The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive functioning. Exercise boosts blood flow, releases endorphins, and promotes changes in the brain which help regulate emotions and stress levels.
Key Findings from Focus Groups with College StudentsRobert Kelly
In September 2014, Hart Research conducted three focus groups among current college students. One group was convened in Waltham, Massachusetts, among seniors at private four-year colleges and universities. Two groups were held in Dallas, Texas—one among seniors at public four-year colleges and universities and another group among students at community colleges who expect to receive their associate degree or transfer to a four-year college within the next 12 months.
The discussions were structured to explore current college students’ understanding of their colleges’ expected learning outcomes for students, their feelings about making the transition to life after college, and their level of confidence that they will have the skills and knowledge needed to be successful after college. The discussions also sought to provide an understanding of how college students think employers weigh the importance of graduates acquiring knowledge and skills in a specific field vs. a broad range of cross-cutting skills and knowledge, as well as their impressions of the college learning outcomes that employers value most. The sessions also explored students’ participation in and perceptions of various applied learning experiences and the value of these experiences.
Key takeaways from these discussions are outlined in this memorandum. It is important to note that this is qualitative research, and thus the findings should not be interpreted as broadly representative of the views of the nation’s college students.
Moving Toward Sustainability: Kansas City Teacher ResidencyJeremy Knight
Kansas City Teacher Residency (KCTR) is a teacher residency program that recruits, certifies, and develops teachers in the Kansas city region. Launched in 2016, by Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, KCTR has established a high-quality and diverse teacher preparatory program for Kansas City. In late 2018, Bellwether partnered with KCTR and Kauffman Foundation to redesign KCTR's program model to bring it in line with peer benchmarks and ensure long-term impact and sustainability. Over six months, Bellwether, in collaboration with KCTR's senior leadership team, Board, and key advisers, developed and began to implement a plan to put KCTR on a path to organizational and financial sustainability (initial changes significantly reduced the ongoing fundraising need). Key priorities identified in the plan included strengthening partnerships (with schools and university), optimizing KCTR expenditures, exploring new earned-revenue opportunities, and gradually growing the number of residents to full-scale. With the new plan, KCTR is prepared to continue the growth of impact while doing so in a sustainable manner, to ultimately fuel Kansas City with passionate, effective, and diverse educators.
A Guide for School Districts: Exploring Alternative Measures of Student Learn...Tanya Paperny
Districts across the country play a crucial role in ensuring schools effectively serve students and families. Beyond federal requirements in the Every Student Succeeds Act and state-level accountability systems, locally developed school performance frameworks are a key lever for holding schools accountable, particularly for student learning and wellness.
Today — with unfamiliar school configurations and unknown impacts on student outcomes — it is more important than ever that districts are diligent about assessing schools’ impact on students. But the ways that districts have done so in the past may no longer be appropriate. And districts that previously did not engage in school-level performance assessments now have a new incentive to do so.
This toolkit is a resource to help districts adapt existing school performance frameworks to the current moment or create new ones. These slides identify and walk through the fundamental questions districts need to consider in designing school performance frameworks that acknowledge the challenges that schools and students are facing, as well as a continued need to monitor performance and continuously improve.
Autonomous District Schools: Lessons From the Field on a Promising StrategyJeremy Knight
Autonomous district schools (sometimes called “in-district charters”) use some of the same freedoms that public charter schools enjoy while remaining part of the district. Enabled by innovative policies that support school-level autonomy, Springfield, Massachusetts; Indianapolis, Indiana; Denver, Colorado; and San Antonio, Texas, are experimenting with these types of schools. While these efforts are too new to have clear student impact data, autonomous district schools could be a promising strategy to improve districts’ ability to meet families’ and students’ needs and to improve outcomes.
“Autonomous District Schools: Lessons From the Field on a Promising Strategy” summarizes Bellwether’s work with San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) over the past 18 months. The district has authorized three networks of autonomous district schools using a law that supports and incentivizes the creation of these schools. Bellwether provided program design support, strategic advice, and capacity building to SAISD’s Network Principal Initiative, and this deck offers an overview of the initiative and the lessons we learned about the launch of autonomous district schools.
This slide deck is accompanied by a tool kit, “Autonomous District Schools: Tools for Planning and Launching,” which offers concrete resources for leaders interested in planning an autonomous school or network.
A School Leader’s Guide to Effective Stakeholder EngagementTanya Paperny
Families, teachers, and communities all have varying perspectives on what
the school year can and should hold for students. School leaders need to
balance these voices in decision-making through effective and authentic
stakeholder engagement.
Stakeholder engagement is essential for school leaders confronting change
and uncertainty. And yet there are better and worse ways for school leaders
to engage stakeholders in their decision-making processes: It’s far too easy to
neglect important groups, spend too much time with some groups and not
enough with others, or fail to take into account how past decisions and
community context may affect the perception of leadership decisions.
“A School Leader’s Guide to Effective Stakeholder Engagement” [LINK TK]
can help school leaders avoid these pitfalls. This slide deck provides an
overview of stakeholder engagement and easy-to-understand steps, and a
linked workbook (on slide 5) provides a resource to support school leaders as
they implement their approach.
Launched in 2005, Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) is a national initiative that champions the importance of a twenty-first-century liberal education—for individual students and for a nation dependent on economic creativity and democratic vitality.
Key Findings from Focus Groups with College StudentsRobert Kelly
In September 2014, Hart Research conducted three focus groups among current college students. One group was convened in Waltham, Massachusetts, among seniors at private four-year colleges and universities. Two groups were held in Dallas, Texas—one among seniors at public four-year colleges and universities and another group among students at community colleges who expect to receive their associate degree or transfer to a four-year college within the next 12 months.
The discussions were structured to explore current college students’ understanding of their colleges’ expected learning outcomes for students, their feelings about making the transition to life after college, and their level of confidence that they will have the skills and knowledge needed to be successful after college. The discussions also sought to provide an understanding of how college students think employers weigh the importance of graduates acquiring knowledge and skills in a specific field vs. a broad range of cross-cutting skills and knowledge, as well as their impressions of the college learning outcomes that employers value most. The sessions also explored students’ participation in and perceptions of various applied learning experiences and the value of these experiences.
