Pitfalls of Using SAT Results to Compare Schools

To make sure that nursing students are capable of providing high-quality care and are adequately prepared for the workforce, it is imperative to evaluate the professional abilities of undergraduate nurses. This study aims to assess the core professional competencies among undergraduate nursing students and evaluate the mean differences between professional competencies with student's demographic characteristics. A descriptive, cross-sectional comparative design was used. A total of 150 nursing students were recruited using the convenient sampling method. Data were collected using the Nurse Professional Competence Scale (NPCS)-short version 35 items. Data were collected conveniently through an online form that was filled and submitted through a Google survey link that was started from February 8, 2024, to September 21, 2024. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the demographics of participants. Pearson correlation, t-test, and ANOVA were used. The overall average competencies of nursing students were 80.8 ± 10.7 indicating high competency scores among nursing students. At .05 significant level (two-tailed), the correlation was significant between marital status (r = -.170, p = .037). Independent t-test results showed that there were no significant differences between age (t = 0.357, p = .35), marital status (t = 2.11, p = .411), and their previous taking of nursing courses (t = 3.25, p = .22). On the other hand, ANOVA indicated that age has a significant effect on overall professional competencies since higher age has an obvious effect on nursing competencies (F = 10.8, df = 2; p = .001). The findings of this study can help educators and curriculum designers create programs that fill up the theoretical-clinical gaps, making graduates more capable of handling the demands of healthcare settings. Furthermore, to produce well-rounded, capable, and self-assured nursing professionals who can effectively contribute to patient care in Jordan, our findings highlight the necessity of enhancing clinical training, curriculum development, mentorship, and support system, conducting a professional development workshop, and collaborating with healthcare institutions.

This study examines the degree to which engineering and science students' personality and demographic characteristics are associated with their leadership practices, an area that few studies have explored. The data was from a sample of 70 students attending two institutions (Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT] and the Singapore University of Technology and Design [SUTD]) who participated in a 2-month-long leadership program. The participants self-rated their personality types using the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI-Form College Edition) and their leadership practices using the Student Leadership Practices Inventory (SLPI). Results from both correlation and multiple regression analyses showed that extraversion is a significant predictor of various types of leadership practices. Gender differences on SLPI leadership practices were found, but there were no unique association between gender and leadership practices after controlling for personality and student institution affiliation. The findings may assist leadership curriculum developers to create leadership programs based on students' personality and/or characteristics.

Populations are likely to grow slowly, age significantly, and show increased proportions of minorities in the coming decades. Such factors have received extensive attention as determinants of leisure behavior, but models for projecting future demand for leisure services have often failed to incorporate adequately the simultaneous interactive effects of age, race/ethnicity, and population growth. A cohort‐component population projection model employing age, sex, and race/ethnicity population detail and rates of participation in 10 different recreational and leisure activities is used to examine these interactive effects on the number of future participants in Texas. This number is significantly affected by age and race/ethnicity effects, apart from effects due to population growth, with some activities showing slower growth and others increased growth, due to aging and race/ethnicity effects. Clearly, models employing detailed information on demographic characteristics must be utilized to plan ade...

School meals can support children's health and educational outcomes; however, in the US, only students from households with incomes at or below 185% of the federal poverty level qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Although the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) enables schools in higher poverty areas to offer free meals to all students, many schools do not participate; the temporary implementation of federal Universal Free School Meal (UFSM) policies during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent state-level policies highlight the need for assessing their impact on participation rates in school meal programs. To examine the impact of federal- and state-level UFSM and related policies on National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) participation rates during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This comparative effectiveness research study used a natural experiment created by the COVID-19 pandemic to analyze school-level data from the 2019 to 2020 school-year period to the 2023 to 2024 school-year period. A difference-in-difference analysis with linear mixed-effects models was conducted to assess the impact of federal-level UFSM implementation and deimplementation and state-level policies on SBP and NSLP participation rates. School-level meal claims data were analyzed across 14 states with UFSM or related policies and 11 comparison states, and schools participating in the NSLP and the SBP were included in this analysis. Federal UFSM policy, state-level UFSM policies, CEP participation, and limited expansions of free meal access. Participation rates in SBP and NSLP, measured as percentage-point changes over time. Federal UFSM during the COVID-19 pandemic increased NSLP and SBP participation by 10 percentage points (range, -8 to 18 percentage points) and 8 percentage points (range, 2-20 percentage points), respectively, where percentage points refers to absolute changes in participation rates. Deimplementation in school year 2022 to 2023 reduced participation by 12 percentage points (range, -15 to -4 percentage points) for NSLP and 10 percentage points (range, -18 to -4 percentage points) for SBP. States that maintained UFSM policies showed consistently higher participation rates compared with states that discontinued UFSM, with increases between 9 and 19 percentage points (NSLP) and between 5 and 26 percentage points (SBP) in the first year of policy implementation, relative to the prior year. CEP participation resulted in substantial participation gains (23 percentage points for NSLP, 13 percentage points for SBP). State policies with limited free meal expansions showed no significant effect. Results of this comparative research analysis suggest that UFSM policies may effectively increase school meal participation, indicating the need for sustained state and federal support to increase participation rates and potentially mitigate diet-related disparities and food insecurity among children.

