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For the twenty-eighth year, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the National AECT Convention in Orlando, Florida. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two volumes. Volume 1 contains papers dealing primarily with research and development topics. (Individual papers contain references, figures, and tables.) [For Volume 2, see ED499963.]

During the 2013-14 school year, I became involved in the National Center for Scaling Up Effective Schools (NCSU) project, a partnership of the Broward County Public School District with Vanderbilt University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Florida State University, and Education Development Center. The purpose of NCSU is to help schools and districts develop homegrown innovations and to scale these innovations within the district. In Broward County, the innovation we were working to develop and scale was Personalization of Academic and Social Emotional Learning (PASL). Our district has been involved in a number of initiatives but PASL was close to my heart because I believe in what PASL advances: "Learning happens best when we have positive relationships among students and adults." The NCSU project provided me with a road map to build teacher leadership through intentional communication. Our selection of PASL as an innovation demonstrated the power of looking within rather than reaching for a canned program. Teachers learned that they were the architects of innovation, not a program. The Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) process provided a manageable and timely way for teachers to study the impact of their practice and to take ownership of the solutions that they developed. I was able to leverage structures such as School and District Innovation Design Team meetings, PASL PLCs, and PASL Pals to help deepen the implementation of PASL and PDSA. I accomplished this through constant communication with my teachers using e-mails, quarterly student data, and in-person meetings. [This paper was developed with assistance from Education Development Center, Inc.]

With the study that has gone into personalizing education by the "National Center for Scaling Up Effective Schools" in recent years, there now must be the consideration as to how personalizing the actual curriculum should occur. In the current testing environment created by the implementation of Common Core, this will be a challenging endeavor. We know students can benefit from personal relationships throughout the school day; unfortunately, during actual instruction, the student often vanishes to test preparation in the form of common assessments, impersonal writing prompts, and other often-times frantic practices in which the primary goal is simply to manipulate test scores. The emphasis on data becomes the focus, rather than the quality of instruction. Many practitioners understand that the standards of Common Core, at their most basic level, can be applied to any lesson that has true value, and the skills themselves are often useful ones that will lead to preparing students for college. But even the skills lose authenticity in the current data-driven environment. The goals of this paper are to address the following areas: (1) Review the positive impact that Personalization of Academic and Social-Emotional Learning has had on schools in Florida; (2) Look at how the emphasis on testing data and learning gains hinders personalizing the curriculum; and (3) Discuss the ways in which teachers might implement Common Core with ease, authenticity, and in a way that connects with students.

For the thirty-third year, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. This is Volume #2 of the 33rd "Annual Proceedings of Selected Papers on the Practice of Educational Communications and Technology." This volume includes papers presented at the national convention of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology held in Anaheim, California. The papers in this volume primarily deal with instruction and training issues. Papers dealing with research and development are contained in the companion volume (Volume #1). (Individual papers contain references, tables, and figures.) [For Volume 1, see ED514646.]

This report summarizes a panel discussion among five college administrators who have initiated or taken part in restructuring efforts in their states: Herman Blake, vice chancellor for undergraduate education at Indiana University-Purdue University; Ronald Carrier, president of James Madison University (Virginia); Gordon Davies, director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia; Judith Ramaley, president of Portland State University (Oregon); and Charles Reed, chancellor of the State University System in Florida. Following statements by each panel member, their responses to questions from the audience are provided. Topics covered include the following: meaning of "restructuring," the implementation process and its resulting consequences, financial constraints and societal needs and expectations. cultural change, course elimination, implementation of new technologies, school stability, funding needs, the reward structure, transforming the undergraduate student culture from one of credit acquisition to one of learning, resource allocation and curriculum change, accountability and production figures, faculty and administrator roles, and cutting rules and regulations. (CK/DB)

The investigation described in this paper was concerned with language alternation (code-switching) in the speech of Chicano migrant workers in Florida. In order to study Chicano bilingualsim, three principal sources were utilized: (1) a revised version of Wolck's sociolinguistic background questionnaire; (2) pictorial questionnaires such as Sapon's Pictorial Linguistic Interview Manual and pictures taken from newspapers, magazines, and the Sear's catalogue; and (3) relaxed conversational situations between bilinguals, taped by residents of the migrant camps. The specific purpose of the research was to observe the use of unassimilated loanwords which were phonologically English, but which were used in the Spanish of 33 informants. It was found that the vast majority of informants did not rely on direct English borrowings. If they borrowed any lexical items at all, they tended to assimilate them into their Spanish. They were aware of the linguistic norms of at least one of the two languages and they were sensitive to the separate identity of Spanish and English. Three sample conversations are presented, followed by an analysis of the various causes for the language switching in each. Educators should recognize the differences between Chicanos who switch from Spanish to English because they cannot distinguish the two languages, or from an inability to recall Spanish lexical items, and those who use language switching deliberately in order to convey additional affective meaning. The habit of the latter group should be recognized as an assertion of their dual cultural heritage. (CFM)

Practitioner papers and research papers on higher education planning and budgeting are presented. "Before the Roof Caves In: A Predictive Model for Physical Plant Renewal" by Frederick M. Biedenweg and Robert E. Hutson outlines a systematic approach that was used at Stanford University to predict the associated costs of physical plant maintenance over a period of years. "Academic Planning in the California State University and Colleges: The Aftermath of Proposition 13," by Sally K. Loyd describes the proposed and actual budgetary impacts of Proposition 13 on the California State University and Colleges and how the system responded to these impacts. In "Faculty Early Retirement: A Planning and Budgeting Issue in Higher Education," Barbara A. Mitchell outlines the steps taken in Oregon to determine faculty members' probabilities for retirement, the cost of alternative plans, and administrative, legal, and other concerns. "Policy-Impact Analysis: An Approach to Planning and Budgeting in Higher Education" by E. Raymond Hackett and James L. Morrison describes a four-stage model involving monitoring, forecasting, goal setting, and policy analysis and implementation. LaRue Tone Hosmer, in "Planning, Control and Motivation Systems: A Conceptual Framework," explains how planning, control, and motivation systems should not be considered separate entities in higher education. "Strategic Planning in the Small, Private, Liberal Arts College," by Raymond L. Siren reviews the literature on strategic planning, and "Doctoral Programs and the Labor Market, or How Should We Respond to the 'Ph.D. Glut'?" by William Zumeta presents an approach to policy analysis in support of decisions about doctoral programs in state universities. (Author/SW)

