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Real-world experience is often considered subordinate to academic learning at the doctoral level. Lessons from experiential learning at the doctoral level show higher education can be equity-minded and focused on the needs of learners without sacrificing depth and quality even at the highest levels of educational attainment. Doctoral faculty developed a travel experience providing doctoral students the opportunity to better understand themselves as leaders, broaden their understanding of the "other," and bring current issues and trends to life through experiential learning provided by traveling together for a fleeting time and a short distance. The doctoral program is seeing the byproducts of the experience in the inquiry of doctoral students focused on issues of diversity, inequity, and sustainability intended to improve educational outcomes in our nation. While the potential for inequity and disparity to divide the cohort was real, providing the opportunity for all to participate with minimum struggles associated with group travel allowed the cohort to form a bond that has provided a greater level of peer support through the dissertation process. Travel activities and components that led to the success of the experience are discussed.

In 2003, the Texas State Legislature enacted the Texas Success Initiative (TSI). Upon entering a postsecondary institution, non-exempt students are tested using the TSI Assessment. A student's scores are used to assist Texas public institutions of higher education in determining if students are prepared for introductory college coursework in the areas of English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR) and mathematics. At many Texas universities, including Texas State University (TXST), students are placed in either a stand-alone for-credit college mathematics class or in a college corequisite sequence based on their Texas Success Initiative Assessment (TSIA) to be deemed college-ready. Since 2017, an increasing influx of students has led to both new lecturers and additional graduate students being assigned to teach these classes. This "Promising Practice" article describes the implementation of a Japanese lesson study model by three doctoral teaching assistants at TXST with the dual goals of improving their own teaching practices and creating more engaging and relevant lessons for a non-STEM mathematics corequisite class.

Current research supports the need for data-driven systems that occur naturally through a culture of continuous growth. Told through an ethnographic case study design and the lens of shared leadership, is the story of one educator preparation program's journey to improve curricula, clinical practice, and performance management through improvement science. Using the metaphor of outdated maps, improvement science has provided us a global positioning system (GPS) that allows us to know where we are in real time and pivot direction as needed as the landscape shifts. Understanding the journey of one EPP supports the work of other programs seeking to do the same in turbulent times.

This article presents a mixed method study utilizing teacher and student demographic and student attendance data from seven hundred and two public schools in central Texas along with follow-up qualitative data gathered through semi-structured interviews conducted with the top 1% of principals identified as having the most diverse group of faculty within this region. For the quantitative methodology, OLS regression analyses were employed to measure the relative effect of teacher-student race congruence on student attendance. The results of these analyses indicate that teacher-student race congruence made a statistically significant independent contribution to the variance in student attendance. For the qualitative interview data, a constructivist approach was used to identify common themes for how principals recruit and retain a diverse faculty. Three themes emerged from these interviews: recruitment of diverse faculty is deliberate; a climate of teacher support is fostered; and cultural congruence is paramount.

This paper presents a mixed method study examining the relationship between teacher advanced degree attainment and student achievement. This study utilizes teacher demographic data along with standardized test scores from 702 public schools in south central Texas. First, OLS regression analyses were employed to measure the relationship between the percent of teachers with advanced degrees and student achievement. The results of these analyses indicate that the percentage of teachers with advanced degrees made a statistically significant independent contribution to the variance in student outcomes on the state exam in English Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. Following the analysis of the quantitative data, semi-structured interviews were conducted with principals identified as having the top 1% of teachers on staff with advanced degrees within this region. A constructivist approach was used to identify common themes for how these principals recruit and retain faculty with advanced degrees. Five themes emerged. These principals: employ a focused hiring philosophy, foster a learning organization, encourage teacher autonomy, participate in higher education partnerships, and support graduate degree attainment. Each of these themes are explored and practical suggestions for school leaders is presented.

An examination of school funding in cities in Michigan and Texas found wide disparities in the total amount of property taxes collected, but also differences in property tax rates. Families living in high-poverty neighborhoods whose children attended schools with relatively low funding actually paid higher property tax rates than wealthy families living in low-poverty neighborhoods whose children attended schools that enjoyed relatively high funding.