Birey tedirginlik, endişe ya da kötü bir şey olacakmış duygusu yaşadığında hissettiği kaygı duygusudur. Türkiye ve dünyada en büyük sorunlardan biri olan işsizlik iş arayan bireylerde işsizlik kaygısına yol açmaktadır. Üniversite son sınıf öğrencilerinde gelecekte mezun olduktan sonra iş bulamayacak olma düşüncesi ve iş belirsizliği öğrencilerin işsizlik kaygısı yaşamalarına neden olmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, üniversite son sınıf öğrencilerinin işsizlik kaygısı yaşayıp yaşamadıklarını tespit etmek ve demografik özelliklere göre öğrencilerin işsizlik kaygıları arasında farklılık olup olmadığını araştırmaktır. Çalışma, Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli Üniversitesi Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi’nde öğrenim gören toplam 139 son sınıf lisans öğrencisine uygulanmıştır. Öğrencilerin işsizlik kaygı düzeyini ve demografik özelliklerini belirleyen bir anket çalışması yapılmıştır. Cevaplar SPSS paket programına girilerek araştırma hipotezleri test edilmeye çalışılmıştır. Çalışmada değişkenleri sınıflamada çok değişkenli istatistiksel analizlerden faktör analizi uygulanmıştır. Çalışmanın hipotezlerinin sınanmasında istatistiksel analiz tekniklerinden bağımsız örneklemler t testi ve tek yönlü varyans analizi kullanılmıştır. İşsizlik kaygısı alt boyutları belirlenerek alt boyutlarında farklılıkların değerlendirmeleri yapılmaya çalışılmıştır. Demografik özelliklerden alana, bölümlere, cinsiyete, yerleşim yerlerine ve genel not ortalamasına göre işsizlik kaygısı boyutlarında farklılık olduğu belirlenmiştir.

The indications of the impact of activities of people on environment are called footprints. Footprints are targeting various concerns related with environment and they quantify resource appropriation or waste generation, or both. Knowledge on protecting environment is one of the important factor that may affect environment adversely, because knowledge determines attitudes and behaviours of someone to environment. This study aimed to assess knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of Libyan secondary schools students towards environmental footprint. A quantitative research employing a questionnaire including questions on demographic characteristics of students and 35 questions on student’s knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of students towards environment was carried out. Data were collected from 400 students in the last quarter of 2018 in four secondary schools located in Tripoli. Data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences, SPSS vs. 21, employing both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. Majority of students (91.8%) were observed as having high knowledge on environmental footprint. A higher proportion of students were having moderate levels of attitudes (76.0%) and behaviours (65.8%) towards environment. When the impact of demographic characteristics on level of knowledge, attitudes and behaviours was studied using t-test, it was found that students whose fathers were graduated from master or PhD had significantly greater knowledge level compared to others. It is important to implement programmes for improving knowledge of different parts of population by both empowering school curriculum and involving public and private sectors for involving in policies and programmes for both improving knowledge of different population groups and encouraging them to safe behaviours towards environment.

