The purpose of this study was to explore the variables of content knowledge, individual attitude, and span of time from initial training with regard to implementation of selected teaching practices in the elementary classroom. The sample consisted of thirty-two elementary classroom teachers who teach reading or mathematics in a large suburban school district in the Dallas Metropolitan Area. After completion of the second day's training in an inservice program on teaching strategies, the teachers were given a test to measure content knowledge of and attitude toward the teaching strategies. The test results were used in determining four groups for follow-up classroom observations four weeks and eight weeks after the in-service sessions. Using three-way analysis of variance, the data were analyzed. Results indicated that teachers with high content knowledge of the teaching strategies implemented these strategies to a greater degree than did teachers with low content knowledge. No significant relationship with regard to implementation was found for the variables of attitude or span of time. It can be concluded that teachers who know the content of inservice training are able to and do implement the training in their classrooms. Of equal significance is the conclusion that teachers who do not know …

The Trinity River flows through the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex in north central Texas where it receives effluents from numerous point sources including seven large regional wastewater treatment facilities. Historically, the Trinity River has been impacted by massive wastewater loadings which often constitute > 80% of the total river discharge during low flow periods. Normally, high mass loadings correspond to the summer months, compounding the effects of a naturally stressful period, characterized by high temperatures and low dissolved oxygen concentrations. Samples from 12 stations were collected quarterly over an 18 month period from the Trinity River and two tributaries. Water samples were analyzed for a variety of water quality variables, including metals, priority pollutants, pesticides, and general water quality parameters. Water samples were also tested for acute and subchronic effects with several test species. Fish were collected at each station and assemblages were characterized using traditional classification techniques and the Index of Biotic Integrity. In addition, sediment samples were assessed for toxic effects which could have adversely impacted fish recruitment and in situ biomonitoring experiments were performed. Quantitative habitat characterization analyses were performed to gain additional information that could possibly explains differences in fish assemblage structure related to habitat variability. Data …

This dissertation sought to determine the effects of a buddy system on a student's self-concept, academic achievement, attrition rate, and congruence levels. The buddy system treatment randomly paired two students for the purposes of sharing ideas, working on assignments, getting to know each other, and supporting one another. The study included three randomly selected sections of pre-college level, developmental writing classes from the Brookhaven College of the Dallas County Community College District. Three other classes served as the control group, and one instructor taught all six sections of the course. Three instruments were used as measures of change: the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS), designed by William H. Fitts, measured self-concept levels; the Personality and Educational Environment Scale (PEES), created by Roger Boshier, measured congruence levels; and a written paragraph measured achievement levels in English. Attrition percentages were based on the number of students enrolled during the second week of class who were not present during the sixteenth week of class. To test for significance, an analysis of covariance procedure was used on the TSCS, PEES, and written paragraph results, and a test for the difference between proportions for independent groups was used on the attrition percentages. The class sections were …

The problem of assessment and diagnosis of depression in the elderly begins with the definition of depression being indefinite. In this study, the theory of learned helplessness was chosen because of its value in organizing research within a learning theory framework. The Beck Depression Inventory, measures of fluid and crystallized intellectual ability, locus of control, and attribution of success and failure were chosen as variables for an exploratory factor analysis. The purpose of selecting these variables was to assess the cognitive, motivational, and affective components of learned helplessness as they affected the responses of elderly subjects to depression items. Self report measures of income, education, and health, were included to assess the relationship of these variables to depression. A somatic factor was predicted to correlate with an affective factor of depression.