This paper, which builds upon research linked to the development of sustainable study abroad programs in emerging nations, focuses on key challenges to true partnerships between emerging and established universities. It begins with an analysis of challenges which may occur when attempting to develop an equitable partnership based on joint grants and/or research projects. It also includes a discussion of struggles experienced by academic staff who desire a more equitable relationship that will enhance the missions of both institutions. The paper will then analyze one particular partnership between two universities (the University of Central Florida, USA, and the University of Botswana) during study abroad programs funded by the Fulbright-Hays Groups Project Abroad (2011) and the U.S. State Department (2012- 2015). An analysis of this partnership is particularly relevant as it focuses on the initial steps, dialogues, perspectives and actions of both institutions as they worked through a host of preconceived notions on neocolonialism and the challenges of successfully operating by another's "rules of engagement" within a dynamic geopolitical platform. [For the complete Volume 14, Number 1 proceedings, see ED568088.]

The "International Society for the Social Studies (ISSS) Annual Conference Proceedings" is a peer-reviewed professional publication published once a year following the annual conference. The following papers are included in the 2015 proceedings: (1) Local History and Local Culture at the Core of Elementary Social Studies Curriculum (C. Agcaoili and S. Oshihara); (2) An Analysis of Enrolment in Advanced Placement Classes in Florida from the 2010 to 2011 School Years (B. Bittman); (3) Looking Beyond the Textbook: Multimodal Intertextuality in a Secondary Social Studies Classroom (T. Brown and S. Nance); (4) School/Family Communication and Involvement: A Top Ten List for Elementary School Teachers (S. H. Bowden and C. Corlis); (5) Bi-epistemic Research in a Policy Context: Current Findings and Subsequent Studies (L. Cherubini); (6) Replacing the Birth Language for Internationally Adopted Children: Linguistic and Cognitive Effects (A. P. Davies); (7) Strategies for Managing Culturally Diverse Virtual Teams: Creating a Feeling of Globalness (M. Flammia); (8) Neoliberalism and Privatization of Urban Health Care Facilities in Bangladesh (K. S. Haq); (9) Engaging Students through the Dynamic Learning Approach (M. M. Hussein); (10) Role of Cultural Diplomacy in Strengthening Diplomatic Relations: A Case Study on U.S.-Bangladesh Relations (M. T. Islam and M. N. Nur); (11) Just Eat It: An Examination of the Sociological Factors that Influence the Eating Habits of College Students (A. Minnick); (12) Why We Should be Skeptical of Bandura's Bobo Dolls (A. Pulido); (13) Opportunity Costs of Planning with Mandated Assessments: A Case Study of Fourth Grade Social Studies (R. Reed); (14) RCAIntervention: An Intervention System for Traditional, Blended, and Online Courses (J. Reynolds and C. Cummings); (15) Millennials at the Ballot Box: Where Have All the Young Voters Gone? (M. L. Rogers); (16) Impacts of Socio-Economic Background on Participation in Various Sport Types (H. I. Sengör); (17) Using Film to teach Character Education and Social Justice Education in Social Studies (C. Van Zandt); (18) Creating lessons with the C3 Framework and Digital Literacy (C. Van Zandt and L. Smith); and (19) Examining Students' Patterns Based on Their Historical Knowledge and Ability by Cluster Analysis (D. Yongjun). (Individual papers contain references.) [For the 2014 proceedings, see ED565293.]

The "International Society for the Social Studies Annual Conference Proceedings" is a peer-reviewed professional publication published once a year following the annual conference. It contains the following papers: (1) Teacher Perceptions of Authentic Pedagogy: A Case Study of Professional Development in an African American High School's Government Class (Christopher Andrew Brkich); (2) Characteristics of Effective Secondary Level History Teachers (Brad Burenheide); (3) Teaching Secondary Social Studies in Inner-City Schools (Chris Busey); (4) Using the 2008 Election to Teach Political and Social Concepts (Chris Busey and Stewart Waters); (5) Culturally Responsible Teaching: A Pedagogical Approach for the Social Studies Classroom (Brandon M. Butler and Alexander Cuenca); (6) The Battle for Stalingrad: An Interactive Approach towards Learning about World War Two (Jeff Byford); (7) Are We Ready for Another Curriculum Revolution? Evaluating the Strength and Weaknesses of the New Social Studies Projects (Jeffrey Byford, Eddie Thompson, and Cody Lawson); (8) Whitewashed: Social Studies and Raceless Pedagogies (Prentice T. Chandler); (9) Social Studies Professors Theorizing: Insights from Two Decades of Deliberation and Collaboration (Richard H. Chant and Jeffrey Cornett); (10) Revisiting Political Socialization in Secondary Education: A Study of Government Classes in Three Demographically Diverse Schools during the 2008 Presidential Election (Wayne Journell); (11) Heritage Language Learners and the Social Sciences (Christopher John Kazanjian); (12) Global Citizenship Education in the Classroom: A Collaborative Canadian Study (Marianne Larsen); (13) Thematic World History: A Defense and Field Report (Christopher Dean Lee); (14) Utilizing a Personality Template in Differentiating Potential Teaching Styles of Pre-Service Teachers (Sean M. Lennon and Jeff Byford); (15) Who's Responsible for Citizenship Education? Views from Pre-service Educators (Leisa A. Martin); (16) SHOW & TELL: Choosing Appropriate Scaffolding Techniques to Make Social Studies Concepts Comprehensible to English Language Learners (Joyce Nutta and Carine Strebel); (17) Integrating Technology into Teaching Social Studies Methods Course: A Classroom Example (James Oigara); (18) You Tube as a Learning Tool (Russell Owens and Barbara Fralinger); (19) A Case for Infusing Content on Students with Disabilities into Social Studies Teacher Preparation Programs (Kimberly Pawling); (20) Universal Design for Learning in the Social Studies Classroom (Kimberly Pawling); (21) Thinking Critically or Thinking or Thinking Historically: Which Objective do we choose in Secondary History Classrooms? (Anthony Pellegrino); (22) Got History? An Examination of Attitudes, Content Knowledge, and Perceptions Related to Historical Fiction in a Children's Literature Pre-service Course (Sherron Killingsworth Roberts, Vicky Zygouris-Coe, and Patricia Crawford); (23) Enhancing History Instruction with Online Auctions (Kirk Robinson and Scott M. Waring); (24) Utilizing Film to Teach Social Issues (William B. Russell III); (25) Images of the Holocaust: Using Holocaust Art to Promote Higher Order Thinking Skills (William B. Russell III and Stewart Waters); (26) Talkin' the Talk and Walkin' the Walk: The NCSS Position Statements Regarding Controversial Issues Instruction (Kimberlee Sharp); (27) Cross-Border Education: A Basis for Wider Cross-Cultural Communication between Thailand and Cambodia (Sunida Siwapathomchai); (28) Identifying Culturally Responsive Practices in Classrooms Serving Haitian and Haitian American Students (Martha Scott Lue Stewart, Kevin Meehan, and Rosalyn Howard); (29) An International Model: Preparing Pre-Service Teachers for Cultural Diversity (Brenda S. Thompson); (30) Making the Most of Existing Technology in the Elementary and Middle Grades Social Studies Classroom (Scott M. Waring and Amy J. Good); (31) U.S. Monuments and Memorials: Incorporating the Art of Remembering into the Social Studies Curriculum (Stewart Waters); (32) Promoting Global Citizenship by Analyzing Social Issues and Human Rights Violations of the WWII Era (Stewart Waters and William B. Russell III); (33) Using Digital Storytelling for Vocabulary Instruction (Susan Wegmann); and (34) Film, Arts and Culture as Community Outreach Tools: Perspectives from Singapore (Victor Yu). (Individual papers contain references.)