Background/Context Educational policy makers have begun to recognize the challenges posed by teacher turnover. Schools and students pay a price when new teachers leave the profession after only 2 or 3 years, just when they have acquired valuable teaching experience. Persistent turnover also disrupts efforts to build a strong organizational culture and to sustain coordinated instructional programs throughout the school. Retaining effective teachers is a particular challenge for schools that serve high proportions of low-income and minority students. Although some interpret these turnover patterns as evidence of teachers’ discontent with their students, recent large-scale quantitative studies provide evidence that teachers choose to leave schools with poor work environments and that these conditions are most common in schools that minority and low-income students typically attend. Thus, mounting evidence suggests that the seeming relationship between student demographics and teacher turnover is driven not by teachers’ responses to their students, but by the conditions in which they must teach and their students are obliged to learn. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study We build on this body of work by further examining how working conditions predict both teachers’ job satisfaction and their career plans. We use a broad conception of the context of teachers’ work, paying attention not only to narrowly defined working conditions but also to the interpersonal and organizational contexts in which teachers work. We also extend Ladd's analysis describing the relationship between the work context and student achievement. Advancing our understanding of this relationship is particularly important, given the increasing emphasis legislators place on evidence of student achievement when evaluating education policy. Specifically, we ask three research questions: (1) Do the conditions of work in Massachusetts public schools affect teachers’ satisfaction with their jobs and their career plans? (2) Are schools with better conditions of work more successful in raising student performance than schools with less supportive working conditions? (3) If the conditions of work are important, what elements of the work environment matter the most? Research Design In this article, we combine a statewide survey of school working conditions (MassTeLLS) with demographic and student achievement data from Massachusetts. We examine three primary outcomes: teacher satisfaction, teacher career intentions, and student achievement growth. From different items on the MassTeLLS, we construct a set of nine key elements that reflect the broad-based conditions in which teachers work. We fit standard regression models that describe the relationship between each outcome and both overall conditions of work and each element separately, modeling this relationship according to the properties of our outcome variables. Findings/Results We found that measures of the school environment explain away much of the apparent relationship between teacher satisfaction and student demographic characteristics. The conditions in which teachers work matter a great deal to them and, ultimately, to their students. Teachers are more satisfied and plan to stay longer in schools that have a positive work context, independent of the school's student demographic characteristics. Furthermore, although a wide range of working conditions matter to teachers, the specific elements of the work environment that matter the most to teachers are not narrowly conceived working conditions such as clean and well-maintained facilities or access to modern instructional technology. Instead, it is the social conditions—the school's culture, the principal's leadership, and relationships among colleagues—that predominate in predicting teachers’ job satisfaction and career plans. More important, providing a supportive context in which teachers can work appears to contribute to improved student achievement. We found that favorable conditions of work predict higher rates of student academic growth, even when we compare schools serving demographically similar groups of students. Conclusions/Recommendations In short, we found that the conditions of teachers’ work matter a great deal. These results align with a growing body of work examining the organizational characteristics of the schools in which teachers work. Together, these studies suggest strongly that the high turnover rates of teachers in schools with substantial populations of low-income and minority students are driven largely by teachers fleeing the dysfunctional and unsupportive work environments in the schools to which low-income and minority students are most likely to be assigned. If public education is to provide effective teachers for all students, then the schools those students attend must become places that support effective teaching and learning across all classrooms.

Differences in Types of Stigma Between Demographic Groups Among College Students With Food Insecurity.

This article paints a comprehensive portrait of the demographic, financial, and educational characteristics of Pennsylvania postsecondary students who are adult learners, and identifies rural-urban differences within this group. The study analyzed data from the 2010-11 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (n = 610,925), supplemented by interviews with two policy experts and six financial aid administrators at rural postsecondary institutions. Adult learners differed from younger students on all measures and experienced more disadvantage. Economic hardship was pronounced: Adult learners’ mean annual family income was less than half that of traditional-age students, and 60% lived in poverty or near-poverty. Salient rural-urban differences included institutional type, parental education, marital status, dependent children, and income. Together, quantitative and qualitative data revealed that adult learners have distinct economic situations (employment status, income), family obligations, and enrollment patterns (e.g., part-time study, short-duration degree programs). Thus, they need different forms of support and financial aid.

The environment in which middle-aged and elderly people face fewer social activities and exchanges are not active. In particular, they are in a situation where they have no choice but to live on their assets due to insufficient economic activities.This indicates that the quality of life may vary by demographic, social, and economic characteristics. This study analyzed the difference in the quality of life of middle-aged and elderly people by demographic characteristics, social characteristics, and economic characteristics. As a result of the analysis, first, the difference in quality of life according to demographic characteristics showed significant differences in gender, age, and educational background, but there was no significant difference in gender, age, and educational background. Second, the difference in quality of life according to sociological characteristics was significantly different depending on the type of residence, residence area, subjective class consciousness, number of meetings, and participation in meetings (religion, fellowship, alumni association). Third, there was a significant difference in quality of life according to the general economic characteristics, such as the type of housing occupancy, the presence or absence of non-residential real estate, the presence or absence of economic activity, and individual gross income. The difference in quality of life according to asset holdings, which are economic power, showed significant differences in total real estate assets, total financial assets, other assets, total personal assets, and total personal liabilities, but there was no significant difference in self-purchased loans. These research results show that changes in the situation, such as population characteristics, sociological characteristics, and economic characteristics, are important variables that affect the quality of life. It can be said that it also mentions the need for efforts by the pan-government and society as a whole to improve factors that can be improved in these situations.

