Until recently, legal challenges to using value-added models (VAMs) throughout the United States (US) for high-stakes teacher evaluative decisions (e.g., merit pay, tenure, and termination) were unsuccessful, especially in the state of Florida. Hence, prior and still, multiple teachers throughout Florida have been terminated or involuntarily…

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…

This Research Brief describes a model developed as an alternative method for making ESOL exit decisions in 2019-2020. Given the cancellation of the 2019-2020 Statewide student assessment, FSA ELA results which are used as one of the two major components for making ESOL exit decisions will not be available, and an alternative method is needed. This…

Justine Finley, newly appointed principal of Northside Elementary, had been tasked with increasing her school's grade under the state accountability system and keeping neighborhood families from choosing to enroll in the charter school down the street. The superintendent made these priorities very clear. After spending the first 3 months observing…

Many models of recognition are derived from models originally applied to perception tasks, which assume that decisions from trial to trial are independent. While the independence assumption is violated for many perception tasks, we present the results of several experiments intended to relate memory and perception by exploring sequential…

In this paper, we use game theory to understand decisions to cooperate or to compete in the delivery of public health services. Health care is a quasi-public good that is often associated with altruistic behavior, yet it operates in an increasingly competitive environment. With mounting health care regulation and changes in privatization,…

This paper is a research dissertation based on a qualitative case study conducted on Teachers' Experiences within a Data-Driven Decision Making (DDDM) process. The study site was a Title I elementary school in a large school district in Central Florida. Background information is given in relation to the need for research that was conducted on the…

University honors programs emerged in the 1920s, growing to over 1,000 programs in existence today. Honors programs provide enhanced educational opportunities to students who excel academically. University honors students are experts who effectively apply metacognitive knowledge, strategies, and experiences to enhance academic behavior. Although…

In March 2007, Florida Atlantic University hosted a joint NCATE/Florida Department of Education site visit. This successful site visit and following Unit Accreditation Board report resulted in full NCATE accreditation with only one weakness cited. The weakness related to the implementation of the College's assessment system at the Advanced Levels.…

A study was conducted to (1) Analyze the context, structure, and performance of two community junior colleges in Florida, and (2) Determine the extent that the relationships established were consistent with Hage's axiomatic theory of organizations and Pugh's multivariate analysis of 52 organizations. A survey of authoritative literature and…

Determinants of exercise for middle school children were addressed by examining the validity of the Stages of Change (SOC) construct of the Transtheoretical Model, as well as the relation between the stages of change and barrier self-efficacy and decisional balance. Findings provided preliminary cognitive and behavioral support for the use of the…

The article presents an approach to emergency response training that combines simulation of hazardous environmental factors with extensive registration of the activities in a training scenario. Simulation enhances realism by exposing the trainees to representations of hazards without putting them at risk. Registration generates data that describe…

A plan for educational assessment is presented which focuses upon three interdependent aspects of a management control system: input, process, and output. Input encompasses the provision, allocation, and assignment of resources, both human and material; process concerns the application and utilization of these resources in ways that will produce…

A program planning model developed in collaboration with primary decision makers and program planners is described in this study. A 6-month pilot test of the planning document was evaluated by a followup questionnaire of program planners and decision makers. Results indicate that a majority of the respondents viewed the planning model as…

The focus of this paper is on the development of a model for assessing community educational needs, referred to as the Needs Assessment Project (NAP). The model's primary purpose is to classify, organize, and assign priority to community needs, so that the educational system can assign these needs to the proper administrative unit for changes to…