Internationally there is an increasing trend to publish and feed back information to schools and teachers on their functioning. School improvement is often the central goal, though accountability and the promotion of parental/student school choice also play an important role.Practical initiatives and research in this field have often failed to recognize the full complexity of improving schools through school performance feedback. Relevant questions are, for example, to what extent: the information fed back to schools is valued and understood by them; the school performance feedback enables appropriate diagnosis and remediation to take place in schools; the use of the feedback generates conflicts and tensions for teachers and administrators; the features of the implementation process and school organization influence the utilization of school performance feedback systems; schools do actually improve as a result of performance feedback; and the feedback systems have unintended effects. This book fills the gap by including: a thorough conceptualization of school feedback as a performance enhancing mechanism, and the prerequisites for utilizing this information in schools; a typology of school performance indicators; a review of the research on the impact of feeding back performance information to individuals and to organizations; evidence on the process, problems and impact of school performance feedback from an international variety of contexts (Australia, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, USA); and reflections on these experiences within the theoretical framework, leading to recommended strategies for school improvement through performance feedback.

Expand the scope of your social work practice or education program Computers and Information Technology in Social Work: Education, Training, and Practice discusses the impact that recent technological advances have had on social work practice and education. This unique book covers a wide range of topics for social workers and educators highlighting various aspects of technology applied to assist those in helping professions. You'll learn how computers can be used in child protective cases and the benefits of videoconferencing in social work programs. Computers and Information Technology in Social Work will show you how new advances in technology can improve your social work practice or education program.Computers and Information Technology in Social Work examines many different aspects of technology and demonstrates how they can be applied to assist you in making a positive impact on the communities, clients, and organizations that you serve. This guide offers specific methods and suggestions for providing students with better services and enhanced instruction on the use of current technologies in social work practice.Computers and Information Technology in Social Work is packed with innovative concepts that will improve your effectiveness through the use of advanced technology. You will: discover the impact that video conferencing technology can have on the delivery of social services to rural populations and undeveloped areas of the world gain insight into the lives of isolated and vulnerable people, such as those in a breast cancer support group, who can directly benefit from technological advances like video conferencing learn how television can be used by social work practitioners to positively impact communities by providing programs that teach self-advocacy and provide outreach and peer support examine World Wide Web-based instructional resources to help students access information on their own time, at their own pace, and from any computer location discover a World Wide Web-based conferencing program that allows professors expanded opportunities for teaching, learning, and communicationDerived from papers that were presented at a week-long conference sponsored by the University of South Carolina College of Social Work, Computers and Information Technology in Social Work presents exciting and innovative ideas and projects to keep you abreast of technical developments in the field and how they can best assist your practice. The unique ideas presented in this book will enable you to provide more effective services to your clients with the help of information technology.

Internationally there is an increasing trend to publish and feed back information to schools and teachers on their functioning. School improvement is often the central goal, though accountability and the promotion of parental/student school choice also play an important role.Practical initiatives and research in this field have often failed to recognize the full complexity of improving schools through school performance feedback. Relevant questions are, for example, to what extent: the information fed back to schools is valued and understood by them; the school performance feedback enables appropriate diagnosis and remediation to take place in schools; the use of the feedback generates conflicts and tensions for teachers and administrators; the features of the implementation process and school organization influence the utilization of school performance feedback systems; schools do actually improve as a result of performance feedback; and the feedback systems have unintended effects.
This book fills the gap by including: a thorough conceptualization of school feedback as a performance enhancing mechanism, and the prerequisites for utilizing this information in schools; a typology of school performance indicators; a review of the research on the impact of feeding back performance information to individuals and to organizations; evidence on the process, problems and impact of school performance feedback from an international variety of contexts (Australia, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, USA); and reflections on these experiences within the theoretical framework, leading to recommended strategies for school improvement through performance feedback.

Expand the scope of your social work practice or education program Computers and Information Technology in Social Work: Education, Training, and Practice discusses the impact that recent technological advances have had on social work practice and education. This unique book covers a wide range of topics for social workers and educators highlighting various aspects of technology applied to assist those in helping professions. You'll learn how computers can be used in child protective cases and the benefits of videoconferencing in social work programs. Computers and Information Technology in Social Work will show you how new advances in technology can improve your social work practice or education program. Computers and Information Technology in Social Work examines many different aspects of technology and demonstrates how they can be applied to assist you in making a positive impact on the communities, clients, and organizations that you serve. This guide offers specific methods and suggestions for providing students with better services and enhanced instruction on the use of current technologies in social work practice.Computers and Information Technology in Social Work is packed with innovative concepts that will improve your effectiveness through the use of advanced technology.You will: discover the impact that video conferencing technology can have on the delivery of social services to rural populations and undeveloped areas of the world gain insight into the lives of isolated and vulnerable people, such as those in a breast cancer support group, who can directly benefit from technological advances like video conferencing learn how television can be used by social work practitioners to positively impact communities by providing programs that teach self-advocacy and provide outreach and peer support examine World Wide Web-based instructional resources to help students access information on their own time, at their own pace, and from any computer location discover a World Wide Web-based conferencing program that allows professors expanded opportunities for teaching, learning, and communication Derived from papers that were presented at a week-long conference sponsored by the University of South Carolina College of Social Work, Computers and Information Technology in Social Work presents exciting and innovative ideas and projects to keep you abreast of technical developments in the field and how they can best assist your practice.The unique ideas presented in this book will enable you to provide more effective services to your clients with the help of information technology.

