Analysis: Boehner opens door to tax hikes, shifts fiscal cliff talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner's offer to accept a tax rate increase for the wealthiest Americans knocks down a key Republican road block to a deal resolving the year-end "fiscal cliff."

The question now boils down to price - which income levels, what rates and what's offered in return. Such major questions, still unanswered so close to the end of the year suggest, however, that no surge toward an agreement is immminent.

With just over two weeks before the fiscal cliff's $600 billion in automatic tax hikes and spending cuts are triggered, threatening a new recession, there is little time to craft a comprehensive deal that will satisfy both Democrats and Republicans.

Until the latest offer, made on Friday, Boehner had insisted on extending all of the Bush era tax rates, resisting President Obama's demand to let the marginal rates rise on income above $250,000. A rising chorus of business executives also had urged Republicans to agree to this.

Although the White House has not accepted Boehner's gambit, which media reports have said includes a $1 million tax-hike threshold, it could push negotiations away from entrenched, ideological positions.

"Boehner has now accepted the premise of higher rates. So now we're just arguing over details. I think it's a significant step," said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Potomac Research Group.

A framework deal spelling out tax revenue and spending cut targets to be finalized in the new year could be possible, Valliere said.

"Boehner's offer to allow tax rates to go up for taxpayers earning over $1 million fundamentally transforms fiscal cliff negotiations," added Sean West, U.S. policy analyst at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy.

In a note to clients, West wrote that it signals, significantly, that Boehner ultimately believes a deal to avoid the cliff is still possible.

"The political burden is now shifted back to the president, who must be willing to take on his party in order to get a deal Boehner can ultimately pass. We do not think the president will overreach: Obama will work with Boehner to get to a deal."

There are still several critical elements to a deal besides a tax rate increase on the wealthy, including Republican demands to cut spending on entitlements.

Changes to the expensive Medicare and Medicaid health care programs for the elderly and the poor could be central to any deal, which must also include an increase in the federal debt limit needed by the end of February.

DEMANDS ENTITLEMENT CUTS

Boehner conditioned his tax rate increase offer on Obama agreeing to cuts in entitlement spending.

Many Republican lawmakers want to raise the eligibility age on Medicare from 65 to 67. They also want to add more means testing to Medicare, making wealthier retirees pay more for their care.

Currently, Medicare does have some means testing, charging higher premiums for coverage of doctors visits and prescription drugs to individuals earning more than $85,000 and married couples earning more than $170,000. Only about 5 percent of recipients pay these higher premiums.

Thus far, Obama has offered only about $400 billion in 10-year entitlement savings, mostly through small adjustments in reining in health care costs - not fundamental changes such as raising eligibility ages.

And just as Boehner faces opposition in his own party to raising any tax rates, Obama faces opposition to cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security from Democrats, who pledged in election campaigns they would protect these programs.

A major bloc of congressional Democrats has already signaled they will not accept major cutbacks in Medicare as part of any fiscal cliff deal.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Maryland Representative Chris Van Hollen are among the high ranking Democrats in the House who in recent days have come out forcefully defending against raising the age for eligibility for Medicare from the current 65 to 67 years of age.

"Given the level of savings that is being talked about from Medicare, you can't get it all from providers and drug makers," said Paul Heldman, an analyst at Potomac Research, which tracks Washington policy for investors.

"So Opponents of raising the eligibility age have reason to believe beneficiaries will take some sort of hit if a mega-deal is cut," he said.

If Republicans are not successful in securing entitlement program cuts in exchange for a tax-rate increase on the wealthy, they are adamant about using a debt-limit increase as leverage to overhaul Social Security and Medicare.

The U.S. Treasury expects to reach its $16.4 trillion statutory debt cap by year-end, and will exhaust its remaining borrowing capacity around mid-February, risking a potential default.

Louisiana Republican Representative John Fleming, a member of the conservative Tea Party caucus who has never voted to increase the debt ceiling, said he would support a debt limit hike if it were part of a deal to make Medicare and Social Security sustainable.

The pace of activity could pick up the coming week.

