Browsing by Author "Nian, Qinghua"
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Item Delaware Middle Schools Beating the Odds(Delaware Education Research & Development Center, 2010-07) Grusenmeyer, Linda; Fifield, Steve; Murphy, Aideen; Nian, Qinghua; Qian, XiaoyuThe investigation identified Delaware public and charter middle schools across the state which outperformed other Delaware middle schools with similar student demographic profiles. Teachers and administrators at six of these "Beating the Odds" schools and at six comparison middle schools were surveyed regarding their schools characteristics and practices. In a second phase of the study, principals, teachers and students from the six "Beating the Odds" schools were interviewed to determine what they believe accounts for their school’s success. The study found that significantly more educators from “Beating the Odds” schools agreed that 18 specific practices and beliefs were typical of their schools when compared to educators from comparison schools. Fourteen of these related to three domains: high expectations, data use, and collaboration. Also, the two samples of schools differed in the intensity of their responses. That is, “Beating the Odds” school respondents “strongly agreed” significantly more often than comparison school respondents to over 80% of the survey items. Twenty-six of these items fell under the domains of teacher role, leadership, district influence, and instructional support. Finally, while participants in on-site interviews described essential local differences, most of the middle schools that are "Beating the Odds" shared an organizational climate shaped by leadership that identified compelling educational approaches and brought educators, students and parents together around those approaches.Item Teacher Knowledge of Literacy Content: Evaluation of Delaware Reading First(Delaware Education Research & Development Center, 2008-04) Ackerman, Cheryl M.; Grusenmeyer, Linda; Nian, Qinghua; Qiao, XiaofenIn 2003, to improve the reading achievement of its kindergarten to third grade children, Delaware launched a five year, federally funded initiative called Delaware Reading First (DERF). A central component of the multi-faceted project was teacher training and professional development in Scientifically Based Reading Research (SBRR) practices. Program resources were directed each year toward teacher improvement goals, beginning with mandatory summer training institutes prior to Years 1 and 2 for all kindergarten to third grade general education, special education, and instructional support teachers in schools receiving DERF funding. As part of a five-year DERF program evaluation, this technical report examines teachers’ changes in literacy-related content knowledge, their sense of self-efficacy as reading teachers, and their perceptions and beliefs about early literacy instruction. Findings presented here are based on the analysis of two data sets. The first is a baseline set of 175 surveys from summer 2003 and the second includes 202 surveys of DERF k-3 grade teachers from fall 2007. In addition, a subset of 48 teachers’ with both baseline (summer 2003) surveys and year 5 (2007) responses was used for pre-post analysis.Item Transit-oriented development policy analysis in Washington D.C., Metropolitan Area based on case study at three transit nodes(University of Delaware, School of Public Policy and Administration, 2014) Nian, QinghuaTransit-oriented development (TOD) concept has been a popular planning strategy to reduce car-dependency because it encourages public transit, walking, and bicycling in mixed-use activity nodes around transit stations. There is research that indicates TOD implementation can bring important benefits to specific transit nodes, regions with public transit connection and persons living or working in the region. Through exploring TOD institutional environment and three case studied nodes in Washington D.C., metropolitan area, this study provides detailed evidence and analysis on TOD of dynamics which has received limited attention in the previous research. This study shows that TOD strategy can be implemented in areas having different socio-economic and cultural characteristics. The work contributes to general understanding of TOD in relation to how TOD planning can vary in different transit station areas due to deliberate design by the local governments involved. The institutional environment within which TOD policies and strategies can be adopted and carried out in major metropolitan areas is normally quite complex. Local governments and transit agency work together with other government agencies, private sector firms, quasi-public agency and community groups to develop the land at stations and immediately adjacent areas. On the basis of the findings, a framework is constructed which shows the actors and their dynamics in planning and managing individual station nodes. The conceptual frame created by this study can be used and expanded for further research on station development and design policies.