The performance of White students and Hispanic students from California, Texas, and Arizona on the advanced placement (AP) biology exam was compared using archival data from the College Board from 2016 through 2019. Pearson Chi-square tests yielded statistically significant differences in all 4 year comparisons of white and Hispanic students in all three states. White students from California had the highest percentage of students earn a 3 or higher for all 4 years, Arizona had the second highest percentage of white students earn a 3 or higher for all 4 years, and Texas had the lowest percentage of white students earn a 3 or higher for all 4 years of comparison. Hispanic students from Arizona had the highest percentage of students earn a 3 or higher for all 4 years, California had the second highest percentage of Hispanic students earn a 3 or higher for all 4 years, and Texas had the lowest percentage of Hispanic students earn a 3 or higher for all 4 years of comparison. It was discovered a majority of White students who took an AP biology exam, from 2016 to 2019, earned a passing score (3 or higher), while the majority of Hispanic students who took an AP Biology exam failed to earn a passing score (3 or higher), that would result in college credit. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Objective To assess college students' willingness to accept COVID-19 vaccines and the factors that influence their decisions. Participants: Traditional (aged 18-23) undergraduate students at a university in central Texas. Methods: An online survey was administered in fall 2020 to 614 students stratified by sex and race/ethnicity. Results: 40.9% of students planned to take the vaccine as soon as possible, 37.1% eventually, 11.4% only if required, and 10.6% did not intend to be vaccinated. Analyses indicated that gender, major/minor, political affiliation, receiving a flu shot in the preceding 12 months, perception of risk for COVID-19, and vaccine hesitancy were all associated with willingness to accept COVID-19 vaccines. Conclusion: Results confirm that no one-size-fits-all approach to promoting COVID-19 vaccination among college students is possible. Instead, administrators interested in increasing vaccine uptake should address concerns of specific groups, while also utilizing the prosocial beliefs of college students (e.g., being vaccinated will protect others).

Developing preservice special educators' understandings of curricular content knowledge in inclusive and self-contained settings is essential. The purpose of the present study was to better understand specific preparation practices teacher educators use to equip preservice special educators with curricular content knowledge. Using a survey research design, qualitative data were collected among 36 experienced teacher educators in Texas and analyzed through three levels of coding. Three themes emerged and provided a snapshot of current preparation practices. Implications for teacher educators were described, along with descriptions of innovative, evidence-based preparation practices presented in current literature that may improve preservice special educator learning.

The purpose of this study was to identify the strengths and challenges that emerged from the first 3 years of a high school student leadership development program located in an urban setting. This study was developed as an instrumental case study of one student leadership development program serving urban public high schools in South Central Texas. Feedback was solicited from 10 current and former participants regarding the successes and challenges they encountered within this program. Three themes emerged from these interviews: personal voice, a sense of responsibility, and building community relationships. Discussion is included regarding considerations for secondary administrators about the potential utility of this model in helping develop student leaders of color in urban settings.

Calls for engineering integration in pre-collegiate science courses are being made across the globe. The success of such efforts depends heavily on science teachers changing their instructional practices to include engineering. We conjecture when a science teacher chooses to make instructional change, including a change to integrate engineering practices and core ideas into science, the change helps them satisfy one or more of their goals. The purpose of this study is to present an exploratory case study of the goals a group of teachers satisfied when choosing to integrate engineering design into science classes. The primary data source is 31 semi-structured interviews while the teachers were engaged in creating and implementing four design challenges integrating engineering and science. Our findings show the teachers satisfied three types of goals through the use of the integrated engineering learning experiences: (a) habits of mind goals, such as students learning critical thinking; (b) preparation for the future goals, such as preparing students for future courses; and, (c) science education goals, such as students learning state science standards. We discuss these findings in relationship to the literature on instructional change and provide implications for both research and teacher education.

Weight-based victimization (WBV) is a common and consequential experience for adolescents with overweight and obesity. The current study examined the relative contributions of different school-based sources of WBV (i.e., peers, friends, teachers, coaches) on academic grades, as well as the role of teachers in mitigating the academic consequences of WBV among a sample of 148 adolescents with high body weight (M[subscript age]= 15.97, SD[subscript age] = 1.25; 50% female). Regression analyses revealed that the link between school-based WBV and lower grades among adolescents was due primarily to mistreatment from peers. However, this association was weakened when students perceived their teachers to be more helpful in preventing future WBV, but not as a function of how frequently students reported incidents of WBV to their teachers. These findings underscore the importance of teacher intervention in supporting the academic success of adolescents experiencing WBV from their peers in the school setting.

The health and athletic performance benefits of strength training for adolescents have increased the demand for the development and use of strength and conditioning facilities (SCFs) within the high school setting. Despite the growing prevalence of these facilities, research on high school SCFs is limited. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the space, equipment, usage, and staffing patterns of SCFs in the state of Texas. This examination provided descriptive data on SCFs' space, equipment, usage, and staffing patterns based upon the state athletic governing body's six-tier classification level. Significant differences in SCFs' size and available equipment were determined; as well, facility usage for athletics (99.2%), physical education (24.5%), and community (30.6%) was determined. These results are indicative of the need for additional research on high school SCFs for the establishment of better school standards and best practices.