Key takeaways from these discussions are outlined in this memorandum. It is important to note that this is qualitative research, and thus the findings should not be interpreted as broadly representative of the views of the nation’s college students.
Moving Toward Sustainability: Kansas City Teacher ResidencyJeremy Knight
Kansas City Teacher Residency (KCTR) is a teacher residency program that recruits, certifies, and develops teachers in the Kansas city region. Launched in 2016, by Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, KCTR has established a high-quality and diverse teacher preparatory program for Kansas City. In late 2018, Bellwether partnered with KCTR and Kauffman Foundation to redesign KCTR's program model to bring it in line with peer benchmarks and ensure long-term impact and sustainability. Over six months, Bellwether, in collaboration with KCTR's senior leadership team, Board, and key advisers, developed and began to implement a plan to put KCTR on a path to organizational and financial sustainability (initial changes significantly reduced the ongoing fundraising need). Key priorities identified in the plan included strengthening partnerships (with schools and university), optimizing KCTR expenditures, exploring new earned-revenue opportunities, and gradually growing the number of residents to full-scale. With the new plan, KCTR is prepared to continue the growth of impact while doing so in a sustainable manner, to ultimately fuel Kansas City with passionate, effective, and diverse educators.
A Guide for School Districts: Exploring Alternative Measures of Student Learn...Tanya Paperny
Districts across the country play a crucial role in ensuring schools effectively serve students and families. Beyond federal requirements in the Every Student Succeeds Act and state-level accountability systems, locally developed school performance frameworks are a key lever for holding schools accountable, particularly for student learning and wellness.
Today — with unfamiliar school configurations and unknown impacts on student outcomes — it is more important than ever that districts are diligent about assessing schools’ impact on students. But the ways that districts have done so in the past may no longer be appropriate. And districts that previously did not engage in school-level performance assessments now have a new incentive to do so.
This toolkit is a resource to help districts adapt existing school performance frameworks to the current moment or create new ones. These slides identify and walk through the fundamental questions districts need to consider in designing school performance frameworks that acknowledge the challenges that schools and students are facing, as well as a continued need to monitor performance and continuously improve.
Autonomous District Schools: Lessons From the Field on a Promising StrategyJeremy Knight
Autonomous district schools (sometimes called “in-district charters”) use some of the same freedoms that public charter schools enjoy while remaining part of the district. Enabled by innovative policies that support school-level autonomy, Springfield, Massachusetts; Indianapolis, Indiana; Denver, Colorado; and San Antonio, Texas, are experimenting with these types of schools. While these efforts are too new to have clear student impact data, autonomous district schools could be a promising strategy to improve districts’ ability to meet families’ and students’ needs and to improve outcomes.
“Autonomous District Schools: Lessons From the Field on a Promising Strategy” summarizes Bellwether’s work with San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) over the past 18 months. The district has authorized three networks of autonomous district schools using a law that supports and incentivizes the creation of these schools. Bellwether provided program design support, strategic advice, and capacity building to SAISD’s Network Principal Initiative, and this deck offers an overview of the initiative and the lessons we learned about the launch of autonomous district schools.
This slide deck is accompanied by a tool kit, “Autonomous District Schools: Tools for Planning and Launching,” which offers concrete resources for leaders interested in planning an autonomous school or network.
A School Leader’s Guide to Effective Stakeholder EngagementTanya Paperny
Families, teachers, and communities all have varying perspectives on what
the school year can and should hold for students. School leaders need to
balance these voices in decision-making through effective and authentic
stakeholder engagement.
Stakeholder engagement is essential for school leaders confronting change
and uncertainty. And yet there are better and worse ways for school leaders
to engage stakeholders in their decision-making processes: It’s far too easy to
neglect important groups, spend too much time with some groups and not
enough with others, or fail to take into account how past decisions and
community context may affect the perception of leadership decisions.
“A School Leader’s Guide to Effective Stakeholder Engagement” [LINK TK]
can help school leaders avoid these pitfalls. This slide deck provides an
overview of stakeholder engagement and easy-to-understand steps, and a
linked workbook (on slide 5) provides a resource to support school leaders as
they implement their approach.
Launched in 2005, Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) is a national initiative that champions the importance of a twenty-first-century liberal education—for individual students and for a nation dependent on economic creativity and democratic vitality.
Teacher quality and related issues (i.e., teacher preparation, recruitment, and professional development) ranked among the highest priority areas among a sample of education policymakers surveyed by the Institute of Education Sciences. And it is not surprising that quality teaching also emerged as a central theme in one recent series of Policy Forums.
Jeff C. Palmer is a teacher, success coach, trainer, Certified Master of Web Copywriting and founder of https://Ebookschoice.com. Jeff is a prolific writer, Senior Research Associate and Infopreneur having written many eBooks, articles and special reports.
Source: https://ezinearticles.com/?Overcoming-Challenging-School-Environments&id=10174636
Unfinished: Insights From Ongoing Work to Accelerate Outcomes for Students Wi...Jeremy Knight
Despite some gains over the past 20 years, significant numbers of students are not meeting grade-level expectations as defined by performance on academic assessments. Meanwhile, few schools are able to support the sort of accelerated academic learning needed to catch students up to grade-level expectations.
Evidence indicates this is not for lack of educator commitment or dedication. Instead, many educators lack clarity about how to help students catch up. Common messages about holding a high bar for academic rigor and personalizing learning to meet students where they are can be perceived as being at odds with one another.
“Unfinished: Insights From Ongoing Work to Accelerate Outcomes for Students With Learning Gaps” synthesizes a broad body of research on the science of learning in order to inform efforts to help students close gaps and meet grade-level expectations. This deck argues that helping students catch up is not about rigor or personalization — classrooms need both.
Closing learning gaps requires students to be motivated and engaged to grapple with challenging, grade-level skills and knowledge — while also having their individual learning needs met.
The report identifies what must happen among educators, systems-level leaders, teacher developers, instructional materials providers, and technology experts to move beyond the dichotomy of “rigor versus personalization” and toward a future that effectively blends the two.
How to Develop a Response to Intervention ModelAmy Robertson
Schools need a way to identify struggling students so they can intervene immediately to alter the course of action for students. Learn the 10 steps to developing an RTI model at your school with this eBook.