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has been emphasizing the importance of teachers' pedagogical communication as part of mathematical teaching and learning for decades. Specifically, NCTM has provided guidance on how teachers can foster mathematical communication that positively impacts student learning. A teacher may have different academic goals towards what needs to be achieved in a classroom, which require a variety of discourse-based tools that allow students to engage fully in mathematical thinking and reasoning. Accountable or academically productive talk is one such approach for classroom discourse that may ensure that the discussions are coherent, purposeful and productive. This paper discusses the use of a transformer model for classifying classroom talk moves based on the accountable talk framework. We investigate the extent to which the classroom Accountable Talk framework can be successfully applied to one-on-one online mathematics tutoring environments. We further propose a framework adapted from Accountable Talk, but more specifically aligned to one-on-one online tutoring. The model performance for the proposed framework is evaluated and compared with a small sample of expert coding. The results obtained from the proposed framework for one-on-one tutoring are promising and improve classification performance of the talk moves for our dataset. [For the full proceedings, see ED623995.]

Feature engineering, the construction of contextual and relevant features from system log data, is a crucial component of developing robust and interpretable models in educational data mining contexts. The practice of feature engineering depends on domain experts and system developers working in tandem in order to creatively identify actions and behaviors of interest. In this paper we outline a method of iterative feature engineering using the misclassifications of earlier models. By selecting cases where earlier models and ground truth disagree, we can focus attention on specific behaviors, or patterns of behavior, that a model is not using in its predictions. We show that iterative feature engineering on cases of false positives and false negatives improved a model predicting quitting in an educational video game by 15%. We close by discussing applications of this method for addressing model performance gaps across different classes of learners, as well as precautions against model overfitting with using this method of feature engineering. [For the full proceedings, see ED607784.]

Migrant and immigrant education are both problematic and impactful in the U.S., which often identifies itself as "a nation of immigrants", though these concepts are currently criticized by a conservative government intent on building walls rather than bridges. Nevertheless, schools throughout the country have demonstrated an ability to provide immigrant students with quality instruction and a supportive environment designed to ensure their contributions to the nation. This paper will review a government-funded secondary magnet school for information technology in Southeastern U.S. that enrolls a significant number of first and secondgeneration voluntary immigrant students. Through an analysis of data obtained from questionnaires and extended focus group discussions, the authors will describe the challenges and achievements of these students, and the role their school's environment played in helping to create both a sense of belonging and opportunities for success.

In the U.S., state guidance to schools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was politicized. We used state-level political affiliation to explore whether access to curricular resources differed pre-pandemic or during pandemic remote teaching and teachers' reported control over curricular resources during pandemic teaching. We found that pre-pandemic the percentage of teachers in Republican states reported higher levels of resources overall, and use of core and teacher-created curricular resources in particular. They also reported having greater control over their curricular decision-making during the pandemic. There were no state-level differences in teachers' level of preparation for pandemic teaching, but teachers in Democrat states reported a greater proportion of their students had sufficient resources for online learning. We discuss the implications of these findings in terms of teacher control and state policies. [For the complete proceedings, see ED657822.]

Academic advising plays an important role in students' decision-making in higher education. Data-driven methods provide useful recommendations to students to help them with degree completion. Several course recommendation models have been proposed in the literature to recommend courses for the next semester. One aspect of the data that has yet to be explored is the suitability of the recommended courses taken together in a semester. Students may face more difficulty coping with the workload of courses if there is no relationship among courses taken within a semester. To address this problem, we propose to employ session-based approaches to recommend a set of courses for the next semester. In particular, we test two session-based recommendation models, CourseBEACON and CourseDREAM. Our experimental evaluation shows that session-based methods outperform existing popularity-based, sequential, and non-sequential recommendation approaches. Accurate course recommendation can lead to better student advising, which, in turn, can lead to better student performance, lower dropout rates, and better overall student experience and satisfaction. [For the complete proceedings, see ED630829.]

Clustering of educational data allows similar students to be grouped, in either crisp or fuzzy sets, based on their similarities. Standard approaches are well suited to identifying common student behaviors; however, by design, they put much less emphasis on less common behaviors or outliers. The approach presented in this paper employs fuzzing clustering in the identification of these outlier behaviors. The algorithm is an iterative one, where clustering is applied, outliers identified, the data restricted to the outliers, and the process repeated. This approach produces a clustering that is crisp between each iteration and fuzzy within. It arose as a consequence of trying to cluster student progress trajectories in an adaptive learning platform. Included are results from applying the repeated fuzzy clustering algorithm to data from multiple courses and semesters at the University of Central Florida, (N=5,044). [For the full proceedings, see ED599096.]