This first analysis of aggregated data from the Kahoot! game-based player response system demonstrates that it can provide assessments of overall US student polar knowledge and identifies differences in polar knowledge across several states. A kahoot online quiz on polar topics recorded over 25,000 United States teacher-hosted classroom players (mostly middle-high school students) run by 1,167 unique teacher hosts within nine months (09/2018 through 06/2019). This high volume of teacher-initiated kahoots shows that many US teachers are motivated to include polar content in their teaching. We selected a subset of questions for analysis to compare with external data from a 2016 survey assessing polar knowledge of the US adult public. On three directly comparable questions kahoot student accuracy averaged just 30%, well below the 49% average accuracy observed on the nationwide survey of adults. Our geographic analysis focused on 13 states that had greater than 100 players for all questions analyzed. Among these, students in Rhode Island, Oregon, Arizona, and Washington exhibit the highest scores overall, while responses from Ohio and Illinois students appeared no better than guessing. Although widespread US teacher interest in polar content is indicated by the many who chose to use the polar kahoot in their classroom, students' polar knowledge proves to be very low. These findings reinforce a need to include more polar and Earth system content in curricula, as well as to crowdsource benchmarked suites of knowledge questions appropriate for assessment of educational interventions.

Introduction: Early administration of antibiotics for open fractures reduces serious bone and soft tissue infections. The effectiveness of antibiotics in reducing these infections is time-dependent, with various surgical associations recommending administration within one hour of injury, or within one hour of patient arrival to the emergency department (ED). The extent to which prehospital antibiotic administration in these situations might reduce the time to treatment has not been previously reported. The purpose of this study was to describe current prehospital use of antibiotics for traumatic injury, to assess the safety of prehospital antibiotic administration, and to estimate the potential time-savings associated with antibiotic administration by EMS clinicians. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of the 2019 through 2022 ESO Data Collaborative research data set. Included subjects were patients that had a linked ICD-10 code indicating an open extremity fracture and who received prehospital antibiotics. Time to antibiotic administration was calculated as the elapsed time from EMS dispatch until antibiotic administration. The minimum potential time saved by EMS antibiotic administration was calculated as the elapsed time from administration until ED arrival. To assess safety, epinephrine and diphenhydramine administration were used as proxies for the adverse events of anaphylaxis and minor allergic reactions. Results: There were 523 patients meeting the inclusion criteria. The median (and interquartile range [IQR]) elapsed time from EMS dispatch until antibiotic administration was 31 (IQR: 24-41) minutes. The median potential time savings associated with prehospital antibiotic administration was 15 (IQR: 8-22) minutes. Notably, 144 (27.5%) of the patients who received prehospital antibiotics had total prehospital times exceeding one hour. None of the patients who received antibiotics also received epinephrine for presumed anaphylaxis. Conclusions: EMS clinicians were able to safely administer antibiotics to patients with open fractures a median of 15 min before arrival at the hospital, and 99% of the patients receiving antibiotics had them administered within one hour of EMS dispatch. EMS administration of antibiotics may be a safe way to increase compliance with recommendations for early antibiotic administration for open fractures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though demonstrated as an effective strategy for enhancing academic performance and course persistence in higher education, traditional Supplemental Instruction (SI) relies on face-to-face interaction in a classroom setting. Consequently, students who have other obligations or feel apprehensive in a group setting often cannot attend traditional SI sessions. This paper focuses on an innovative alternative to traditional SI: an online SI program currently being implemented at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC). This paper describes TAMUCC's online SI program and discusses results from a pilot study that compared the STEM course performance and persistence of TAMUCC undergraduates (N=585) randomly assigned to SI groups (i.e., traditional SI or online SI) in the spring semester of 2015.

Current literacy assessments are focused on a single mode of meaning-making (reading and writing, whether oral or written) and assume that literacy and language are 'fixed systems'-- comprised of discrete skills that can be taught and measured in isolation. This validation and privileging of a single mode of assessment are most culpable in children labeled 'At-risk', falling significantly behind those without this label. Many informal, multimodal assessments endeavor to give a more complete picture of children as literate beings. This study investigates what a teacher can learn from a diverse range of assessment forms and modes. In a fourth-grade self-contained classroom, students engaged in multimodal assessments and created multimodal portfolios. Four students labeled 'At-risk' were chosen for a deeper analysis. Students' artifacts, interviews, and observations served as the main data sources. Both narrative analysis and analysis of narrative were utilized to generate a more complete narrative of the four students as meaning makers and communicators. The general findings suggest that these children labeled 'At-risk' were, in fact, able to engage in multimodal thinking and communication from a critical stance.