This study modified the Ramanujam and Venkatraman (1987) questionnaire that was used to develop their model of planning system dimensions and planning effectiveness, and tested the model on a sample of private social service agencies. The criterion measures were level of planning sophistication, agency size, perceived environmental uncertainty, and relative competitive position. The sample was randomly drawn from private social service agencies which were members of the Community Council of Greater Dallas. Telephone interviews with fifty executive directors were conducted by a trained, impartial interviewer. Stepwise discriminant analysis was used to predict group membership between informal and formal planners. Of the nine dimensions in the model, three dimensions correctly classified 84 percent of the sample. The three dimensions were fulfillment of planning objectives, use of decision making techniques, and lack of resistance to planning. The level of perceived environmental uncertainty was another criterion set. Directors who perceived high uncertainty paid more attention to the external environment, used more decision making techniques, and relied on functional specialists when planning. Large and small agencies were classified by their annual budgets. Stepwise discriminant analysis using the planning system dimensions failed to reject the null hypothesis. Agencies reporting strong relative competitive positions placed greater …

Few areas of research in the finance literature have received greater attention than the efficient market hypothesis. Much of the research has been directed toward the securities market while very little research has been done in the real estate markets. The existing research on real estate market efficiency has been either descriptive or illustrative with very little empirical testing being performed. The major reason for the lack of empirical testing has been the inability to develop an adequate data base. The results of the empirical work that has been done do not support the widely held belief that real estate markets are inefficient. This study, using the autoregressive-integrative-moving average (ARIMA) time series analysis technique, tests the weak-form efficiency of the Dallas-Fort Worth office properties real estate market. According to the weak-form efficient market hypothesis, all price information should be capitalized into current real estate prices and not provide the basis for earning abnormal returns in trading. Price data formed from office building sales dating from January, 1979 to January, 1985 are used to test the market. The data was gathered from the files of several professional appraisal firms located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The transaction information includes (1) transaction …

This study was concerned with the enrollment patterns in required general education courses by technicaloccupational students in an urban community college. The purposes of this study were to (1) examine the general education course enrollment patterns of technical occupational students in specific programs; (2) determine if completion of an English course yields a higher GPA; (3) profile the characteristics of the students who do and do not enroll in general education courses; (4) determine if students enrolled in certain technical-occupational programs are more likely to enroll in general education than students enrolled in similar programs; and (5) determine if completion of general education courses has a positive effect on overall GPA of students.

This study provided administrators in a large southern metropolitan public school district an opportunity to participate in a stress-related research study. The questionnaire contained such stress-related probe areas as spiritual beliefs, preferred and imposed (perceived) orders of major-life emphasis areas, professional environment, personal-social environment, and probes into the ethical positions held by the administrators. The professional environment section contained subsets of internal (on-the-job) probes, external (political) probes, as well as personal (incentive) probes.The personal-social environment section was sub-divided into five Maslow hierarchy-of-need related probes such as physiological needs, safety-security needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-fulfillment needs. The final section of the instrument sampled the administrators' responses to probes concerning their concepts of God, their concepts of the Bible arid their positions on eight ethical statements.

The purpose of the study was to compare the academic stress of freshmen in a community college with that of freshmen in a university. An additional purpose was to determine if gender, ethnicity, or semester course load was related to perceived academic stress. The sample consisted of a total of 303 university and community college freshmen from English and Psychology classes at the University of North Texas and Richland Community College during the spring semester, 1989. The instrument that was administered to these volunteer students was the Academic Stress Test, a 35-item checklist of possible academic stressors. The students were asked to check the items which were perceived by them to be stressful and had occurred during the current semester. The T-statistic was used to analyze the total mean stress score for each variable being considered. Multiple regression was used to determine if there was any possibility that the variables might have a predictive effect for academic stress. It was found that for these freshmen students there was a significant difference between the perceived academic stress of community college freshmen and university freshmen. The mean academic stress score for university freshmen was higher than the mean for community college freshmen. …