This book by dynamic scholars James Whisker and John Coe examines the short life of the Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg, one of the most overlooked individuals in the pantheon of leaders in the Third Reich. Born to German mercantile parents in the Baltic region of the Russian Empire, he was a student in Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution. Deeply influenced by the anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a propaganda pamphlet distributed by the tsar's secret police, he carried it to Germany, where he introduced it to Adolf Hitler. Rosenberg leaned heavily on heterodox Christian writings that challenged mainstream Christian thought. He revived interest in a variety of philosophies and individuals long forgotten, such as the cosmic dualistic Cathars and the mystic Master Eckart von Hochheim. Rosenberg came to view history from a perspective often called "Scientific Racism," which held that the history of humankind had been marked by a struggle between the Aryan race and their supposed inferiors. Race was the newest subject for the application of cosmic dualism, which is the spiritual belief that two fundamental concepts exist. Rosenberg identified the Nazis' task as creating a bulwark against Semitic influences from Europe generally and Germany in particular, and to do so by any means necessary. Rosenberg figured in a long anti-Jewish tradition in Germany, a tortured legacy that began with Martin Luther and continued through many of the prominent German figures of the nineteenth century. Indeed, Rosenberg considered his magnum opus, The Myth of the 20th Century, to be the logical successor work to Foundations of the 19th Century by the composer Richard Wagner's son-in-law Houston Stewart Chamberlain.

This book provides a practical approach to applying statistics to a wide variety of studies or projects. It will help bring together the biophysical and socioeconomic aspects, that are increasingly seen as integral to successful natural resources management. The topics covered include types of study in NRM, planning, data management and analysis. The book has been written for advanced students and professionals in all disciplines in agriculture, forestry, rural development, environmental and related sciences.

This updated second edition has all of the information needed for your successful forays into deep sky observing. Coe uses his years of experience to give detailed practical advice about how to find the best observing site, how to make the most of the time spent there, and what equipment and instruments to take along. There are comprehensive lists of deep sky objects of all kinds, along with Steve's own observations describing how they look through telescopes with apertures ranging from 4 inches to 36 inches (0.1 - 0.9 meters).Binocular observing also gets its due, while the lists of objects have been amended to highlight only the best targets. A new index makes finding targets easier than ever before, while the selection of viewing targets has been revised from the first edition. Most of all, this book is all about how to enjoy astronomy. The author's enthusiasm and sense of wonder shine through every page as he invites you along on a tour of some of the most beautiful and fascinating sites in the deep sky, with the improved object list making sure your choice of a faint cluster, hazy nebula or distant galaxy will all be equally rewarding.

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and other Western positions in the Asia-Pacific World in December 1941, it was unprepared to go to war with the United States and the Western Democracies generally and even realized it could not win. Its navy and air force were impressive, and its army could battle impressively against China, but Japanese small arms were terrible. Japan's tanks could not compete with their opposite numbers. The Empire's logistical base was undeveloped for modern warfare. While the Allies could produce large numbers of trained many pilots, Japan produced very few. When its elite airmen were lost at the Battle of Midway in June 1942, Japan could not replace them. At sea, Japan built battleships when it needed more aircraft carriers. The Japanese military never even attempted to win World War II by a simple and direct plan. Its planners consistently assumed that the enemy would do precisely what they assumed and countenanced no alternative analyses of facts.

Bulletin Of The Scripps Institution Of Oceanography, Technical Series, V3, No. 6.

Have you ever been far away from city lights and noticed the stars like diamonds in the sky? Many people have, and have been deeply moved and amazed by the experience. "Touching the Universe" chronicles the adventures of author Steve Coe as he shares his love of the night sky. Coe is willing to travel far and wide to view new vistas of the universe.

Each chapter in "Touching the Universe" contains Coe's observations of the night sky on each of the twenty nights he recalls in detail here. To set the scene for each of the nights, he discusses what led up to choosing each night; then he explains what he observed and learned as he perfected his observation skills.

Share with Coe the joy of getting away from the city lights and setting up a telescope under dark skies. Follow a comet as it brightens and forms a tail; see a star cluster or nebula that will take your breath away. Viewing the stars and galaxies that inhabit the night sky provides peace and calm in a way that isn't available anywhere else.

Have you ever been far away from city lights and noticed the stars like diamonds in the sky? Many people have, and have been deeply moved and amazed by the experience. "Touching the Universe" chronicles the adventures of author Steve Coe as he shares his love of the night sky. Coe is willing to travel far and wide to view new vistas of the universe.

Each chapter in "Touching the Universe" contains Coe's observations of the night sky on each of the twenty nights he recalls in detail here. To set the scene for each of the nights, he discusses what led up to choosing each night; then he explains what he observed and learned as he perfected his observation skills.

Share with Coe the joy of getting away from the city lights and setting up a telescope under dark skies. Follow a comet as it brightens and forms a tail; see a star cluster or nebula that will take your breath away. Viewing the stars and galaxies that inhabit the night sky provides peace and calm in a way that isn't available anywhere else.