With the challenge of creating a competent workforce to fill the shortage of agricultural educators nationwide, researchers have suggested a detailed examination of induction-year teachers to increase retention is critical. Multiple studies have depicted the importance of examining attitudes of induction-year and early career agricultural educators to develop quality induction-level support for this group. Moir (1990) conducted a qualitative study that resulted in the suggestion of six attitudinal phases all induction-year teachers experience, and described a predictive curvilinear relationship between attitude and time over the course of their first year teaching. As part of a larger study, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among demographic variables and induction-year teachers' attitudes toward teaching. Using a repeated measures design, induction-year teachers' (n = 197) attitudes were measured at six points during the 2011-12 school year in relation to the Moir's (1990) model. Findings showed that although minor changes in attitude among respondents occurred, respondents were generally positive in attitude toward their career and did not experience the high levels of fluctuation as suggested by Moir (1990). Additionally, upon completion of a forced entry linear regression, demographic characteristics were not found to be significant predictors of induction-year teachers' attitudes toward teaching.

Recently adopted state standards for middle grades and high school mathematics content have an increased emphasis on statistical topics. With this change, teacher education programs may need to adapt how they prepare preservice secondary mathematics teachers (PSMTs) to teach statistics and require measures related to statistics teaching to assess the impact of programmatic changes and track teacher growth. Using responses from a sample of 290 PSMTs from 20 institutions across the United States, this study presents validity and reliability evidence for the high school version of the Self-Efficacy to Teach Statistics (SETS-HS), which could be used to assess statistics teaching efficacy. Confirmatory factor analysis results via Rasch modeling support the use of three subscales, which exhibit adequate reliabilities and correspond to the three levels in the "Pre-K-12 Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education" endorsed by the American Statistical Association. Item and rating scale analyses indicate that the 46 items and the six-category scale employed in the SETS-HS perform as intended.

Leadership development has been viewed as a foundational component of agriculture education and the FFA since the early 20th century (Hoover, Scholl, Dunnigan, & Mamontova, 2007). To contribute to previous research in the field of leadership, this study lays the framework for future studies on the leadership styles of those individuals who lead today's youth in FFA programs across the State of Texas. This study describes FFA advisors of successful FFA programs in terms of their leadership styles, leadership training/educational background, and suggests how FFA advisors could use their leadership styles to improve their programs. Participants reported engaging in behaviors related to transformational leadership, M = 3.15, more often than those related to transactional, M = 2.45, or laissez-faire leadership styles, M = 0.86

Responding to the underutilization of mental health services in Asian American communities, we examined factors associated with their willingness to use mental health counseling. Applying Andersen's Behavioral Health Service Model, we focused on the role of mental health needs and prior use of mental health counseling in shaping the attitudes toward mental health counseling of diverse groups of Asian Americans. We conducted a secondary analysis of data from 2,609 Asian Americans aged 18 or older who participated in the Asian American Quality of Life (AAQoL) survey conducted in central Texas. Logistic regression models of willingness to use mental health counseling were tested with predisposing (age, gender, marital status, education, nativity, and English-speaking ability), mental health needs (mental distress and self-rated mental health) and enabling (prior use of mental health counseling) variables. About 67% of the overall sample indicated their willingness to use mental health counseling. Individuals who met the criteria for mental distress showed 17% lower odds of willingness to use mental health counseling. The enabling role of prior use of mental health counseling was supported; those who had used counseling were over three times more likely to be willing to use counseling in the future than their counterparts without such an experience. Given the inverse association between mental health needs and the willingness to use mental health counseling, further attention should be paid to improving Asian Americans' recognition of mental health symptoms and awareness of the benefit of mental health services. The enabling role of prior use of counseling also highlights the importance of increasing the exposure to mental health services for Asian Americans. In efforts to promote mental health literacy, reduce cultural stigma, and advocate for mental health service use, consideration of cultural and linguistic diversity within the Asian American population is imperative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study emphasizes it is important and necessary that an English as a foreign language (EFL) speaker should develop their knowledge in pragmatic and sociolinguistic rules in order to avoid failure and misunderstanding in intercultural communication. This paper proposes to raise the EFL speakers' pragmatic awareness in cross-cultural communication and to investigate and appreciate the rich diversity in language productions of giving and accepting gifts among different cultures. Based on the various expressions in polite discourses produced by American, Chinese, Taiwanese and Indian students at Texas A&M University, this study reveals the typical patterns of polite discourses in the Eastern and Western World. (Contains 3 tables.)

