Browsing by Subject "Implementation"

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The Association Between SWPBS Implementation and Exclusionary Discipline in U.S. Schools
(2021-05) Weeks, Mollie
In response to patterns of educational inequity, many schools implement system-wide behavioral frameworks to reduce exclusionary discipline. School-wide positive behavior supports (SWPBS) is one such framework that supports socially appropriate behavior by enhancing the capacity of schools to implement research-validated practices. However, there remains to be a systematic analysis of the extent to which SWPBS improves educational equity by reducing rates of exclusionary discipline. The purposes of this dissertation were twofold (1) to evaluate existing research on the association of SWPBS with exclusionary discipline and racial discipline disproportionality; and (2) to conduct a secondary analysis exploring the relationship between SWPBS implementation and exclusionary discipline disproportionality. Overall, study results were mixed regarding whether SWPBS was associated with reductions in exclusionary discipline; however, there was little evidence that SWPBS helps reduce rates of exclusionary discipline disproportionality. Limitations of this research signal a need for attention to both data disaggregation and root causes of continued disproportionate discipline practices. Keywords: school-wide positive behavior supports, exclusionary discipline, discipline disproportionality, implementation, educational equity
Complete Streets from Policy to Project: The Planning and Implementation of Complete Streets at Multiple Scales
(Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2013-12) Schively Slotterback, Carissa; Zerger, Cindy
Complete streets is emerging as an influential movement in transportation planning, design, and engineering. This guidebook, with accompanying case studies, explores the variety of ways in which complete streets is conceptualized and institutionalized by various jurisdictions. It offers practical and applicable insights for jurisdictions in Minnesota and elsewhere. The research focused on best practices in 11 locations across the nation: Albert Lea, Minnesota; Arlington County, Virginia; Boulder, Colorado; Charlotte, North Carolina; Columbus, Ohio; Dubuque, Iowa; Fargo-Moorhead, North Dakota/Minnesota; Hennepin County, Minnesota; Madison, Wisconsin; New Haven, Connecticut; and Rochester, Minnesota. The guidebook is informed by an analysis of multiple data sources from each jurisdiction. The authors conducted a review of key documents (e.g., plans, policies, design guidelines), site visits, photo documentation, and in-depth interviews with more than 100 key informants. Six best practice areas emerged through the analysis: (1) framing and positioning, (2) institutionalizing complete streets, (3) analysis and evaluation, (4) project delivery and construction, (5) promotion and education, and (6) funding. The six best practice areas are described in detail and illustrated by examples from the case locations. The guidebook concludes with an appendix of complete streets case reports that offer additional details about each of the 11 case jurisdictions.
Development of a Multiple-Camera Tracking System for Accurate Traffic Performance Measurements at Intersections
(Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2013-02) Tang, Hua
Automatic traffic data collection can significantly save labor work and cost compared to manual data collection. However, automatic traffic data collection has been one of the challenges in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). To be practically useful, an automatic traffic data collection system must derive traffic data with reasonable accuracy compared to a manual approach. This project presents the development of a multiple-camera tracking system for accurate traffic performance measurements at intersections. The tracking system sets up multiple cameras to record videos for an intersection. Compared to the traditional single-camera based tracking system, the multiple-camera one can take advantage of significantly overlapped views of the same traffic scene provided by the multiple cameras such that the notorious vehicle occlusion problem is alleviated. Also, multiple cameras provide more evidence of the same vehicle, which allows more robust tracking of the vehicle. The developed system has mainly three processing modules. First, the camera is calibrated for the traffic scene of interest and a calibration algorithm is developed for multiple cameras at an intersection. Second, the system tracks vehicles from the multiple videos by using powerful imaging processing techniques and tracking algorithms. Finally, the resulting vehicle trajectories from vehicle tracking are analyzed to extract the interested traffic data, such as vehicle volume, travel time, rejected gaps and accepted gaps. Practical tests of the developed system focus on vehicle counts and reasonable accuracy is achieved.
