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While previous studies have assessed public opinions for arming teachers in K-12 schools in the United States, comparatively less research has focused on understanding teachers' opinions for such policies and assessed whether and to what extent school- and individual-level factors are associated with differences in support. The current study aims to address these voids in the current body of literature by analyzing self-report data from a large sample of Texas K-12 educators (N = 9,196) to assess relations between theoretical correlates of teacher and staff gun carrying, demographic as well as school characteristics, and support for carrying. A series of logistic regression models reveal that favorable views of an emergency operation plan in a school setting and general negative view of guns in school are associated with lower odds of support. The strength of these associations varies across teacher and school characteristics. The implications of the reported results for K-12 school policy is discussed.

Background: Mass school shootings have created fear in the American public. The results of this fear have been the hardening of schools, lockdowns, and active shooter drills, yet the mass shootings have not ended. The goal of this study was to analyze the mental health awareness of K-12 public schools teachers in Texas with a goal to identify the connections between mental health awareness and school safety. Methods: Data were used from an archival database of K-12 teacher responses in the 2020 Texas Educators' Needs Assessment Regarding School Safety and Victims Services to assess the current state of student mental health concerns and the connection of these concerns to school safety. This needs assessment included one mixed methods survey that was collected from Texas K-12 educators and Texas educators working in higher education in 2020. The original study included 25,161 usable responses (6.1%). For the purpose of this study, only K-12 teacher responses were used in the analysis. The K-12 teacher participants (n = 19,888) included the following institutional levels: (a) special setting, 2,919 (14.7%); (b) elementary school, 6,813 (34.3%); (c) middle/intermediate school, 4,189 (21.1%); (d) high school, 5,864 (29.5%); and (e) district level, 103 (0.5%). A total of 8,053 participant's qualitative responses and 10 of the original quantitative survey questions from the archival data were used to identify all findings in the study. Results: Collected qualitative and quantitative participant responses' outlined a need to improve student mental health by strengthening the focus on supporting all stakeholders (e.g., teachers, parents, counselors, and students) in mental health awareness and education. Participant comments focused on the lack of training, counselor support, and community support regarding the mental health needs of their students. Conclusion: Recommendations to improve student mental health that were developed from this study identified key goals in school counselor role and responsibility to student mental health, increased involvement of community agencies, and improvement to in-school mental health counseling. Final recommendations of this study were focused on the need to improve student mental health if stakeholders want to develop a positive school environment. The failure to build an environment that is focused on student mental health will continue to affect the goal to improve overall school safety.

The 2020 Texas Educators' Needs Assessment Regarding School Safety and Victims Services included responses from educators across the state of Texas regarding school safety. This needs assessment generated data that provided researchers with the unique opportunity to analyze the school safety issues in Texas (Fuller et al, 2020). The purpose of the study was to evaluate Texas K-12 educators responses to their school's preparedness for an active attack or shooter using data from that needs assessment. To build a strong analysis, the results were separated into three categories: educator role; Texas school regions; and urbanicity. Pearson chi square statistical analysis was used to create an understanding of the data. The results of this analysis revealed a trend that a majority of K-12 educators felt prepared for an active attack or shooter.

The purpose of this embedded-descriptive single-case study was to provide insight into one prekindergarten school's efforts to build teacher capacity in foundational skills. An embedded-descriptive single-case study was a suitable design for the study because the researcher could not manipulate the school's efforts; the setting was contemporary and involved real-world events. Servant Leadership Theory (SLT) was the theoretical underpinning of the study and the lens used to view the transition from the school's human capital resources to the implementation of methods, strategies, and activities to build teacher capacity. Montessori instruction served as the platform for teaching foundational skills.