Simplified categorizations have often led to college students being labeled as full-time or part-time students. However, at many universities student enrollment patterns can be much more complicated, as it is not uncommon for students to alternate between full-time and part-time enrollment each semester based on finances, scheduling, or family needs. While prior research has established that full-time students maintain better outcomes than their part-time counterparts, little study has examined the impact of mixed enrollment patterns on academic outcomes. In this paper, we apply a Hidden Markov Model to identify students' enrollment strategies according to three different categories: part-time, full-time, and mixed enrollment. According to the enrollment classification we investigate and compare the academic performance outcomes of each group. Analysis of data collected from the University of Central Florida from 2008 to 2017 indicates that mixed enrollment students are closer in performance to full-time students, than part-time students. More importantly, during their part-time semesters, mixed-enrollment students significantly outperform part-time students. Such a finding suggests that increased engagement through the occasional full-time enrollment leads to better overall outcomes. [For the full proceedings, see ED599096.]

Among recent e-Learning Pedagogical Strategies, gaming and crisis-simulation games are increasingly used in recent years in university-learning and Blended-courses as an out-of-context effective tool for role-playing and education, especially in Law Schools and Business Schools. Gaming covers several sub-fields (war-games; Law School Mock-Trials; Tailor-made educational games in Business; playing commercials-off-the-shelf games; programming and code-learning; games to promote social inclusion of marginalized groups; Model U.N. and crisis-simulations) and are recently enhanced by the impact of using multi-modality and on-line education to apply several concurrent modes of presentation/communications, which are now being applied also in Political Sciences and Communications courses. In recent years, the much-touted future role of the Net-Generation of children and youth who grew-up with computer games should find a natural educational outlet in gaming, but this has been limited to the entertainment field, rather than university education, or in computer coding and programming, where gaming (both on-line and face-to-face) has only marginal effects, due to students' inability to grasp theoretical concepts, poor preparation or poor motivation. Thus, despite already existing methods of gamification in education, its promise as a didactic method in schools and universities is still at its beginnings. This paper analyzes as case-studies the emerging impact of gaming simulations in Political Sciences Blended-courses at Saint Leo University, USA and in Communications courses at the Pedagogical University of Kraków, Poland. [For the full proceedings, see ED621557.]

We study the usage of a self-guided online tutoring platform called Algebra Nation, which is widely by middle school and high school students who take the End-of-Course Algebra I exam at the end of the school year. This article aims to study how the platform contributes to increasing students' exam scores by examining users' logs over a three year period. The platform under consideration was used by more than 36,000 students in the first year, to nearly 67,000 by the third year, thus enabling us to examine how usage patterns evolved and influenced students' performance at scale. We first identify which Algebra Nation usage factors in conjunction with math overall preparation and socioeconomic factors contribute to the students' exam performance. Subsequently, we investigate the effect of increased teacher familiarity level with the Algebra Nation on students' scores across different grades through mediation analysis. The results show that the indirect effect of teacher's familiarity with the platform through increasing student's usage dosage is more significant in higher grades. [This paper was published in: "The 9th International Learning Analytics & Knowledge Conference (LAK19)" (Tempe, AZ, March 4-8, 2019). New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). (978-1-4503-6256-6).]

During such an unprecedented time of the largest public health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing students are of the utmost concern regarding their psychological and physical well-being. It is important to identify and establish influences and associations within multilevel factors, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological distress among nursing students. The research in this study utilized a mixed-methods, convergent study design. The study population included a convenience sample of undergraduate nursing students from Southeastern U.S. with 202 students completing the quantitative survey and 11 students participating in the qualitative follow-up interview surveys. Statistical tests were performed and identified the effects of independent variables on psychological distress. Coding and qualitative content analysis were performed and identified overarching themes within participants' interviews. The findings are significant, specifically regarding contributing factors of nursing students' psychological distress, which will help to improve learning in the academic environment. [For the full proceedings, see ED631133.]

Previous research has shown that providing video recommendations to students in virtual learning environments implemented at scale positively affects student achievement. However, it is also critical to evaluate whether the treatment effects are heterogeneous, and whether they depend on contextual variables such as disadvantaged student status and characteristics of the school settings. The current study extends the evaluation of a novel video recommendation system by performing an exploratory search for sources of heterogeneity of treatment effects. This study's design is a multi-site randomized controlled trial with an assignment at the student level across three large and diverse school districts in the southeast United States. The study occurred in Spring 2021, when some students were in regular classrooms and others in online classrooms. The results of the current study replicate positive effects found in a previous field experiment that occurred in Spring 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, causal forests were used to investigate the heterogeneity of treatment effects. This study contributes to the literature on content sequencing systems and recommendation systems by showing how these systems can disproportionally benefit the groups of students who had higher levels of previous algebra ability, followed more recommendations, learned remotely, were Hispanic, and received free or reduced-price lunch, which has implications for the fairness of implementation of educational technology solutions.

This paper describes the evolution of a Professional Development School (PDS) continuum for urban teachers through 5 years of school-university collaboration. The paper reports the impact on education students completing internship experiences at urban PDS's, discusses the impact of the collaborative initiative on PDS faculty, and identifies implications at the district and university levels. For several years, the Duval County Schools and the University of North Florida College of Education have collaboratively engaged in reform initiatives targeting urban schooling and preparation of urban teachers. Two of the most recent initiatives are the AT&T Teachers for Tomorrow Project and the Jacksonville Urban Educational Partnership (JUEP). Creating urban PDS's served as the central focus of the projects. Surveys of AT&T and JUEP interns, non-interns, and experienced teachers examined planning, instruction, time management, student diversity, reflective thought, collegiality, beliefs about urban schools, efficacy, and accepting positions in different kinds of school settings. Results indicated that the PDS experience positively affected both groups of PDS interns' confidence levels for teaching in urban schools. The increased confidence led to large numbers of PDS interns actively seeking positions in urban schools. Most PDS interns considered the experience worthwhile. Five appendixes offer data from surveys of interns, teachers, and schools. (Contains approximately 70 references.) (SM)