Private philanthropy is important in America. In 1985, philanthropy totaled almost 80 billion dollars. Philanthropy is partially a function of price. Absent a tax benefit, the price of charitable giving is unity. When tax benefits are available, the price of cash giving is one minus the marginal tax rate of the donor. Philanthropy is not evenly distributed among all classes of organizations. Changes in tax cost bring about changes in the distribution of gifts among organizations. Predictions have been made of a six to twelve billion dollar decline in individual giving as a result of the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The question is, "Whose ox gets gored?" In 1962, the Internal Revenue Service collected data directly linking itemized charitable contributions to class of donee organization. Prior works by Taussig, Schwartz, Feldstein, and Clotfelter have been principally based on this data. Their works document differing elasticities of price on charitable giving. The current research gathered 1985 data on the relationships between income, price, and charitable donee for 298 Dallas County, Texas, taxpayers. Data was obtained from selected certified public accountants in Dallas County who prepared income tax returns for individuals as part of their practice. Two hundred fifty usable responses …

This study examined the factors related to travel mode choices in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Area. Changes in population, life style and economy of the Dallas-Fort Worth region over the last few decades demand a careful re-examination of travel demand tools and methods. The purpose of the study was to provide an understanding of transportation modal choice in the region. Those demographic variables best predicting the choices were identified. The Home Interview Survey, a set of disaggregate data from the 19 84 North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) Regional Travel Survey, was analyzed using logistic regression. The major findings of the research indicate that about 97 percent of the travelers in the study area used private cars and 3 percent used public transit. Household income and cars-vans were significant explanatory variables. The impact of household income and number of car-vans available upon an individual's decision for travel mode choice were very important. The number of car-vans available in the household, and age of respondents were significant predictors in travel mode. Household members with incomes of $30,000 to $39,000 and those with incomes of at least $50,000 tended to use more private cars than did other income groups. Also, household …

In September, 1979, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued FASB Statement No. 33, which required certain corporations to issue specified supplementary information based on constant dollars and current costs. This information is intended to show the impact of inflation on the reported earnings and capital of business enterprises. Opponents of Statement No. 33 claim that the required supplementary information is difficult to interpret and, therefore, will not be used. Proponents contend that the information is self-explanatory and would highlight the impact of inflation on the performance of business enterprises. Thus, they conclude the supplementary data will be useful to various user groups and will be used. This dissertation's primary objective was to determine whether the supplementary data will be used by financial analysts in the Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston regions in evaluating an enterprise's operating performance and its ability to maintain physical operating capability and the general purchasing power of financial capital.

The problem of the study was to determine the implications for the collegiate secretarial curriculum based on the need for and use of shorthand by secretaries employed by large businesses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The purposes of the study were to determine if colleges are justified in offering manual shorthand within their curriculum with the rapid growth of automation in the business world today. It was also the purpose of the study to determine if there was a demand for secretaries with the skill of manual shorthand in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Shorthand was found to be important for recording telephone messages, notes, and instructions, as indicated by the majority of the secretaries.

Difficulties developing and maintaining intimate relationships are often attributed to adult children of alcoholics (ACAs). However, the focus of the literature has been on those obtaining psychological treatment and has primarily involved clinical impressions. The purpose of this study was to examine intimacy in the close friendships and love relationships of ACAs. Autonomy and intimacy in respondents' families of origin were also analyzed. Comparisons were made between ACAs currently in (n = 59) and not in (n = 53) therapy, and comparisons who had (n = 48) and had not (n = 77) received therapy. Alcoholics were eliminated. It was hypothesized that ACAs would score significantly lower than comparisons on love and friendship intimacy and autonomy and intimacy in their families of origin. Among the ACAs, those in therapy would score lower than those not in therapy. Hypotheses were tested using MANOVAS. ANOVAs were administered where there were significant differences, and Newman-Keuls contrasts further delineated the divergence. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to obtain explanatory data. The two ACA groups seem to represent distinct populations with those not in therapy failing to report intimacy differences previously ascribed to them. While all of the groups were similar in friendship closeness, only …