Background: Prior work examined the relationship between teacher preparation programs (TPPs) and teacher attrition and turnover. However, such research aggregated all types of non-traditional certification programs (non-TCPs) into a single non-TCP group. This practice masks some critical differences among non-TCPs, and could send a misleading message to stakeholders and policymakers. Purpose: Our study builds on prior studies and empirically investigates the relationship between the types of TPPs and beginning teachers' attrition and turnover behaviors in Texas public schools using a detailed non-TCP typology. Our study provides information about variation in attrition and turnover rates among non-TCPs and highlights the types of non-TCPs that exhibited different turnover and attrition patterns. Research Design: Using longitudinal administrative data and detailed data on preparation program type obtained from the Texas Education Agency, we estimated a series of logistic regression models and discrete-time hazard models with district fixed effects, school random effects, and school-by-year random effects. Findings: Non-TCP teachers were more likely to leave the profession or the district than TCP teachers for the first few years. Yet, by the end of the fourth year, attrition and turnover rates converged between TCP and non-TCP teachers. Among non-TCP teachers, teachers from district-administered programs and programs operated by private nonprofit organizations exhibited different attrition and turnover behaviors than other non-TCP teachers. Conclusion: Given the differential turnover and attrition rates among non-TCP teachers, district and school administrators may design tailored activities and programs that could meet the varying needs of teachers from different types of preparation programs.

This paper aims to better delineate the patterns of mobility and turnover of rural principals in Texas. Specifically, the authors examine the patterns of movement into, within, and out of rural principal positions, as a means to gain a better understanding of the forces of 'draw' within rural areas and 'drain' out. The study consisted of a sample of 22,385 principals in Texas from 1995 to 2015, representing the population or rural principals in the state. Using methods including OLS and logistic regression as well as discrete time hazard modeling, the study aims to capture the general trends of rural principal mobility to better inform policy interventions. Results demonstrate that: (1) Rural districts tend to hire candidates from rural backgrounds; (2) Rural principals are much less likely to transfer out of the rural context, but tend to switch positions at similar rates as nonrural principals; and (3) Rural principals turnover at similar rates as nonrural principals. The paper includes a discussion and policy recommendations for facilitating healthy rural principal recruitment and retention.

Current percentages of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) principals largely mirror those of the teacher workforce. They, however, diverge from student demographics. We provide insight into these racial imbalances by charting principal preparation patterns and demonstrating the typical leadership pipeline in Texas. In doing so, we draw attention to both leaks in the pipeline and potential sites of intervention. We believe BIPOC principals will continue to be underrepresented relative to BIPOC students if we continue current practices with regard to college graduation, entrance into teaching, tapping, preparation, placement, and retention. We conclude with recommendations for preparation and policy.

The objective of this study is to add to the existing literature on principal recruitment and hiring strategies by examining the turnover and retention patterns of internally recruited principals. For many hard-to-staff schools--particularly urban and rural schools--internal recruitment is considered a primary method of improving recruitment and retention. However, the relation of recruitment source to turnover has yet to be explored. Utilizing techniques including ordinary least squares and logistic regression and discrete-time hazard modeling over 17 years of administrative data from the Texas Education Agency, this study investigates: (1) the personal and school characteristics of internally hired principals; and (2) whether internally hired principals are more stable in their positions than externally hired principals. Results demonstrate that internal hires tend to be from more historically underrepresented groups and serve in urban schools with slightly greater proportions of students of color. Furthermore, internally hired principals are significantly less likely than external hires to turn over. However, results also demonstrate that within-school hires are more likely to turn over than within-district hires. These results suggest that internal recruitment has the potential to help stem the high rate of principal turnover but could be more widely utilized.

Given that principals stand at the precipice between policy, the student body, and the community, this article examines the relationship between demographic shocks and principal turnover. In observing more than seven thousand schools in Texas over a seventeen-year period, hazard model results demonstrate that short-term demographic changes are significantly associated with increased principal turnover risk, particularly for changes in the proportion of Students of Color. Results further imply that White and suburban principals were the most sensitive to these changes, suggesting the need for additional training and support to ensure stable leadership for schools undergoing shocks in student composition.