House Republicans were told to prepare for a possible weekend session next week, potentially interrupting travel plans for the long Christmas holiday weekend.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor scheduled "possible legislation related to expiring provisions of law," a reference to the expiring tax cuts, for the end of the week, portending a weekend session. Cantor has said the House would meet through the Christmas holidays and beyond.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro, Richard Cowan and Kim Dixon; editing by Fred Barbash and Todd Eastham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-boehner-opens-door-tax-hikes-shifts-u-202143843--business.html

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Paula died last week: Who cares? | My Edmonds News

Home ? Blog ? News ? Paula died last week: Who cares?

Paula died last week: Who cares?

Paula on her street corner on Aurora Avenue. (Photo by Mike)

By Harry Gatjens

While the world mourns the loss of children in a senseless tragedy, there are others to be mourned for, too. This is the story of a woman who few would have noticed having passed away, even before the tragedy in Connecticut.

Paula Gomez died last week. She had a stroke on Thursday and ended up dying on Saturday. She was 40 years old and had no family and few friends to speak of. I found out what happened when her boyfriend Mike saw my number on her phone and called to tell me she had died. He said she had spoken of me positively as a friend.

I had the opportunity to meet Mike and interview him to get a better understanding of Paula?s life. He said she had been living with him and he was trying to arrange her final effects. He said he needed to raise $200 for the balance of her cremation and that he had arranged with a local priest to hold a small service. I was skeptical of the story at first, but then he told me if I wished to help out I could just call the funeral home and make a donation in her name.

I met Paula a couple of years ago at the restaurant in a local Shoreline casino. She looked worn out and disheveled but was gulping down a meal. I spoke with her to learn her story and found out that she was a local Aurora Avenue prostitute.

She had been addicted to drugs, had bad teeth, was not particularly attractive and just looked like she had lived a very hard life. She was quite open about her lifestyle and seem to be, overall, a nice person.

The food at the restaurant was cheap and the location convenient for where she plied her trade. I came to talk to her whenever I saw her and always showed concern and respect. She seemed to appreciate my concern even though I wasn?t a customer.

One time she asked for money as she claimed to be short for what she needed for a room for the night. When I saw her later that night she said she had spent some of the money on ?a toot,? as she needed to do something to deal with her ordeal.

Another time, someone broke out the window of my car in the parking lot and stole my iPad. I knew that Paula knew most of the street people in the area, so I called and asked if she could be on the lookout for it. The next day she called and told me that she had found who had taken it and told them that it belonged to a friend of hers and she wanted it back. These are not nice people she was dealing with, but she convinced them to give it to her and she brought it back to me.

I tried to work with her to help her figure out how to beat her drug problem. I never again gave her cash but would instead bring her a meal or groceries or actually make a payment toward a room for her.

Unfortunately, I didn?t have the skill set to provide her the help she needed to resolve her addiction. I attempted to put her in communication with services that could help, but until she was ready to make her own effort my attempts proved futile.

As we talked, I learned a bit about her background. Abused as a child and deserted by her parents and family, she ended up on the street at age 17. Drugs became a part of her life not long after, and she made a long downhill journey from that point forward.

Ostracized for profession, she made a few friends who would make an effort to help her change her life. Combined with the lack of a family to provide support Paula was left with no place to go.

Mike came across her and tried to help. However, with her background she couldn?t comprehend why anyone would care about her. They continued their relationship for several years but she could never truly believe in him until just recently.

Mike?s life was no bowl of cherries either. His wife had died when he met Paula, and he was suicidal. He saw Paula across the room in a restaurant and went up to talk to her and befriend her, similar to me. However, in his state, he fell for her and tried to create a relationship. At this point she had been treated like dirt by everyone who knew her and she didn?t believe anyone could care for her.

When Mike told me that they had been living together for the past several months, I was pleased. Then he told me they had been living in his car. He didn?t like her lifestyle and says that she wanted out of it too. But since that was the only thing she had done, she had little marketable skills. She needed money to live, and working the streets was the only practical way to raise it. They lived not paycheck to paycheck, but day to day ? literally.

As I got to know Paula, I could see that she wanted things to change but had neither the resources nor the support to make those changes. She talked of programs from the state to help her get her teeth fixed and deal with some of her other health issues. One day she got hit by a car and suffered severe bruising on her leg. However, she didn?t go to the hospital as she couldn?t deal with the psychological treatment of being indigent and therefore missed out on the physical treatment as well. The driver who hit her just drove away.

