This study examined the impact of “authoritative parenting, parental involvement in schooling, and parental encouragement to succeed on adolescent school achievement” (Steinberg, Lamborn, Dornbusch, & Darling, 1992) on a sample of 14-18 year olds, over a period of two years, where data were compared and correlated between sets.
The sample under study included 6,400 American students between 14 and 18 years old, composed of an “ethnically and socioeconomically heterogeneous sample” (Steinberg et al., 1992). The study was conducted between 1987 and 1988.
One research question the study hoped to gain insight from was whether or not “authoritative parenting (high acceptance, supervision, and psychological autonomy granting) leads to better adolescent school performance and stronger school engagement” (Steinberg et al., 1992).
The study found “that students who describe their parents as authoritative—warm, firm, and democratic—report better school performance and stronger school engagement than their peers” (Steinberg et al., 1992) but interestingly enough, also discussed the possible correlation that perhaps authoritative parenting models does not “rule out the very plausible possibility that adolescent achievement also provokes authoritative parenting” (Steinberg et al., 1992).
Depending on the model of parenting parents actually adopt, whether planned and on purpose, or by accident, there are clear correlations between parenting style and school performance in adolescents. Parents that adopt a authoritative model tend to see higher levels of performance in their children than parents who adopt a non- authoritative parenting model. In fact, “nonauthoritative parenting can partially undermine the beneficial effect of parental school involvement” (Steinberg et al., 1992). Understanding parenting models, and being able to support parents in a school district could be key to increasing overall student achievement among all students in a given district based on the correlating data shown in this study.
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Steinberg, L., Lamborn, S. D., Dornbusch, S. M., & Darling, N. (1992). Impact of Parenting Practices on Adolescent Achievement: Authoritative Parenting, School Involvement, and Encouragement to Succeed. Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1992.tb01694.x
In the provided article (see attached at the bottom) on leisure time use and academic correlates of alcohol abuse among teenagers in rural Pennsylvania, we learn about the connections between alcohol and social and vocational attitudes.
According to the article, “adolescents’ use of alcohol is becoming more problematic” (Pendorf, 1992) but “it may not be prudent for adults to suggest that alcohol use is entirely bad” when considering its connections to social growth such as self-discovery, acquiring self-esteem and friends (Pendorf, 1992).
Here, we explore a few of the correlations between variables.
Which two variables are most strongly related? Explain.
The two variables that are the most strongly related are consuming hard liquor (on some frequent basis according to the continuous scales of measurement) and participating in social entertainment activities like attending parties, movies, etc. With a correlation of hard liquor to entertainment at 0.37, indicating that consumers of hard liquor are likely to participate in these types of activities, the next closest correlation was between beer consumption (again, on some frequent use basis) to entertainment activities with a factor of 0.28. Students that reported “use of any type of alcohol weekly or more often were classified as heavy users, or abusers” (Pendorf, 1992) and one can assume these data are correlated as well to skew the data somewhat.
What type of relationship exists between those involved in vocational activities and the consumption or reported consumption of beer, wine, and hard liquor? Explain.
The relationship between the consumption of beer, wine, and hard liquor and engaging in vocational activities like holding, or searching for a job is positive, with a reported positive correlation all around. Beer correlates to vocational activities at 0.22, wine at 0.17, and hard liquor at 0.18.
One can assume that having access to vocational income more than likely results in the ability to procure alcohol of some kind, either through social connections at the vocational activity, or through financial income leading to purchase of alcohol from some source. According to the data, it certainly seems that individuals that report being involved with working, or “who are at least looking for work, are heavier users of alcohol” (Pendorf, 1992).
Is involvement in religious activity related to consumption or reported consumption of beer, wine, and hard liquor? Explain.
Involvement in religious activity seems to be negatively correlated to consumption of alcohol, regardless of type (as in beer, wine, or hard liquor). All three report negative correlations, meaning that consumers of alcohol (as reported), from the sample set of data including high school teenagers, are less likely to engage in religious activities if they report consuming alcohol at some measured rate.
The research data does not correlate frequency of consumption, as in yearly, weekly, daily, and correlations to activity. It would certainly be interesting to see if heavy users (daily), versus light users (annually) differ in terms of correlations between consumption and various activities.
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Pendorf, J. E. (1992). Leisure time use and academic correlates of alcohol abuse among high school students. Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education.
The idea of standardized testing has many people confused in general, especially in education where students in K-12 are required (at least in the State of Ohio) to sit for annual exams in various subjects including language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science.