This paper explores how teachers of public relations can help students tolerate the many ambiguities inherent in public relations practice. The paper first reviews the literature regarding individual differences in communication, tolerance-intolerance of ambiguity, and individual differences in teaching. The paper then reports the findings of two exploratory studies conducted at a large state university in Florida that investigated the effects of tolerance-intolerance of ambiguity in the teaching of public relations, including the use of a client-based, case study technique to increase tolerance of ambiguity among students of public relations. The paper concludes that the goal of increasing tolerance of ambiguity in public relations, at least in the classroom, is possible. (Nine tables of data are included; a list of 68 references is attached.) (Author/RS)

This paper reports on efforts of several states in the southern United States (Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia) to respond to the mandate for training early childhood special education professionals. The paper describes how teacher certification standards are being met in these states and examines the role of the state departments of education. The paper concludes that there is some continuity in personnel preparation delivery programs, but each state quite clearly has its own process and present level of commitment. Issues of concern are noted, such as too much diversity in "add-ons" and "endorsements" to masters level early childhood special education certification, the need for central coordinating agencies for service continuity, and the need for additional inservice training. (JDD)

In 2009, Florida adopted the Differentiated Accountability (DA) plan, making it among the first to specifically incorporate into its existing school grading scheme college readiness targets. In this paper we use a rich panel of data on high school students in Broward County (Ft. Lauderdale) Public Schools to present early evidence of the impact of these changes to the high school accountability grades on students' participation and performance in accelerated coursework. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find that DA increases students' probability of taking AP tests in English, Science and Social Science. However, it does little to improve students' performance in these tests and the effect, if any, is concentrated among white students and among students in high-performing schools. The treatment heterogeneity is likely due to the difference in instructional resources across schools. DA also has far-reaching impact as it elicits efforts from schools to prepare students for accelerated coursework. For instance, it increases students' probability of taking benchmark courses on time. Last, DA effect persists and accumulates over time. Tables are appended.

This study examines data from a field experiment investigating the effects of a personalized recommendation algorithm that proposes to students which videos to watch next, after they complete mini-assessments for algebra that available on the Math Nation intelligent virtual learning environment (IVLE). The end users of Math Nation are students enrolled in an Algebra 1 course in middle and high schools of the state of Florida, and the IVLE is used both during and out of school time. The objective of the developed recommendation algorithm is to increase student preparation to take the state-mandated End-of-Course (EoC) Algebra 1 assessment at the end of the school year. The algorithm is based on a Markov Decision Process framework that uses as input the students' responses to a series of mini-assessment tests. The current study randomly assigned 16,406 students to either treatment or control conditions, which were blind to both students and teachers. The results indicate that the effects of the recommendation algorithm depend on the level of usage of students, showing significant improvements on EoC test scores of students who have a moderate level of usage. However, there was no effect for low usage students. The study also shows that students practicing with the mini-assessments available on Math Nation, helps them improve by a small margin their performance on the End-of-Course test, irrespective of the usage level. Finally, the study provides insights on challenges posed for implementing personalized recommendation algorithms at a large scale, related both to student self-regulation and teacher orchestration of technology use in the classroom. [For the full proceedings, see ED615472.]

This paper examines possible improvement to problem solving skills as a function of playing the video game "Portal 2." Stealth assessment is used in the game to evaluate students' problem solving abilities--specifically basic and flexible rule application. The stealth assessment measures will be validated against commonly accepted external measures. For instance, basic rule application will be correlated with Raven's Progressive Matrices, and flexible rule application will be correlated with the Uses test, insight problems, and the compound remote association test. Improved problem solving outcomes will support our claim that "Portal 2" can be an effective method to enhance problem solving skills--one of the most important cognitive skills in the 21st century. [For the full proceedings, see ED562107.]

Recent work in predictive modeling has called for increased scrutiny of how models generalize between different populations within the training data. Using interaction data from 69,174 students who used an online mathematics platform over an entire school year, we trained a sensor-free affect detection model and studied its generalizability to clusters of students based on typical platform use and demographic features. We show that models trained on one group perform similarly well when tested on the other groups, although there was a small advantage obtained by training individual subpopulation models compared to a general (all-population) model. Lastly, we perform a series of simulations to show how generalizability is affected by sample size. These results agree with our initial analysis that individual subpopulation models yield a small advantage over all-population models. Additionally, we show that training sizes smaller than 1,500 yield unstable models which make generalizability difficult to interpret. We discuss applications of this work in the context of developing large-scale affect detection models for diverse populations. [For the full proceedings, see ED599096. For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED595455.]

Recent work in predictive modeling has called for increased scrutiny of how models generalize between different populations within the training data. Using interaction data from 69,174 students who used an online mathematics platform over an entire school year, we trained a sensor-free affect detection model and studied its generalizability to clusters of students based on typical platform use and demographic features. We show that models trained on one group perform similarly well when tested on the other groups, although there was a small advantage obtained by training individual subpopulation models compared to a general (all-population) model. Lastly, we perform a series of simulations to show how generalizability is affected by sample size. These results agree with our initial analysis that individual subpopulation models yield a small advantage over all-population models. Additionally, we show that training sizes smaller than 1,500 yield unstable models which make generalizability difficult to interpret. We discuss applications of this work in the context of developing large-scale affect detection models for diverse populations.

The amount of information contained in any educational data set is fundamentally constrained by the instructional conditions under which the data are collected. In this study, we show that by redesigning the structure of traditional online courses, we can improve the ability of educational data mining to provide useful information for instructors. This new design, referred to as Online Learning Modules, blends frequent learning assessment as seen in intelligent tutoring systems into the structure of conventional online courses, allowing learning behavior data and learning outcome data to be collected from the same learning module. By applying relatively straightforward clustering analysis to data collected from a sequence of four modules, we are able to gain insight on whether students are spending enough time studying and on the effectiveness of the instructional materials, two questions most instructors ask each day. [For the full proceedings, see ED593090.]

While higher education institutions seek to increase college admissions' predictions of student success, they have largely overlooked examining possible impacts of online distance education classes completed in high school. Using information from an undergraduate honors program, this study analyzed whether an indicator of undergraduate student success can be influenced by such courses. The results suggest that high-achieving Florida Virtual School students admitted to an honors program do not graduate at a higher rate than students who have not completed online distance education classes. However, the study provides a method that can address the sample limitation and guide future research to determine how postsecondary non-honors student applicants are affected by online distance education courses completed in high school. [For the complete proceedings, see ED590245.]