Development of a New Tracking System Based on CMOS Vision Processor Hardware, Phase II Prototype Demonstration
(Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2012-05) Tang, Hua; Peng, Li
Intelligent transportation systems depend on being able to track vehicle operations and collect accurate traffic data. This project targets a hardware-based video detection system for real-time vehicle detection. To allow real-time detection, customized hardware implementation of the system is targeted instead on the traditional computer-based implementation of the system. The system includes four main processing steps. First, a camera is used to capture images. Second, the captured images are segmented using the Mixture-of-Gaussian algorithm. Without sacrificing the segmentation accuracy, researchers modified the Mixture-of-Gaussian algorithm to allow more efficient and economical hardware implementation in terms of design overhead and hardware resources. Third, the segmentation regions are extracted and validated as the objects of interests. In the last step, the validation result will be wirelessly transmitted to a variable message sign, which displays necessary traffic information. Since the system design includes integration of diverse devices, the video design kit from Xilinx is used. Such a hardware-based vehicle detection system has been experimented tested with practical videos of traffic scene.
Development of Scaled Measures of User and Citizen Satisfaction with Mn/DOT Services
(Minnesota Department of Transportation, 1996-02) Hansen, Robert A.
This report investigates the application of customer satisfaction concepts and measures to Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) operations. It defines the terms customer and customer satisfaction, estimates the cost of collecting customer satisfaction information, discusses related research and management activities, and makes recommendations. Specific research findings include the following: * The measurement of customer satisfaction primarily occurs in the private sector. * The straightforward definitions of customer and customer satisfaction can be translated to fit public sector needs. * Specifying customers and measuring their satisfaction are deceptively difficult and require input from top management. * Developing and implementing a customer satisfaction measurement system takes time and requires a significant financial investment. * Initial customer satisfaction projects suffer from a higher than average failure rate, often caused by lack of planning before execution. * Segments of the public may view design and implementation of customer satisfaction measures as wasteful, especially if the project is not successful.
Does Your School Have What It Takes? Implementation of a Bring Your Own Device Technology Program
(2018-01) Amarteifio, Gifty
The purpose of this qualitative single-case study was to examine one high school’s journey towards the implementation of its BYOD initiative. The study had three specific aims. The first aim was to expand the context specific knowledge of implementing a BYOD initiative. The second aim was to assess similarities and differences between one-to-one and BYOD implementation strategies. The third aim was to potentially surface new strategies to support and improve the implementation of BYOD initiatives. Using interview and survey data from students, educators, and administrators, the study provided a detailed narrative of one school’s BYOD implementation journey. The study also found great overlap between one-to-one and BYOD implementation strategies, with some differentiated emphasis on specific strategies. Lastly, the findings showed that BYOD frameworks should intentionally incorporate the use of a pilot phase and a comprehensive needs assessment to enhance the implementation process. Implications for school-level administrative leaders, academics, and all those interested in theory and research to further the quality of implementation practice can be found in the final chapter of the study.
The effects of microteaching on pre-service teachers' knowledge and implementation of the concept mastery routine
(2013-06) Lindell, Mary Ann
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of a teacher education pedagogy (microteaching) on pre-service general education teachers' knowledge and implementation of the Concept Mastery Routine (CMR), a research-based intervention, and on their teacher efficacy. In addition, this study explored the feasibility of implementing a randomized, control-group study in the context of a teacher preparation class. One hundred pre-service teachers from a teacher education course participated in the study. Participants were assigned randomly to a treatment or control condition. Knowledge of CMR and teacher efficacy were assessed at pre and posttest and fidelity of implementation of CMR was assessed at posttest only. For knowledge and efficacy measures, a repeated measures ANOVA was conducted with time (pretest and posttest) as the within-subjects effect and condition (treatment or control) as the between subjects effect. On the knowledge tests there was a significant effect of time, but the interaction between time and condition and the within subjects effect for condition were not significant. On the efficacy measure the interaction between time and condition, the between subjects effect for condition, and within subjects effect for time were not significant. The implementation measure was analyzed using an independent samples t-test and no significant difference between groups was found. Implications for conducting rigorous within teacher education setting are discussed.