The resulting scores from these tests are standardized, and normalized against all other scores among the sample population (in this case, all students in the State of Ohio). Many have mixed feelings about standardized testing, but most likely do not fully understand what a standard score actually is.
In order to accurately compare assessment scores across multiple distributions (in this case, scores on the language arts test with the social studies test) it is required to standardize, and in some cases normalize the scores themselves for analysis. From Hinkle, Wiersma, & Jurs (2003) we know that a standard score, or z score, is the mean subtracted from the raw score divided by the standard deviation for a selected distribution.
“The z score indicates he number of standard deviations a corresponding raw score is above or below the mean” (Hinkle, Wiersma, & Jurs, 2003, p. 71), and therefore, we can tell whether or not a score is above or below the mean, and by how far.
Normalizing the score considers the normal distribution itself. The normal distribution “is not determined by any specific even in nature, and it does not reflect a specific law of nature” (Hinkle, Wiersma, & Jurs, 2003, p. 80), rather it is a model describing the normal, or usual, distribution of many sets of data.
By normalizing the standard distribution, one can compare distributions across many sets of data, and in so doing, better analyze trends, outliers, and central tendencies. Furthermore, in the standardized normal distribution model, it is possible to ascertain how many scores in the distribution fall within one or more deviations away from the mean.
In manufacturing, for example, many strive to optimally produce with defect rates in the six-sigma range, or 3.4 defects per one million products (or whatever they produce). These ranges are extremely small, and at the very end of the normalized distribution, but helpful in making decisions about production, quality assurance, and interventions to fix defects.
In K-12 education, we would be lucky to achieve numbers far less than in the six-sigma range, understanding that 3 deviations away from the mean includes 99% of all scores in a given normalized distribution.
In six sigma operations, that percentage is now 99.99966%. For example, if the metric was high school graduation, and a school district graduated 99% of its student population, it would still only graduate at the three-sigma level.
Understanding what a normal distribution is, and what standardized data is all about would serve any K-12 educator or practitioner well, and better prepare them to discuss what scores actually mean with colleagues, parents, and community members.
Most educators (classroom teachers, etc.) use a simple percentage scale for scores, that often translate into grades, but simply comparing achievement in one subject area with another is not a fair comparison, since the scores are not standardized, nor normalized.
Perhaps we should consider standardizing and normalizing all scores and grades within K-12 in order to better understand and compare student performance across subjects?
More on this later…
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Hinkle, D. E., Wiersma, W., & Jurs, S.G. (2003). Applied Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
I use the GAM tool a lot to make updates to the Google domain at Streetsboro – it let’s me do things faster, and more efficiently that hitting each user in the domain admin panel.
But, using a Mac brings its own issues, and while I could get a PC for this, I’ve just figured out how to do things on the Mac.
Here’s how I run batch commands (to update hundreds of accounts in one go).
Create the GAM command line
Start with a spreadsheet that contains all the users’ emails you want to use / update.
I use Google sheets, and usually use the =CONCATENATE or some other formula to create the command line for each account.
Something like =CONCATENATE(“gam update user “,A1,” org /STAFF”), where A1=user account / email address.
For example, to add the user to a specific org unit, your GAM command line might look like:
gam update user asmith@email.com org /STAFF
I copy the resulting command lines (the whole column), and paste into a new sheet, with Paste Special > Paste as Values Only…
Download as resulting sheet as a .csv file
Place the file in the GAM folder –> in my case, in /bin/gam <– but, this depends on your GAM install!
Rename the file to end in .sh <– for shell
Your file should now be something like staffupdate.sh
In Terminal on the Mac, run this command, making sure to point to the file:
gam batch bin/gam/staffupdate.sh
Terminal will now run the shell file as a batch, and run all the GAM commands for you!
I’ve been brewing coffee a couple of different ways lately, and here’s one I really like – the inverted method, using an AeroPress. It yields a good cup every time, and it’s quick and easy to do, with minimal cleanup. Enjoy!
Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled before speech occurs.
Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.
This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble—they are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the Instinctive Drowning Response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long—but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.
Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are in the water:
Head low in the water, mouth at water level
Head tilted back with mouth open
Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
Eyes closed
Hair over the forehead or eyes
Not using legs—vertical
Hyperventilating or gasping
Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
Trying to roll over on the back
Appear to be climbing an invisible ladder
So how do you know?
One way to be sure is to ask them, “Are you all right?” If they can answer at all—they probably are. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them.
And parents—children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why!
Emelie and Oskar are okay, now.