After a natural disaster hits, schools often focus on a recovery plan that meets the immediate needs of students. Unfortunately, teachers' needs are not prioritized, leaving them to address personal and professional disruptions on their own. We studied 20 school districts in North Carolina and Texas that were affected by Hurricanes Matthew and Harvey. We found that after a hurricane, teachers' experience disruptions in the form of personal damage, damages at school, disruption to the school calendar, and disruption to the class routine. We recommend supporting teachers' physical, social-emotional, and classroom needs to assist and expedite recovery.

Synergy may be defined as the collaboration between two or more parties to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate parts. That is exactly what happened in Denton, Texas, when all types of librarians collaborated on a community reading initiative. In 2007 Denton Reads--a One Book, One Community organization--was formed with librarians from the Denton Independent School District (Denton ISD), the Denton Public Library, the University of North Texas (UNT), and Texas Woman's University (TWU). The Denton Reads program ran successfully for three years. During their years of collaboration, the librarians at all levels realized the emphasis of instruction was on database use; critical information literacy skills were not being addressed. In addition, a number of outside forces caused librarians to reexamine their library instruction such as AASL's "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner," the Partnership for the 21st Century Skills, and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) information literacy standards. With so many standards and state programs embracing inquiry and information literacy skills, the librarians saw opportunities where their collaboration would benefit K-20 goals to improve student performance and to graduate a stronger workforce. The solution to meeting these needs for 21st-century learners was to create a K-20 information literacy curriculum that included an inquiry focus. This article describes how Donna Kearley, Denton ISD library services coordinator, and Annie Downey, department head of UNT Libraries Research and Instructional Services, worked to positively impact both student performance and career readiness by using a spiraled K-20 information literacy curriculum integrating an inquiry process. With their administrators' enthusiastic endorsement, again all of the Denton librarians, joined together to create a new organization, the Denton Inquiry 4 Lifelong Learning (DI4LL). At this point, librarians from Denton Public Library and faculty from both TWU and UNT library schools joined the group to create this unique collaborative organization. The article concludes that the DI4LL team continues to refine the K-20 information literacy curriculum units, ensuring they meet the K-20 standards expectations and the Guided Inquiry process is clearly integrated. Lessons, projects, and resources are being added to the units, providing quick access to resources. Academic and high school librarians continue to build relationships that promote collaborative opportunities, all focused on improving students' research skills.

Purpose: There is growing recognition of the importance of educator diversity. The purpose of this paper is to examine the production, placement and employment of school leaders as assistant principals, principals and school leaders in Texas by the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender over 23 years. Design/methodology/approach: This is a quantitative study that employs multilevel logistic regression analysis to examine using 25 years of educator employment data from Texas. Findings: The authors find descriptive evidence of an increase in diversity of school leaders driven by a decreasing percentage of white men educators and an increasing percentage of Latina educators. Important differences, however, emerge when examining assistant principal vs principal positions, particularly with respect to the odds of being hired. The authors find black male and Latino educators are more likely than white male educators to be hired as an assistant principal but are less likely than white male educators to be hired as a principal. Women educators, regardless of race/ethnicity were less likely to be hired as assistant principals or principals relative to white male educators. Women of color had the lowest odds of being hired in any position relative to white male educators. With respect to school leader preparation program accountability, the authors find few program characteristics associated with placement and differences between programs explained very little of the variation in placement rates, bringing into question efforts to hold programs accountable for such outcomes. Originality/value: A longitudinal examination of racial/ethnic and gender intersectionality over 25 years is a unique contribution to the study of inequitable access to school leadership positions.

Since the 1970s, there has been keen interest in examining gender representation in leadership positions across various areas of employment, including K-12 education. Indeed, there have been long-standing concerns about the percentage of women principals. Few studies, however, have examined the percentages of women principals at different schooling levels (elementary, middle, and high schools) and across different geographic locales. In this study, we rely on 23 years of employment data for Texas public schools to examine the percentage of employed principals and newly hired principals who were women by school level and geographic locale. We also employ logistic regression to identify the independent effect of a school being located in a rural area on the odds of a school hiring a woman to be principal. We find that schools in all locales evidence an increase in hiring women as principals--particularly during the 1990s. We also find schools located in rural areas--both inside and outside metropolitan statistical areas--were less likely than schools located in large cities and large suburbs to employ a woman principal and hire a woman to fill a vacancy in the principalship.