Highly migratory shorebirds are among the fastest declining avian guilds, so determining causes of mortality is critically important for their conservation. Most of these species depend on a specific geographic arrangement of suitable sites that reliably provide resources needed to fuel physiologically demanding life histories. Long-term mark-resight projects allow researchers to investigate specific potential sources of variation in demographic rates between populations. Red Knots (Calidris canutus) occur in three relatively distinct regions across the northern Gulf of Mexico, and two of these areas have been experiencing episodic harmful algal blooms (red tide) with increased frequency in recent decades. Since knots are mostly molluscivorous during the nonbreeding season in the Gulf, they are potentially exposed to red tide toxins at high concentrations via their filter-feeding prey. We used long-term mark-resight data from Texas, Louisiana, and Florida (USA) to estimate apparent survival, and to assess the effects of red tides on survival of Red Knots. We also assessed effects of tracking devices deployed in conjunction with the projects over the years. While overall apparent annual survival rates were similar across the three locations (0.768-0.819), several red tide events were associated with catastrophically low seasonal (fall) survival in Florida (as low as 0.492) and Texas (as low as 0.510). Leg- mounted geolocators, but not temporary glued-on VHF tags, were associated with a reduction in apparent survival (~8%/year). Movement of knots between the three areas was rare and site fidelity is known to be high. Harmful algal blooms are predicted to increase in frequency and severity with climate change and increased anthropogenic degradation of coastal habitats, which may further endanger these as well as other shorebird populations around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limb salvage is a difficult path for patients to travel as there is no guarantee of the outcome, often the major factor is perfusion. For patients who underwent transmetatarsal amputation (TMA), success rate is crucial as the next option is most likely a major amputation. We performed a 10 years (2010–2020) retrospective review of patients that underwent a TMA and had an angiogram or computed tomography angiography (CTA) perioperatively at the Dallas VA Medical Center. Failure after TMA was defined as a patient requiring a proximal amputation within 1 year. There were 125 TMAs performed between 2010 and 2020 at the institution. Forty‐four (35.2%) patients had an angiogram/CTA peri‐operative and met the inclusion criteria. Seventeen subjects (38.6%) had a higher level of amputation. Of the 17 failures, 2 (11.8%) patients had no patent vessel runoff to the foot, 9 (52.9%) had one vessel, 4 (23.5%) had two vessels, and 2 (11.8%) had three vessels runoff. One vessel runoff to the foot yielded a high rate of poor outcomes (56.3%) defined as a higher level of amputation. Two or more vessels runoff to the foot had over 75% success of limb salvage with a TMA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The endemic North American praying mantid, Brunneria borealis Scudder (1896), is obligatorily parthenogenic and wingless. The species is both geographically widespread, distributed over an essentially continuous pericoastal range of more than 2,400 km from eastern Texas to central North Carolina, and abundant in early-stage successional old fields. We used mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) analysis to examine the genetic similarities among specimens of this insect and collected from 7 states along this range of distribution. We found no variations in the mitochondrial COI gene, which suggests that this wide geographic distribution of the species is surprisingly recent. We hypothesize that its obligatory parthenogenic status may be an accident of colonization of North America by a single facultative parthenogenic female, and the subsequent distribution was most likely achieved by inadvertent human transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dementia is a major public health concern. Educating health-care providers about dementia warning signs, diagnosis, and management is paramount to fostering clinical competence and improving patient outcomes. The objective of this project was to describe and identify educational and training needs of staff at community-based outpatient clinics related to treating and managing veterans with dementia. Health professionals took an online survey consisting of questions related to general knowledge and skills in working with veterans with dementia and their families, staff training, and attitudes toward people with dementia. Most participants considered knowledge of dementia important; however, few reported having received training in dementia care within the past year. Furthermore, over half of participants considered themselves beginners in terms of knowledge and skills in dementia care. Regarding training needs, topics that could improve the overall care of veterans with dementia and their caregivers were most often cited. Participants reported being most satisfied with in-person training. Physicians rated their dementia knowledge and skill as greater than nurses'/other medical professionals' and support staff's. Compared with support staff, nurses/other medical professionals held more positive attitudes toward persons with dementia. Survey results suggest that staff are interested in improving knowledge of, and skills for, working with persons with dementia, and that job classification is associated with differences in attitudes.

Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is an extremely aggressive but curable subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. While younger patients have excellent outcomes in response to aggressive chemoimmunotherapy, the rarity of this disease in older patients and limitations caused by age, comorbidities, and performance status may negate survival advantages. This analysis assessed outcomes of older adults with BL through data provided by the Texas Cancer Registry (TCR). Patients ≥65 years with BL were assessed. Patients were dichotomized into 1997-2007 and 2008-2018. Median overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) were assessed using Kaplan-Meier methodology, and covariates including age, race, sex, stage, primary site, and poverty index were analyzed using Pearson Chi-squared analysis. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) was used to assess factors contributing to patients not offered systemic therapy. P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Non-BL mortality events were also categorized. There were 325 adults, 167 in 1997-2007 and 158 in 2008-2018; 106 (63.5%) and 121 (76.6%) received systemic therapy, a trend that increased with time (p = 0.010). Median OS for 1997-2007 and 2008-2018 was 5 months (95% CI 2.469, 7.531) and 9 months (95% CI 0.000, 19.154) (p = 0.013), and DSS was 72 months (95% CI 56.397, 87.603) (p = 0.604) and not reached, respectively. For patients that received systemic therapy, median OS was 8 months (95% CI 1.278, 14.722) and 26 months (95% CI 5.824, 46.176) (p = 0.072), respectively, and DSS was 79 months (95% CI: 56.416, 101.584) and not reached, respectively (p = 0.607). Age ≥75 years (HR 1.39 [95% CI 1.078, 1.791], p = 0.011) and non-Hispanic whites (HR 1.407 [95% CI 1.024, 1.935], p = 0.035) had poorer outcomes, and patients at the 20-100% poverty index (OR 0.387 [95% CI 0.163, 0.921], p = 0.032) and increasing age at diagnosis (OR 0.947 [95% CI 0.913, 0.983], p = 0.004) were less likely to receive systemic therapy. Of 259 (79.7%) deaths, 62 (23.9%) were non-BL deaths, and 6 (9.6%) of these were from a second cancer. This two-decade analysis of older Texas patients with BL indicates a significant improvement in OS over time. Although patients were more likely to receive systemic therapy over time, treatment disparities existed in patients residing in poverty-stricken regions of Texas and in advancing age. These statewide findings reflect an unmet national need to find a systemic therapeutic strategy that can be tolerated by and augment outcomes in the growing elderly population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Texas has one of the largest primary and secondary school systems in the United States. Funding equity has been a concern in the state courts, and significant legislative actions have been taken. We examine two votes taken in the Texas State Legislature in 1993 and 2006 that follow the directives from a series of education finance equity legal cases, collectively known as "Edgeworth Independent School District, et al. v. Kirby, et al." The first Edgeworth cases directed the legislature to develop a more equitable education funding system and, as a result, the 1993 vote on Senate Bill 7 (SB7) created a system of "recapture" in which a few of the richest school districts were subject to redistribution of their property tax revenue to the poorest districts. This funding system, known as the "Robin Hood" law, increased significantly the level of redistribution across the Texas school districts. Over time, the list of school districts required to transfer funds to poor schools districts quadrupled. The property-rich school districts across the state reached the maximum property tax rates specified in the law, which these school districts argued effectively made the tax a "statewide" property tax rate, unconstitutional under Texas law. The Texas Supreme Court found the education finance system "adequate" but unconstitutional based on the effective statewide property tax. The court finding ultimately reopened the door for the unequalized funding that existed prior to "Edgeworth" and SB7, as the legislature responded through the passage of House Bill 1 (HB1) in 2006. HB1 reduced property taxes and allowed wealthy districts to supplement the minimum foundation program with higher taxes without state recapture, reducing the finance equity created by SB7. We estimate a legislative voting model on the passage of HB1 and SB7 in both houses of the Texas state legislature. We include several measures of whether the legislator's district benefitted from the drop in inequity in the 1993 law and the rise in inequity in the 2006 law. As predicted, the legislator was more likely to vote against a fall in inequity if the district had greater household income. A similar hypothesis involving college grads receives very little empirical support. Democratic legislators, who generally support a district's poorer households, were much more likely than Republican legislators to support reductions in inequity. Similarly, legislators representing liberal districts were more likely to support proposals to reduce inequality in school spending.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and extent of lower extremity Mönckeberg's Medial Calcific Sclerosis (MMCS) in patients with and without diabetes in patients admitted to the hospital for foot infections. This study retrospectively reviewed 446 patients admitted to the hospital with a moderate or severe foot infection. We defined diabetes based on ADA criteria and reviewed electronic medical records for demographics, medical history and physical examination data. Anterior–posterior and lateral foot radiographs were examined to identify the presence and extent of vascular calcification. We categorised MMCS based on anatomical location: ankle joint to the navicular‐cuneiform joint, Lis Franc joint to metatarsophalangeal joints and distal to the metatarsophalangeal joints. The prevalence of MMCS was 40.6%. The anatomic extent of MMCS was 19.3% in the toes, 34.3% in the metatarsals and 40.6% in the hindfoot/ankle. Calcification was not common solely in the dorsalis pedis artery (DP) (3.8%) or solely in the posterior tibial artery (PT) (7.0%). Usually, both DP and PT arteries were affected by MMCS (29.8%). The prevalence of MMCS was higher in people with diabetes (in hindfoot and ankle [50.1% vs. 9.9%, p ≤ 0.01]; metatarsals [42.6% vs. 5.9%, p ≤ 0.01]; and toes [23.8% vs. 4.0%, p ≤ 0.01]). People with diabetes were 8.9 (CI: 4.5–17.8) times more likely to have MMCS than those without diabetes. This is a group that often has poor perfusion and needs vascular assessment. The high prevalence of MMCS raises questions about the reliability of the conventional segmental arterial Doppler studies to diagnose PAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript discusses the common confusion between the terms probability and odds. To emphasize the importance and responsibility of being meticulous in the dissemination of information and knowledge, this manuscript reveals five cases of sources of inaccurate statistical language imbedded in the dissemination of information to the general public. The five cases presented are: Texas Lottery, Texas PowerBall, the Discovery Education Website, ScienceNews, and the Oregon State website. (Contains 4 tables and 4 figures.)

