Establishing a Center to Support Faculty Research

This article describes the establishment in fall 2002 of a School of Education Research Center designed to support faculty in increasing productivity and quality in research. Details are provided about center goals, services, staffing, space, resources, and logistics during the first year of operation. In addition, data are shared about faculty usage of the Center, the level of faculty satisfaction with center services in the first year, and initial increases in faculty productivity. The article concludes with plans for continued data collection to monitor the impact of the Center, a discussion of lessons learned at this point in the Center's development, and possibilities for the evolution of the Center. All authors are at the University of Colorado, Denver. Laura Goodwin, Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder, is Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs and continues to serve as a Faculty Research Associate. Elizabeth Kozleski, Ed.D., University of Northern Colorado, is the Associate Dean for Research in the School of Education. Lynn Rhodes, Ed.D., Indiana University, is the Dean of the School of Education. Rodney Muth, Ph.D., Claremont Graduate School, is a professor of Administrative Leadership and Policy Studies in the school and chaired the Research Center Advisory Board. Kim Kennedy White, M.A., University of Oregon, was the original School of Education Research Center Coordinator and was responsible for collecting most of the data included in this study.     

10 School decentralization and empowerment

School results for children of poverty ‐ those forced by that poverty to live in inner‐city neighbourhoods ‐generally indicate educational failure at a much higher rate than is seen for students nurtured by wealthier school districts. This failure in school severely limits chances of social and economic upward mobility, which translates into a waste of human capital for the nation's business‐industrial‐political complex, and dashed hopes, dreams and self‐esteem for the individual. Parents and concerned citizens from across socio‐economic strata, long aware of the general inadequacy of schools in poor communities, have demanded improvement, often seeking it through legal and political means. Important strategies among the various federal, state and local school reform efforts to make schooling a meaningful process for all students, and particularly the minority poor, are decentralization and citizen/parent empowerment, the focus of this chapter. The movement to decentralize school governance ‐ an effort to place control into the hands of the people being served ‐ has gained momentum and exists in some form in most large‐city school districts today. An extension of administrative decentralization, citizen/parent empowerment is seen as one of several factors, including teacher and administrator preparation, curriculum renewal, school financing, and school restructuring, vital in the improvement of schools. A look at the meaning and scope of decentralization, operationalized through citizen/parent empowerment, and its probable effectiveness in improving school outcomes indicates that, alone, it is insufficient to ensure positive academic and social performance in school.     

Power,involvement, and organizational effectiveness in higher education

Focusing on theoretical and empirical relations among power variables, faculty job involvement, and college organizational effectiveness, this study found that power behaviors variously affect one's sense of job involvement and overall effectiveness of one's college. In particular, influence was found to be positively related to involvement and to effectiveness, while coercion was found to be negatively related to effectiveness but not related to involvement. These findings suggest that empirical integration of divergent normative theories is useful for understanding how academic administrators might behave to improve the performance of their institutions and provide support for earlier studies which have used the empirical model used here.     

Comparisons of the IQ and vocabulary scores on Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised

The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised were administered to 51 preschool, kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade students. Although 2 of 4 Pearson correlations between these two instruments were statistically significant, they may not be of practical significance.     

New teachers of color and culturally responsive teaching in an era of educational accountability: Caught in a double bind

The purpose of this article is to examine how and to what extent schools’ responses to accountability policies in the United States influence the ability of new teachers of color to draw on their own and their students’ cultural resources to engage in culturally responsive teaching. A 5-year study of 17 new teachers of color reveals that these teachers identified three principal tensions which correspond to the three dimensions of culturally responsive teaching: (a) cultural and linguistic relevance versus standardization, (b) community of learners versus teacher transmission, and (c) social justice versus enhanced test scores. The teachers also described two mechanisms by which accountability-based programs and policies were enforced: fear of monitoring and internalizing the link between testing and educational opportunity. We applied the metaphor of “double bind” to explain the tensions and enforcement mechanisms encountered by these teachers. The “double bind” forced the new teachers of color to enact contradictory systemic demands promoted by government policy and the teaching profession and exacted an individual toll. We conclude with implications for policy, practice, and research.     

AECT and NCATE

AECT is a committed partner with NCATE in its belief that every child in America has the right to be taught by a well-prepared, qualified teacher. AECT, always a strong proponent of accreditation and licensure, has been a strong ally and supporter of NCATE for over thirty years. In recent action, AECT’s Board of Directors reaffirmed its commitment to, partnership with, and acknowledgement of NCATE as the national organization that authorizes the professional accreditation programs that produce America’s teachers and other education specialists. We call upon all such programs to seek national accreditation     

Judo

Twenty male judo players (10 black belt; 10 novice) executed the major outer leg reap, osoto‐gari, with maximal effort. Each throw was recorded within the two‐dimensional sagittal plane using a 60 Hz video camera. Kinematic data that best described the power of the ‘tori's’ (thrower's) sweeping leg and the velocity of the ‘uke's’ (recipient's) falling body were analysed using a Peak Performance Technologies Inc. Motus system. Data from black belt and novice groups were statistically analysed using a one‐way MANOVA (p = .05). Statistical analysis found only two variables for the ‘tori’ (peak angular velocity of the trunk; TTRK, and peak angular velocity of the ankle; TANK) to be significantly different. Large TTRK values for the black belt group indicated a proficient ability to create large momentum on the upper body of the ‘uke’. Significantly larger differences in trunk rotation velocities of the ‘uke’ by the black belt group reinforced this notion. These differences were attributed to good upper body to upper body contact or impact, which is considered an important aspect of the ‘osoto‐gari’. Significant differences in TANK values stressed the importance of executing plantar flexion near sweep contact. The results emphasised the importance of using the sweeping leg in a sequential kinetic link motion rather than as a single rigid segment.     

Multi-joint rate of force development testing protocol affects reliability and the smallest detectible difference

Isometric tests have been used to assess rate of force development (RFD), however variation in testing methodologies are known to affect performance outcomes. The aim of this study was to assess the RFD in the isometric squat (ISqT) using two test protocols and two testing angles. Eleven participants (age: 26.8 ± 4.5 years, strength training experience: 7.1 ± 3.03 years) completed test and retest sessions one week apart, whereby two test protocols with respect to duration and instructions were compared. Isometric peak force (ISqT^peak) and isometric explosive force (ISqT^exp) tests were assessed at two joint angles (knee flexion angle 100° and 125°). Force-time traces were sampled and subsequently analysed for RFD measures. Average and instantaneous RFD variables did not meet reliability minimum criteria in ISqT^peak at 100° or 125°. The ISqT^exp test at 100° met reliability criteria in the RFD 0–200 and 0–250ms variables. The ISqT^exp test at 125° met reliability criteria in the RFD 0–150, 0–200 and 0–250ms variables. Force-time characteristics were optimized at the higher knee joint angle. Average and instantaneous RFD measures obtained using a traditional peak force test do not meet basic reliability criteria. Researchers assessing multi-joint RFD should employ the explosive RFD test protocol as opposed to the traditional isometric peak force protocol.