This article examines the unique features of the rural school context and how these features are associated with the stability of principals in these schools. Given the small but growing literature on the characteristics of rural principals, this study presents an exploratory analysis of principal stability across schools located in different geographic locales. We use longitudinal data covering all certified education positions in Texas over an eight-year period and employ logistic regression models to examine the ways in which individual and school characteristics influence five-year retention rates for all principals as well as for rural principals. Broadly, our data show that rural principals, on average, leave their positions earlier than non-rural principals and have lower levels of stability. Our results further suggest that while rural principals exhibit less gender and racial diversity, they do not exhibit shorter spells of employment as a principal after controlling for personal and school characteristics. Rural female principals are more stable than rural male principals. In addition, we find that principals with more teaching experience are more stable while those with more assistant principal experience are less stable.

More work is needed to engage the talents and empower Latino students to reach their full academic potential. We suggest that one potential cause for Latino student underperformance is the underrepresentation of Latino school leaders. Research suggests that school leaders who understand the cultural background and lived experiences of students tend to be more effective in improving student outcomes. This study explores the production and placement of Latino school leaders in Texas over two decades, and whether Latino educators who have obtained principal certification are as likely as their White peers to obtain a school leadership position.

Background: Mass school shootings have created fear in the American public. The results of this fear have been the hardening of schools, lockdowns, and active shooter drills, yet the mass shootings have not ended. The goal of this study was to analyze the mental health awareness of K‐12 public schools teachers in Texas with a goal to identify the connections between mental health awareness and school safety. Methods: Data were used from an archival database of K‐12 teacher responses in the 2020 Texas Educators' Needs Assessment Regarding School Safety and Victims Services to assess the current state of student mental health concerns and the connection of these concerns to school safety. This needs assessment included one mixed methods survey that was collected from Texas K‐12 educators and Texas educators working in higher education in 2020. The original study included 25,161 usable responses (6.1%). For the purpose of this study, only K‐12 teacher responses were used in the analysis. The K‐12 teacher participants (n = 19,888) included the following institutional levels: (a) special setting, 2,919 (14.7%); (b) elementary school, 6,813 (34.3%); (c) middle/intermediate school, 4,189 (21.1%); (d) high school, 5,864 (29.5%); and (e) district level, 103 (0.5%). A total of 8,053 participant's qualitative responses and 10 of the original quantitative survey questions from the archival data were used to identify all findings in the study. Results: Collected qualitative and quantitative participant responses' outlined a need to improve student mental health by strengthening the focus on supporting all stakeholders (e.g., teachers, parents, counselors, and students) in mental health awareness and education. Participant comments focused on the lack of training, counselor support, and community support regarding the mental health needs of their students. Conclusion: Recommendations to improve student mental health that were developed from this study identified key goals in school counselor role and responsibility to student mental health, increased involvement of community agencies, and improvement to in‐school mental health counseling. Final recommendations of this study were focused on the need to improve student mental health if stakeholders want to develop a positive school environment. The failure to build an environment that is focused on student mental health will continue to affect the goal to improve overall school safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent calls to hold preparation programs accountable for outcomes have led states to develop and adopt preparation program accountability systems. A primary feature of these systems is a focus on outcomes such as placement rates, retention rates, and graduates' effectiveness in improving K-12 student achievement. Yet, little research has examined the feasibility of employing such outcome measures, let alone the validity and reliability of the inherent judgments. This conceptual study reviews and makes conclusions about the appropriateness of using placement rates to evaluate principal-preparation programs based on theoretical analyses and empirical analysis of statewide placement data from Texas.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of personal and program characteristics on the placement of graduates of principal preparation programs in assistant principal, principal, and school leadership positions. Research Design: This study relies on Texas principal production data from 1993 through 2007 matched to employment data from 1993 through 2013. The data include personal characteristics of each program's graduates (age, sex, and race/ethnicity), program characteristics (program type, percentages of female graduates, and percentage of White graduates), labor market location, and certification year. We employ both descriptive statistics and multilevel logistic regression analysis to examine the factors associated with obtaining employment as an assistant principal, principal, and school leader. Findings: At least 50% of graduates obtained placement as a school leader within 5 years and about 70% did so over 10 years. Within 5 years of certification, men, Latinos, and middle-aged graduates had greater odds of employment as a school leader than women, Whites, and younger and older graduates, respectively. Differences arose, however, when examining placement as an assistant principal and principal separately. In particular, Black and Latina/o graduates had greater odds of employment as an assistant principal but had lower odds of employment as a principal than their White peers. Finally, there were few program characteristics associated with placement, and differences between programs explained very little of the variation in placement rates, bringing into question efforts to hold programs accountable for such outcomes.