Context: Current evidence suggests rectal temperature(T[subscript re] and cold-water immersion (CWI) are the most effective means to diagnose and treat exertional heat stroke (EHS), respectively. Educators, clinicians, and students should be apprised of this evidence to guide their practice. Objective: Investigate what athletic training students (ATS) are learning regarding EHS, both in the classroom and clinical settings that may one day influence their practices as athletic trainers (AT). Design: Qualitative design using in-person focus groups. Setting: National meeting in San Antonio, Texas, 2009. Patients or Other Participants: Thirteen rising senior ATS in a Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE)-accredited athletic training education program. Data Collection and Analysis: Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using open coding techniques. Peer debriefing and multiple-analyst triangulation were used to ensure trustworthiness of the data. Results: Two higher order themes emerged from the data analysis: Lack of Experience and Educators' Influence. Lack of Experience summarizes the ATS lack of exposure, both in the classroom and in the clinical setting regarding the skills associated with EHS. It was apparent that the participant's lack of understanding of EHS was a direct result of a lack of time spent with the topic. The higher order theme of Educators' Influence highlights the role that educators play in influencing and shaping ATS retention of materials, competence, and future practice beliefs regarding EHS. Conclusion: A cyclic reaction occurs with regards to EBP that directly influences ATS. Until the cycle is broken, ATs will continue to struggle implementing best practices identified from research into clinical practice. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

The authors present three studies (two randomized controlled experiments and one embedded quasi-experiment) designed to evaluate the impact of replacement units targeting student learning of advanced middle school mathematics. The studies evaluated the SimCalc approach, which integrates an interactive representational technology, paper curriculum, and teacher professional development. Each study addressed both replicability of findings and robustness across Texas settings, with varied teacher characteristics (backgrounds, knowledge, attitudes) and student characteristics (demographics, levels of prior mathematics knowledge). Analyses revealed statistically significant main effects, with student-level effect sizes of 0.63, 0.50, and 0.56. These consistent gains support the conclusion that SimCalc is effective in enabling a wide variety of teachers in a diversity of settings to extend student learning to more advanced mathematics. (Contains 4 tables, 5 figures, and 1 note.)

Teachers' cheating on high-stakes standardized tests is a serious problem for public schools. This study examined the influence of school tenure and policy attitudes about standardized testing on teachers' decisions to report a peer for violating testing protocol. In sum, 330 Texas school teachers responded to a survey that included a scenario depicting a teacher violating standardized testing protocol. Analysis of variance revealed that teachers with negative and moderate attitudes about standardized testing were less likely to report their peers than were those with positive attitudes about standardized testing. Implications of these findings include the important role that attitudes play in one's decision to report a peer for violating policy. The article concludes with limitations--which include the nonuse of random sampling and the reliance on a vignette rather than an actual situation--as well as directions for future research. (Contains 3 tables.)

Since the early 1990s, attention has been focused on the importance of self-determination in the education of students with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to further our understanding of the construct of self-determination by examining the relationship between the "Arc's Self-Determination Scale" and the "American Institutes for Research (AIR) Self-Determination Scale" student and educator versions. Using structural equation modeling, we found that the theoretical structure of the "Arc's Self-Determination Scale" and the "AIR Self-Determination-Student Scale" was supported by the data, while the proposed theoretical structure of the "AIR Self-Determination-Educator Scale" was not. The analyses suggested that each of the measures of self-determination was measuring a different aspect of the self-determination construct (i.e., it was not possible to create a higher order factor comprising each of the assessments); thus issues related to the goals of the research and the underlying theoretical perspective of each measure must be considered when determining the most appropriate measure of self-determination in research and practice. Implications and future research directions are discussed. (Contains 4 tables, 4 figures and 1 note.)

