Appropriate questions to ask about each entering class, about students in general, and about the college itself are presented as potential subjects of institutional research. A program suggested for the evaluation and analysis of student achievement at the junior college includes data to be gathered from students on entrance to the institution, at…

Data were collected via brief telephone surveys of middle school and high school teachers responsible for tobacco use prevention education (TUPE) in Florida. Differences in teachers' perceptions of TUPE were significantly associated with perceived barriers and features of school contexts. Implications of these findings for the effective delivery…

The two models in Florida's Educational Quality Benchmark System represent a new way of thinking about developing schools' work culture. The Quality Performance System Model identifies nine dimensions of work within a quality system. The Change Process Model provides a theoretical framework for changing existing beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors…

Although neotraditional architecture largely focuses on promoting sense of community (SOC), it has the potential to influence environmentalism in residents as well. In October 2002, the authors conducted a mail survey of 1,611 middleclass homeowners in Gainesville, Florida, to determine if there were differences in SOC and environmental behaviors,…

During the summer of 2001 I worked as a bartender in Wyoming, two miles east of Yellowstone National Park. This opportunity provided me with unique experiences of "the wilderness" and as a result, allowed me to become aware of intricacies of living within a primarily simulated and mass mediated culture, i.e., the United States. Following…

School culture has recently emerged as a framework for the study and interpretation of the structure and development of schools. A work culture productivity model is described, and the development of a culture instrument is reported. The concept of school work culture, a subset of systems culture, refers to the collective work patterns of a…

In this paper we analyze the impact of classroom peers on individual student performance with a unique longitudinal data set covering all Florida public school students in grades 3-10 over a five-year period. Unlike many previous data sets used to study peer effects in education, our data set allow us to identify each member of a given student's…

By 2025, 22 percent of the U.S. college-age population will be Latino, a level already exceeded in four states: California, Florida, New York, and Texas. However, today, only seven percent of Latinos ages 18 to 24 have an associate's degree or higher compared to 9 percent of African Americans, 16 percent of white, and 25 percent of Asians of the…

Interns at The University of Tampa investigate how perceptions of dialect and regionalism may impact the learning environment and more precisely, the learner. Regionalism is defined as a belief that one's region of origin is a primary determinant of the quality of one's standards of living, social forms, customary beliefs, levels of…

Describes Florida's statewide effort to provide a means of collecting information on perceptions of safety held by students, teachers, and administrators to enhance the currently available school crime and violence data collected through the statewide incident referral system. Documents the design process and development of two statewide model…

In this article, the author describes how he was born in 1954, just four months after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision outlawed the "separate but equal" doctrine of school segregation. He discusses how that fact has shaped his life immeasurably. Beginning with entering the world in Tallahassee, Fla., where his…

Susan Friedman, a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Florida, has found through her own teaching experience that incorporating autobiographical texts and self-writing into her pedagogical practices can foster a classroom environment that pays attention to subjectivity to promote mindful, ethical behavior in both…

After 41 years of a varied and exciting career in Miami-Dade County (Florida) Public Schools, the author recently retired as a middle level principal. Although he also served as a teacher and a counselor, more than half of his career was spent as an administrator in more than a dozen schools. As he reflects on his role as a school leader and…

In addition to experiencing the generic quality and cost problems faced by all colleges and universities, community colleges face problems particular to their student populations. They need to design more flexible schedules for working adult students, create a greater sense of community or engagement for commuting students, address the special…

This unit examines the earth's processes and systems from an energy perspective. A technical language for discussion of energy systems is developed. Objectives include the ability of students to discuss earth's carbon/oxygen cycle, hydrological cycle, and heat patterns and the functioning of producers, consumers and decomposers in the environment.…