If we build it,will they come? The effect of new athletic facilities on recruiting rankings for power five football and men's basketball programs

College athletics is currently in the midst of a building boom in which universities are competing with each other to reach an always-increasing standard of lavish athletic facilities. While these facilities are costing in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, little research is examining the return on investment for athletic programs. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of new athletic facilities on recruiting rankings for Power Five football and men's basketball programs. Data was collected on athletic facilities newly constructed or renovated from 2005 through 2015 at Power Five NCAA Division I programs. Using LSDV fixed effects regression models, results found a lack of significant improvement within football and basketball recruiting rankings following the completion of new athletic facilities, but some significance in the two years before the project was completed. Significant control variables also highlighted the effects that coaching changes can have on recruiting.     

Managerial Practices and Organizational Conditions That Encourage Employee Growth and Development

This paper focuses on seven major managerial practices and three negative conditions that must be managed to enhance employee growth and development. These managerial practices and conditions have significant potential for human resource development practitioners and performance improvement technologists by providing new perspectives to improve employee performance through employee growth and development activities. Surveys measuring employee perceptions of manager behaviors were administered to 503 MBA and PhD students from the United States, resulting in 463 useable responses. The hypotheses were tested using linear regression and structural equation modeling. Based on the analysis, the researchers found that involving employees in decision making, motivating employees, treating employees as unique individuals, and making certain that managers are effective have the highest influence on employee growth and development.     

Manpower needs in rural school psychology

The majority of unserved and underserved handicapped children live in rural America (Sher, 1978). One obstacle to serving these children is a lack of qualified staff (Helge, 1981). The turnover rates for rural and urban school psychologists in Virginia were determined for the years 1977–78 through 1979–80: the rate for rurai school psychologists is four times the rate for urban school psychologists (p<.001). Rural school psychologists who terminated employment and rural school psychologists who remained were surveyed on selected background variables in 1981. School psychologists who remained were much more likely than those who left to have been raised in a nonurban community. Implications for training programs are discussed.     

Factor structure evidence for developmental levels of perceptual processing on the developmental test of visual-motor integration

Beery's Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration was individually administered to 193 school-age children. Test protocols were factor analyzed by a principal component solution. Four factors were obtained, indicating that the test does not measure a unitary dimension of perceptual-motor development, but rather four distinct levels or stages for the age range of children investigated. The structural features of the designs that make up the test were used to define the factors. It is argued that a more useful interpretation of performance on this test would be one that designates visualmotor processing in terms of levels, not age equivalents.     

Parents as cotherapists in think aloud

Results of two case studies in which parents served as cotherapists in a social cognitive problem-solving program are presented. Larry, nine years old, was referred due to distractibility, immaturity, and impulsivity. Robert, eight years old, was referred for aggressive behaviors. Training occurred once a week for 50 minutes for 17 weeks for Larry and for 15 weeks for Robert. Parents were included in training in an effort to promote generalization and transfer of training outcomes. The parents' role included cognitive modeling, reinforcing, providing problem situations from the prior week, and extending training through generalization tasks at home. The following dependent measures were obtained in a pre-post design: Conners Teacher and Parent Rating Scales, Sociometric measures, WISC-R Mazes and Block Design, tests of consequential and means-end thinking, and observations of task-relevant and irrelevant self-verbalizations during Mazes and Block Design: Treatment effects were found for both boys on the parent and teacher versions of the Conners questionnaire. Larry improved in task relevant self-verbalizations, Mazes performance, and consequential and means-end thinking, but he did not improve on the sociometric measures. Robert improved on the sociometric measures, but not on task-relevant self-verbalizations, Mazes, Block Design, or consequential or means-end thinking. While these results are encouraging, limitations of the study limit generalizability of findings. Studies of the long-term benefits of training are needed to determine the cost effectiveness of incorporating parents as cotherapists in social cognitive problem-solving therapy.     

Family systems theory and school psychology: Implications for training and practice

The purpose of this article is to: (a) present an overview of family systems perspectives as they relate to the functioning of the school psychologist, (b) review briefly current available levels of family intervention, and (c) present guidelines for training school psychologists in family dynamics and family therapy. The position is taken that a family systems approach is complex and necessitates extensive coursework in family theory and therapy approaches, practica, and field supervision. As a result, while a family systems perspective is essential, family therapy will not in all probability be standard in entry level training programs, but should be a specialty level or doctoral level option.     

The relationship between the Luria-Nebraska neuropsychological battery-children's revision and the Minnesota Percepto-Diagnostic Test with learning disabled students

The Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision (LNNB-Children's Revision) and The Minnesota Percepto-Diagnostic Test (MPD) were administered to 40 learning disabled (LD) students. Correlations were run between the scales of the LNNB-Children's Revision and MPD scores across the sample. Coefficients ranged from .07 to .71 for the intercorrelations of the scales of the LNNB-Children's Revision. Low correlations (−.10 to −.27) were found between MPD T scores and the LNNB-Children's Revision Scales, but raw scores from the MPD had somewhat higher correlations with the LNNB (.18 to .65).