At the time, it was a real scare and eye-opener for me. I saw it happen as they literally walked the bottom of the pool toward the deeper end, smiling and giggling. Then they started to lose contact with the bottom and started bobbing.
When Oskar clung to his sister and panic started to firm his grip, I was already in motion to save them.
I jumped in, wrapped my arm around both of them, and got them out of the water. We cried together amidst the coughing of water.
I am their lifeguard.
It’s my job to make sure they survive childhood. No matter how deep the pool is, I’ll be there for them.
TLDR: The reason some companies and people do better and are more successful, in the long term, is because they know WHY they do what they do. Others, who focus on WHAT, and HOW they do what they do, suffer.
What Amazon Says
Sinek starts with a fundamental question: Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over?
People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers had little in common, but they all started with WHY. They realized that people won’t truly buy into a product, service, movement, or idea until they understand the WHY behind it.
START WITH WHY shows that the leaders who’ve had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way — and it’s the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.
What I Say
One of the better books on basic leadership, as it approaches the WHY someone does something. Many people focus on what they produce, or how they produce results, but most forget the reason why they do it in the first place.
Sinek uses plenty of stories to explain his thinking, and some become redundant after a while, but still serve a good purpose. Part of the book reads as an Apple commercial, and he even proposes you’d might prefer one after his pitch (no worries, I already am an Apple fan).
Sinek uses Apple as an example throughout the book to point to a company that at its core focuses on ‘why’, and henceforth, all their products reflect their simple message or ‘Think Different‘.
‘’Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently… The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly. And we happen to make great computers’’
Sinek, about Apple, Inc.
Other companies sell computers, too, but too much effort is spent on specs, and results, and selling using rebates and incentives – all mechanisms that lead to short term gains, but long term unrealized loss, or even upending the business. Tivo is noted as a counter example, where everyone knows, still, what they do and what the service is all about, but few realize why they do it… and so the company has suffered greatly.
Sinek shares a few models to take away, and while these are not shortcuts to reading the book, and appreciating the surrounding stories (which Sinek is very good at), there were three major take aways for me – the Golden Circle model, the Law of Diffusion of Innovation model, and the ‘How’ and ‘Why’ types of people.
If you’re in a hurry, see the video below for two of the major concepts from the book. Pick up the paperback for extended stories and explanations.
the Golden Circle model
This is how Sinek explains the Golden Circle model:
WHAT: Every single company and organisation on the planet knows WHAT they do. This is true no matter how big or small, no matter what industry. Everyone is easily able to describe the products or services a company sells or the job function they have within the system. WHATs are easy to identify.
HOW: Some companies and people know HOW they do WHAT they do. Whether you call them a ‘’differentiating value proposition’’ or ‘’unique selling proposition,’’ HOWs are often given to explain how something is different or better. Not as obvious as WHATs , and many think these are the differentiating or motivating factors in a decision. It would be false to assume that’s all that is required. There is one missing detail.
WHY: Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. This isn’t about making money – that’s a result. WHY is all about your purpose, cause or belief. WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed in the morning? And WHY should anyone care?
Here’s the video of Sinek explaining both the Golden Circle, and the Law of Diffusion of Innovation:
Diffusion of innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. Everett Rogers, a professor of communication studies, popularized the theory in his book Diffusion of Innovations; the book was first published in 1962, and is now in its fifth edition (2003). Rogers argues that diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated over time among the participants in a social system. The origins of the diffusion of innovations theory are varied and span multiple disciplines.
Rogers proposes that four main elements influence the spread of a new idea: the innovation itself, communication channels, time, and a social system. This process relies heavily on human capital. The innovation must be widely adopted in order to self-sustain. Within the rate of adoption, there is a point at which an innovation reaches critical mass.
The categories of adopters are innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Diffusion manifests itself in different ways and is highly subject to the type of adopters and innovation-decision process. The criterion for the adopter categorization is innovativeness, defined as the degree to which an individual adopts a new idea.
The tipping point (an excellent book by Malcolm Gladwell) comes when the late majority adopts the new trait, behavior, or product, and the innovation becomes self-sustaining.
about How Types & Why Types (Mission & Vision)
Sinek discusses the friction between people that are either they ‘How’ type, or the ‘Why’ type, and how they can work together to accomplish something. If, however, you lack one or the other, things don’t get done… as efficiently, anyways.
From time to time, suspicious email arrives in your email inbox. It doesn’t matter what email system you use, from Gmail, to Outlook, or any other tools to pickup mail – they’re all susceptible to hacking, phishing, and malicious link attacks. Here’s what to do when you get an email that looks suspicious.
