly reported that low morale impacted their view of their own pedagogy, contributing to a “vicious cycle” of low morale, disempowerment, and less effective pedagogy. The focal participants, even though they were hailed as successful educators, felt discouraged and unable to maintain quality pedagogy because of restrictive educational policies. Thus, I argue that educational policies at the school, district, state, and national level significantly decrease teachers’ morale and have a negative influence on their perception of their pedagogy. In a vicious cycle, low morale makes them feel like less effective teachers, and their belief that they are less effective lowers their morale.
Coaching and Districtwide Improvement: Exploring the Systemic Leadership Practices of Instructional Coaches

Background Many school districts are relying on instructional coaches to improve teaching and learning under the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Yet we know very little about how coaches exercise systemic leadership to support districtwide improvements in instruction. Purpose In this study, I broadly define systemic leadership as efforts to coordinate multiple reform goals with school improvement strategies and classroom instruction, and to build institutional knowledge and collaborative structures for scaling up instructional change. I used social-network theory and the concept of brokering to study the systemic leadership practices of Digital Learning Coaches (DLCs) in the Peterson Unified School District (PUSD, a pseudonym), a midsized urban district that distributed iPads and laptops to schools in the 2014–15 school year for CCSS instruction. Research Design I used an explanatory sequential research design to examine how DLCs engaged educators at all organizational levels of PUSD to support systemic change. I collected social-network data to map communication networks in the district and how DLCs brokered information in these networks. I then conducted a multiple case study of three DLCs in six elementary schools to characterize the quality of systemic leadership exercised by DLCs through their brokering exchanges and the organizational factors informing their leadership. Findings I find that DLCs brokered information in a siloed, top-down manner from the central office into schools, guiding teachers on how to integrate technology with instruction but failing to coordinate this support with other CCSS resources popular among school leaders and teachers. Consequently, DLCs struggled to build coherence around the use of technology with school goals for improvement, provide instructional support to a broad footprint of teachers, and discover and share novel uses of technology developed by teachers. The organizational context of the central office and its schools informed DLC brokering, with top-down hierarchies, organizational silos, principal leadership, and the experience, goals, and training of DLCs influencing how these coaches engaged educators. Conclusions My findings suggest that district leaders should provide explicit guidance, resources, and more time for instructional coaches to demonstrate leadership in support of systemic change. I also show that instructional coaching is dependent on the organizational context of schools, suggesting that there will be local variation in the leadership outcomes that coaches achieve in practice and that district leaders should account for pertinent factors such as principal leadership, school structures for teacher collaboration, and school-reform readiness when developing coaching programs.
Painting and Podcasting as Play: Assemblages (With)in Classroom-Situated Multimodal Design

Background Researchers interested in more playful literacy practices often abandon school-related contexts to instead follow young people to after-school settings, community spaces, social spaces, home environments, and online hangouts. However, play also makes itself visible, even (and sometimes especially) in more formalized learning spaces. Sometimes it emerges subversively in much the same way that flowers grow through cracks in concrete. Other times, teachers deliberately carve out experiences for students to make space for humor, creativity, laughter, and social imagining. Purpose/Objective/Research Question This inquiry examines two questions: What assemblages of play emerge when youth engage in multimodal composition in classroom spaces? What did these assemblages of play produce? Participants Participants included youth and teachers from two very different classrooms engaging in a diverse set of multimodal composition projects: one 6th-grade class in an independent school engaging in the creation of podcasts, and one 8th-grade class in a rural public school painting a scene from a recently read novel. Research Design This inquiry was designed as a qualitative case study. Data Collection Data sources gathered for this project included descriptive fieldnotes taken during approximately 3 hours of classroom observation during multimodal design, audio recordings during class sessions, photographs taken at the school sites, digital products produced by youth, reflective interviews with teachers, follow-up focus groups with 6th-graders, and reflective surveys filled out by all 8th-grade participants. Findings Two focal assemblages emerged from various participant/researcher vantage points. Youth conceptualized play as craft, and the researcher observed work-play flows. Conclusions Recommendations include (a) better recognizing play across age groups and places/spaces, (b) conceptualizing play as a complicated assemblage of materials, humans, emotions, technologies, and space-times, and (c) embracing work-play flows.
Understanding Tenure Reform: An Examination of Sense-Making Among School Administrators and Teachers