This study was designed to assess continuing and potential students' perceptions regarding factors affecting the overall quality of one Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) program in the southeastern United States. The study also sought to assess program participants' perceptions of the impact of hypothesized situational, institutional, and dispositional deterrents to program participation. The resulting data indicated that factors such as program location, availability of parking, and variety of course topics and events influenced the attractiveness of the program to both potential and continuing students. The results also indicated that institutional barriers such as course scheduling were among the most influential perceived barriers affecting program participation from continuing students and from potential students. [For the complete proceedings, see ED590245.]

The 42st annual conference of the Adult and Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) was held at the University of Central Florida in March 2018 and explored the theme, "Quality of Life in Adult Learning." The purpose of the Adult and Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) is to help institutions of higher education develop and sustain learning environments and programs suitable for adults. Papers were presented about widely varying approaches to the best practices related to the role of adult learning in enhancing quality of life. In addition, factors that may contribute to the improved quality of life for adult educators, was also discussed. (Individual conference papers contain references.)

The unprecedented increase in the foreign-born population in the United States since the 1970s, low post secondary graduation rates, combined with the requirement of a higher education degree in the U.S. labor market precipitated this study. Since foreign-born students are an integral part of the U.S. population, understanding the challenges faced by foreign-born students in higher educational institutions will create an avenue for recommending solutions to many of these challenges, thereby increasing their educational attainment and economic productivity and ultimately preparing more Americans for the competitive 21st century global market. This study investigates the challenges faced by foreign-born students in a state college and solicited suggestions for improvement in foreign-born student achievement. [For the complete proceedings, see ED590245.]

In 1991, the Florida legislature adopted Blueprint 2000, a comprehensive system of school improvement. Guided by the National Education Goals and a commitment to flexibility at the local level, Blueprint 2000 renews the state's resolve to improve student performance by encouraging the involvement of all stakeholders in the schooling process. This paper presents findings of a study that examined the initial 1993-94 school-improvement plans submitted by Florida high schools in response to the mandates of Blueprint 2000. Methodology included a content analysis of the plans of 137 out of 274 Florida high schools. Not surprisingly, Florida high schools identified student achievement and the learning environment as a priority goal. School safety and adult literacy were not high-priority goals. Although the schools conducted needs assessments, the process and range of assessments were varied. School-improvement efforts were focused on raising test scores and improving attendance rates, which indicates that schools may be pressed to use hard data to demonstrate evidence of improvement. Finally, schools elected not to focus on identifying long-term goals. Eleven tables are included. (Contains 29 references.) (LMI)

This paper profiles an educational reform program targeting academically and socially at-risk and underachieving students. The project began as a district-wide training program for school psychologists, guidance counselors, social workers, and elementary-level instructional consultants. The program focuses on helping schools to plan for and address their immediate and long-term student needs. Emphasis is placed on improving the social behavior of students, increasing student performance in the areas of social skills and aggression control, and in reducing incidents of school-based violence. Outlined here are the program's purpose; the implementation period; characteristics of the program's site; the targeted population; the services provided; the type of staff available and the percentage of time devoted to the program; program costs; funding sources; problems encountered and solutions; program accomplishments/reported outcomes; and evaluation data--two tables provide specific outcome data. The project establishes six primary goals: (1) enhance teachers' problem-solving skills; (2) improve both the management skills of school personnel and student behavior; (3) enhance school's comprehensive services to students with below-average academic performance; (4) increase students' social and academic progress through enhanced involvement of parents and the community; (5) validate the various components of the project; and (6) create a school climate in which everyone is responsible for every student. Contains a list of two publications that describe/evaluate the program. (RJM)

The collection of six papers offers perspectives on planning and implementing career education programs. The first paper, the Introduction (David Goodwin), deals with program implementation. The second paper, Priorities in Career Education (Alonzo A. Crim), describes the historical origins of career education in the Atlanta school system with a strong emphasis on the incremental nature of significant educational change. The third paper, Priorities in Career Education R & D: A Federal Perspective (Lois-ellin Datta and Corinne Rieder), discusses the role of research and development and the obligations of researchers to make their results useful for practitioners. The fourth and fifth papers, Organizing for Planning and Implementing Career Education in Ohio (Linda Pfister Keilholtz), and The Development, Implementation and Administration of Career Education in Florida (Margaret E. Ferqueron), highlight such themes as the role of State leadership, establishing State linkages between State departments and local school districts, and using State funds as a means of building organizational commitment at the local level. The final paper, Educational Linkage--Suggested Rules and Techniques or the Synaptic Aspects of a Partnership Plus Other Common Trivia (Robert A. Sampieri), discusses ways to build working relationships between educators, businessmen, labor unions, and politicians. (Author/JR)

This paper presents findings of a study that examined how school participants in two schools in a Florida city coped with conflict, with a focus on developing a cooperative school climate. Constructivism, which states that learning is the making-sense of experiences in a social environment, provides the theoretical framework. From this perspective, knowledge is personally constructed; different individuals hold different interpretations of reality. Data were derived from observation, document analysis, and formal and informal interviews with different participants in two urban, public schools (one elementary and one middle school) in a low socioeconomic-status area of a Florida city. Participants in the school community organized themselves in different groups related to their common goals. For example, the teachers organized themselves to improve the daily functioning of their schools. A parent-teacher organization gradually involved administration to more effectively coordinate school activities. Each group shared school restructuring as its ultimate goal. Understanding and learning how to deal with the different conflicts led to a more positive school environment that was more conducive to student learning. A recommendation is to include change in the school culture as a subject in teacher-education programs. (LMI)