The National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ) recent review of university-based teacher preparation programs concluded the vast majority of such programs were inadequately preparing the nation's teachers. The study, however, has a number of serious flaws that include narrow focus on inputs, lack of a strong research base, missing standards, omitted research, incorrect application of research findings, poor methodology, exclusion of alternative certification programs, failure to conduct member checks, and failure to use existing evidence to validate the report's rankings. All of these issues render the NCTQ report less than useful in efforts to understand and improve teacher preparation programs in the United States. The article also suggests alternative pathways NCTQ could have undertaken to work with programs to actually improve teacher preparation. The article concludes by noting that the shaky methods used by NCTQ suggest shaky motives such that the true motives of NCTQ for producing the report must be questioned.

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study is to explore how the characteristics of the principal preparation programs of newly hired elementary school principals might influence school achievement through the development of well-qualified teams of teachers by the school. Of primary interest is whether elementary school principals from preparation programs with certain types of characteristics are more or less likely to build teams of well-qualified teachers who, in turn, positively affect overall student achievement. A secondary purpose is to establish a relationship between the overall school-level qualifications of teams of teachers and school-level student achievement on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) to underscore the importance of the first relationship. Research Design: This quantitative study utilizes ordinary least squares regression to analyze seven extracts of data from the Texas Education Agency, merged together to create a data set that matched teachers, principals, school characteristics, and student achievement to individual schools. First, the authors establish the relationship between school-level teacher-team quality and school-level student outcomes on the TAKS. Second, they examine the relationship between principal preparation program characteristics and the measures of teacher-team quality after controlling for principal characteristics, school characteristics, and student achievement. Furthermore, because the authors hypothesize that principals cannot quickly alter the quality of teams of teachers in schools, they examine school achievement and teacher-team quality over four years. (Contains 1 note and 8 tables.)

Discusses the impact of accountability on educational quality at the state level, exploring various Texas student performance measures over the past decade that show improvements in school performance for minority and impoverished children. Discusses data from Texas Assessment of Academic Skills scores, National Assessment of Educational Progress scores, college entrance examinations, exemptions from testing, and dropout rates. (SM)

