Sports Sciences Commons^™

Can Professional Development Programs Help Close The Achievement Gap?, C. Jayne Brahler

Health and Sport Science Faculty Publications

This paper explores the question of whether it is possible to design professional development programs for teachers that can significantly improve student test results and reduce the achievement gap for students.

The Dayton (Ohio) Foundation and the Montgomery County (Ohio) Educational Service Center, sponsors of The Miami Valley Teacher/Leadership Academy, answer this question with a resounding yes. Recent results indicate that the academy's two-year program, designed to provide professional development to help improve student test scores, not only succeeded in significantly improving the student proficiency mean score, but also considerably reduced the achievement gap for participating students.

This paper includes …

Qtc Is Associated With Obesity And Physical Activity Level For African American Females, C. Jayne Brahler

Health and Sport Science Faculty Publications

Long QT syndrome (LQTS) is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular or ischemic disease mortality. Obesity as a cause for acquired LQTS in otherwise healthy individuals is rapidly gaining the attention of the scientific community. African American people have a higher incidence of obesity compared to Caucasians, yet race-specific information is not available for their prevalence of LQTS. Chronic physical activity can help reduce the incidence of obesity, yet little is known about the effects of chronic physical activity on acquired LQTS. Subjects in this study were a volunteer sample of African American mothers (21-53 yr, n = 44) and …