Background Since 2015, 23 states have issued a variety of reforms to the teacher tenure process. Many of these reforms have made it more difficult for teachers to receive tenure, either by extending the pre-tenure probation period or requiring some form of evidence of teacher performance. How educators and school leaders make sense of changes to tenure-granting policies likely transforms their perceptions of the teaching profession and has ramifications for staffing practices in schools. However, little research has sought to understand how states and districts have implemented tenure reform, how educators make sense of these reforms, and how teacher and school leaders’ understanding of changes to tenure statutes influence school practice and staff relations. Focus of Study The purpose of this study is to explore the sensemaking process of school stakeholders most directly affected by changes to teacher tenure policies—teachers and school leaders. To this end, this study examines the referential cues on which school staff tend to rely to understand tenure reform as well as their collective accounts of how reform translates into changes within the context of their work. Setting and Participants: Participants in this study included 30 pre-tenured teachers and 10 school leaders across 10 school sites within a single large, urban district in Tennessee. Research Design In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants during the 2016–17 and 2017–18 academic years. Transcripts of interviews were coded for recurring themes to address the research questions of the study. Conclusions/Recommendations Findings illustrate how school leaders relied on outdated state and district supports, while teachers referenced peer interactions to make sense of tenure reform. In addition, school leaders considered the enacted reforms an improvement to the previous tenure process, however, few school leaders indicated that tenure reform influenced teacher staffing and professional development within their schools. Teachers suggested tenure reform provided a sensible form of professional accountability in theory but was nevertheless undermined by a lack of communication, administrative support, and conflicting policy aims in practice. Findings highlight the robustness of peer networks in teacher sensemaking. More generally, this research has implications for the implementation of concurrent policy initiatives within schools and future directions for research on distributed and fragmented sensemaking.
Strange Frame Fellows: The Evolution of Discursive Framing in the Opt-Out Testing Movement

Background/context In recent years, opposition to accountability policies and associated testing has manifested in widespread boycotts of annual tests—mobilized as the “opt-out movement. ” A central challenge facing any movement is the need to recruit and mobilize participants. Key to this process is framing—a discursive tactic in which activists present social issues as problems that require collective action to solve. Such framing often relies on compatible political and ideological commitments among activists and potential recruits. Yet the opt-out movement has successfully mobilized widespread boycotts in diverse communities. How have participants in the movement framed issues relating to testing and accountability? Purpose/objective/research question/focus of study I explore the discursive tactics of participants in the opt-out movement by analyzing how they frame issues related to testing and accountability over time. I ask two research questions: (1) What frames did participants in opt-out-aligned social media groups use to convince others that standardized accountability tests are a problem and build support for the movement? (2) To what extent and how did the deployment of frames change over time? Research design I conducted a mixed-methods study combining qualitative content analysis to identify frames and computational analysis to describe their co-deployment over time. Data collection and analysis I compiled a text corpus of posts to opt-out-aligned social media pages from 2010–2014. I analyzed posts using open coding to identify frames used by participants in online communities. Frames were categorized by their orientation—the general way in which they framed the problem of testing and accountability. I then analyzed the co-deployment of frames using network analysis and hierarchical clustering. Conclusions/recommendations The longitudinal analysis of frames reveals key differences in the frames used by participants. While more politically oriented frames—those characterizing testing as a social issue affecting the public schools at large—were common in early stages of the movement, less overtly political frames—those characterizing testing as an individual issue affecting children and local schools or a technical issue—became more prominent over time. Over time, socially oriented frames became decoupled from other frames, showing independent patterns of deployment. This suggests that the movement may have benefited from de-emphasizing politically oriented frames, but that it lacked an overarching shared narrative, which has the potential to limit how it might affect accountability policies and testing.
Leveraging the Power of Play in Rehearsals: Supporting Complex Practice in Literacy Teacher Education

Context There is an ever-growing body of work continuing the argument for play as a pedagogical resource that supports the learning of the youngest learners; despite this, there continues to be little evidence play has been considered as such in teacher education. Research Focus The study sought to understand the role of play and playful pedagogies in a school-based literacy education course within a teacher educator program. Setting Research was conducted in a school-based literacy education course housed in an urban school in the Midwest. Participants Preservice teachers enrolled in literacy education coursework at a midsized urban institution of teacher education. Research Design Data utilized in this study comes from a multiple case study using a practitioner inquiry lens. Data Collection and Analysis Data collection occurred over five semesters (Spring 2016-Spring 2018). Types of data included mid- and end-of-semester interviews, audio and video recordings of rehearsals, video recording of enactments, and a variety of artifacts produced by preservice teachers within the course. Findings Play, utilized within the context of a literacy education course, promoted the development of complexity tolerance: an ability to entertain the variables that may impact their teaching, even those they had not thought of. Recommendations This complexity tolerance supported preservice teachers in being able to respond to student learning in the moment, deviate from instructional planning when necessary, and interrogate their own educational histories. It is a powerful pedagogical tool to support preservice teacher development when intentionally invoked in teacher education coursework.
Evaluating the Impact of the Post-9/11 GI Bill on College Enrollment for Veterans with Service-Connected Disabilities