Purpose: Subependymomas located within the 4th ventricle are rare, and the literature describing imaging characteristics is sparse. Here, we describe the clinical and radiological characteristics of 29 patients with 4th ventricle subependymoma. Methods: This is a retrospective multi-center study performed after Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. Patients diagnosed with suspected 4th ventricle subependymoma were identified. A review of clinical, radiology, and pathology reports along with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images was performed. Results: Twenty-nine patients, including 6 females, were identified. Eighteen patients underwent surgery with histopathological confirmation of subependymoma. The median age at diagnosis was 52 years. Median tumor volume for the operative cohort was 9.87 cm3, while for the non-operative cohort, it was 0.96 cm3. Thirteen patients in the operative group exhibited symptoms at diagnosis. For the total cohort, the majority of subependymomas (n = 22) were isointense on T1, hyperintense (n = 22) on T2, and enhanced (n = 24). All tumors were located just below the body of the 4th ventricle, terminating near the level of the obex. Fourteen cases demonstrated extension of tumor into foramen of Magendie or Luschka. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest collection of 4th ventricular subependymomas with imaging findings reported to date. All patients in this cohort had tumors originating between the bottom of the body of the 4th ventricle and the obex. This uniform and specific site of origin aids with imaging diagnosis and may infer possible theories of origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this work is to examine the immediate impacts of hurricanes on schools and document the competing priorities faced by educators as they return to their educational mission of serving students and assisting with communal recovery. The research team conducted 115 interviews with educators across 20 school districts after Hurricane Matthew in North Carolina and Hurricane Harvey in Texas. After the hurricanes, respondents described disruptions in the form of operational, personal, and displacement. Educators adapted to their shifting responsibilities by taking on new roles in managing school property, volunteering in the community, and managing relief efforts. This paper addresses a gap in the literature on the immediate impacts of hurricanes on schools by studying two storms in different states, which enables more transferable conclusions to be drawn than in prior studies. When helping schools make disaster plans, educators and emergency planners should address the anticipated disruptions, account for shifting responsibilities, and enable clear communication during the disaster and recovery process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the long-term impacts of hurricanes on schools and discuss approaches to improving recovery efforts. Design/methodology/approach: Interviews with 20 school districts in Texas and North Carolina after Hurricanes Harvey (2017) and Matthew (2016). In total, 115 interviews were conducted with teachers, principals, district superintendents and representatives from state education agencies. Interview questions focused on the impact of storms and strategies for recovery. Findings: The authors uncovered three long-term impacts of hurricanes on schools: (1) constrained instructional time, (2) increased social-emotional needs and (3) the need to support educators. Research limitations/implications: This paper focuses on two storms, in two states, in two successive years. Data collection occurred in Texas, one academic year after the storm. As compared to the North Carolina, data collection occurred almost two academic years after the storm. Practical implications: This paper illuminates strategies for stakeholders to implement and expedite hurricane recovery through; (1) updating curricula plans, (2) providing long-term counselors and (3) supporting educators in and out of school. Originality/value: To date, very few studies have explored the ways in which schools face long-term impacts following a disaster. This paper provides insight to the challenges that prolong the impacts of disasters and impede recovery in schools. With hurricanes and related disasters continuing to affect schooling communities, more research is needed to identify the best ways to support schools, months to years after an event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Texas, and some other states, there is a documented shortage of physics teachers, in terms of both number and qualifications. The shortage in Texas is due as much to teachers leaving the field (attrition) as to a lack of teachers entering. There are efforts under way to prepare more and better-qualified physics teachers who will stay in the field longer, but increasing the overall supply and retention will not necessarily address "localized" teacher shortages. To investigate this issue, we obtained a database cataloging every teacher who taught science in Texas public schools from 2003 to 2008, indicating the school where they taught during each of those years, the subjects they taught, and their route to certification. This allowed us to track not only teachers entering and leaving the public school system, but also migration between schools within the system. We found that migration poses a much bigger problem than attrition for some schools. We also found patterns in the movement of physics teachers in Texas that we would not necessarily have predicted and that varied substantially depending on certification.