We Must Have Even Higher Expectations For Teachersnoblex1
Setting high standards for student learning is important, but if we are to attain true excellence in our schools, we must have even higher expectations for teachers. Traditional preparation and certification programs are failing to provide sufficient quality and are deterring many talented candidates from entering the classroom. Source: https://ebookschoice.com/we-must-have-even-higher-expectations-for-teachers/
Service-learning Provides The Environment In Which Students Will Apply Ideas ...noblex1
Service-learning, the newest name for a teaching strategy that has been used successfully for many years, integrates community service into a traditional academic curriculum. Courses that have a service component can help students connect material learned in class and experiences acquired in their placements.
Source: https://ebookschoice.com/service-learning-provides-the-environment-in-which-students-will-apply-ideas-from-the-class-or-the-readings/
Teacher evaluations-and-local-flexibilityDavid Black
School Improvement Network conducted study of 50 state department of education officials who are responsible for implementing teacher evaluation policy to better understand state teacher evaluation policy and how much flexibility districts have at the local level to implement state requirements. The goal was to inform ourselves, school districts and local schools how much freedom and flexibility, or lack thereof, they have to innovate on behalf of their own teachers and students particularly when it comes to using technology to achieve their professional development needs.
HCC recently conducted a Value AnalysisTM survey of Houston area residents as part of an overall strategic initiative to help HCC assume a desirable position in the local educational marketplace.
These are the summary results of a survey of over 40 college of business Deans. In it we explore what curricula and services they are offering to support student career development
Ed Tech Efficacy Symposium Working Group on Higher Education ResultsDr. Kristin Palmer
Results of 47 interviews with 54 educational technology decision makers in higher education institutions on their research practices and decision making for edtech. This presentation was presented on Wednesday, May 3, 2017 at the Ed Tech Efficacy Symposium in Washington, DC.
Is Oregon Ready to Implement Competency Education?Jesse Moyer
This deck is from a presentation a colleague and I gave during a pre-conference session at the 2014 Northwest Proficiency/Competency Conference hosted by the Oregon Business Education Compact and the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators in March 2013.
Establishing Trust Between School Teachers and University Facultynoblex1
The professional development school initiatives show the greatest promise in school reform due to collaborative efforts in teacher preparation. Educators in both public schools and in universities must work together in the preparation of teachers who are culturally, socially and instructionally responsive to student diversity. This lofty preparation aim begins with selecting the most promising teacher candidates for admittance into the program. The author describes an admissions procedure that has proven to be not only efficient and effective, but reflects the collaborative values of the program.
For over a decade, advocates of educational reform have supported professional development schools (PDSs) as a way for school and university partners to promote simultaneous renewal of both institutions. PDS aims are now commonplace: (a) provide exemplary education for preservice teachers, (b) support continuing professional development of experienced teachers, (c) engage in the renewal of curriculum and instruction, and (d) involve schools and universities in collaborative research.
Essential to these aims is the collaborative process. Establishing trust, recognizing cultural differences, and breaking perceived roles between school teachers and university faculty are key if partnerships are to be anything more than traditional in nature. University instructors, including teacher educators, are entering into cooperative working ventures with more frequency than ever before. Critical to the successful attainment of any partnership project are the people involved and the common commitment to program quality and coherence. In the ongoing process of developing, nurturing, and maintaining partnerships, one can expect to confront both predictable and unforeseen obstacles. Sharing information on program structures and systems will help advance the development of university and K-12 partnerships. The purpose of this article is twofold: (a) to describe, and (b) to analyze an admissions procedure, which reflects the values of the program and efficiently and effectively promotes the involvement of K-12 personnel in what is traditionally a university decision. To this end, we briefly discuss the history of this partnership and the key values that drive our work. Next, we elaborate on the admissions process and how it reflects those values in linking the university and schools. In taking stock of where we have made progress and where we have not, we examine the perceptions of major stakeholders in this process. We conclude with a discussion of recommendations to others considering similar efforts.
Source: https://ebookschoice.com/establishing-trust-between-school-teachers-and-university-faculty/
Teacher quality and related issues (i.e., teacher preparation, recruitment, and professional development) ranked among the highest priority areas among a sample of education policymakers surveyed by the Institute of Education Sciences. And it is not surprising that quality teaching also emerged as a central theme in one recent series of Policy Forums.
Jeff C. Palmer is a teacher, success coach, trainer, Certified Master of Web Copywriting and founder of https://Ebookschoice.com. Jeff is a prolific writer, Senior Research Associate and Infopreneur having written many eBooks, articles and special reports.
Source: https://ezinearticles.com/?Overcoming-Challenging-School-Environments&id=10174636
Unfinished: Insights From Ongoing Work to Accelerate Outcomes for Students Wi...Jeremy Knight
Despite some gains over the past 20 years, significant numbers of students are not meeting grade-level expectations as defined by performance on academic assessments. Meanwhile, few schools are able to support the sort of accelerated academic learning needed to catch students up to grade-level expectations.
Evidence indicates this is not for lack of educator commitment or dedication. Instead, many educators lack clarity about how to help students catch up. Common messages about holding a high bar for academic rigor and personalizing learning to meet students where they are can be perceived as being at odds with one another.
“Unfinished: Insights From Ongoing Work to Accelerate Outcomes for Students With Learning Gaps” synthesizes a broad body of research on the science of learning in order to inform efforts to help students close gaps and meet grade-level expectations. This deck argues that helping students catch up is not about rigor or personalization — classrooms need both.
Closing learning gaps requires students to be motivated and engaged to grapple with challenging, grade-level skills and knowledge — while also having their individual learning needs met.
The report identifies what must happen among educators, systems-level leaders, teacher developers, instructional materials providers, and technology experts to move beyond the dichotomy of “rigor versus personalization” and toward a future that effectively blends the two.
How to Develop a Response to Intervention ModelAmy Robertson
Schools need a way to identify struggling students so they can intervene immediately to alter the course of action for students. Learn the 10 steps to developing an RTI model at your school with this eBook.