Paula worked on the same corner for the last 20 years. She tried to get customers who she knew and would call her, but if no one called she had to go out onto Aurora.

I saw her there several times and for the most part just drove by. Sometimes, when it was cold and dark and rainy, I would pull over and tell her she needed to get off the street. Her normal response was that she needed money to get a room. If I could, I would drive her to a motel and give her some money to pay for the room. I couldn?t stand seeing her out on that corner shivering.

She didn?t often come to the casino, so if I hadn?t seen her for a while I would call just to check out how she was doing. She always told me that she ?was a survivor and not to worry.? Still, if I had the chance I would bring her some food or something else to help out.

Her death brings me great sadness. You never want someone you know to die, but more important it seemed like no one ? outside of Mike ? would notice that she was gone outside or even care.

On one hand, I was considering that it wouldn?t be a good idea for me to attend the funeral service for a prostitute. Luckily, my heart kicked in and told me Paula was a real person and she deserved to be honored. I will go and be there to honor her memory.

The more disturbing thing I think about is, how many other women are there out in the world facing a similar situation ? drug addicted, selling bodies for day-to-day living expenses and with no support group? Paula recently told me that I was one of only one or two people who actually cared and treated her like a real person. Almost everyone else only cared about her for what they could get from her. It made me feel good that she felt that way about me, but it made me feel awful that I couldn?t and didn?t know what more I could do to help.

The point of this story is that we need to worry about people in Paula?s situation. There must be some way to prevent people from falling through the cracks. I am not quite sure what to do, but I am going to figure this out. Several friends have told me that it was her own fault, that she could have chosen a different life if she weren?t so weak. I don?t believe that people who have been raised in an upper-middle-class lifestyle can comprehend what it?s like to grow up in a situation with abuse and no loving relations.

Despite all of her choices and problems, Paula Gomez was a good person.

I am sorry she is gone, and I do care.

Edmonds resident Harry Gatjens is a contributing writer to My Edmonds News.

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Source: http://myedmondsnews.com/2012/12/paula-died-last-week-who-cares/

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Passing the alcohol test: Fundamental properties of molecules have not changed during the past seven billion years

Dec. 14, 2012 ? The mass ratio of protons and electrons is deemed to be a universal constant. And rightly so, as the latest radio-astronomy observations of a distant galaxy have shown. Scientists at the VU University of Amsterdam and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn used the 100-metre radio telescope in Effelsberg to measure absorption lines of the methanol molecule at a number of characteristic frequencies. The researchers analysed the spectrum of the simplest of all the alcohols in a very distant galaxy. The result: to a high degree of accuracy molecules and molecular matter have the same properties today as they did seven billion years ago. According to this finding, the mass ratio of protons and electrons in particular has changed by less than one hundred thousandth of a percent in this period.

Measurements are the only way that physicists can find out about fundamental universal constants such as the proton-to-electron ratio. Although all terrestrial experiments produce the same value for this ratio, it would theoretically be possible for the constant to have a different value in different regions of the universe or at different times in its history. The methanol molecule is a suitable sensor for detecting such deviations.

A number of lines in the radio spectrum of this molecule would exhibit a significant frequency shift if the proton-to-electron mass ratio changed, while other lines would not be affected by this shift. A group at the VU University of Amsterdam only recently found out which property makes methanol such a sensitive sensor: ultimately it is a quantum tunnel effect which occurs if the internal rotation of the molecule is impeded. This effect leads to very high values for the sensitivity coefficients of the corresponding spectral lines, which can all be calculated individually.

"This makes the methanol molecule an ideal test case in order to discover a possible change in the proton-to-electron mass ratio over time," says Wim Ubachs, Professor at the VU University of Amsterdam and head of the physics department. "We therefore proposed a search for line radiation from methanol in the distant universe in order to compare the structure of the molecules thus found with the structure of today's methanol in laboratory experiments."

The team observed a galaxy where a number of different molecules had already been observed. The galaxy, which is in the line of sight of a high-intensity radio source called PKS1830-211, is about seven billion light years away from Earth. The scientists aimed for four different line transitions in the radio spectrum of the methanol molecule with their search program. And they were actually able to see all four lines with the aid of the 100-metre radio telescope in Effelsberg.