The Imported Red Fire Ant Solenopsis invicta is not only a painful nuisance to your sunday picnic but also of great importance to medical professionals and those with allergies associated with its painful bite. This study is aimed at providing information about S. invicta and their foraging habits in different temperatures in order to better control them in the College Station area. In order to collect data, six traps were placed next to ant piles throughout a grassy field indigenous to S. invicta over a period of about three weeks. These traps were baited with hot dog meat and set for a period of approximately 2 hours at the hottest time of day (2 P.M. - 4 P.M.) then collected and the ants were counted. This was done twice per week over the three week period. The resulting data showed that there was some correlation between temperature and amount of ants foraging, higher temperature related to higher amount of ants accounted for. Discrepancies in this trend were addressed by assessing additional climatic variables which may have caused interference, and a relationship was established between ant foraging behavior and mean wind speed. The size of the ant hills provided another clue into the number of ants found in each trap. The larger the ant bed the trap was placed to, the larger amount of ants were found foraging for food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter analyzes 2011 survey data from a sample of Texas principals who were asked about their perceptions of their working conditions such as: support and facilities; salary; resources; autonomy to make decisions; testing and accountability pressures; and relationships with supervisors. Respondents were also asked about their intentions to stay or leave their particular school. Researchers and policymakers agree effective and stable school leadership is critical to school improvement efforts, but we know little about how various working conditions impact principal effectiveness and turnover. This work is important because in-depth knowledge of the causes of principal turnover in general and how principal working conditions impact turnover in particular is a pre-requisite to creating policies and support mechanisms to support principals in small and mid-sized districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. We evaluated a real-time ambulatory care-based syndromic surveillance system in four metropolitan areas of the United States. Methods. Health-care organizations and health departments in California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Texas participated during 2007-2008. Syndromes were defined using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision diagnostic codes in electronic medical records. Health-care organizations transmitted daily counts of new episodes of illness by syndrome, date, and patient zip code. A space-time permutation scan statistic was used to detect unusual clustering. Health departments followed up on e-mailed alerts. Distinct sets of related alerts ("signals") were compared with known outbreaks or clusters found using traditional surveillance. Results. The 62 alerts generated corresponded to 17 distinct signals of a potential outbreak. The signals had a median of eight cases (range: 3-106), seven zip code areas (range: 1-88), and seven days (range: 3-14). Two signals resulted from true clusters of varicella; six were plausible but unconfirmed indications of disease clusters, six were considered spurious, and three were not investigated. The median investigation time per signal by health departments was 50 minutes (range: 0-8 hours). Traditional surveillance picked up 124 clusters of illness in the same period, with a median of six ill per cluster (range: 2-75). None was related to syndromic signals. Conclusions. The system was able to detect two true clusters of illness, but none was of public health interest. Possibly due to limited population coverage, the system did not detect any of 124 known clusters, many of which were small. The number of false alarms was reasonable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the fall and spring semesters of the 1976-77 academic year faculty members from Southwest State University, Marshall, Minnesota's public administration program participated with practitioners from New Braunfels, Texas city government and officials from the Texas Department of Community Affairs in an exchange program that broke new ground in providing linkage between those who administer and those who teach. Other participants in the program were Regions Seven and Eight of the Texas City Management Association. The exchange program involved the use of two different models. The first of these was a one-way exchange, the second a dual exchange. Both models were part of the Internal City Management Association/National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration grant given to the university and to Regions Seven and Eight of the Texas City Management Association. The objectives of the exchange program can be grouped into three categories: curriculum improvement, improved classroom teaching, and development of a closer linkage between the academic and practitioner worlds.

Determines the effect of air pollution controls on the financial performance rates of cotton gin plants in Texas. Discussion on several federal acts concerning air pollution regulation; Simulation analysis of representative gin plants; Evaluation of the effect of required investments in air pollution controls.

Bats have few natural predators, with birds and snakes being most commonly reported. However, there are also reports of bat predation by large arthropods, including spiders, although recorded cases outside of the Neotropics, Asia, and Australia/Papua New Guinea are rare. Herein, we report an observation of a potential predation event on a Perimyotis subflavus (Tri-colored Bat) by a Dolomedes tenebrosus (Dark Fishing Spider) at a culvert hibernaculum in East Texas. We believe this to be only the second reported case of predation on a bat by a hunting spider in North America. As Tri-colored Bat numbers are decreasing due to the spread of white-nose syndrome, we discuss the need to consider impacts of spider predation at culvert hibernacula and how climatic events may alter the predator–prey dynamics between these 2 species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]