We Must Have Even Higher Expectations For Teachersnoblex1
Setting high standards for student learning is important, but if we are to attain true excellence in our schools, we must have even higher expectations for teachers. Traditional preparation and certification programs are failing to provide sufficient quality and are deterring many talented candidates from entering the classroom. Source: https://ebookschoice.com/we-must-have-even-higher-expectations-for-teachers/
Service-learning Provides The Environment In Which Students Will Apply Ideas ...noblex1
Service-learning, the newest name for a teaching strategy that has been used successfully for many years, integrates community service into a traditional academic curriculum. Courses that have a service component can help students connect material learned in class and experiences acquired in their placements.
Source: https://ebookschoice.com/service-learning-provides-the-environment-in-which-students-will-apply-ideas-from-the-class-or-the-readings/
Teacher evaluations-and-local-flexibilityDavid Black
School Improvement Network conducted study of 50 state department of education officials who are responsible for implementing teacher evaluation policy to better understand state teacher evaluation policy and how much flexibility districts have at the local level to implement state requirements. The goal was to inform ourselves, school districts and local schools how much freedom and flexibility, or lack thereof, they have to innovate on behalf of their own teachers and students particularly when it comes to using technology to achieve their professional development needs.
HCC recently conducted a Value AnalysisTM survey of Houston area residents as part of an overall strategic initiative to help HCC assume a desirable position in the local educational marketplace.
These are the summary results of a survey of over 40 college of business Deans. In it we explore what curricula and services they are offering to support student career development
Ed Tech Efficacy Symposium Working Group on Higher Education ResultsDr. Kristin Palmer
Results of 47 interviews with 54 educational technology decision makers in higher education institutions on their research practices and decision making for edtech. This presentation was presented on Wednesday, May 3, 2017 at the Ed Tech Efficacy Symposium in Washington, DC.
Is Oregon Ready to Implement Competency Education?Jesse Moyer
This deck is from a presentation a colleague and I gave during a pre-conference session at the 2014 Northwest Proficiency/Competency Conference hosted by the Oregon Business Education Compact and the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators in March 2013.
Establishing Trust Between School Teachers and University Facultynoblex1
The professional development school initiatives show the greatest promise in school reform due to collaborative efforts in teacher preparation. Educators in both public schools and in universities must work together in the preparation of teachers who are culturally, socially and instructionally responsive to student diversity. This lofty preparation aim begins with selecting the most promising teacher candidates for admittance into the program. The author describes an admissions procedure that has proven to be not only efficient and effective, but reflects the collaborative values of the program.
For over a decade, advocates of educational reform have supported professional development schools (PDSs) as a way for school and university partners to promote simultaneous renewal of both institutions. PDS aims are now commonplace: (a) provide exemplary education for preservice teachers, (b) support continuing professional development of experienced teachers, (c) engage in the renewal of curriculum and instruction, and (d) involve schools and universities in collaborative research.
Essential to these aims is the collaborative process. Establishing trust, recognizing cultural differences, and breaking perceived roles between school teachers and university faculty are key if partnerships are to be anything more than traditional in nature. University instructors, including teacher educators, are entering into cooperative working ventures with more frequency than ever before. Critical to the successful attainment of any partnership project are the people involved and the common commitment to program quality and coherence. In the ongoing process of developing, nurturing, and maintaining partnerships, one can expect to confront both predictable and unforeseen obstacles. Sharing information on program structures and systems will help advance the development of university and K-12 partnerships. The purpose of this article is twofold: (a) to describe, and (b) to analyze an admissions procedure, which reflects the values of the program and efficiently and effectively promotes the involvement of K-12 personnel in what is traditionally a university decision. To this end, we briefly discuss the history of this partnership and the key values that drive our work. Next, we elaborate on the admissions process and how it reflects those values in linking the university and schools. In taking stock of where we have made progress and where we have not, we examine the perceptions of major stakeholders in this process. We conclude with a discussion of recommendations to others considering similar efforts.
Source: https://ebookschoice.com/establishing-trust-between-school-teachers-and-university-faculty/
Please respond to the following discussion questions, discussion res.docxblazelaj2
Please respond to the following discussion questions, discussion responses should be at least 2-3 pages long with citations:
Discussion #1
As a result of the debate on Common Core State Standards, I am convinced that teachers are not being offered enough support on implementing the standards. Teachers reported that generally, they are being offered one or two day workshops that do not begin to give them the tools they will need to comprehend, not to mention implement, the standards on a daily basis. Teachers are expected to change how and what they teach, but are not being offered any real alternatives to what they already do. Resources are often not available because of funding which means that teachers do not have the materials they deem necessary for proper implementation. According to a study by Education Next (2015), 56% of parents and teachers who responded to the study said that in their view CCSS had negatively impacted schools, while 28% believed CCSS had a positive impact on schools.
I continue to have many questions about the implementation of Common Core, but the main question I had before participating in this discussion is related to students and families choosing to opt out of the tests that are supposed to measure whether or not students know and are able to do what the standards deem necessary for college and career readiness. Michelle Malkin (2015) reports that in the 2014-15 school year over 50% of students opted out of national testing. While this is the choice of the student and family, the choice to opt out could potentially hurt schools by negatively impacting the federal funding attached to national tests.
A concern I have regarding Common Core is that the standards do not indicate what intervention methods or materials will be necessary in order to better serve students that are well below or well above grade level. There appears to be no set of standards that can account for the vast abilities, needs, and achievement levels of all students in a particular grade level. The initiative to push education toward work-force development seems to be leaving out knowledge based standards and pushing toward critical thinking skills. In the process, ELA curriculums are being forced to exclude many literary works of art, and instead focus on “empty skill sets,” as Sandra Starsky (2012) states.
By applying the critical analysis and research skills I have accumulated thus far, I can share information I have acquired about Common Core with my colleagues and peers in order to be a good leader in my field. Dr. Brookfield (Laureate Education, 2012) tells us that a true leader will help people learn new skills, knowledge, and areas of information. By constantly learning about what is important to educators, I am better able to argue my position and provide guidance in educational assumptions.
Laureate Education (Producer). (2012).
The practice of critical reflection
[Video file]. Baltimore, .