"As an optical astronomer it has been an interesting experience to carry out observations at the large wavelengths which occur in the radio range," says Julija Bagdonaite, doctoral student at the VU University of Amsterdam and lead author of the publication. "The methanol molecule had absorbed these radio waves seven billion years ago, and the waves have carried along its fingerprint from the distant past on their passage to Earth."

By analysing the quantum structure of the methanol molecule the researchers were able to deduce that two of its spectral lines which they observed at frequencies around 25 GHz were influenced hardly at all by a change in the proton-to-electron mass ratio. The other two lines reacted much more sensitively to a modification of this parameter.

"The source we investigated is by far the most suitable of all our observational objects for investigating the validity of our local physics even in very distant exotic environments," says Christian Henkel from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. "It would be fantastic if we could find more sources of this type which we could use to look even further back into the past."

The scientists also included systematic effects of the observations in the evaluation of the data and thus obtained the following result: in the course of the past seven billion years the mass ratio of protons and electrons has changed by a factor of 10^-7 at most and is therefore rightly deemed to be a universal constant. This result can definitely be interpreted to mean that the structure of the molecular matter as derived from spectral observations agrees very accurately with the structure seven billion years ago. Possible deviations amount to a mere one hundred thousandth of a percent or even less.

"If we were really to find deviations in this fundamental constant, we would have a problem with our understanding of the foundations of physics," concludes Karl Menten, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. "Most importantly, this would violate Einstein's equivalence principle, the cornerstone of the general theory of relativity."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.

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Journal Reference:

1. J. Bagdonaite, P. Jansen, C. Henkel, H. L. Bethlem, K. M. Menten, W. Ubachs. A Stringent Limit on a Drifting Proton-to-Electron Mass Ratio from Alcohol in the Early Universe. Science, 2012; DOI: 10.1126/science.1224898

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/NNCPpQYLlcg/121214102426.htm

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Syrian Scud missiles land near Turkish border: NATO

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Several Scud missiles fired at rebels by Syria have landed "fairly close" to the Turkish border, NATO's top military commander said on Friday in a blog explaining why Patriot anti-missile batteries are being deployed to Turkey.

The comments by U.S. Admiral James Stavridis, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, were the first to confirm that Scuds have come down near the border of Turkey, a NATO-member state.

Stavridis also described the situation in Syria as "chaotic and dangerous".

U.S. and NATO officials said on Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces had fired Scud-style ballistic missiles at rebels in recent days in what U.S. officials described as an escalation of the 20-month civil war.

"Over the past few days, a handful of Scud missiles were launched inside Syria, directed by the regime against opposition targets. Several landed fairly close to the Turkish border, which is very worrisome," Stavridis wrote.

Syria on Thursday denied it had used Scud missiles in its fight against what it calls "terrorist groups".

(Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-scuds-land-near-turkish-border-nato-220305470.html

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What is Green Residential Real Estate? | HoCo Musings

Green Residential Real Estate is housing that lessens its environmental impact. The Jan/Feb 2010 issue of the ?Journal of Industrial Ecology states that four areas dominate and account for 70-80 percent of the environmental impact of individual households:transportation, diet, housing construction, and energy-using products.

So how can we lessen the environmental impact and live in a more sustainable way? Lets look at?housing construction which?is impacted?by the?manufacturing, transporting, and assembling of building materials, and the first place to start here is with the size.?It should be obvious that the?bigger the building, the more resources consumed, the greater the environmental impact. Big is not green, small is.

Even if we build a net zero energy house, a big one will require more materials to build and?more renewable energy to power energy using products such as appliances, lighting fixtures, and heating and cooling units, etc. Photovoltaics and other clean energy alternatives require manufacturing, transporting, and assembling just like any other material used to build. A?bigger house needs more. Big is not green, small is.

To be sure there are many other ways to lessen the environmental impact of housing. However, I think?size?should be?the first consideration. We have to stop building more than we need. Statistics from the U.S. Green Building Council show that buildings in the U.S. accounts for:

• 72% of electricity consumption
• 38% of all carbon dioxide emissions
• 40% of raw material use

The first step to shrinking these numbers is to build smaller houses. SMALL IS GREEN!