From integrated aims to fragmented outcomes: urban intensification and transportation planning in the Netherlands
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Duffhues, Jan; Bertolini, Luca
Intensification of cities has been a planning aim in many countries over the last decades. A major reason for this is the expectation that urban intensification leads to better accessibility by sustainable transportation modes and therefore contributes to increasing their share. A positive feedback loop exists between the planning of high-capacity transportation networks and intensification of land uses around these transportation networks. Urban intensification policies acknowledge this. However, the integration of transport planning and land-use planning, which one would and should expect as a consequence of this acknowledgement, does not necessarily follow. In the Netherlands, an “implementation gap” in the transport and land-use planning process aimed at urban intensification can be identified, which prevents the positive feedback loop from happening. While similar issues have been identified elsewhere, there is still a lack of knowledge of where in the planning process the implementation gap emerges. This knowledge is essential if the gap is to be closed. To understand this, analysis of various planning documents, interviews, and participant observation are used. The results show that the most critical phases in the planning process are those in which aims need to be translated into actions and actions into performance indicators.
Implementing Intersectionality: Creating Women’s Interests in the Rulemaking Process
(2016-07) English, Ashley
Although political scientists have traditionally examined women’s representation by asking whether and how female legislators support or oppose particular policies related to women’s traditional areas of interest, I provide a new, broader understanding of how American women are represented at the rulemaking stage of the policymaking process. Building on the assumption that it is virtually impossible for any one representative to speak on behalf of the diverse group of women who all have their own unique perspectives and experiences as a result of their multiple, intersecting identities, I instead examine how women’s interests are constructed from the ground up as women and their advocates interact during the rulemaking process. More specifically, I ask: (1) how and when do women and their advocates refer to women in their comments?; (2) how do those references to women vary depending on the levels of attention a rule receives and the type of policy it implements?; and (3) how do women’s organizations’ references to women and their interests differ from the references to women that other rulemaking participants use? To answer these questions, I use automated text analysis and qualitative coding to analyze three unique datasets of 8,698 comments that women and their advocates submitted to rulemakers. These comments include all of the comments that women’s organizations submitted between 2007 and 2013; and the comments that women’s organizations, individual women, other organizations, and form letter campaigns submitted during rulemakings on the contraception mandate a proposal collect data on the gender wage gap among federal contractors. In general, women and their advocates most often used their comments to speak on behalf of all women, obscuring the differences between them and leaving out the concerns of intersectionally marginalized women, including women of color, poor women, and LGBTQ women. Rulemakings that receive higher levels of attention and moral controversy exacerbated this tendency. Conversely, low attention rulemakings provided women and their advocates with a unique opportunity to focus on the concerns of particular subsets of women because they received less scrutiny from the public, Congress, and the courts. Finally, women’s organizations served as compensatory representatives for women during the rulemaking process because they made more references to women and subgroups of women than the other interested citizens and organizations that submitted comments.
Implementing Social Emotional Learning: The Need for a Broadened Leadership Role
(2024-05) Baskin, Kayleen
School leaders work tirelessly to ensure a high-quality education for all, and many have implemented a social emotional learning (SEL) structure to support both the academic growth and emotional needs of students. While recent studies show the evidence-based practice of SEL positively impacts students’ academic growth, developmental relationships, and sense of belonging in schools, the school leader’s attention to the implementation process itself contributes to why school systems often fail to see desired results. The purpose of this study was to investigate the process and leadership qualities that leaders utilize when implementing SEL in a school. The study used a qualitative interview case study to investigate leadership decision making, practices, and experiences with implementation. Data were collected from multiple principals across the state of Minnesota in urban, suburban, and rural settings. Each of the school leaders shared their experiences in social emotional learning implementation, and their case studies were analyzed for themes in response to their roles as educational leaders. Findings from the study revealed a lack of convergence in leaders’ knowledge of research and implementation practices in SEL programming. The first finding reveals the lack of preparation of the school system and school district accountability as leaders initiate SEL implementation processes. Secondly, the study reveals the necessity for district and building leaders to know all elements of the implementation process. The final finding is in the area of culturally responsive school leadership; there is a need to align leaders’ knowledge of culturally responsive education with district and building action in this area. Overall, the findings suggest broader perspectives and roles for school leaders in implementation of initiatives. Ultimately, the findings result in recommendations for principal preparation programs, as well as current school and district leaders, to deeply understand implementation frameworks that encompass systems change and culturally responsive practices in order to successfully implement SEL. District systems must also support school leaders in their knowledge gaps, provide processes and structures to support their instructional leadership, and provide professional development that facilitates systems change.