2.1 RegulationsRegulations are the rules that govern the operati.docxfelicidaddinwoodie
2.1 Regulations
Regulations are the rules that govern the operation of an early childhood program. Regulation is also an ongoing process. Preschools and child care centers should be evaluated regularly—when they are new to assure that the facility and staff are ready to provide care and education to young children, or when they change in a significant way, such as expanding the number of classrooms or hiring a new director. Early childhood programs should also be regularly inspected and evaluated as part of the routine responsibilities of ensuring children's needs are being met.
The responsibility of regulation is shared among many groups: families, early childhood professionals, the community, as well as local, state, and federal government. Any citizen, whether a parent, teacher, or community member, is able to influence the regulation process when voting for legislators who create the regulations that govern early childhood programs.
Families, teachers, and community members also participate if they report problems with an early childhood program, such as poor sanitation practices, to government agencies. Also, families benefit from the regulation process when they choose programs for their children that are regulated. The regulation process gives families, as well as staff and community members, tangible ways to measure the quality of their early childhood programs.
The role of government in the regulation process is significant. One of the most important ways government is involved is through licensing. A license is a certificate that grants permission by a governing body to do something. A driver's license, for example, gives you permission to drive a car. A child care license gives an organization permission to operate an early childhood program. We will discuss licensing in more detail later in the chapter.
Regulations are usually documented as a list of standards organized by categories, such as personnel, facility, meals, and so forth. A standard is a specific requirement, rule, or level of achievement used to measure quality. One example is teacher-child ratios. In many states the minimum standard for teacher-child ratios for infant care is one to four. There must be at least one adult supervising every four babies at all times.
Unlike curriculum standards, which usually describe specific skills or knowledge that students should master, licensing standards describe observable practices carried out by staff or visible characteristics of an early childhood facility, such as the presence of a cushioning surface under climbing equipment.
The role of the director in the regulation process is to be knowledgeable about these standards and to guide staff in ensuring that the program meets every minimal standard. Administrators collect and organize documentation, such as lunch menus or enrollment forms, that demonstrate compliance with standards.
Early childhood administrators are also responsible for inspiring staff to seek and achie ...
Eunetra Ellison Simpson, PhD Proposal Defense, Dr. William Allan Kritsonis, D...William Kritsonis
Dr. William Allan Kritsonis, PhD Dissertation Chair for Eunetra Ellison Simpson, PhD Program in Educational Leadership, PVAMU, Member of the Texas A&M University System.
Deanna BuchananSouthern New Hampshire UniversityCommunicatLinaCovington707
Deanna Buchanan
Southern New Hampshire University
Communication Strategy to Influence Change
Communication Strategy to Influence Change
A communication strategy sets the direction that guides an intervention to achieve the desired change. It allows partners and stakeholders to provide input and agree on the best way forward alongside having a map that can be referred to at the various stages of the intervention implementation. The participation of all stakeholders involved in the change process is essential to ensure a common understanding of the change's contents, obtain feedback, and obtain a commitment to the change process. Without an effective communication plan, the change initiative may not go beyond the inception stage. This paper will identify and recommend effective communication strategies and illustrate how they support change across institutions.
Communication Strategies Used to Influence and Manage Change
An effective communication strategy keeps all stakeholders motivated and on-board during the change process (Smith, 2017). The following are fundamental communication principles that would positively impact change at St, Catherine College. First of all, ensure everyone understands your message of change by being honest, specific, and relatable in your language. Only communicate the relevant information concisely and with no ambiguity. Secondly, validate your instincts regarding the desired change with data. For instance, if you feel that your team isn't engaged in the change process, you can walk around and talk to your colleagues to establish why they are hesitant regarding the change. That way, you will be able to go back to the drawing board and make amends as per the data collected.
Thirdly, having a feedback mechanism helps while rolling out the change initiative. This entails incorporating the input of team members in decision-making. Ideally, change targets, internal and external stakeholders, and they should be given a chance to contribute to the desired change. It is crucial to make sure the concerned department necessitating change within an institution owns the stakeholders' feedback. The fourth strategy to use to influence change is by taking a proactive approach. Prepare to handle anything that comes up in the future, whether positive and negative. Have a consultative discussion with team members and discuss what everyone perceives may negatively impact the change process. Afterward, move to a positive action bearing in mind that the negative impact may be persistent. Finally, technology can be leveraged to create a behavioral adjustment that aligns with the desired change.
Using Communication Strategies to Build Collaborations
Effective partnering cannot take place without the support of a good communication strategy. This means that collaborating teams will have to set out roles and responsibilities to ensure clarity of each one's contribution to the process. In the College of St. Catherine's case, the hea ...
Quickly And Substantially Improve Student Achievementnoblex1
The primary goal of educators in every public school and district across the country has always been to provide a solid educational foundation for all students. Such a foundation is key to students' eventual success in higher education, the workforce, and, in a broader sense, their adult lives as citizens and heads of their own families. In recent years, however, school success has increasingly come to be measured by results on standardized assessments, and the public expectation is that all children should meet state-established standards.
Thousands of schools and districts are grappling with the need to significantly, and rapidly, raise student achievement as measured by high stakes assessments. They are looking for answers— a roadmap — to guide their improvement efforts. Their efforts to improve might also go more smoothly if they are better prepared for "speed bumps" experienced by other districts. School districts can have a profound and positive impact on school improvement efforts. But many of them will have to make substantial changes in the way they do business.
A substantial number of studies have been conducted over nearly three decades to identify factors describing individual schools that have defied the odds by accomplishing high levels of achievement while serving significant numbers of children from low-income or minority families. But until recently little research has focused on school districts as the locus for improvement efforts.
For information about efforts to improve larger systems, educators often turned to research done in the corporate world. Perhaps the most famous of these studies was conducted by Peters and Waterman, who studied companies that ranked high on six measures of long-term financial health. The study contributed to a revolution in many American businesses that responded to the findings describing several characteristics of successful companies. Among Peters' and Waterman's key findings were that the high-performing corporations:
- were "close to their customers" and listened to what customers or clients said about their products and services;
- had a "bias for action"—they tried new ways of doing things, then tried other alternatives if necessary; and
- shifted responsibility for improving quality to the "workers" themselves — those dealing directly with clients and customers.