The purpose of this study was to determine faculty participation in and approval of professional growth and renewal activities in the Dallas County Community College District. The population consisted of 526 full-time faculty employed by the district. The DCCCD Survey instrument, which was used in the study, included activities grouped into seven categories: career development, leaves, international activities, instructional renewal, grants, reward, and a miscellaneous category. Faculty members identified participation in activities; they also identified their approval or disapproval of all activities on a five point Likert-type scale. The population was grouped by teaching field, age, years-of-experience and campus for statistical analyses. A Chi-square test of goodness of fit was conducted to determine if significant differences existed between expected and observed participation among groups in each of the seven categories. An analysis of variance was completed to determine significant differences of opinion. The findings of the study indicated significant differences between expected and observed participation in the following categories: international and instructional activities when faculty were grouped by teaching fields; reward activities among years-of-experience groups. Significant differences of opinion were reported in all but the miscellaneous category when faculty were grouped by teaching field. Other significant differences were reported in …

The general purpose of the study was to determine, analyze, and evaluate the basic nature of the distribution processes involved in the marketing of antique furniture in Dallas, Texas. The study utilizes the marketing mix components as a framework for understanding the nature of the industry. Various aspects of the channels of distribution and physical distribution, the products themselves, pricing mechanisms, and the promotion methods, as well as the market itself and distribution problems, were examined. The primary data were gathered from 29 retail antiques dealers in the Dallas metropolitan area.

Dr. W. A. Criswell is the well known pastor of the twenty-seven thousand member historic First Baptist Church in downtown Dallas, Texas. He has held the position for the past forty-three years. Until now no one has attempted an in-depth study of Criswell's educational contributions to the First Baptist Church (which have also been adopted into the Southern Baptist denomination, America's largest Protestant religious organization). Although Criswell has been the Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas for many years, this was by no means his introduction to the pastorate. In 1928 he was ordained as a seventeen year old minister of the gospel in Amarillo, Texas. He has been a pastor for over sixty years. Criswell has made a lasting impact on the church staff, school staff (Criswell College and First Baptist Academy), students in those schools, the Southern Baptist denomination and also the city of Dallas. He has been one of the key figures in evangelical national movements. Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Senators, and Governors are no strangers to a Sunday morning service held in the large sanctuary in downtown Dallas. Much of the research for this project originated from the Oral Memoirs of W. A. Criswell. a …

The main purpose of this study is to develop a bankruptcy prediction model for the small business firm. Data was collected from the Dallas Small Business Administration (SBA), making this study specific to its decision makers. Existing research has produced models which predominately use financial ratios and information measures either independently or combined, and a few research models have used economic trends. This study varies from past studies in that it includes regional economic variables from the states of Texas. A sample of three-year data for 138 firms included fifteen bankrupt firms. This proportion of bankrupt/nonbankrupt firms approximates the proportion of repayed/defaulted loans in the SBA. Stepwise regression, set at the .15 level of significance, reduced a total of fifty-three variables to nine. These nine variables were then used to test twelve predictive models. All twelve models tested improved the SBA repayment rate and only two of the twelve would have caused the SBA to deny loans to applicants who eventually repaid. The study determined the model that included financial ratios, information measures, and Texas economic variables as best. It was also demonstrated that some of the variables used in this model could be eliminated without decreasing the predictive power …

The purpose of the study was to investigate independent piano teachers' view of themselves in the light of selected attributes found in sociological writings on the professions. The research problems were: (a) to determine the attitudes which independent piano teachers held toward selected professional attributes; (b) to determine the relationship between the attitudes toward the professional attributes and selected background variables; and (c) to determine the degree of association between these attributes. The problems were addressed by a questionnaire directed to independent piano teachers active in the area of Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas. Thirty teachers were also interviewed to determine consistency of response and to explore issues which the questionnaire had raised. Reliability and validity were established at acceptable levels. Techniques of statistical analysis included Pearson's product-moment correlation, multiple regression, chi-square in conjunction with Cramer's V_, and factor analysis. The strongest attitudes expressed by the teachers in the study concerned professional self-image, altruism, client orientation, commitment to work, and independence. The most important background variables were age, years of experience, number of students, certification by a professional association, and college degree in music. A multiple regression analysis tested each variable against the dependent variable professional self-image; recognition by others, commitment to …