This paper presents an overview of Florida's fiscal status and the state of its educational fiscal reform. Five areas of concern are identified regarding educational finance--adequacy of funding, educational reform initiatives including accountability, equity, alternative tax sources, and communication. These issues indicate a highly unstable fiscal and political environment regarding state funding of education. A conclusion is that adequacy of funding is the most serious issue because the state's tax structure is not sufficient to handle extraordinarily high rates of student enrollment growth. In addition, the state's accountability initiative has allowed school districts more flexibility in spending decisions but has not produced any new revenues for them. Regarding equity, there is increasing controversy around the legal and practical status of the state's statutory cap on local discretionary millage for operations. Alternative tax sources for school funding are now being advanced but taxpayer resistance is high. Finally, it is clear that future solutions to current problems will be derived from a combination of technical, financial, and political strategies. Five tables are included. (LMI)

This paper reports the findings of the first annual evaluation of the Full Service Schools Grant of the Family Services Center in Gainesville, Florida. The Family Services Center is a coordinated effort among local, state, and federal agencies to provide integrated health, education, and social services to qualified families who may require a variety of support services. Subjects for the evaluation included 183 students, 27 percent of whom received special education services primarily for specific learning disability or emotional disturbances. A quantitative study examined student academic and behavioral improvement, health status, and level of parental involvement. Overall, academic gains were limited, with minimal changes in absenteeism rates or discipline referrals. Interviews with six participating family members produced five major themes: level of satisfaction, perceptions about staff, benefits of the full service model, difficulties of parenting, and significant changes. Participants described the full service model as successful and supportive. Areas for further program development are indicated. (Contains 16 references.) (JDD)

This paper examines systematic ways in which school districts differ and the implications of these differences for how schools work and for the implementation of reform proposals. Data from the California State Department of Education and Florida State Department of Education were analyzed to examine the effect of organizational and resource variables on decentralization in school districts. Findings suggest that there is wide diversity among school districts with regard to autonomy and resources. District patterns of organizational structure are, to some extent, endogenous. In particular, school organizations facing different external political pressures adopt different structures, with consequent differences in patterns of influence. Districts in politically intense communities are likely to have lower returns on decentralization reforms. The degree of decentralization should be viewed in part as having evolved to respond to differences in the environment, including the political environment. These differences are likely to affect both the resistance to and the effectiveness of decentralization. Effective decentralization requires adaptation of its form and structure to reflect differences among districts. Five tables are included. (Contains 12 references.) (LMI)

An overview of Florida's statewide school improvement project, Schoolyear 2000, is provided in this paper. Schoolyear 2000, to be implemented in 1994, is a collaborative plan to improve public education in Florida through the systematic application of technology to learning and teaching. The planning and design stage has involved the Center for Educational Technology at Florida State University, the State Department of Education, various citizens' and advisory councils, teachers, and administrators. The first part provides background information regarding the project's implementation, participative design, and assumptions. The second part describes the project's approach, which centers around individualized instruction, technology, and a collaborative and total system design. Ways in which these changes will improve the quality and productivity of public education are discussed in part 3. The approach used in the design and implementation of the system and the changes made during the planning stage are described in parts 4 and 5. The final part highlights present and future obstacles to the design and implementation of the system, which involve the bureaucratic process and the politics of funding. (LMI)

Findings reported in this paper derive from data in state curriculum documents, reports, and phone interviews with state officials in New York, California, Florida, and Texas. Evidence from the burgeoning state-level curriculum control systems for high school mathematics and social studies in these states suggests that both advocates and critics of state top-down reforms might be exaggerating the effects of state curriculum policies. When analyzed in terms of prescriptiveness, consistency, authority, and power, these state curriculum control policies seem to leave considerable discretion to school districts, schools, and teachers. All four states present unfinished pictures of curriculum control and have yet to link all the curriculum policies. Only California and Texas have linked curriculum policies consciously around their curriculum guidelines. New York, the most prescriptive state, specifies content and skills at the unit level for required courses. California prescribes subject content and student skills in curriculum guidelines more generally. Texas' and Florida's prescriptions are limited mainly to identifying desired basic skills loosely connected with various courses. States might not have achieved the uniformly high authority necessary to claim pervasive influence on practice. Five data tables support observations and conclusions. (6 references) (MLH)

The Volunteer UCF Community Connectors and Community Builders Program provides a connection between students and their community. The goal is to develop meaningful service opportunities for UCF students that contribute measurable results and systemic change through capacity building among adult learners. The ongoing, sustainable service experience for students may take place in the forms of internships, service-learning courses, and intrinsically motivated volunteer opportunities. This service opportunity is reflected in "The Golden Circle" illustration where we began with the "why--" to create sustainable community impact, and worked our way out to the "how--" utilizing community builders and community partners, and finally the "what--" to provide skilled volunteers seeking service-learning and intrinsic volunteerism. "The Adult Literacy League," as a community partner, requires building capacity to serve adult learners. These proceedings will highlight synergy between a university-based community service program and a partnering community agency serving adult learners. [For the complete proceedings, see ED569961.]

We present an analysis of log data from a semester's use of the OpenDSA eTextbook system with the goal of determining the most difficult course topics in a data structures course. While experienced instructors can identify which topics students most struggle with, this often comes only after much time and effort, and does not provide real-time analysis that might benefit an intelligent tutoring system. Our factors included the fraction of wrong answers given by student, results from Item Response Theory, and the rate of model answer and hint use by students. We grouped exercises by topic covered to yield a list of topics associated with the harder exercises. We found that a majority of these exercises were related to algorithm analysis topics. We compared our results to responses given by a sample of experienced instructors, and found that the automated results match the expert opinions reasonably well. We investigated reasons that might explain the over-representation of algorithm analysis among the difficult topics, and hypothesize that visualizations might help to better present this material. [For the full proceedings, see ED592609.]

The purpose of this study was to examine the implicit attitudes of college-level instructors toward Latino-accented English and the effects of gender, teaching experience, home language, race/ethnicity, and rank on those attitudes. The auditory Implicit Association Test (IAT) was used to measure the implicit accent preferences. Participants (N = 93) included college instructors at an urban university in Florida. In this study, instructors were defined as full-time and part-time faculty members and paid graduate assistants. Statistical analysis results suggested college instructors in this study exhibited some bias towards speakers of Latino-accented English. Gender, teaching experience, home language, race/ethnicity, and rank had no effect on implicit preference scores. Faculty, administrators, and students could use this study as a topic of discussion in faculty development, teaching assistant training, student services, diversity training, and hiring practices in higher education institutions. The discussions might help awareness of hidden-yet-present accent bias and prevent potential prejudice toward Latino-accented English speakers. Recommendations for further research were also provided. [For the full proceedings, see ED581791.]