The Fifth Discipline, by Peter Senge, is another work that was originally written for the corporate world that has had substantial impact on education. In particular, his concept of the learning organization translated well to the understanding that schools had of themselves. However, the primary theme in his book — the importance of taking a systems view — was overlooked by many.
Source: https://ebookschoice.com/quickly-and-substantially-improve-student-achievement/
Changes in technology, society, and the seemingly never-ending trend of rising educational costs are culminating in a rapid transformation across the entire educational sector. Enrollments continue to decline for the fourth straight year according to the National Student Clearinghouse.1 Innovation that extends beyond research laboratories, special assignments and competitions is needed to reverse this trend.
In this White Paper, learn how implementing an innovation program can improve student enrollment and retention, reduce costs and improve faculty and staff productivity.
Scott Marion- Balanced Assessment SystemsEducationNC
Scott Marion, executive director of the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, shared this presentation at the Governor's Commission on Access to Sound Basic Education in North Carolina.
Strategies for scaling a blended learning pilotcschneider36
This white paper—commissioned by the Cities for Education Entrepreneurship Trust (CEE-Trust)—examines
potential responses to the challenges of growth by examining four approaches to scaling a successful blended learning
initiative. Any of these approaches might be used alone or in combination with others, but the most promising efforts
will be those that combine elements from all four approaches into a coherent, overall strategy.
Teacher Observations: The Case for Arts for All Public Charter School Policy ...Tiffany Brooks
Teacher observations are essential for ensuring that teachers are successfully preparing students for success. Teacher observations should be conducted frequently, and serve as a way for teachers to improve upon their own practices as well as implement new and innovative strategies within’ the classroom. Unfortunately, this is not translated across all education institutions. What is being found is that a lot of schools are either not conducting them frequently and/or properly. This policy memo seeks to address the effects of decreased informative observations, and proposing a few recommendations for improving observation quality at a public charter school in NE, Washington, DC.
Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology:
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Read| The latest issue of The Challenger is here! We are thrilled to announce that our school paper has qualified for the NATIONAL SCHOOLS PRESS CONFERENCE (NSPC) 2024. Thank you for your unwavering support and trust. Dive into the stories that made us stand out!
How to Split Bills in the Odoo 17 POS ModuleCeline George
Bills have a main role in point of sale procedure. It will help to track sales, handling payments and giving receipts to customers. Bill splitting also has an important role in POS. For example, If some friends come together for dinner and if they want to divide the bill then it is possible by POS bill splitting. This slide will show how to split bills in odoo 17 POS.
Palestine last event orientationfvgnh .pptxRaedMohamed3
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Model Attribute Check Company Auto PropertyCeline George
In Odoo, the multi-company feature allows you to manage multiple companies within a single Odoo database instance. Each company can have its own configurations while still sharing common resources such as products, customers, and suppliers.
We all have good and bad thoughts from time to time and situation to situation. We are bombarded daily with spiraling thoughts(both negative and positive) creating all-consuming feel , making us difficult to manage with associated suffering. Good thoughts are like our Mob Signal (Positive thought) amidst noise(negative thought) in the atmosphere. Negative thoughts like noise outweigh positive thoughts. These thoughts often create unwanted confusion, trouble, stress and frustration in our mind as well as chaos in our physical world. Negative thoughts are also known as “distorted thinking”.
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
This is a presentation by Dada Robert in a Your Skill Boost masterclass organised by the Excellence Foundation for South Sudan (EFSS) on Saturday, the 25th and Sunday, the 26th of May 2024.
He discussed the concept of quality improvement, emphasizing its applicability to various aspects of life, including personal, project, and program improvements. He defined quality as doing the right thing at the right time in the right way to achieve the best possible results and discussed the concept of the "gap" between what we know and what we do, and how this gap represents the areas we need to improve. He explained the scientific approach to quality improvement, which involves systematic performance analysis, testing and learning, and implementing change ideas. He also highlighted the importance of client focus and a team approach to quality improvement.
External interview summary for may meeting draftv3
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Educator Autonomy Project
External Interview Summary
April 2014
Prepared by Kathy Bendheim
Overview
This summary represents the findings from 19 interviews of educational leaders and is
being provided to the Educator Autonomy Working Group as input as they prepare to craft
recommendations to the Governor.
Interview Process
To ensure consistency in the interview process, the following format was followed for each
interview:
Initial contact of each interviewee was made through Commissioner Deborah A.
Gist. The Commissioner explained the Educator Autonomy Project and the role the
interviews would have in examining autonomy issues. As well, potential
interviewees were made aware that their information would be shared in summary
only and information would not be attributed to specific individuals.
Once the interviewee agreed to the interview, background information on Rhode
Island and the list of interview questions below were sent to provide context for the
interview.
Interviews were generally 30 – 45 minute phone calls with the interviewee. One or
more members of the planning team were present for each of the interviews calls.
Interview Questions
1. If you could change three things in a school or school system such as Rhode Island’s
to create the best student outcomes, what would they be and why?
2. Assuming teacher and instructional quality is the biggest driver of student
achievement, what three things would you do to ensure the highest teacher and
instructional quality and why?
3. What do you think of our hypothesis?
a. What types of autonomy (staffing, budget, curriculum, schedule, etc.) drive
the highest return for students?
4. How would you ensure the smoothest transition for changes in governance?
a. What is the best path to change?
5. If you don’t believe a change in governance/autonomy is important for improving
student achievement – what do you think would be and why?
6. What recommendations do you have for our Working Group?
a. Other experts to interview, questions to ask, recommendations for change?
b. From your experience, what mistakes should we avoid?
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Understanding Educational Autonomy and its Potential Application in Rhode Island
A Summary of External Interviews
Background
The state of Rhode Island has undertaken many reforms including adopting the Common
Core State Standards, implementing an educator evaluation system and increasing
standards for those wishing to enter the teaching profession. As these more centralized
reforms are taking hold, the Governor and the Rhode Island Department of Education
(RIDE) believed that to continue to improve student success, it would be necessary to
identify ways in which additional decision-making might be vested as closely as possible
and practical to the student. As part of its information gathering on educational autonomy,
a series of interviews were undertaken with 19 education practitioners (see Interviewee
List in Appendix A) and academics on this topic to identify – for a place like Rhode Island –
what types of autonomy1 are best vested closest to the student and how should they be
implemented?