Tags: building small, energy efficiency, energy useage

Source: http://hocomusings.com/2012/12/what-is-green-residential-real-estate/

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Snooki & JWoww Season 2 Trailer: She's Gonna Pop!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/12/snooki-and-jwoww-season-2-trailer-shes-gonna-pop/

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Teacher's Effectiveness in Primary Schools: Documenting the best ...

A century ago, when we look back at the educational situation, it can be seen that the concept of ?primary education? was not seeded in the minds of the people. Mist of the countries focussed on education as knowing of their religious needs rather than a preparation for one?s active life. Only in 19^th century did most countries make primary education compulsory and people began regarding education as a right (Amrung & Gerald, 1999). Children usually enrol in primary schools by the age of 6 and it evolves as a five-year cycle and primary education forms as a basis for all further education and schooling and it is also the foundation to cope with the changing world and society (Pollard & Bourne, 1995). India?s primary education is like a glass which is two-third full and one third empty having 67 million children aged 6 to 10 years attending primary schooling but 28 to 32 million children who are not (World Bank Publication, 1997). Millions of young children hailing from lower socio-economic, comprising nearly 40% never complete their primary schooling and those who can have to face a number of problems like poor qualified teachers, very high teacher-student ratio, inadequate teaching materials (Saxena, 2005). All these factors contribute to low quality of education that imparts only little or no learning. Teachers teaching in primary schools account for the largest steadily growing profession in India, with nearly 2.8 million primary and upper primary teachers employed in the year 2000 (Tilak, 1995)

It is rightly said ?upon the teacher rests the school?; the ?teacher? becomes the prime revitalizing force and plays a pivotal role in the education system. Good teacher is the one who is T- thoughtful, E- Enthusiastic, A-Ambitious, C- Creative, H- Having high dignity, E- Executiveness and R- Reliability and it is the teacher who helps the child to build his self-concept (Devasenathipati, 2001). According to Miyan & Rastogi (2005), a primary school teacher can be called as ?competent? only when she/he has a varied range of knowledge in all spheres and skills to achieve her/his goals. Primary schooling is very complex as teachers introduce the children to mathematics, science, language and other social studies which can be very tough and boring for the children, so the onus likes in the hand of the teacher to make all these subjects interesting by using various techniques of teaching like games, music, books etc (Richardson & Stop, 1998). ?A unique human being- the teacher? who has to play multiple roles; of a listener, leader, psychological diagnostician etc and requires her/his total self, the personal and professional side to shape the personality of the child (Spodek, 1972).

In India till the 18^th century, education was confined to conventional beliefs and thoughts. It was only later when great thinkers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy felt the urgency to introduce an ?institution for training teachers? to help the students cope with the changing educational system around the world (Saxena, 2005). Cheng (1996) commented that ?A teacher with ?low educational efficacy? believes that education cannot affect student?s performance, whereas a teacher with ?high educational efficacy? believes that education does positively affect learning outcomes. High educational efficacy has been constantly correlated with child centred (developmentally appropriate) environments and positive student outcomes?. Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) is a term coined by the ?National Association for the Education of Young Children? which talks about the teaching techniques that identify and foster the developmental needs of children (Bredekamp, 1997).? Documenting these practices which can be named as ?best practices? will help teachers to enhance their skills and help them improve for the better, at the same time documentation will also prove as a link between the teaching fraternities globally giving birth to more systematic and educational system along with this it will be a boon for the upcoming generation of teachers to adopt these protocols.

Many a time?s teachers are criticised for not doing their best in schools. There could be many reasons; either it could be ineffectiveness of the teacher or lack of resources. Hence it will be very useful to identify the best/healthy practices carried out by teachers with or without resources. This study will help in knowing and understanding the teacher?s effectiveness in primary schools and documenting the best practices so that other teachers who work under similar circumstances with similar goals and constraints get an idea of effective teaching.? The teachers will be observed, recorded and documented in 4 areas: Teacher as a Person, Teacher as a Professional, Teacher?s Interpersonal Relationship and Qualities of the Teacher.

