Scottsdale Community College Provides their Students Open Access with End-to-End Virtualization

Due to shrinking budgets and new demands for technology, Scottsdale Community College (SCC) IT department needed an effective, sustainable solution that would provide ubiquitous access to technology for students, faculty, and staff, both on- and off-campus. This paper explores how SCC implemented a complete virtualized computing environment.

Access to better education: The school choice experience of families served by low-performing elementary public schools in Miami-Dade County

Public school choice education policy attempts to create an education marketplace. Although school choice research has focused on the parent role in the school choice process, little is known about parents served by low-performing schools. Following market theory, students attending low-performing schools should be the primary students attempting to use school choice policy to access high performing schools rather than moving to a better school. However, students remain in these low-performing schools. This study took place in Miami-Dade County, which offers a wide variety of school choice options through charter schools, magnet schools, and open-choice schools. ^ This dissertation utilized a mixed-methods design to examine the decision-making process and school choice options utilized by the parents of students served by low-performing elementary schools in Miami-Dade County. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with the parents of students served by low-performing schools. Binary logistic regression models were fitted to the data to compare the demographic characteristics, academic achievement and distance from alternative schooling options between transfers and non-transfers. Multinomial logistic regression models were fitted to the data to evaluate how demographic characteristics, distance to transfer school, and transfer school grade influenced the type of school a transfer student chose. A geographic analysis was conducted to determine how many miles students lived from alternative schooling options and the miles transfer students lived away from their transfer school. ^ The findings of the interview data illustrated that parents’ perceived needs are not being adequately addressed by state policy and county programs. The statistical analysis found that students from higher socioeconomic social groups were not more likely to transfer than students from lower socioeconomic social groups. Additionally, students who did transfer were not likely to end up at a high achieving school. The findings of the binary logistic regression demonstrated that transfer students were significantly more likely to live near alternative school options.^

Access to Better Education: The School Choice Experience of Families Served by Low-Performing Elementary Public Schools in Miami-Dade County

Public school choice education policy attempts to create an education marketplace. Although school choice research has focused on the parent role in the school choice process, little is known about parents served by low-performing schools. Following market theory, students attending low-performing schools should be the primary students attempting to use school choice policy to access high performing schools rather than moving to a better school. However, students remain in these low-performing schools. This study took place in Miami-Dade County, which offers a wide variety of school choice options through charter schools, magnet schools, and open-choice schools. This dissertation utilized a mixed-methods design to examine the decision-making process and school choice options utilized by the parents of students served by low-performing elementary schools in Miami-Dade County. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with the parents of students served by low-performing schools. Binary logistic regression models were fitted to the data to compare the demographic characteristics, academic achievement and distance from alternative schooling options between transfers and non-transfers. Multinomial logistic regression models were fitted to the data to evaluate how demographic characteristics, distance to transfer school, and transfer school grade influenced the type of school a transfer student chose. A geographic analysis was conducted to determine how many miles students lived from alternative schooling options and the miles transfer students lived away from their transfer school. The findings of the interview data illustrated that parents’ perceived needs are not being adequately addressed by state policy and county programs. The statistical analysis found that students from higher socioeconomic social groups were not more likely to transfer than students from lower socioeconomic social groups. Additionally, students who did transfer were not likely to end up at a high achieving school. The findings of the binary logistic regression demonstrated that transfer students were significantly more likely to live near alternative school options.

Assessing the net effect of anthropogenic disturbance on aquatic communities in wetlands: community structure relative to distance from canals

Anthropogenic alterations of natural hydrology are common in wetlands and often increase water permanence, converting ephemeral habitats into permanent ones. Since aquatic organisms segregate strongly along hydroperiod gradients, added water permanence caused by canals can dramatically change the structure of aquatic communities. We examined the impact of canals on the abundance and structure of wetland communities in South Florida, USA. We sampled fishes and macroinvertebrates from marsh transects originating at canals in the central and southern Everglades. Density of all aquatic organisms sampled increased in the immediate proximity of canals, but was accompanied by few compositional changes based on analysis of relative abundance. Large fish (>8 cm), small fish (<8 >cm) and macroinvertebrates (>5 mm) increased in density within 5 m of canals. This pattern was most pronounced in the dry season, suggesting that canals may serve as dry-down refugia. Increases in aquatic animal density closely matched gradients of phosphorus enrichment that decreased with distance from canals. Thus, the most apparent impact of canals on adjacent marsh communities was as conduits for nutrients that stimulated local productivity; any impact of their role as sources of increased sources of predators was not apparent. The effect of predation close to canals was overcompensated by increased secondary productivity and/or immigration toward areas adjacent to canals in the dry season. Alternatively, the consumptive effect of predatory fishes using canals as dry-season refuges is very small or spread over the expanse of marshes with open access to canals.

Effects of Family, Child, and Teacher Demographics on Prekindergarten Children's Access to and Use of Numeracy and Spatial Materials in the Early Education Setting

Florida’s Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten program (VPK) aims to ensure that all 4-year-olds are prepared to excel in K-12 mathematics. Early numeracy/spatial skills are predictive of success in K–12 mathematics. No research has examined whether VPK classrooms are equipped with the materials necessary to teach numeracy/spatial skill. The Pre-Kindergarten Numeracy and Spatial Environment Survey was created to examine the frequency of access to and use of numeracy/spatial materials in VPK classrooms. The 69-item survey was completed by the lead educator from a sample of 62 pre-kindergarten classrooms in Miami-Dade County. Regression analysis results suggest the location of the pre-kindergarten center, the sex distribution of the children in the classrooms or the number of years of experience that the educator has as a lead teacher along with the extra training courses undertaken by the teachers does not affect the access to or the use of, numeracy and spatial materials in the classrooms.

Beauty Pageants, FIU, and "Worlds Ahead": An Open Letter to FIU President Mark Rosenberg

In response to FIU's decision to rent space to Donald Trump's Miss Universe Beauty pageant, it is argued that FIU has a responsibility toward its female and male students to work for a less sexist world. As the leadership of the university does not seem to be aware of the dangers of exaggerated beauty standards and female objectification, the letter draws on feminist insights to add non-sexist substance to FIU's vision of being "worlds ahead".

An evaluation of depression, self-efficacy, satisfaction with life and perceived access to medical care across stages of HIV infection

This survey was designed to identify the incidence and scope of depression, satisfaction with life, self-efficacy and perceived access to medical care for those who are infected with the HIV virus. It also determined whether or not factors such as sexual orientation, ethnicity and socioeconomic status are intervening variables with respect to mental health issues. Subjects were recruited through a purposive sample from South Florida. A total of 871 surveys were used in the analysis. The overall response rate was nearly 90%. The incidence of depression was found to be higher than 75% across all stages of HIV infection. Furthermore, the incidence of depression increased as HIV disease progressed. Satisfaction with life and for the most part, self efficacy were found to decrease slightly as HIV disease progressed. Significant variance in depression, life satisfaction and self efficacy were found across stages of HIV infection. No significant differences between groups that were HIV infected were found for depression, life satisfaction and self efficacy. The severity of depression was found to vary significantly with self efficacy, life satisfaction and access to medical care but not with socioeconomic status. Life satisfaction was found to vary significantly with socioeconomic status, depression and self efficacy but not with access to medical care. Self-efficacy was found to vary significantly with socioeconomic status, depression and life satisfaction but not with access to medical care. Gender and ethnicity were not found to be significant precedent variables in depression for HIV infected individuals. Sexual orientation was found to be a significant precedent variable for depression, life satisfaction and self efficacy.