Autonomy is an intensely debated topic in today’s education circles both nationally and
internationally. There are those who strongly believe that a district or state office can best
manage many decisions by centralizing research and best practices and disseminating
them through consistent standards, professional development and policies across districts
and schools. Others firmly believe that the teachers, who are closest to students, should be
able to make professional decisions regarding what is best for each student. However, the
vast majority of education systems operate in between the two extremes without a clear
answer as to what the optimal allocation of decision-making should be. In fact, we found
that all over the world, countries, states and districts are experimenting with ways in which
decision-making can be made closer to the student while improving the quality and
consistency of academic outcomes.
Alignment in Key Areas
There was alignment amongst the interviewees in several key areas. There was clear
consensus that the key driver to improved student success was instructional quality and
that therefore, increasing the professionalization of teaching was of utmost importance.
Ensuring high quality instruction was best driven by several interrelated systems including
a pipeline of high quality, well-trained candidates, a high quality induction and mentoring
program, structured collaboration and a comprehensive evaluation and professional
development system. Interviewees firmly believed that improving opportunities for
professional growth for educators at every step was critical.
Because of this alignment around high quality instruction driving student success, there
was also general agreement that autonomy over the broad area of staffing (staffing pattern,
selection, role, professional development, etc.) is the most important area in which there
1
For purposes of this paper, autonomy is defined as the freedom to make decisions in an
educational setting.
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should be local autonomy. Local decision-making over staff-related decisions would allow
for school leaders to build cohesive teams that together held the comprehensive set of
skills needed to meet their students’ needs. Several interviewees believed that an
increased level of local decision-making would also attract more qualified candidates into
teaching and administrative positions. As well, a school-based definition of educator roles
would allow for collaboration and assistance to colleagues in improving educator practice
as necessary based on the specific needs of each school.
There was also a common belief that increased local autonomy had the potential to yield
improved outcomes for students, but only in the context of additional measures. As
decision-making shifts, appropriate training must occur to properly prepare those now
making decisions. As well, many interviewees believed that decision-making was often
taken on more by experienced school leaders and educators who know how to “work the
system” and less by newer ones because they were unclear where the lines of authority lie.
Therefore, in all cases, there should be clarity around where decision-making is vested in
each area. Further, the majority of interviewees believed that schools should have clear
metrics, standards, time-based goals and processes for addressing poor school
performance. Interviewees in general also believed that any increased decision-making
should be granted through a system that could be insulated from specific personalities or
political changes. In order to make hard decisions with the long-term success of students
in mind, the holders of this new decision-making authority need to be confident that their
authority will be upheld as long as their performance meets agreed upon goals. Finally,
there was also a shared belief among interviewees that the basis of successful local
decision-making was an atmosphere of trust among participants in the education system at
all levels.
Implementing Autonomy Practices: Three basic approaches
While there was alignment on many of the aspects of autonomy discussed above, there was
a variety of ways in which interviewees believed it was best to implement that autonomy.
Our research identified three basic theories on when increased autonomy is most effective,
leading to three different approaches to allocating autonomy between local and centralized
operations:(1) opt-in autonomy, (2) earned autonomy and (3) tight/loose autonomy.
Opt-in autonomy is based on the theory that higher-levels of decision-making are most
effective and appropriate for those who desire them. This is based on the premise that
schools or districts are at different levels of readiness for increased decision-making and
that they recognize when they are ready. Opt-in autonomy is the option for a school or a
district to apply to the district or state education agency for increased autonomy in specific
areas or as a whole. An example of opt-in autonomy is Massachusetts’s Innovation Schools
in which existing schools or a group of educators, parents or non-profits can apply to the to
their local district to become an Innovation School. Innovation Schools are community-
based and propose increased autonomy over one or more of six clearly defined areas of
school governance. While the Innovation School program was developed at the state level,
Innovation Schools require the approval of the local school committee. In this way, the
district can ensure that school leadership is prepared for their additional autonomy and
that clear metrics, goals and timelines are spelled out in the Innovation agreement.
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Through this process, Massachusetts has created a roadmap for those educators who
desire increased autonomy while ensuring accountability.
The idea behind earned autonomy is that when a school or a district is performing well,
they are prepared to undertake additional decision-making responsibility. This approach
grants increased decision-making to high-performing schools while requiring less
oversight by the next level of authority (district or state). The theory is that a school or
district that is successful under the current construct has the experience and expertise to
operate with fewer oversights. This approach to autonomy is supported by the findings in
McKinsey & Co.’s report How the Best Performing School Systems Keep Improving. In this
report, McKinsey classifies 20 continually improving systems into several categories (poor,
fair, good and great) and analyzes the interventions undertaken to improve from one
category to the next. In their analysis, they find that in systems on the lower end of the
continuum, more areas of autonomy are centralized and as they improve, more autonomy
is moved closer to the student.
An example of earned autonomy is the Los Angeles Autonomy Zone. The Los Angeles
County Office of Education (LACOE) believes that decision-making is best when closest to
the student in successful schools, but that struggling schools need an increased level of
district oversight. Therefore, schools that perform in the upper two performance
categories can automatically become part of the autonomy zone if they so wish. Schools in
the third performance category must apply to become part of the Autonomy Zone and
those in the lowest performance category may not apply. This is actually a hybrid model
including both opt-in and earned autonomy. The risk of this approach is that the existing
system may not allow the flexibilities to be successful in some cases. In those cases, a
school may not become high performing enough to earn the autonomy needed to become
successful.
An interesting counter point to the autonomy earned for good performance is increased
autonomy granted to improve lower performing schools. The underlying theory is that
poorly performing schools need more autonomy to operate differently in order to improve
a poorly performing school. An example of this type of earned autonomy is the
receivership of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Lawrence had been a poorly performing district
for many years and was placed into receivership in 2011. The district improvement plan
included increased local autonomy for all schools, along with clear goals and timelines for
outcomes. While it is still early in this process, results to date are dramatic. In fact, the
highest growth in academic success in Massachusetts in 2013 was in Lawrence.