Literature Review

The literature is based on past researches done on teachers and primary school teaching and it is presented on the following subtopics:

• ?Teacher?s Quality
• Teacher?s Interpersonal Skills
• Teacher?s Qualification
• Documentation of the best practices
• Primary school teachers and primary education

Teacher?s Quality

According to Hammond (2000) teachers preparations and teachings are the strongest correlations of the student?s achievement and teacher?s quality is the most vital educational investment. Similarly Rvikin, Hanushek and Kain (1998) reported the student?s performance outcomes to the teacher?s quality, they analysed 400,000 students in 3000 schools from New York, which concluded that school quality is the most important factor in students achievement however teacher?s quality is the most important predictor whereas size and teacher education plays a very small role.

Relationship between teachers? personality and academic and social development was analysed by Heil and Washburne (1998). They found out that children made the greatest progress under the guidance of self-controlled teacher and least under fearful teachers. They also reported that children seem to grow as friendlier under self-controlled teachers.

?Teacher?s Interpersonal Skills

Dasgupta (2004) observed that those teachers who had a strong interest in their students as individuals and were sensitive to their needs, the students could relate themselves with such teachers in a much better way creating a level of comfort with them. On the other hand, those teachers who are friendly but make no attempt to know their students, the children feel anxious being with them and they even doubted the teacher?s ability to perform. Similarly, those teachers who did not show any interest, the students believed that the teacher had a very low ability to perform and was low self-motivated.

A significant body of research reported that academic achievement and students? behaviour is influenced by the quality of the teacher-student relationship. It also suggests that the emotional aspect of the teacher-student relationship is far more important than the conventional advice on methods and techniques of teaching (Gerald, 1999)

Teacher?s Qualification

Cheng (1996) conducted a study on high school students? performance using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Studies (1998) and found that fully certified teachers have a significant positive impact on student test scores as compared to teachers who are not well qualified and certified.

Heil (1998) through his study concluded that teachers who had been out from teacher education since long and were away from on-going professional development lacked familiarity with current knowledge. She also commented that there was a significant difference in strength of developmentally appropriate practice beliefs between novice teachers and veteran teachers. The more oriented teachers scored significantly high on measures of developmentally appropriate practices.

Documentation of the best practices

A study was conducted by Miyan in 2005 documenting the best practices on 25 children in 7 schools and it was seen that the most prominent best practices carried out were providing children with positive reinforcement, treating all children equally, spontaneity while teaching and innovativeness in teaching methods.

Similar study conducted by Rastogi (2005) found out that the best teaching practices were using teaching aids and creative methods to teach like dramatizations, providing children with a stimulating environment.

Primary school teachers and primary education

According to Dasgupta (2004), ?play? should be the central activity of children even in primary schools and primary school teachers should teach children using the play way method as it helps children to relate to what is being taught. Introducing games in classroom is one of the ways of encouraging cooperation and motivating the children to study and learn the concepts.

Washburne (1998) surveyed primary school children to see the kind of the teachers liked by them and those who were disliked. He found that physical characteristics such as grooming, nice voice, and pleasing personality were found to be more important along with teacher?s qualities like interest in teaching, enthusiasm, innovativeness etc. At the same time children also laid equal emphasis on the personality traits like being cheerful, fair, non-judgemental etc.

Methodology

Aims & Objectives

1. To identify and document the ?best practices? of teachers, nominated as ?effective teachers? by principals/supervisors
2. To identify the practices that need improvement
3. To observe, record and document the ?best practices? of primary school teachers in 4 areas: Teacher as a Person, Teacher as a Professional, Teacher?s Interpersonal Relationship and Qualities of the Teacher.
4. To compare the teachers best practices in relation to the fee structure
5. To compare the teachers best practices in relation to his/her years of teaching experience
6. To compare teachers best practices in relation to the teacher child ratio.

Operational Definitions

Effective Teachers: These are the teachers having innovative and creative teaching practices and who will be nominated by the principals/supervisors

Primary Teacher: Teacher teaching to children in 1^st and 2^nd grade

Low Fee Structured Schools: Schools having fees ranging from Rs.15/- to Rs.350/- per month

High Fee Structured Schools: Schools having fees ranging from Rs.350/- to Rs. 450/- per month

Data Collection

Primary school teachers serving in the schools having low and high fee structure and located in Mumbai, India will be approached using an introductory letter. The schools will be selected keeping in mind the indicators like fee structure, location of schools, medium of instruction and minimum 5years of establishment. 10 schools will be approached and nearly 30 teachers will be observed and interviewed. From these 10 schools, 5 schools will represent schools having low fee structure and remaining 5 schools will represent high fee structure.