Background/Context The Post-9/11 GI Bill has provided educational benefits to millions of military service members and veterans since its adoption in August 2009. Recent studies indicate that the bill has significantly improved college enrollment and educational attainment among post-9/11 veterans. A significant proportion of veterans suffer from service-connected disabilities. While provisions of the Post-9/11 GI Bill may render education benefits that are appealing to veterans with service-connected disabilities, little is known with regard to how the bill has affected college participation among this venerable subpopulation of veterans. Purpose/Objective This study examines the effect of the Post-9/11 GI Bill on college enrollment rates among veterans with service-connected disabilities and unpacks potentially heterogeneous impacts across groups with different demographic characteristics (i.e., sex, age, race/ ethnicity, educational attainment, and disability ratings). Population Post-9/11 veterans. Research Design Triple differences. Data Collection and Analysis Secondary data analysis based on American Community Survey 2005–2016. Findings/Results While the Post-9/11 GI Bill has increased college enrollment for veterans without service-connected disabilities by less than 1 percentage point, the increase is much larger—about 5 percentage points—for veterans with service-connected disabilities. Enrollment effects for veterans with service-connected disabilities are consistent and positive across sex, age, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, and disability ratings. Conclusions/Recommendations The results of this study provide strong evidence for the significant enrollment growth among veterans with service-connected disabilities after the adoption of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. While this result is reassuring, it is not clear whether this large effect for veterans with service-connected disabilities is due to favorable provisions in the Post-9/11 GI Bill or due to lower opportunity costs. In the future, researchers may want to identify appropriate sources for data on detailed educational benefits to examine the mechanisms behind the effect.
Cash Holdings Prediction Using Decision Tree Algorithms and Comparison with Logistic Regression Model

Abstract Cash is a very important property of an enterprise, but offers the lowest return of any asset. Nevertheless, firms do not invest all assets into higher-paying assets and hold part of their cash, especially firms in the high-tech electronics industry. Firms in this industry hold considerable amounts of cash because they have high expenses and recovery is uncertain, potentially leaving the firm without sufficient funds. It is therefore necessary to prepare a certain amount of cash. This study uses a decision tree algorithm including J48, LMT, Random Forest, REP Tree, Simple CART, Extra Tree, and BF Tree to measure the performance of predictions. This study has three experiments: (1) testing the predictive ability of the decision tree algorithm, (2) testing the decision tree algorithm with performance improvements, and (3) determining the best decision tree forecast rate comparison using the logistic regression model. The experiments indicate that the random forest has the highest and best prediction rate comparison with the logistic regression model.
Preliminary Simulation for Obtaining Accurate Heart Rate Data Using Imputation Methods

Increasingly data acquired from consumer activity trackers are being used by clinicians to monitor and treat patients. There are many reported cases where medical doctors leverage data retrieved from these devices to successfully treat and diagnose patients with heart conditions. In addition, hospitals are testing these devices in clinical trials to support telemedicine. One challenge is sensor susceptibility to distortions, resulting in missingness and impacting on validity. In this study we are exploring optimal methods of imputation through an experimental simulation using heart rate interval data. For this initial methodology we are utilizing Fitbit heart rate data to investigate performances of four imputation methods using 1,000 Monte Carlo runs. Normalized errors from simulated missingness experiments were determined by comparing observed and predicted values. Preliminary findings show that linear and Kalman imputation methods are most appropriate when imputing heart rate data.
Using Symptoms and Healthcare Encounters to Capture a Rare Disease: A Study of Clinical Notes of the Alpha‐Gal Meat Allergy

This paper examines clinical notes to identify reported symptoms and investigate patient‐provider communication processes in alpha‐gal syndrome (AGS). Clinical notes appear to be a credible and stable source of research where the researcher can find information regarding both symptoms and environmental factors of AGS. Compilation of notes could be used for a checklist to aid in diagnosis. This study analyzed clinicians' notes in patient records retrieved from the Electronic Medical Record Search Engine (EMERSE). The most reported symptoms fell into four general categories: skin (42%), inflammation (17%), gastrointestinal (20%), and anaphylaxis (21%). Environmental triggers were also commonly reported. This in‐depth analysis of clinical notes of AGS can serve as a basis for future automation of rare disease analysis; moreover, it provides a basic understanding of the granularity of information that an electronic health record (EHR) may provide for rare disease identification.