IntroductionResponse rates in health research are declining, and low response rates could result in biased outcomes when population characteristics of participants systematically differ from the non-respondents. Few studies have examined key factors of non-response beyond demographic characteristics, such as behavioral and psychological factors. The aim of the current study was to identify predictors of non-response and loss to follow-up in a longitudinal sexual health study.Materials and methodsA longitudinal cohort study (iMPaCT) was conducted from November 2016 to July 2018 among heterosexual STI clinic visitors aged 18–24 years. At four different time points in one year, data was collected on sexual behavior, psychological determinants and chlamydia infections. The national STI surveillance database provided data on demographic, behavioral and sexual health-related characteristics for non-respondents. Predictors of non-response at baseline and of loss to follow-up were identified using multivariable logistic regression analyses.ResultsIn total, 13,658 STI clinic visitors were eligible to participate, of which 1,063 (8%) participated. Male gender, low/medium education level, young age (≤ 20 years) and having a non-Dutch migration background were significant predictors of non-response at baseline. Furthermore, non-respondents at baseline were more likely to report STI-related symptoms, to have been notified by a partner, to have had condomless sex, and to have had ≤ 2 partners in the past six months, compared to participants. Psychological predictors of loss to follow-up differed between STI clinic regions, but low perceived importance of health at baseline was associated with loss to follow-up in all regions. The baseline chlamydia positivity rate was significantly higher in the non-respondents (17%) compared to the participants (14%), but was not a predictor of loss to follow-up.DiscussionTargeted recruitment aimed at underrepresented groups in the population based on demographic, behavioral and psychological characteristics, might be necessary to decrease loss to follow-up, and to prevent non-response bias in health research.

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This study examined the effects of school, family, peer and student individual characteristics on scientific literacy scores. The study analyzed data from the Program of International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006 data collected from 171 schools and 5,184 students in Azerbaijan. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was utilized to analyze the effects of school, family, peer and student individual characteristics on scientific literacy scores. The study found that student-level factors explain a slightly higher proportion of variance than school-level predictors. Several student-level effects (gender, parental education and occupation, ability, self-efficacy) and school-level factor (peer academic effects in mathematics) were found to be significantly associated with scientific literacy scores. Other school-level factors (peer socio-economic effects and school inputs) and student-level characteristics (index of home possessions) were not significantly related to scientific literacy scores. The analysis concluded with policy recommendations and offered suggestions for future research.

Learning styles of first-year undergraduate nursing and midwifery students: A cross-sectional survey utilising the Kolb Learning Style Inventory

The aim of the study was to examine the characteristics and predictor role of goal orientations in learning, schools' level of digital media equipment and the use of digital media in classroom (teaching) quality in lower secondary education (ISCED level 2). The study was conducted on seventh and eighth grade students (N=432) of elementary schools in the City of Zagreb and Split-Dalmatia County. Besides demographic characteristics of students and schools' level of digital media equipment, the data were collected by the Goal orientation questionnaire (CSRL), the Technology implementation questionnaire (TIQ), and Student perception of classroom quality (SPOCQ) questionnaire. It was concluded that, overall, demographic characteristics of students, their goal orientations, school s ' level of digital media equipment, and motivation for use of digital media are significant predictors of student perception of classroom quality, with the highest percentage of variance explained by goal orientations, with emphasis on learning orientation. In this regard, it is evident that for teaching quality in the digital age, goal orientation, i.e., motivation for learning, is most significant, rather than the use of digital media. Comparison with theoretical postulates and implications of these results are explained in this paper. Key words: classroom quality, digital media, elementary school, goal orientations, students

This evaluation examined the effects of afterschool programs-supported by an afterschool system intermediary organization (ASIO)-on middle school students' academic performance and examined how those effects varied by student characteristics and program engagement. In this longitudinal, quasi-experimental matched comparison group evaluation, propensity score matching was used to create demographically balanced samples of ASIO-supported afterschool program participants and nonparticipants. Students enrolled in the afterschool programs did not differ from non-participants in growth over time on most academic outcomes. Students attending the afterschool programs showed less growth on certain state test scores compared to nonparticipants. Student demographic characteristics did not consistently influence participant outcomes. Among program participants only, students who were enrolled more than 1 year demonstrated a 7-percentile-point increase in state test scores per year of program engagement. There was no consistent evidence that ASIO-supported afterschool program participation was associated with improved student academic outcomes. However, study results support increased emphasis on afterschool program retention, given that longer duration of participation in the afterschool programs was associated with more growth on multiple academic outcomes.