Traditional conceptions of faculty and program productivity typically emphasize in varying degrees teaching, research, publication, creative work, service to the university, and service to the community. Evaluation of these areas and the relative weights assigned to them varies greatly from unit to unit within a university and even more so among universities. Moreover, without measurable weights assigned to each activity, it becomes more difficult to make planning decisions ranging from funding new positions to posttenure review of faculty. The lack of data also makes a more objective evaluation of faculty and program performance much less likely. Thus, it is no surprise that decisions about teaching load, class size, curriculum, programs, and faculty appear to be driven more by polemics than by analysis. In truth all faculty activities create value and entail costs for universities. Although the authors strongly do not believe that all programmatic and faculty activity can be reduced to financial considerations, they also believe that financial considerations must play an important part in evaluating how resources are invested by the university and if those investments are in the best interests of the students, the faculty as a whole and the short- and long-term goals of the university. In this article, the authors discuss the use of a return on investment models for higher education institutions. They describe a model for Texas that focuses on the revenue streams and expenditures for different areas of a university, makes use of data routinely available in a university's databases, and takes into account the percentage of time to which a faculty member is assigned or is engaged in varied activities. (Contains 6 figures and 3 tables.)

The emotional trauma of recent events may never go away. A million people were uprooted by Hurricane Katrina, including an estimated 372,000 children of school age. Three weeks later, Hurricane Rita slammed into the Texas-Louisiana coastline, forcing thousands more to evacuate. Acute symptoms of trauma range from confusion, nightmares, and clinging behavior in young children to sleep disturbances, depression, and fighting in preadolescents and teens. Months or perhaps years later, some may also develop Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, which typically occurs with crime victims and soldiers in combat and is characterized by disturbing flashbacks and panic attacks. Academic problems could be exacerbated by the high level of poverty among evacuees. The combined effect of poverty-related problems and trauma from the storms could be debilitating for some children, experts say. The good news is that children can be remarkably resilient, often more so than their parents, said Howard Adelman, co-director of the Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA. After the hurricanes, parents must deal with the added stressors of insurance, housing, and employment. Kids just need to look after themselves. Schools can help them build resiliency by linking them with adult mentors and student buddies, experts say. School boards can cut red tape that may prevent students from getting needed help, especially important for those who had academic or emotional problems before the storms. Teachers should be careful not to pour on needless academic work, yet at the same time not treat evacuees differently because of what they went through. Developing new routines, new challenges--in short, a new sense of normalcy--is key to helping these children recover.

Biological invasions are a leading ecological issue of the 21st century because of their worldwide contributions to biodiversity loss and degradation of ecosystem services. Answering general questions about the mechanisms facilitating the spread of successful invasives is key to understanding how to manage them moving forward. The success of introduced primary producers has often been attributed to superior competitive ability or to their release from natural enemies that constrained them in their native range. In contrast, nonnative primary producers can successfully invade and establish in new areas by releasing allelochemical compounds into the environment that are toxic to the native flora. The interactive effects of allelopathy and competition remain underexplored. Here, we evaluated the mechanism of invasion by Guinea grass, a globally distributed tallgrass from tropical and subtropical Africa with known allelopathic effects associated with 2‐hydroxyphenylacetic acid (2HPAA). We asked if allelopathy and light availability interact to give Guinea grass a competitive advantage during seedling establishment in its introduced range. We used a fully factorial greenhouse experiment in which allelochemical concentrations and light availability treatments were based on empirical measurements of these variables at an invaded site in South Texas. Seedling recruitment and growth were assessed for three native species and for Guinea grass itself. We also described the metabolome (the complete set of small molecules) of an invasive grass for the first time to facilitate a comparison of the effect of the known allelochemical 2HPAA with that of the whole‐plant chemical extract. Shading and allelochemistry each reduced recruitment and growth by themselves, and a significant interaction of these stressors exacerbated the negative effects in the shade, resulting in short plants, low biomass, and ultimately decreased seedling recruitment. The whole‐plant metabolomic extract had significantly stronger effects than pure 2HPAA, and these negative effects were intensified in the shade. Moreover, the mechanism showcased here demonstrated that resource competition and biochemical interference are not mutually exclusive mechanisms that facilitate the spread of a globally distributed invasive species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this project is to develop a unique simulation environment that can be used to increase students' interest and expertise in Computer Science curriculum. Hands-on experience with physical or simulated equipment is an essential ingredient for learning, but many approaches to training develop a separate piece of equipment or software for each topic area. We describe the development of a simulation environment that provides a foundation for cross-disciplinary exercises. The Wireless Intelligent agent Simulation Environment (WISE), which combines activities from virtual and physical versions of the Wumpus World game, provides a dynamic learning environment that can enhance a number of Computer Science courses. In this paper, we describe the WISE environment design. We also describe steps for integrating WISE into Computer Science curriculum. As a demonstration of the effectiveness of the tool, we describe its use in the artificial intelligence, multimedia, and wireless networks courses at the University of Texas at Arlington.