The Large-Scale Implementation of Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) in Community Practice Settings: An Examination of Client and Implementation Outcomes
(2018-07) Donisch, Katelyn
Although significant progress has been made in the development of trauma-focused evidence-based treatments (EBTs) for children and adolescents, the transfer of these interventions from academic to community practice settings remains challenging. This investigation is one of the first to assess the statewide implementation of a popular trauma-focused EBT for youth in routine practice settings. Using nine years of baseline and follow-up data, this investigation examined the implementation of Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) with 2,980 clients, 596 clinicians, and 75 community practice agencies. Clients were highly traumatized, reporting exposure to an average of four trauma types (SD = 2.85). Multilevel modeling indicated that clients participating in TF-CBT demonstrated statistically significant reductions in posttraumatic stress symptomatology from baseline to follow-up, as well as self- and parent-reported reductions in emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity-inattention, peer problems, and the overall impact of these difficulties from baseline to follow-up. Clients also showed a statistically significant self- and parent-reported improvement in prosocial relations from baseline to follow-up. Although clinician TF-CBT implementation fidelity was not related to changes in client outcomes from baseline to follow-up, both clinician license and supervisory status were statistically significantly related to implementation fidelity score. Findings suggest that the large-scale implementation of TF-CBT is a promising approach to increasing the availability of trauma-focused EBTs in routine practice settings, while also reducing the primary and secondary effects of trauma in the lives of children and their families.
Managing information technology integration and implementation in health care supply chains: two essays.
(2009-05) Dey, Asoke Kumar
Information-intensive and customer-centric technologies available today promise substantial improvements in operational performance for both manufacturing and service supply chains. This abundance of technology is overwhelming for managers who, more often than not, find it challenging to determine which technologies they should invest in and how they should integrate the technologies to realize the promised performance benefits. Using data from the health care industry, I investigate the phenomena of technology integration and technology implementation, its antecedents, and its impact on organizational performance. The dissertation is comprised of two complementary parts, the first of which focuses on understanding the selection of a level of technology integration within an organization and its implications for performance. Electronic Medical Records (EMR) is the technological context of this research, and the empirical analysis is based on data from acute care hospitals in the U.S. (n=1011). My findings suggest that health care providers self-select into different levels of technology (EMR) integration. While some health care providers are better off investing in higher levels of EMR integration and benefit from doing so, not all providers choose to follow suit. The second part of my dissertation focuses on understanding factors that best explain successful technology implementation within a health care organization and its implications for performance, given a specific level of technology integration. Here I investigate the computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system and the empirical analysis is based on data from 188 acute care hospitals. I develop a research framework linking organizational readiness, user readiness, and levels of technology integration with the use of CPOE systems. I also hypothesize the relationship between use of CPOE systems and organizational performance under the moderating influence of the levels of technology integration. Study results show that each of the research hypotheses is supported, save that which links organizational readiness with the use of a CPOE system. Finally, implications of the dissertation findings, limitations, and directions for future research are identified.