This study traces the development of the Baylor University School of Nursing from its beginning in 1909 through the establishment of the baccalaureate nursing program in 1950. Primary data including official records of the School of Nursing, minutes of the Baylor University Board of Trustees, reports of the School of Nursing to accrediting agencies, and interviews of former students and deans were examined using the historical research techniques of external and internal criticism. A review of the literature that is relevant to the development of nursing education is presented in Chapter II. Chapter III presents the events in the development of the Baylor University School of Nursing. Chapter IV discusses the accreditation criteria which influenced the development of the School of Nursing. Chapter V discusses the curriculum, teaching methods, and faculty qualifications. Chapter VI discusses the people who were the most influential in the development of the School of Nursing. Implications of the study include the recognition that nursing education and nursing service have differing priorities. Conflicts between the needs of patients for care and the needs of students for education arose when the Superintendent of Nurses was responsible for both areas. Usually the needs of patients for care took …

The purpose of the study was to determine the direct influences of selected environmental, academic, and background factors as well as academic outcomes and expression of intent to leave on persistence or non-persistence of nontraditional students at a comprehensive community college in the Dallas County Community College District. The study applied a conceptual model of nontraditional undergraduate student attrition. Data for this study were collected during the Fall, 1987 semester from 312 first-year nontraditional students using the two-year institution questionnaires from the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. In addition, follow-up surveys were administered to the 97 students who did not re—enroll for the Spring, 1988 semester. The data were analyzed using discriminant function, chi square, and product-moment correlation. For these nontraditional students, educational goal commitment, cumulative grade point average (GPA) and expression of intent to leave at the end of the semester had significant direct influence on persistence or non-persistence decisions. In contrast, environmental factors such as finances, employment status, and family responsibilities, and background factors such as high school academic performance, enrollment status and parents' education level did not directly influence dropout decisions. Nontraditional students reported receiving moderate to high levels of encouragement to remain in college …

Although many theorists have speculated that chronic pain may be linked to some sort of central neuropsychological integration deficit, a review of the current literature reveals no empirical support for this theory. This study attempts to assess the severity, if any, of neuropsychological deficits in chronic pain subjects by using a neuropsychological screen developed at the University of North Texas. Also, presented are studies of correlations between the UNT Neuropsych-screen and the MMPI. the Dallas Pain Questionnaire (DPQ), the Dallas Pain Drawing CDPD), and time since injury in order to assess any possible relationships. The subjects in this study consist of 100 volunteers. Of these subjects, 74 were patients of the Spinal and Chronic Pain Center at Medical Arts Hospital in Dallas, Texas and represented the clinical population. The remaining 26 subjects were staff volunteers from the hospital . The results of the study indicate significant differences between chronic pain subjects and non-pain subjects across many areas of neuropsychological functioning, as well as other significant correlations among many of the variables. The implications of this study are elaborated upon, in the discussion section, in detail along with limitations and future research directions.

The problem with which this investigation was concerned was that of gaining a better understanding of factors which promote public school teachers' job satisfaction and the determination of the degree of impact of two specific organizational factors upon such job satisfaction. The two organizational factors are those of involvement in the decision-making process of the school district and the locus of control construct. This study had two purposes. The first was to determine if the direct involvement of classroom teachers in the decision-making process of a public school district affected their perceptions of job satisfaction. The second was to determine the relationship of locus of control on job satisfaction when teachers were directly involved in the decision-making process of a public school district.

The purpose of this study was to investigate job satisfaction of full-time faculty members at a large multi-purpose university in relation to gender, rank, and types of activity. The population consisted of 664 full-time faculty members at North Texas State University during the spring semester, 1984. The questionnaire consisted of two parts, the Job Descriptive Index and The Faculty Data Sheet. The theoretical basis of the study was Herzberg's theory of Motivation-Hygiene.