Change Your Password Immediately
If you get a strange looking email, and you don’t click any of the links, you’re probably ok. But, if you clicked on a link, and you get some sort of “missing page” error, or you don’t see what you expected to see, chances are someone, or something, is trying to get your password.
Change your password immediately to secure your account. Sign out of all known sessions, too, if you can. If you work within a managed environment, like a school, contact your local IT crew to alert them, and to get some help.
Oftentimes, the IT team can help you mitigate threats at a different level, and often deploy quarantines and rules to shut the threat down, and keep it from spreading.
Know Your Mail, and What to Expect
Learn to recognize what legitimate email looks like, especially from people you regularly communicate with. Is Steve asking you to sign a document, but you haven’t heard from Steve in 6 months? It’s probably fake.
Is someone sharing a folder with you that you weren’t expecting? It’s probably fake, too. Learn to only work with stuff you expect to appear in your inbox.
Know Your Company’s / Organization’s Tools
Are you getting a file attachment, or something shared using an application you’ve never heard of? Or is it shared through an application like Google Drive, or G Suite (which your organization is using)?
It’s important to recognize valid applications and email attachments, just like you check before opening the door to strangers at your own home.
Brush Up on Your Geography
A lot of hacking / phishing attacks and attempts come from overseas. Some don’t, but the majority seem to originate from outside the USA. Learn to recognize links that end in something else than the regular .com, or .org. Have a link that ends in .id? That goes to websites in Indonesia…
Were you expecting something from Palembang? Didn’t think so. Don’t click that link! To check links, hover over suspicious stuff, and check your browser in the lower corner – it will show you the intended link targets. Don’t click if you don’t trust. It’s safer that way…
Why Won’t It Stop?
Because plenty of folks click the links. And it’s worth it to hackers to continue building up their system of compromised computers, rosters of user names and passwords, and best of all, credit cards and social security numbers.
Typical attempts target thousands of users (through a network of compromised email accounts) and some of them will click the link without thinking twice. It snowballs from there.
And once they have your stuff, it’s sold on the black market of the internets for cash money. And so far, it’s worth it for hackers in Indonesia, or Namibia, or China, or wherever they may be.
Reading and writing online is different than reading and writing a paper. The format is different, the audience is different, and the objectives are different.
Writing a paper for school, for example, may require you to follow certain guidelines (like MLA, or APA), but writing for online is different. And you may not be aware of the guidelines.
Here are some helpful tips when reading, and writing, for online publication.
Paragraphs are King
The shorter paragraphs are, the better. Move away from 5-7 sentences, and write shorter paragraphs that are more concise. Focus on clarity and quality over quantity. Reading shorter paragraphs is also easier on the eyes.
When you’re writing online, and you’re using a medium that you can control (your website, blog, or otherwise) be sure to use a font that’s easy on the eyes. Reading on a screen is different than reading a paper that’s set in Times New Roman size 12.
A sans-serif font like Verdana is much easier to read on-screen than a serif font like Times New Roman. Size matters, too, so make sure the text is large enough to read comfortably. Check out Google’s Font Library for the good stuff.
TLDR: Use sans-serif fonts if you can.
Headlines Drive Traffic
Writing on your own blog? Want people to read it? Then you’ll need to craft better headlines. Spend time doing it, too. A well-crafted headline is what causes articles and content to go viral. Your efforts here will pay off. Just make sure your server / host can manage the traffic.
TLDR: Write better headlines.
Make it Mobile
Most readers today use a mobile device to read content online. Make sure you cater to them. Shorter sentences. Shorter paragraphs. Better fonts. Mobile layouts. Easy navigation. Break points. Accessible menus. It’s important – design for mobile first. Tools like WordPress make this easy.
TLDR: People use their phones to consume your writing. Make them happy.
So?
Writing and publishing (and subsequently reading) online is different. Keep that in mind when you produce. White space is important. Fonts are important. Quality over quantity. Practice these skills, and you’ll make a great writer (and reader) in this new(er) medium. The era of 5-7 sentences per paragraph is over. Oh, and learn to write catchy headlines, too!
SMART is a mnemonic acronym, giving criteria to guide in the setting of objectives, for example in project management, employee-performance management and personal development. The letters S and M usually mean specific and measurable. Additional letters have been added by some authors.
SMART criteria are commonly associated with Peter Drucker’s management by objectives concept. The principal advantage of SMART objectives is that they are easier to understand and to know when they have been done.