The Association Supporting Computer Users in Education (ASCUE) is a group of people interested in small college computing issues. It is a blend of people from all over the country who use computers in their teaching, academic support, and administrative support functions. ASCUE has a strong tradition of bringing its members together to pool their resources to help each other, and continues the tradition of sharing through its national conference held every year in June, its conference proceedings, and its newsletter. ASCUE proudly affirms this tradition in its motto: "Our Second Quarter Century of Resource Sharing". The proceedings are divided into three sections: (1) The first section contains the refereed papers. (2) The second section holds papers from the sessions with paper. (3) The last section holds only the abstracts for the other sessions. The following are included in the 2015 proceedings: (1) Creating Games to Get Students! (Dewey Swanson, Dmitri A. Gusev); (2) Net Neutrality: The Great Debate (Mary Connolly); (3) The Next Big Thing We Won't Be Able to Live Without? Fulbright's Half-Life Theory Gives Us Some Ideas (Ron Fulbright); (4) Benefits of Synchronous Online Courses (Scott Moser, Phil Smith); (5) Mitigating Higher Ed Cyber Attacks (Gary Rogers, Tina Ashford); (6) Cyber Security Applications: Freeware & Shareware (Gary Rogers, Tina Ashford); (7) Ideas on Learning a New Language Intertwined with the Current State of Natural Language Processing and Computational Linguistics (Robin M. Snyder); and (8) An Introduction to Topic Modeling as an Unsupervised Machine Learning Way to Organize Text Information (Robin M. Snyder). Individual complete papers provide references. The following papers present with abstracts only: (9) Screencasting--A Way to Increase Contact Hours, Without the Contact (Stephen Anderson, Sr.); (10) Revitalize Your Online Class with Increased Student Engagement (Ariana Baker); (11) Streamlining Coordination and Communication in Online Program Development (Jacob Bane); (12) Working toward Maintenance-free Classrooms (Shawn Beattie); (13) Capturing Qualitative Data using Technological Aids (Suzanne Calvert, Tom Marcais); (14) Impact of 802.11AC GigaBit WiFi and How to Plan for it on a Limited Budget (Thierry Chau); (15) I Walk the "Online" (Cathleen Goode, Marlena Frank); (16) No More Lone Rangers--A Team Approach to Online Course Development (Kim Hunter); (17) Motion Based Video Gaming: Fitness, Pedagogy, and Technology Support Considerations (Seth Jenny); (18) Physical Security on Campus (Charles Johnson); (19) Establishing a Distance Learning Framework for the Institution: Part II (Sali Kaceli); (20) Creating a Predictive Analytics Model with Free Software (Steve Knode); (21) Assessment Tools and Strategies for Non-Teaching Faculty (Amanda Kraft, Allison Faix); (22) Tech Talk Sessions (Tom Marcais, M. J. Clark); (23) Providing Cloud-Based Virtual Workspaces to Students, Faculty, and Staff (Clif Morgan); (24) Using Quality Matters for Course Development Internal Reviews (Carmen Morrison); (25) Wireless Mobility without Limits (Gen Olds, Jonathan Hurtt); (26) Free & Easy Project Management Software (Mark Poore); (27) Just the FAX Ma'am. FAX in the Digital Voice World (Bill Ramsay); (28) Student-Centered Scheduling (Charles Smith); (29) Online Program Assessment Rubric and Process (Katherine Spradley); (30) Reading, Relating, and Responding: Using Technology to Engage Readers in a Literature Course (Krista Stonerock); (31) Information Technology in Higher Education--2014 Survey Results of CIOs (Tina Stutchell); (32) Access Control--Changing Systems (Hollis Townsend); (33) Sip Trunking as a Replacement for Traditional Telephone Lines (Hollis Townsend); and (34) The Power of Three--A Social Media Strategy in 3 Words (Steve Weir).

In recent years, K-12 schools throughout the United States have garnered nationwide attention because of bullying problems. Bullying impacts schools in various ways: student performance and self-regard, and it creates an environment of hostility in schools. Many factors contribute to the problem, including socioeconomic status, low self-esteem, peer pressure, and family life. Although the study target middle school had created an anti-bullying program, the incidence of bullying increased during the first and third year of the program's implementation. This study was guided by the theoretical framework of social learning theory that suggests that children learn to be violent as a result of imitating role models and being exposed to violent media content. The central concept is that individuals learn by observing others. A phenomenological study was conducted to investigate the perceptions of middle school teachers about the anti-bullying program. Data collection included semi-structured, open-ended interviews. All interviews were audio taped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed by coding in order to identify emerging themes. The themes that emerged included the content of the anti-bullying curriculum, the contributions of the anti-bullying program, recommendations for effective anti-bullying programs, and teacher readiness and preparedness to implement curriculum. Findings indicated that participants believe that there is a need for an up-to-date, anti-bullying program at the target school and a need to clarify the roles and responsibilities of school teachers and other school stakeholders. Study findings could have educational policy implications as well as positive social change implications. The findings of this study could also contribute on a larger scale.

Bullying has become a nationwide concern at the K-12 level. Guided by the theoretical framework of social learning theory, this study explored the perceptions of secondary education teachers about the bully-proofing program in place at one target middle school. Despite the target middle school's anti-bullying program, the incidence of bullying had increased during the first and third year of the program's implementation. Because the teachers had first-hand knowledge of the target middle school's anti-bullying program, the study participants included four teachers, and data were collected using semi-structured, open-ended, audio taped interviews. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed by coding in order to identify emerging themes. Themes that emerged included the content of the anti-bullying curriculum, the contributions of the anti-bullying program, recommendations for effective anti-bullying programs, and teacher readiness and preparedness to implement curriculum. Reflexivity, member checking, and peer review were used to enhance trustworthiness of the study. Findings indicated that participants believe there is a need for an up-to-date anti-bullying program at the target school and a need to clarify the roles and responsibilities of school stakeholders. Study findings could have educational policy implications as well as positive social change implications at the local and national level as teachers and other stakeholders work together in order to combat bullying in schools and create a safe learning environment for students.