The third approach to the allocation of decision-making in education is what educators
referred to as “tight/loose”. This approach is based on the theory that intrinsically some
decisions are best made at a centralized level and some are best made at a local level for all
schools or districts regardless of interest or performance. Houston Independent School
District (HISD) is an example of this approach. Where the district feels that a standard
needed to be upheld, they impose a tight level of autonomy and where they believe that
local knowledge would improve decision-making, they allow for looser autonomy. For
example, HISD holds tight to standards for the number of Advanced Placement courses. In
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HISD, each and every high school is required to offer a minimum of 15 AP courses.
However, HISD allows each school to set their own start and end time based on the needs
of their students – this is a loose area of autonomy. In hiring, HISD allows their schools to
hire anyone they like (loose) as long as the candidate comes from a centralized approved
pool (tight). HISD upholds basic standards of instructor quality and allows the schools to
determine which candidates best fit their school’s needs and culture. There is also clear
recognition that which areas require tight and which require loose may evolve over time.
The risk of this approach is that the decision-making authority over which areas are tight
and which are loose is in the hands of those furthest from the student.
Autonomy and Student Results
In terms of results, while there are numerous anecdotal success stories, there are no
conclusive results correlating student success with specific methods of allocating decision-
making authority. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is the sole
international comparison of student outcomes. PISA surveys principals on autonomy levels
in two areas: Resource Management (hiring and firing of teachers, budgeting of other
expenses) and Curriculum and Assessment and then determines whether there is a
correlation between levels of autonomy and student achievement.
Results show three positive correlations in order of strength:
o Resource autonomy in the presence of collaboration between teachers and
principals
o Local control over curriculum and assessment
o Resource autonomy in the presence of public posting of academic outcomes
However, these findings are given in the context of several caveats. The data is from a
survey of principals. The degree of variability within countries is suspicious and may
reflect differences in how much autonomy principals perceive they have rather than how
much autonomy they have by virtue of policy. Additionally, it is difficult to tailor the
questions well because each system is different. What we think of as a local school board
may go by a different name in another country. As well, the titles of levels of authority can
be interpreted very differently in different languages and in different countries.
Implications for Rhode Island
Interviewees had many ideas for recommendations for Rhode Island. Most commended
the steps already taken to improve education in Rhode Island and believe that Rhode Island
is ready to move toward increased autonomy at the local level. Many interviewees believed
that Rhode Island should continue to push on current changes being implemented –
specifically those that improve the professionalization of the teaching profession including
standards for incoming teacher candidates, induction and mentoring programs and
professional development.
Several mentioned that Rhode Island should ensure there is clarity at the educator, school
leader, district leader, school committee and state leader regarding where current
decision-making lies in each area of autonomy. Several interviewees also thought Rhode
Island should consider collaboratively developing a roadmap to increased local autonomy
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with state, district and union representatives (e.g., a playbook). There was clear consensus
that with any changes in autonomy, appropriate training and accountability must be in
place and that changes are developed and implemented in a collaborative and trust-
building manner.
An additional recommendation that several interviewees suggested was to consider
consolidating certain functions of the education system to create cost savings that could
then be reallocated to the classroom. This recommendation was based on a general belief
that 32 local education agencies for 143,000 students was not efficient or effective.
Finally, interviewees challenged us to consider three additional questions. Interviewees
encouraged us to consider how to best incentivize increased local autonomy, and whether a
shift to more local autonomy would increase or decrease costs over the long-term. As well,
a final central question raised by interviewees was how to view the various roles of the
central office with regard to autonomy including the degree to which the central office
plays more of a support or oversight role.
Conclusion
In summary, there are many areas in which interviewees agreed, most importantly the
importance of the quality of instruction to student success. This premise drives the
overriding belief that the most important local autonomies are those over staffing
decisions. There was strong agreement that increased local autonomy was not the silver
bullet for improving student success, but that several additional components are necessary
including a clearly defined system of autonomy accompanied by appropriate training,
accountability systems, a guarantee that those autonomies will continue as long as
accountability measures are met and an atmosphere of trust among all those involved.
While there is alignment around these aspects of autonomy, there were a variety of
approaches regarding how interviewees and those around the world are operationally
increasing autonomy at a local level including three identified approaches; opt-in
autonomy, earned autonomy and tight/loose autonomy. While there are many examples
of student success under different structures of decision-making, there is no conclusive
evidence that points to a specific structure or system of autonomy that would definitively
improve student outcomes.
Interviewees suggested several recommendations for Rhode Island. In general, they
believed that increasing autonomy under appropriate conditions would improve student
success. Recommendations focused on clarifying and supporting existing autonomy and
ways in which to increase local autonomy through a collaborative process.
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Appendix A
Interviewee List
Interviews Held:
Darling-Hammond, Linda Faculty, Graduate School of Education, Stanford
University
Deasy, John Superintendent, Los Angeles Public Schools,
California
Farris-Berg, Kim Author, Trusting Teachers with School Success-
What Happens When Teachers Call the Shots
Grier, Terry Superintendent, Houston Independent School
District, Texas
Graba, Joe Senior Associate, Education Evolving
Hanushek, Eric Senior Fellow, Hoover Institute, Stanford
University
Hess, Rick (Fredrick) Resident Scholar and Director of Education
Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute
Jackson, Dean Educator from New Zealand
Jensen, Ben Author, The Myth of Markets in School Education
Meier, Deborah Senior Scholar, New York University Steinhardt
School and Founder of The Mission Hill School
Kingsland, Neerav CEO, New Schools for New Orleans, Louisiana
Lee, Saeyun Policy Director, Executive Office of Education,
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
McGrath, Daniel Chief, International Activities Branch National
Center for Education Statistics, United States
Department of Education
Moffit, Andy Contributor to How the World’s Best Performing
School Systems Come Out on Top and co-author,
Deliverology 101, A Field Guide for Educational
Leaders
Mourshed, Mona Author, How the World’s Most Improved School
Systems Keep Getting Better
Petrilli, Michael Executive Vice President, Fordham Institute
Ripley, Amanda Author, The Smartest Kids in the World
Smarick, Andrew Author, The Urban School System of the Future
Wong, Kenneth Director of Urban Education Policy, Brown
University