The school authorities will be approached with a prior appointment and the school supervisor/principal will be given and introductory letter conveying the nature of the research (refer to appendix 2). The information and the facts about the school (profile of the school) will be obtained from the authorities including details of the school like the name, number of teaching staff, fee structure, teacher-child ratio etc. The principal/supervisor will be asked to nominate three teachers who according to them are effective in their teaching, in short who are exemplary. The teachers will be given a consent form (refer to appendix 1) which will agree their part-taking in the research.

The research tools that will be used for this study will be a fact sheet, an observation record & documentation sheet along with an interview questionnaire. The sample of the research tools is provided in the appendix.

The fact sheet will have two parts to it; first it will help in gathering the profile of the school and second one to gather the nomination of the teachers made by the principal/supervisor (Refer to appendix 3)

The observation record sheet will be again divided in two parts.? First part will focus on gathering the teacher?s profile (age, qualification, number of years of experience) whereas the second part of the sheet who help in observing the nominated teacher in four criterias namely- Teacher as a Person, Teacher?s Interpersonal Relationship, Teacher as a professional and Qualities of the Teacher (Refer appendix 4a. & 4b). The documentation sheet will help in documenting the best practices of teachers along with those practices which need improvement. This will also help in understanding the teacher-child interaction and noting down the minuscule but important details of classroom teaching (Refer to appendix 5)

The interview questionnaire will help in interacting with the teachers on one to one basis. The nominated teachers will be interviewed on the basis of the four criterias namely- Teacher as a Person, Teacher?s Interpersonal Relationship, Teacher as a professional and Qualities of the Teacher. The interview will consist of open end questions will be give a chance to the teachers to be more expressive, so that all the details could be captured. (Refer appendix 6)

To summarise, the researcher will visit the schools during the school hours for observation. Observation will be done for each teacher for 3 days and each session would be for an hour. The observation record sheet and the documentation sheet will be carried to the classroom to record the verbal comments as well as the non-verbal gestures of the teachers along with the recording of the best practices. So the researcher will observe 3 teachers for 3 days in each school (schools having high as well as low fee structure), one hour per teacher in each school.? The researcher will then interview the teachers during the school hours according to the convenience of the teachers. The interview session would approximately last for an hour.

The observation record sheet will be analysed both quantitatively as well as qualitatively where as the documentation and interview sheet will be analysed qualitatively only. The data for the quantitative analysis will be encoded using the SPSS and co-relational analysis will be conducted for the statistical analysis. The data for the qualitative analysis will be encoded using the analysing conversation technique and the IPA (Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis) so that a rich data is collected.

• Reliability and Validity of the research

To understand the reliability and validity of the research, a pilot study will be conducted on two schools. During the pilot study the effectiveness of the tool will be checked. A meta-analysis can also be conducted to understand the nature of previous researches done and certain improvisations in the present study can be made on the basis of the systematic review of meta-analysis.

Ethical Issues

Any research and the practical applications of the procedures come under the scrutiny of professional ethics (Anastasi & Urbina, 2004).? Even for this research certain ethical issues have to be taken care of in a systematic manner. A formal approval will be taken from the principals/supervisors of the school who decide to become a part of the study, even the nominated teachers would be asked if they would like to participate and be one of the respondents, they will also be entitled to sign a consent form. All the data collected will be confidential. No one except the researcher will be allowed to access that data. There are no foreseeable risks involved with the tools used for the research. They will be assured that all their information will be kept confidential and privacy will be maintained. While conducting the observations and interview there could be some risk involved like anxiety and questions in the respondents mind. All the participants will be explained the nature of the study, objectives. They will be assured that all their information will be kept confidential and privacy will be maintained.

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Tags: free essay, teacher's effectiveness

Category: Free Essays, History

Source: http://writepass.co.uk/journal/2012/12/teachers-effectiveness-in-primary-schools-documenting-the-best-practices-in-mumbai-india/

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