Teacher Attitudes Toward Evidence-Based Practices: Confirmatory and Predictive Analyses of the School-Adapted Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale
(2021-07) Merle, James
Educational researchers have developed a host of evidence-based practices (EBPs) to prevent and address social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) problems from emerging and to promote success-enabling factors in school. Despite the availability of EBPs, schools are confronted with an implementation gap that limits the impact of EBPs on student outcomes. Evidence suggests that individual-level characteristics of implementers influence the adoption and delivery of EBPs. One individual-level factor, attitudes toward implementing EBPs (ATE), has garnered significant attention across service sectors linked to implementation. This study provides validity evidence of a school-adapted measure of the Evidence-Based Practice Attitudes Scale (S-EBPAS) among a sample of 441 elementary school teachers across 52 schools. Prior research has indicated that the EBPAS provides a reliable and valid assessment of attitudes toward EBPs, though it has not been validated among a sample of school teachers. The current study sought to confirm whether original EBPAS factor structure holds when adapted and administered for use in schools, as well as gather convergent and divergent validity evidence. Results indicated that, while the initial CFA model did not fit the data, an exploratory factor analysis revealed that a three-factor model fit the sample best, and it may demonstrate stronger alignment with attitude theory than the original EBPAS. Also, the S-EBPAS and its subscales demonstrated a moderate-to-high amount of construct validity evidence, and that the S-EBPAS demonstrated minimal predictive validity evidence with fidelity of implementation across the two different universal EBPs. Implications and future directions for research and practice are discussed.
Teacher burnout factors as predictors of adherence to behavioral intervention
(2009-12) Gaitan, Peggy E.
It is hypothesized that factors related to teacher burnout influence treatment adherence. This study examines the relation of teacher burnout to the frequency and quality of behavioral intervention implementation. A sample of 45 general and special education teachers were trained to implement the Good Behavior Game, an intervention designed to assist teachers in the management of problem behaviors in the classroom, and asked to implement it each day for 28 weeks. Direct observation data were collected from teacher implementation of the Good Behavior Game. A multiple regression analysis was used to examine the predictive relation between three subsets of the Maslach Burnout Inventory: a) Emotional Exhaustion, b) Depersonalization, and c) Personal Accomplishment, and two indicators of adherence: a) mean frequency of implementation of the Good Behavior Game and b) Likert ratings of quality of implementation. Significant main effects were found for Emotional Exhaustion and Personal Accomplishment on Adherence. A post hoc analysis conducted to explore directional relations between independent and dependent variables resulted in the following conclusions: a) Group membership in low, moderate, or high levels of any single burnout factor was not statistically significant as an individual predictor of adherence and b) group differences exist between factors of Emotional Exhaustion and Personal Accomplishment confirming relation between high levels of exhaustion and low levels of satisfaction with personal accomplishment. Further examination of means plots determined directional relation between high levels of emotional exhaustion and greater adherence.
A Tracking-Based Traffic Performance Measurement System for Roundabouts and Intersections
(Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2012-05) Tang, Hua; Dinh, Hai
Automatic traffic data collection can significantly save labor work and cost compared to manual data collection. The collected traffic data is necessary for traffic simulation and modeling, performance evaluation of the traffic scene, and eventually (re)design of the traffic scene. However, automatic traffic data collection has been one of the challenges in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). This project presents the development of a single camerabased video system for automatic traffic data collection for roundabouts and intersections. The system targets roundabouts and intersections because no mature data collection systems exist for these traffic scenes yet in contrast to highway scenes. The developed system has mainly processing modules. First, the camera is calibrated for the traffic scene of interest and a novel circle-based calibration algorithm is proposed for roundabouts. Second, the system tracks vehicles from the video by incorporating powerful imaging processing techniques and tracking algorithms. Finally, the resulting vehicle trajectories from vehicle tracking are analyzed to extract the interested traffic data, which includes vehicle volume, vehicle speed (including acceleration/de-acceleration behavior), travel time, rejected gaps, accepted gaps, follow-up time and lane use. Practical tests of the developed system show that it can reliably track vehicles and provide reasonably accurate traffic data in most cases.

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